Weekend Links June 30-July 1, 2018

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Vertigo, 1986, Magda Matweijew, National Gallery of Victoria

 

Macro & Markets

 

Asia

 

Europe

Americas

 

…Terra Specufestorus…

 

…and furthermore…

Latest posts by Gunnamatta (see all)

Comments

      • stagmal

        but seriously i’m struggling to understand what this guy even did wrong? or even why he did it in the first place, why didn’t he just redeem his cans in NSW; he’d of gotten more money for it here than in SA where you have to redeem by weight.

      • stagmal

        but seriously i’m struggling to understand what this guy even did wrong? or even why he did it in the first place, why didn’t he just redeem his cans in NSW; he’d of gotten more money for it here than in SA where you have to redeem by weight.

      • Relevant StakeholderMEMBER

        Looks like it was from 2016, seriously thought it was you for a second! lol

      • stagmal

        okay yeah, if it was 2016 it makes sense bc nsw didn’t have the return and earn then

        still really weird to throw the book at him, what are they opposed to people who recycle now?

      • Relevant StakeholderMEMBER

        “When a beverage is bought in South Australia, the price includes the deposit, which is refunded when the container is
        returned to either a collection depot or a retailer (depending upon the refund information printed on the container).”

        Getting the refund without paying the initial deposit (as the cans were from NSW).

        Jesus Christ….looking up container deposit legislation on a Friday night…what have I become?

      • adelaide_economistMEMBER

        Nope, recycling in SA isn’t redeemed by weight – at least not for average people. The guy from NSW bought recycling on a weight basis and tried to bring it to SA to redeem it at 10c per item.

        As far as I can tell, the main difference is that in SA we take recycling to a depot rather than using machines where you individually feed things in. Regardless of how many you take, they count it out at 10c per item and pay accordingly. That said, if you take more than a certain amount at a time they will record your details – I think if you take more than ~$50 worth – precisely to head off people trying to rort the system.

        Also what the guy did wrong was buy recycling in a state where people didn’t pay the extra amount on the containers and then tried redeem them as if it had been paid in another State. Usually it’s Victorians who try this on.

    • Cyclone Ranger

      I’ve heard of people being convicted and/or fired for taking the piss… but for returning empty containers of it? Unaustralian.

  3. haroldusMEMBER

    So I’m thinking about doing a spoken word version of Bodies by Sex Pistols. One of my favourite tracks of all time.

    Here’s the live version, I assume from the great rock and roll swindle.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjyqpxkKJCM

    Listen very carefully to the live track. How much bass can you hear?

    That’s right! The pistols did their Sid Vicious shows with sid turned off!

    Also, during the recording, even though Matlock was gone at that stage, sid did the studio bass part.

    Here’s what sounds like the album version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzFFtBsl5ps)

    But Sid didn’t record it – Steve Jones did the overdub.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodies_(Sex_Pistols_song)

    Also this is pretty good

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ah1JM9mf60

    • Counterfiat

      Where loans go to die, and debt slaves feed the undead, but banks get to do it all over again.

    • GavinMEMBER

      I still don’t fully understand. Does this mean the RBA will buy their shyte at retail price instead of the proper wholesale price when everything turns to custard?

      It seems to me this whole thing has been in the planning stage for quite sometime. Can’t help but think the RC was the dog and pony show designed to make it look like it was a Goverment crack down that pricked this bubble, but the banks probably looked at their books and went shhhhhheeeeettttt we have a problem. But we can’t report it, instead let’s get someone externally to do it, we can put on a big show and dance and then delete this thing while punishing the poor further and taking care of our mates. GFC style. Nobody goes to jail, Joe Public has NFI what has happened or by the time they cotton on we will be retired and they will be poor.

      • Nathan

        I think you give everyone involved too much credibility. There is no plan, that’s the problem. They ( RBA, APRA, the banks, government) are just bumbling along, tinkering here and there and hoping for the best. Most of this is just for show. They all look at the financial system as a great mystery, like a religion. You have to have faith.

      • GunnamattaMEMBER

        I do have complete faith, that as all the players

        in Government
        in the RBA
        in APRA
        in the Banks
        ………in ‘the know’…..(in whatever way)

        willl

        Look after heir own particular patch, as they react with their tinkerings to unfolding stimuli,and

        at the point where they realise dont feel they can contribute to an overall satisfactory response which really addresses the issue, try to do the best they can for those

        in Government
        in the RBA
        in APRA
        in the Banks
        ………in ‘the know’…..(in whatever way)

        Thats the faith I have in these players.

      • skippy

        Hay Gav…

        I think the U.S. response is a road map here, hence Gov will only buy prime+ and everything else will get a clearing house market treatment. My concern is the foreclosure mill approach with ignorant investors getting the treatment and a wet noodle for the issuers because of the whole “free will” thingy and some pigs are better than others.

      • GavinMEMBER

        Why can’t we have neither? You know the free market. That means if they become insolvent they go under? Like the good old days. 😁

      • skippy

        The problem is that there has never been such a thing as the “free market” gav… its an ideological meme…

      • Wing Nut

        “free market” just means the banks are free to do whatever the fck they want to the market.

      • Freddy

        I don’t think that is the answer either. A bank run usually means some people get all their savings back and everyone else loses their life savings. Combined with an inevitable recession, many people (even well-qualified) will find themselves homeless and permanently unemployed.

        “When people have lost everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it” – Gerald Celente

      • skippy

        wing nut…

        Free Market is a oxymoron promoted by neoliberalism e.g. corporatist ideology i.e. banks are just a subset of a much larger field of participants in issuing credit [future expectations]. Corporate junk bonds et al issued for stock buy backs in facilitating equity pumping and dividend bait to increase VoM and how that translates to C-suite remuneration comes to mind.

        People need to wrap their heads around the decades of economic libertarianism, its just a guise for establishing a mental anchor point for the unwashed in viewing reality from the corporatist perspective. Atomistic individualism in pursuit of profit without acknowledging distribution or effects of scale.

        Consider mainstream economics being administered by say Dr Strangelove or having to make a call that could stop thermonuclear war but being notified that the change you need is in the property of a Coke machine.

      • Wing Nut

        Skip, hence my tongue in cheek comment. The biggest inhibitor to free markets are free marketeers!

    • SweeperMEMBER

      It’s a bit of a beat up imo.
      because its a repo not an outright sale the initial purchase price is not really relevant. what matters is the haircut being applied to the repurchase price. Which 90% of the time would be based on the cash rate where government securities are being repo’d.
      And they are still barred from lending to an insolvent bank. So there is no real subsidy involved in this that I can see.
      edit: provided the rate is at or above the cash rate.

    • footsore

      That was a strange one. The piece is schizophrenic in its desire to beat up in the youngins for being lazy good for nothings that don’t know how to work or save or tie their shoe laces properly while also providing some facts about how things are more difficult for them when compared to their parents.

    • DarkMatter

      When I saw that I thought “Holy crap! Newscorpse has bought the Betoota Advocate!”

      The article seems to say at one point that Millenials are screwing themselves out of home ownership by spending too much on rent.

      It’s their own fault. Addicted to food and choosing not to live to 200 – no wonder they can’t save up a deposit.

    • Andrew

      Just another way of saying that many millennials are choosing not to buy because houses represent poor value for money, being that they’re a consumption item. Probably a lot of 100k deposits sitting on the sideline eating popcorn.

  7. Mining BoganMEMBER

    Sally Capp eh?

    “She said any perceived conflicts of interest created by Cr Capp having accepted donations would be managed properly. “The lord mayor will excuse herself from any vote where there is a real or perceived conflict of interest arising from any donation,” she said.”

    Yeah right. Couldn’t admit this developer donation crap before getting the chains from that wandering hands bozo. She is a walking conflict of interest. Hopefully she builds enough lamp posts to suspend all of her kind.

    Buggered if I know why I keep thinking third world Melbourne can be saved.

    • GunnamattaMEMBER

      The way it has all panned out has me wondering if the property lobby was sitting down leggy, mini skirt wearing, cleavage exposing ‘assistants’ everywhere Doyle went.

      The guy was a cretin and he deserves far more than he got. But the property lobby was quick to ensure one of theirs got the comfy chair to make sure the property lobby got theirs first and mostest.

  9. Hugh Pavletich

    NEW ZEALAND: How to solve housing affordability in New Zealand? Look to the United States – Eric Crampton | The Spinoff

    https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/30-06-2018/how-to-solve-housing-affordability-in-new-zealand-look-to-the-united-states/

    If New Zealand is to crack the problems of unaffordable housing, the government must look seriously at how the better parts of America finance infrastructure, argues Eric Crampton, … read more via hyperlink above …

    … Local Governments Units are responding to public opinion … May Building Consents … THE WELCOME SURGE …

    Surge in new dwelling consents in Auckland could be the beginning of the end for the region’s housing shortage | interest.co.nz

    https://www.interest.co.nz/property/94554/surge-new-dwelling-consents-auckland-could-be-beginning-end-regions-housing-shortage

    • Hugh Pavletich

      … It is now CRITICALLY IMPORTANT to move away from the grossly inefficient and costly cottage style construction industry, so that a normal production type industry is restores in New Zealand (like Australia and North America) … so that international standard productivity and pricing levels emerge …

      Opinion: Let the builders build – Kevin Atkinson of Generation Homes | Fairfax – Stuff.co.nz

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/104213530/opinion-let-the-builders-build

      … extract …

      … We need to let builders get on and do their job and not be underwriters of land development.

      Generation Homes is building 300 to 400 houses a year. We could easily double that within our existing resources if there were infrastructure funding assistance from councils for new affordable housing developments. … read more via hyperlink above …

      NEW ZEALAND: There is nothing ‘affordable’ about Kiwibuild Housing Minister Twyford

      By Hugh Pavletich

      https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2018/05/garner_says_kiwibuild_a_hoax.html/comment-page-1#comment-2209572
      … with extensive further posts on thread …

      Kiwibuild CANNOT work without
      affordable land and
      properly debt financed infrastructure …

  10. BradleyMEMBER

    Queenslanders, with the apartment tsunami on the horizon, are deluded and desperate if they think southerners will save them – https://www.realestate.com.au/news/its-a-buyers-market-in-these-suburbs-with-asking-prices-down-20pc-but-get-in-quick/?rsf=syn:news:nca:cm:article
    No self respecting New South Welshperson wants to move north of the Tweed and this is evidenced in the northern regions growth, spreading throughout urban and rural parts of the northern rivers. Maybe an escapee or two from Victoria as usual but from what I read on here and elsewhere, their desperation to flee is strong indeed. If it wasn’t for Chinese and Indian migration, SE Qld real estate prices would be headed for a way bigger correction than 20%.

    • NikolaMEMBER

      This kind of migration will be very limited. As prices in nsw continue to fall there will be a point where people will not have enough equity to buy in qld. Most of the people that move now (I know 2) they move so they can be debt free. Sold two properties in nsw and with the profit can buy one house outright in qld.

      • BradleyMEMBER

        Sorry but debt free in a sh*t hole is not worth it. As well, as climate change effects ramp up, the extra humidity and flooding plus crocs and irukjandi will make Qld the place not to be.

    • bolstroodMEMBER

      The Big Australia is making itself felt in the Northern Rivers.
      Last week 2000 people protested in Byron Bay about the lunatic West Byron Development.
      Fill in the swamp and put another 600 + houses along Ewingsdale road . Wether they realized it or not the protest was about Big Australia, imagine trying to get in or out of Byron Bay when this development gets going.
      The “white flight must have been foreseen as there are projects in the pipeline for a population increase of 100,000 on the Far North Coast, 30, 000 at Kingscliffe, 4,000 at Byron, and 60,000 behind Lennox head.

      • GavinMEMBER

        That’s the thing isn’t it? You encounter these people protesting developments but they don’t protest mass immigration. I love to wind them up about it.

      • skippy

        NIMBY’s the lot…. do they not know the Market saz… OBAY Me…. investors and price dictate reality… sigh….

      • bolstroodMEMBER

        @Gav
        the people have not joined the dots yet, but they will eventually.
        My new career is a latter-day Mr. Squiggle

      • Dan121

        People their are dumb as sh!t. Hate development, love diversity, immigration and refugees yet live in white communities and they are racist as fk but think they’re not racist. Typical Nimby, they should fill Byron, Brighton and Pt Piper with immigrants see how these fake left wankers like it.

      • Dan121

        Bolstrood these ppl are too dumb to join the dots. If they ever do join the dots it will be after Australia has been taken over by another country/race.

      • Dan121

        I like freedom, i don’t like ppl advocating for more refugees and immigrants then complaining about NIMBY. Can’t have it both ways.

      • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

        :Typical Nimby, they should fill Byron, Brighton and Pt Piper with immigrants see how these fake left wankers like it.”

        Noam Chomsky speaks to the very phenomenon your describing Dan, here at 4.00 to 9.02 , the bit near the end anout the Irish Quarter and “bussing” in Boston, and the Liberals/progressives behind it, is an interesting and fair observation.
        https://youtu.be/Grn2EZxcUeA

    • GramusMEMBER

      Gee there is some garbage in the AFR this morning. A big message is being sent… THIS IS TEMPORARY BLIP… DONT SELL!!!

      • zarathustar

        Also seeing articles in the local rag from ‘research’ by recruiters about how (somehow..) wages are about BOOM.

      • ChrisMEMBER

        It amazes me that people who are well educated, seem to think house prices can grow 3 -4 times income ad infinitum. No fundamental understanding or analysis of the economy. Just extrapolating previous returns.

      • haroldusMEMBER

        These people must think wages are about to jump 50% so people can afford to borrow more or these people don’t think at all.

        Lock in B, Eddie.

        OTOH, reusa is the most accurate pundit on this site…..

      • LSWCHPMEMBER

        Those two idiots are so fcuked. And that thought fills me with an overwhelming sense of warm happiness. They thoroughly deserve the furious and lubeless financial rogering they’re about to receive. I look forward to listening to their anguished and poverty stricken squeals with glee.

  15. footsore

    Some Betoota gold.

    ““Mum left me more than enough to enter the property market. In fact, we were able to buy in the very same neighbourhood that I’ve been renting in since my time at university. Amazing. Another thing I never knew was that with home ownership comes great responsibility. Financial responsibility,”

    “So that means I need to put my destiny into the hands of the people who have my best interests as a wealthy property owner,”

    “The Liberal Party.”

    Over the course of the month of June, Dennis has been undergoing a ‘very painful’ transition from being a spirited theatre patron with a penchant for lying awake at night thinking about homeless people and climate change to somebody that only cares about staying richer than the human filth that rent.”

    http://www.betootaadvocate.com/uncategorized/inner-city-leftie-begins-painful-transition-to-liberal-voter-after-inheriting-enough-to-buy-a-home/

    • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

      Along with Macrobusiness.com.au,…The Betoota Advocate is now my only trusted News source.

      • TMEMBER

        Ermo , there’s a new pub in Easty. Just up from Eastwood hotel called Moko. Had lunch there the other day. Food was good, beer cold.👍 Just a friendly community announcement.

    • GavinMEMBER

      It may come across as sarcasm, but it’s more truthful than 99% of what DomainFax says.

      • skippy

        Some years ago here in Oz I actually had a neighbor use the old “I’m a property [home] owner” shtick to justify their actions vs me being a renter next door. The deal was noise after a late period in the evening on his part and the land “lord” I rented from having not completed some landscaping. Seems they thought it diminished their rights wrt property values.

        Best bit was the thing about our dog pooping on their front veranda, till I got a photo of a bunch of neighborhood cats leaving gifts at his front door.

        People on ideology are weird……

      • Dan121

        Only fake property owners with heaps of debt and the smug feeling of fake richness and financed Audis swing right. The rest of us just go about our business.

      • skippy

        “Only fake property owners” – eh – ????

        Legal statutes and judiciary define ownership and attendant responsibilities, got nothing to do with debt. FYI in case no one informed you, your in debt by fact of birth, too everyone before you, and all those in society that do everything you can’t.

      • Dan121

        To be clear skippy, my definition of fake property owners are the ones that get in way too much debt to buy in a latte sipping suburb, then act like millionaires when it’s all just heaps of debt. Don’t you think the bank owns the property rather than them? They then vote liberal because they are now ‘rich’ and rich ppl vote for right political parties. I know plenty of these people that the article describes.

  18. Jeremy

    Qld foreign buyers gotsta cough up 7% on top of stamp duty on top of firb fee. Abt 120k on a mil property. Lets see how much they really want it. Re agents v blatant here. Every price ending with 1.288 etc in the nice burbs. U get the drift

    • GramusMEMBER

      People around here believe that the Chinese have gone away and are no longer buying.
      I am one of the few voices who don’t agree.

      • DivyaMEMBER

        I don’t think they have gone away either. But I just don’t think the magnitude of their affect on house prices was as much as hyped. The cheap credit (read: lower lending standards) has been far greater an factor in shifting the demand curve. We just haven’t wanted to shine a spotlight on it until the banking RC.

      • skippy

        Gav…

        Imagine – yourself – and kind being the recipients of colonialism or corporate malfeasance over a generational time line. What you think a REMF solider has an excuse by dint of not being on the front lines and pulling the trigger.

        On the other hand how have you and yours profited off the subjection of others pre and post your birth.

      • Joel

        Too right. Bring usury and worship of money above all things to a country and crime soon follows as civility is sacrificed at the altar of the golden calf.

  20. rj2k000MEMBER

    https://www.afr.com/news/economy/heres-hoping-its-just-a-regular-property-slump-and-not-the-big-one-20180620-h11m8w
    Here’s hoping it’s just a regular property slump and not the big one
    [Those who bought in the latter stages of the boom could soon be facing negative equity. Despite banks increasingly forcing buyers to put down larger deposits to satisfy the concerns of regulators, falling prices mean their homes may already be worth less than they borrowed.

    Underlying all of it is the vast run-up in household debt – which has ballooned from around 160 per cent of disposable incomes less than 10 years ago to almost 200 per cent – a near world record.
    …
    “We are seeing another period in history where it proves to be dangerous to borrow too much money in a foreign currency,” he says. “The adjustment phase can be seen in our own domestic funding problems that are emerging.”

    Australian banks rely heavily on US dollar funding sources, which are becoming more costly.

    “The global binge on cheap USD finance is our modern-day foreign currency debacle,” he says (Peter Sheahan, director of institutional markets at fixed-income intermediary Curve Securities).

    Much of this is likely to play out in coming months, say money market experts, coinciding with more negative headlines out of the nation’s biggest property markets as prices drop.

    A big unresolved question for state governments, regulators and the Reserve Bank is whether these adjustments lead to a wider panic.]

  22. stagmal

    just went on a drive to wellington n.s.w

    icehead ville

    only about 1 in 5 establishments in the main street arent abandoned

    its a mirror into the future of the rest of australia

    • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

      I had sewer choke to do in Supply st Dundas today,…but realised I had forgot my gloves on the drive there, so I pulled into the IGA supermarket at Telopea shops to buy some.
      The only other shops open at 1pm were the Tobacconist, small cake shop and a take away shop, everything else was closed.
      I decided to get a B&E roll (with fried onions BBQ sauce and Cheese) for lunch. The chunk of kebab meat there, looked like it was at least a month old and the whole set of shops too looked like it was ready for the bin.
      Surrounded by drab, poorly kept, 40+ year old Housing commission highrise apartments, the place just feels depressing, it was fairly dead, but there were several single mums pushing prams,…one looked about 14 or15 years old, bare footed kids (its a cold day!) a few druggie looking “tough guys”, poorly dressed, worn out looking pensioners etc etc
      There was also this regular looking guy in shorts, a tee shirt and just socks on,…no shoes!,…just socks,…WTF dude?…who goes to the shops like that?

      It had me thinking,…knocking all this down for the earmarked redevelopment is probably a good thing.
      But where are the over a thousand odd, housing commission tenants going to go?,…not much being set aside for them in the Redevelopment plans,…I’m told.

      • GramusMEMBER

        I think existing housing commission tenants need to be re-housed.
        Anyone is affordable private accommodation there will not fare well. Most will be pushed into even more marginal accommodation or end up on the streets.
        The powers that be don’t give a stuff about such people.

      • Pfh007MEMBER

        Yep

        Telopea is a constant reminder not to romanticise government as a supplier of housing.

        It can do a very good job but it can also make mistakes that take generations to admit and fix.

        There is a lot to be said for a nice fat residential tenancy vacancy rate like the one in Perth placing constant ongoing downward pressure on rents. Perth’s vacancy rate of 5%+ and only a slow decline in rents shows how much vacancy is required to exert real downward pressure. No surprise that cities with vacancy rates circa 2% are unaffordable.

        Perhaps the best thing the government could do is just pay builders to build and then sell the housing stock into the market to maintain a healthy target vacancy rate say 4-5% that maintains plenty of downward pressure on rents.

        There will always be some who cannot manage anything other than a public landlord but even then the landlord does not need to concentrate their holdings in a single postcode.

      • Ronin8317MEMBER

        The average house price in that area is over 1.35 million, and quite a lot of Chinese there. The public housing tenants may be living in the same suburb, but their lives are very far apart.

      • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

        Let’s just say,… I was pulling a lot of “Roots” in Supply st, Dundas earlier today.

  23. footsore

    A very good, if brief, survey of the history, hopes, successes and failures of that very big tent known as liberalism.

    essays/reports-of-the-demise-of-liberalism-are-greatly-exaggerated

    • DarkMatter

      Yes! I was hoping for a sequel to the Racist Lift Ad we got last year.

      https://au.news.yahoo.com/australian-anti-discrimination-ad-sparks-racism-debate-37381923.html

      I was always waiting for an in depth panel discussion on wtf was happening in that Lift of Racist Horrors. My two theories were that the woman locked out only had a passing acquaintance with soap, or the guy in the lift had been waiting to get the other one on her own so he could try and organise a route.

      Now we will never know. Tim Southpaw is taking his secret with him.

      • Wino Shinyface

        Hopefully taking it back to France to see how well he’s treated there lololllolllolollllolol

      • Timmeh

        That chick he didn’t want to hold the lift for didn’t even look ethnic? to me. I’m betting he recognized her as that stupid b*tch from HR that keeps sending him diversity training emails and was working against him getting a pay raise!

      • GavinMEMBER

        Lol Timmeh some people are not worth sharing space with and it doesn’t matter their skin tone.

  28. GunnamattaMEMBER

    OK Guys here is my Saturday eve (pre footy) Business Plan…..

    It stems from the article in Domainfax linked above – gravesites in Australia are insanely expensive and there is no real reason for them to be.

    The response – and my business proposal for anyone wanting invest with me – is this. we revolutionise graves and the afterworld.

    First, we buy maybe 500 acre site down the Western district, and possibly another 500 up in the Mallee. Waste land no good for cropping or grazing – salt stressed is no worries at all. Sydney, Brisbane (hell, the world) we franchise.

    We get ourselves the latest in 3d printing kit

    We plug the site(s) as the ‘Eternalarium’.

    Mr Smith cashes in. We cremate the body and place the ashes inside a life sized replica of the deceased as they want themselves to be.

    If they want to be doing Elvis impersonations
    If they want to be in the nude
    If they want to be in their finest suits, their keeping pads, flying for the big chest mark, whatever.
    Whole families sitting together watching the box, or arguing over sunday dinner

    They can have that and we do it.

    On every statue we place a little plaque denoting innings highlights and other significant remembrances, maybe some useful (for subsequent generations) genetic and health facts.
    On every statue we have a playlist and good audio…..maybe even (if the person has been expecting their own demise) their own thoughts about what they want the future to know.

    Get a few gardners in to make the place suitably commemorative and appropriate for the afterworld commemorations.

    …..is that a business idea or what?

    • Ino

      Why not send them into space? Take advantage of the aerospace industry … oh…. wait…

    • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

      Sounds like it’ll appeal to those who know no greater pleasure than the recieving pf accolades and approbations on social media.

      These statues, and their accompanying content can be uploaded on the deceased very own “Deathbook” page (owned and controlled by us of cource) allowing the departed to be able to pursue , comments, likes, replys and retweets,…for all eternity!

      Wicked Idea Gunna!

      I’m spewing I scattered my dad’s ashes over his favorite nigger hole now.

      • GunnamattaMEMBER

        OK, from half time I reckon you may be onto something there

        We could have a social media eternelarium for those no longer with us

        Why does 3d1k no longer mix it with us?
        Where is China-Bob?
        Is Peter Fraser still thumping the underside of his table somewhere?

        An online memorial page!

        Eg ‘Sprucegoose was an infrequent contributor to blog XYZ who also popped up at other blogs from time to time.

        Received ABC number of likes and attracted JKL number of replies to his comments over a 4 year period before shedding his persona in a frenzy of vitriol over the appropriate use of tarragon in roasting lamb’

        ……and slap whatever avatar he used on a little digital plaque!

        By jove I’d really love that toke…..I have been thinking of buying some purple flowering substance from an online seed dealer. I spend a lot of time in the garden but I reckon it would be a confronting day for the family when cops rolled up and took what the rest of the neighborhood thinks is a nice quiet family man away for drug offences…..(but I do have a nice sunny little corner of the backyard just screaming for a 9 foot stoner totem)

      • haroldusMEMBER

        MB choof party! I’m in!

        I’ll roll the numbers. Believe it or not I have some skill in this area, now sadly denied expression.

        We’ll all have to chip in for the spin tho.

      • footsore

        Holograms.

        If, somehow, I manage to get more likes, upvotes, death-love, than my two grave neighbours, Reusa and Stagmal, my hologram is larger than theirs. If this happens it will be a pleasure to at least be bigger in death than these titans were in life.

      • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

        I think Footsie just perfected the product of this brainstorming session,…Im voting for him to be the managing director of our new Coporate entity

        I’ll manage the finances,…all those wishing to invest, please deposite the amount you wish to invest into the Following bank account.
        To generate enough starting capital, I suggest an initial investment or 10,000 per investor.
        Ermington Plumbing
        BSN # 555 675
        According # 1342569

        Cheers

      • GunnamattaMEMBER

        Could I be creative director?

        I have this vision of loudspeakers endlessly playing ‘Simply the Best’ real loud while searchlights pan across the sky (in a blazing range of colours!)

        We could also have a discrete section for people who (for a fee) wanted to spend eternity sniggering as Gerard Henderson make a goose of himself.

      • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

        Yep,…of cource you can Brother,…it was your Idea!
        You can be Chairman of the board too,…just don’t forget to deposite that 10k into the above account.
        😉

    • GavinMEMBER

      Can we call it Jim’s Cremations?

      Building on the social networking idea. They could have their final status update from the grave which says they have checked in with at Heaven lol..

  29. Cyclone Ranger

    So… no thoughts on Barry Hall’s fate here? Stunned. Stunned and confounded.

  34. d672c804897d

    As I am without a good weekend anecdote, poem or rant, can I try something, out of interest? Would people be willing to rate on a scale of 0 – 10 how satisfied they are with their existence right now?

    Please absolutely NO explanations, editorials, comments, qualifications. Just a single number from 0 – 10 rating the totality of your existence.

    I will start:

    8

    • haroldusMEMBER

      Satisfied with the fact of my existence (binary): 100
      Satisfied with my existence (excluding my misanthropism):6
      Hope for my 6yo daughter’s satisfaction: 2

    • Counterfiat

      ∞ Getting Dyson to vac a beeping smoke detector to make it stop while quoting ‘Humpty Hubby had a great fall…’

    • GavinMEMBER

      It’s been a tough year for me, I’ll say 6. Although close to 7.

      Father died earlier in January and it’s given me a chance to re-evaluate things in life, but also my dog was diagnosed with cancer last year and today I took him to hospital as he couldn’t stand (locked up) – Cancer was in his spine and was removed with a vertebrae, so its’ always a concern, but I think it’s a cramp or muscle spasm / nerve issue. Last time it happened in September we had a scan that showed nothing.

      He is sleeping on the couch next to me now, so as much as I want to put down 7. 6 maybe today. It just reminds me of mortality and life is short. My friends and family are mostly in Melbourne, so I spend a lot of time with old mate and take him for walks. Keeps me company. I’d say we have a strong bond. When I left him with mum for a day in Melbourne recently, he waited by the door all night for me to get back. Bless him.

      • karlooMEMBER

        Gavin,
        I’ve always considered exaggerated old wogs stories about Anglos and animals. You know the ones, how animals are more important than humans.

      • GavinMEMBER

        When we first got the dog, all the stress of work sort of fell to the side for a while. Of course it did come back also, but I can imagine having a child gives 1 a whole new meaning on life. Of course for some people I’m sure having kids leads to other issues. But for me I’ve realised aside from having a home to live in material possessions just don’t bring much lasting happiness. I absolutely love my cars and working on them, fixing them, tinkering and driving them. But at the end of the day they don’t love me back. No material object can do that. Relationships with our friends, family or even our bonds with our pets are the things that give us fulfillment.

        I’m sure Reusa will tell you his relations parties do all that, but even Reusa must know it’s a very ephemeral thing. 😁

      • Ino

        In Reusa’s defense, he’ll always have something to remember them by.

        “Herpes is forever”

    • skippy

      Wellie in my greetings with others it always – not dead yet….. never been one to “seek” satisfaction, being content all things considered seems more reasonable.

    • d672c804897d

      Very interesting, and gives me a bit of hope, so thanks to all. I think if I were to ask my patients during an Emergency Department shift, the range would be 0 – 2. For most of them, their acute illness is the tip of the iceberg, there are such huge social issues.

      It is hard to go home and not think the whole of society feels that wretched …

      I am glad that there is still some optimism out there

      (and that the RC and BBSW have not gotten to you yet, Reusa)

      • Arrow2MEMBER

        Bugger. Sorry to hear it. Hope the rest of us idiots on MB at least help distract you from time to time…

      • reusachtigeMEMBER

        Sorry to hear about that man. I feel for you. Losing one’s favourite relations is never good. That’s why I advocate always having spares. All the best!

      • LSWCHPMEMBER

        Thanks gentlemen…and especially Reusa…much appreciated. It’s been pretty shit because I thought at last she was The One*, but I’ve been through it before.

        My obsession with Sydney and Melbourne property msrket declines has been sustaining me…not much, but there’s alway a little light somewhere. 🙂

        When I proof read this, I discovered that I’d first written Ino instead of One. I may have subconsciously discovered my my next true love on MB…:-)

      • Ino

        Sorry to hear that dude… Also – whilst flattering, that barn door doesn’t swing that way. Plus that you’d have to duke it out with my missus… 😛

    • Know IdeaMEMBER

      I am with Counterfiat, sans smoke alarm and vacuum cleaner. The kids would probably be happier if I didn’t sing, but that is hardly relevant.

    • Popcod

      I’d rate myself a solid, relatively unchanging 8. I seem to have smoothed out the ups and downs somehow in the past couple of years and not even an international move has changed that. I scared the crap out of myself the other week with a small bingle (front side panel and bumper bar needs to be replaced, no injuries) but once the financial implications were known it only knocked me around for 24 hours (stupid mistake but hey, they happen when you have chronic fatigue syndrome). Others might look at my life and think it is sad, but I am satisfied because I have managed to ensure it is as good can be reasonably expected to be despite some major handicaps.

    • mild colonial

      7 but I’m a bit like you, doctor, I read so much negative stuff that I’m convinced that nobody is happy in Australia anymore. But really. I never meet anyone who is.

  36. rj2k000MEMBER

    Falling property prices and cheap credit lift the hopes of young home buyers
    https://www.afr.com/personal-finance/fixed-income/falling-property-prices-and-cheap-credit-lift-the-hopes-of-young-home-buyers-20180628-h11ztl
    [Others, such as Martin North, principal of Digital Finance Analytics, believe too many are downsizing and too few upgrading – or buying for the first time – to provide ballast for stability.

    The “numbers do not work”, said Mr North.

    He estimates there are about 1.2 million downsizers wanting to sell, or release equity by moving into a smaller place, and 600,000 upgraders and some 130,000 first-time buyers.

    “There are twice as many wanting to sell as buy,” he said. “If I was an upgrader I’d be happy to sit and wait.”]

    • ColinMEMBER

      McHaven Downsizers are jamming up the works & the ‘cheap end’ isn’t so cheap & is a crowded trade in this petri dish!

      • Arrow2MEMBER

        True.

        Best segment of the market from buyers perspective might become the family homes being sold off by the downsizers but out of reach of most FHBs. I expect many have been unrenovated in 20 years but hey! At least it ain’t a dog box.

  39. rj2k000MEMBER

    House prices are falling but don’t panic yet
    https://www.afr.com/real-estate/residential/when-you-need-to-start-panicking-about-falling-house-prices-20180628-h11zpe
    [At last count there were 10,052,000 residential dwellings across the country. About two-thirds are owned by their residents, either outright or with a mortgage, and the remainder by investors.
    With a spread like that, it’s clear the Big Four banks – and their 2.5 million shareholders – are seriously invested as well. Some 60 per cent of the value of loans on these banks’ books rests in housing.
    …
    One of the best comments from a chief executive in the property industry made in the last 12 months came from Frasers’ Rod Fehring.
    “Housing is the largest asset class in the country – it’s $7.6 trillion in savings so if you destabilise it you will put this economy into a recession – it’s absolutely guaranteed,” he said.]
    With a leverage of 20x, *your* bank deposits are being used against you in allowing other bidders to bid up property prices, facilitate mass immigration, corrupt government, clog schools/streets/hospitals, kill off manufacturing, make farrms unaffordable and kick off the farmers, sell off houses to foreigners (slightly harder now, supposedly), launder drug money (slightly harder now, supposedly), and all other derivative problems thereof.

    With such leverage, the most impactful way to kill off the property bubble is to remove *your* funds from the corrupting banks and buy assets that will survive GFC armageddon. Afterwords you can buy depressed assets cheap, such as shares.

    Just compare the $AUS gold price over the last 10 years compared to bank interest.

    Not only do banks pay pitiful deposit interest, they use *your* money to make larger interest on international markets, or facilitating risky inhouse CFD products.

    • rj2k000MEMBER

      With easy loose lending, banks allowed property bids to become extremely high, which flows through to wages and makes business (especially export-oriented smaller production runs) uncompetitive.
      The now stagnant wages and elevated property prices has made R&D intensive startup business unviable in the main centres.
      $25k/yr rent is not an option.
      Cheap tin factory sheds, back yards, and garages is where all the action starts.
      Not $500k+ tilt-slab concrete warehouses, unless you get one cheap after GFC 2.0.

      • ColinMEMBER

        What are these GFC proof assets?

        On another note, I’ve seen a couple of inventors buying cheap manufacturing establishments in country towns. They get their idea up & running using the instant trade knowledge base while running the original business into the ground (while promising not to). They write it all off as R&D, collapse the company & have a firesale while the used ones lose their jobs & their Super/LSL, which were never paid into – & the town loses their needed engineering base too. These a***holes then sell their patents off at a very tidy profit or start manufacturing them OS……!

    • GavinMEMBER

      https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/06/29/16/16/aussies-are-abandoning-their-banks-in-droves

      Well let’s hope it continues. I am certainly thinking of moving from Westpac (already have an account with Rabo) and I think ING might be the go for day to day.

      I’ve been with Westpac since the mid 90s when I opened my first account. Ironically at their Caulfield location which later moved and was turned into a Video Busters where I actually worked in the early 2000s before it got shut down recently, outlasted many other video stores.

      I’ve never received anything for loyalty. In fact quite the opposite

  40. Wing Nut

    Gotta hate this cnt of a Government.

    “Pay rise for politicians as penalty rates trimmed further in hospitality and retail”

    Malcolm Turnbull will enjoy a weekly pay rise of $203 next week, worth more than $10,500 a year, lifting his annual salary to more than $538,000.

    Meanwhile: Grade 5 cooks earning $54,514 will gain $530 from the tax rebate, but could lose $1,000 from the cut in Sunday penalty rates, and $232 from last year’s cut to public holiday penalty rates, leaving them $702 worse off overall.

    So much for the “great tax reform” Shtfax and NewsCorpse have been running.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/30/pay-rise-for-politicians-as-penalty-rates-trimmed-further-in-hospitality-and-retail

  41. rj2k000MEMBER

    Winners and losers in the baby boomer downsizer deluge
    https://www.afr.com/brand/special_reports/private_banking/winners-and-losers-in-the-downsizer-deluge-20180424-h0z6fl
    [But there are risks associated with building projects, particularly when using retirement income.

    For Boris and Lana Zaitsen, the dream of building a retirement income around an investment property and new townhouse has become bogged down in a long-term row about defective building.

    The couple spent more than $1.2 million with their first builder, the next took $1 million for rectification and a third builder did a lock-up, which secures the property from vandals, for $560,000.

    “The bank forced us to sell our home to pay for the construction and legal costs,” says Lana about her nine-year ordeal.

    She says it has drained their wealth, wrecked her health and ruined their retirement savings. “It has ruined our life,” she says.]

    • Mining BoganMEMBER

      Two mentions of massive population growth and one of renters “burning cash”.

      Where is the effort? It’s not even subtle. If I’m getting taken down I want to be taken down by an expert. A Dirty Rotten Scoundrels type expert.

      Our criminals are just lame.

    • LSWCHPMEMBER

      It is, as they say, to laugh. But my heart is a shrivelled, cold and flinty little thing, so perhaps others may feel some sympathy for these “investors”.

    • MAWMEMBER

      It will be interesting to see how RC related lending restrictions and out of cycle interest rate increase affect regional markets in the months to come. Anecdotal stories from various sources in Tas report that sales have eased lately. Winter doldrums is a common excuse. But I wonder if it’s the crack down on lending standards that slowing things down. I recently meet with a local mortgage broker (locally owned business) and they are definitely seeing greater scrutiny around expenses biting a few applications!

    • Arrow2MEMBER

      Some great shots in there as always Stag. Particularly liked the Mogriguy Soldiers Hall… would be creepy to camp there on a windy night I reckon!

      • Mining BoganMEMBER

        I felt sorry for the hall.

        It’s as abandoned as the Australia the soldiers fought for is. Deserves better.

    • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

      How does Flickr work Staggsie,…are they all photos you’ve taken? or are a lot of them reposts of others?

      • stagmal

        theyre my photos, flickr is like an older version of instagram that allows for higher quality, larger file uploads

      • haroldusMEMBER

        I really enjoy stag’s composition and colour in his pics (stop me if I get too technical)

    • Timmeh

      Mixed emotions when visiting towns like a lot of your photos show. Old grand colonial style buildings that still look great but are surrounded by decay. It’s weird when you roll through towns like that and think how different they must have been in their heyday, be it gold, sheep or whatever that made them once thriving communities. It’s so odd to see it all just crumbling apart.

    • GavinMEMBER

      Poor people aren’t fabulous.

      Honestly the show gives me the sh1ts. The missus has been watching it on Netflix I think and each time I see it, all these talk about is mindless consumption making you happier. Buy this product for X and here you need to dress like this and have this furniture layout and blah blah blah.. and I’m like sure these are all nice things, but it won’t necessarily fix what’s making you unhappy or give you fulfillment.

      Then again I hate over the top campness.. especially on that show.

      • Ino

        Reusa x 5 : what did you expect, girlfriend?

        Thing is, once a bunch of ‘hosts’ marketing targets are dead, time to invent a few more and tap them out (as it were). I give you: the alphabet soup! All continues as it always had, new target classes struggle for recognition, and in the process, spend-spend-spend.

        Hurray!

      • NikolaMEMBER

        French midfield great in attacking but very disoriented in defending. I had France as favourites but I don’t think they will pass next round.

      • JasonMEMBER

        Scarily, England have such an easy draw that they are probably the true favourites.

        Hopefully that means they lose to Japan or some such in the semi-finals. My Betfair account is really hoping that Belgium and Switzerland go deep.

    • 8millMEMBER

      Iove how they show him in Syd, as if he’s somehow made it?
      Somebody kill me

  54. haroldusMEMBER

    When I am Dictaster, amongst the changes that will come in is this:

    At an auction if you are a vendor and you “win” on a vendor bid – congratulations, you own the property. Now hand over the stamp duty bub.

  55. footsore

    A tardy addition to the ideas of a MB movie. The heroes are still Stagmal and Haroldus. This scenario has haroldus finding stagmal rummaging through a bin. Haroldus lets his younger cohort about how rummaging was done back in the days of rock n roll and a sincere commitment to rebellion.
    https://youtu.be/QSPKibjRR_M

    • stagmal

      mb movie lmao

      is mr iq going to be the antagonist? therre’s so many potential antagonists / characters an mb movie could be a franchise like marvel.

      • Tony

        Reusa can follow the same path as Loki: antagonist in the first movie, then eventually becoming an ally of sorts, until dying after getting fisted a little too hard by a large purple invader at one of his relations parties.

      • haroldusMEMBER

        getting fisted a little too hard by a large purple invader

        Now there’s a vivid image.

    • haroldusMEMBER

      Amusingly my strat comment “is awaiting moderation.”

      Wait til i start on hummies!

      Where’s Al?

    • LSWCHPMEMBER

      Bass and drum solos are a crime against humanity and deserve nothing but short bursts of automatic fire in return.

  58. GunnamattaMEMBER

    A very good read by Jericho…….

    But sadly with the fatal flaw that he cannot bring himself to recognise the role of the population ponzi in creating the environment he describes so well….

    Australia’s middle class being given a new look, and it’s not pretty
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2018/jul/01/australias-middle-class-being-given-a-new-look-and-its-not-pretty

    Let us be honest: Australia is a nation whose politicians are for the most part drawn from similar socio-economic (and education) backgrounds, covered by journalists who (including myself) come from similar backgrounds, and where any interruption to this course of events – such as when Ricky Muir was elected to the Senate – is greeted with a barely disguised level of condescension that someone not university educated or white collar has deigned to enter the sanctum.

    It is a situation of course not solely devoted to income – gender and especially race are also major factors at play. In positions of power we remain a very white, relatively well-paid male nation (and I speak as one of that group).

    It is not a situation without consequences.

    Retirement age of 70? Well, that seems doable to one who sits behind a desk. The shift of jobs to the services sector? Well, after all, who would want to work in a factory? Low levels of industrial disputes? That must be good – let me quote some measure of international competitiveness while I pass over these record low wages growth and wonder at the coincidence.

    It’s the type of thinking that has journalists asking “Is $120,000 the new rich” because that will generate a headline without even caring that it is more than double the median income.

    And it is why I have little time for the theatre criticism that can infest political coverage where journalists writing for publications whose target audience is the very wealthiest in our society talk about how Labor’s “class war” attacks on Malcolm Turnbull are poor politics that won’t fly, and are divisive.

    That’s pretty rich given today low paid fast food, hospitality, pharmacy and retail workers around the country are seeing cuts to their penalty rates.

    Let us not fall into the trap of believing we can’t suggest that the situation and wealth of those in power has no impact on the policies they put forward, even while such policies actually benefit those same people who are putting them in place.

    Let us not fall into the trap of believing we can’t suggest that the situation and wealth of those in power has no impact on the policies they put forward, even while such policies actually benefit those same people who are putting them in place.

    Oh no, we must instead keep to the myth that Australia is some egalitarian paradise where our history is one of everyone buckling down and working together to forge a nation against the odds. Bugger the rum rebellion, put John Macarthur on the $2 note, and bask in the warmth of misremembered history.

    Let us not fall into the trap of believing we can’t suggest that the situation and wealth of those in power has no impact on the policies they put forward, even while such policies actually benefit those same people who are putting them in place.

    Oh no, we must instead keep to the myth that Australia is some egalitarian paradise where our history is one of everyone buckling down and working together to forge a nation against the odds. Bugger the rum rebellion, put John Macarthur on the $2 note, and bask in the warmth of misremembered history.

    He just cant bring himself to acknowledge the role the ponzi – and the last decade ramp up – is playing in th unfolding tragedy he eloquently describes

    • NikolaMEMBER

      Hence why we lost record number of Australians last year. I bet most of those who left for other countries are professionals and experts in their fields so basically we are losing lot of know how. And scary point is we are probably replacing these people with low skill immigrants while our leaders talk about building smart nation.
      I really hope a new party will win enough seats during next elections and be able to force a change. But hearing what people say at work, in the pubs, parties.. I have very little hope. Real estate still dominates all conversions. We truly are dumb nation.

    • afund

      He’s from the Guardian Gunna, and would be laid off if he mentioned population. My wife had to go to Sydney last week. She missed the plane due to traffic holdups. It’s to a level now which will hurt everyone no matter what road they are on. I can see congestikn levies cming and they’ll cliam prolbem fixed.

      • BradleyMEMBER

        All my comments are now pre moderated on there thanks to what I thought were absolutely valid concerns about one particular journalists LNP bias and population ponzis. It is like saying Jehovah when you say “immigration” but just like the old blasphemer I am, I can’t help myself and a right stoning I got.

  59. d672c804897d

    Vibrancy meets fine dining:

    https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/rockpool-restaurant-empire-ripping-off-workers-20180621-p4zmwk.html

    Many of the workers at Rockpool Dining Group are migrants, and some have been told that if they want their permanent residency application processed, they must use the company’s lawyers.

    One chef at the group said their visa status made migrants vulnerable to excessive work, significant underpayment and exploitation.

    They accuse their employer of dragging out their applications for permanent residency and of holding their temporary status in Australia over them.

    • reusachtigeMEMBER

      Not sure what your problem is with this? You’d be mad not to employ freshly imported human capital and use their migration status to keep their costs down while maximising your profits. Like, seriously.

  60. boomengineeringMEMBER

    Double block round the corner sold few years ago to Chinese who put up two Mcmansions and left them empty for 2 years. About a year ago people living in them (maybe tenants) Now up for sale which will be interesting.

    • LSWCHPMEMBER

      Hopefully the vendor will suffer a furious financial rogering without benefit of lube, as a lesson to the others.

      • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

        Rape is no laughing matter LSWCHP,…esp unlubricated anus rape,…but yes, Let’s hope these money for nothing “investors” are burned at the stake

      • Ino

        @ErmigtonPlumbing

        You will note that he mentioned nothing of such kind. Apparently there is such a thing as “angry sex”… besides, they are willing participants, they could decide not to sell if they wanted to.

        Also, financial rape is what’s been perpetrated onto all of us. How do you expect anyone know any better?

        … and please do not mix it with the abject and abhorrent one of which all of us here dissociate with!

    • Robert

      Brilliant comment from IP owner on that one:

      “Where did the rumour start that it’s harder to borrow for investors now? I bought in 2012 while working. No problem.”

      Definitely relevant to changes brought in over the last 12 months – says a lot about the intelligence of the average property investor.
      (and not the only comment like it – ‘I bought in 2002, so clearly anyone could do the same in 2018 with identical results’)

    • Joel

      The bimbo featured in the article works in ‘human relations’ she might know reusa.

      • d672c804897d

        Much as I loath thought/speech policing – I think we could retain our collective credibility a little more if we didn’t resort to use of those terms, except in self defence. Anyhoo: just looking at the figures quoted for her Central coast IP: $590,000 with $40,000 deposit with $550 PW rent said to be positive geared $400 per month. Per my back of the envelope, this looks like:
        – IO loan
        – so called ‘positive gearing’ is referenced to mortgage payments only, not maintenance, rates, etc etc

        If so, she is in for a world of pain at some stage soon?

    • Ino

      We’re the Punk/Grunge of the economic blogs. With loads of stage-diving into the mosh pit below

      🤘🤘🤘Martin North🤘🤘🤘

      • GavinMEMBER

        Lol I reckon I derive more enjoyment out of MB than any other social network. People are miserable looking at Instagram because everyone posts all their fabulous stuff and none of the negative things. So from the outside it is an unobtainable dream that is impossible to match, which leaves people with a feeling of inadequacy.

        MB is like the anti Christ of Australian Culture (the bad side of it). It brings balance to the force. With facts, statistical analysis and trumps feelings and mass delusion.

    • mild colonial

      I like Instagram, haven’t noticed that it makes me miserable. But I don’t envy other people’s lives. (I was born with a jealous nature and had to teach myself not to be).

  63. DarkMatter

    Youtube sometimes make interesting suggestions.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3XYHPAwBzE

    I had never heard of the GINI coefficient. How many people have? It does explain a lot, and it does not bode well for our future. Basically the idea is that poverty does not cause crime, but in fact relative inequality is the outstanding factor. Correlation of 0.8

    Between the Banks, housing inequality, destruction of opportunity to be productive and swamping the cities with immigrants, we are building a huge GINI sh!t sandwich.

    It seems that once you build a cliff between the haves and the havenots, (mostly men) will begin to break the rules which usually means crime. Either that or they give up and self destruct. It really is a witches brew of bad outcomes. What it points to is that even though Australia is a very well off country and nobody starves, the combination of limited options for the deplorables coupled with declining job opportunities is a powder keg.

    I am guessing that ideas like this are completely unknown to our politicians.

    • T

      GINI is not the panacea you think it is – its starts with the assumption that everyone should be equal, i.e. gini coefficient of 1. Does this sound remotely close to reality – how can everyone be equal, and even if we could, would you honestly want to live in such a society – this should be your first hint that this is leftist propaganda.

      GINI was dreamed up by a communist economist looking to push communism in the 30’s. Then he got a job working for Mussolini – if you think this is weird, thats just the start of the story.

      Historically, GINI is used to bash anyone not part of the globo-pedo alliance using the false swansong of equality. Its complete nonsense.

      • DarkMatter

        That was not what Jordan Peterson was saying. Quite the opposite – he has pointed out that the idea of enforced equality of outcomes is a very bad idea. The GINI coefficient applies when there is an effective brick wall preventing people from making normal progress. This causes people (mainly young men) to break the rules.

        I think that one of the reasons people have a lot of trouble with Jordan Peterson is that his arguments are quite complex and can seem to violate both left and right thinking. He ends up triggering both sides.

        As an example, take this MB site. Nobody here is starving (probably) – but there is a lot of angst and resentment. That is caused by the perception of unfairness and lack of control. By any historical standards we all live better than the elites of the past. In spite of that, many here would cheer if the tumbrel carts went around the leafy north shore and rounded up some bankers to see if they can still rort and plunder headless. How else can you explain that except by relative inequality?

      • T

        I don’t agree/disagree with peterson one way or another – my argument is that gini is a bad measure. If I understand it correctly, it purports to suggest that a single derivate, income inequality, captures the majority of quality fo life statistics and provides guidance on how we should run our societies. It says this is done by looking at in aggregate incomes, and working out whether the distribution is ‘normal’ (or some form of).

        I think the whole idea of boiling all of reality down to one number of income inequality, it stinks of leftist thinking. Reality is more complex than that, and all the seers and statisticians in the world cannot boil how society should be run down to one criterion. But this is exactly what it is used for, when big government advocates push for more intrusive controls over our lives. My suspicion is, the only reason GINI is popular, is that its derivative is called inequality, and all leftists like to hear their catechisms on a regular basis.

        That, and it was invented by a communist who was cool working for the fascists. Of course I don’t trust anything that came from that poisoned fruit. As far as I can tell, it is a feel good stat that had a really good PR agency at some point, and is now primarily useful for leftists to push for social engineering via virtue signalling.

        A perfect society, from GINI’s point of view, is a society where everyone has exactly the same income. Does this kind of hell hole not remind you of some other socialist paradises? Has this ever worked in the history of mankind?

      • DarkMatter

        “A perfect society, from GINI’s point of view, is a society where everyone has exactly the same income.”

        That is not my understanding of it. As you push up the inequality barrier, you get a reaction from society (mostly men) who break the rules to get past the barriers. This correlates with crime. It is the same correlation whether the society is rich or poor.

        The idea that everyone should be equal may in fact be a left wing distortion of this and they may have stolen the GINI idea to push an ideological position. Jordan Peterson was making the point that building in inequality causes social problems and the poverty is not as important. The inequality that is talked about constantly on MB is the distortion of the economy to favour the elites – like with rampant immigration and housing unaffordability.

        Projecting what he is saying, building an underclass of people in Australia who can’t get a proper job or find a place to live will cause unrest – even if they have enough to eat and a big TV. Keeping peoples bellies full is not enough to stop unrest. I don’t think Gerry Harvey and his politician minions are aware of that.

      • drsmithyMEMBER

        GINI is not the panacea you think it is – its starts with the assumption that everyone should be equal, i.e. gini coefficient of 1.

        No, it doesn’t. It’s a statistical representation of a measure of inequality, where maximum inequality = 1.

      • T

        Ah so perfect equality, i.e. 0, is what we want is it? Moron.

        If we are all very lucky, you will get to live in a perfectly equal society. Like Venezuela. I’ll pay for a first class business ticket, as long as you promise to stay there. Go to your socialist paradise, you piece of human refuse.

    • ITAgMEMBER

      Wow T, your detailed analysis so..oooo…. 🙁

      Perhaps GINI co-efficients (and other measures) are a useful tool for indicating changes in relative wealth over time.

      Neo-libs (and their comparable “Marxist” dictators) do not like having their impact (and money/capital grabs) measured.

      • T

        I hear you, and I’m not sure I agree. Don’t think that GINI measures what we think it measures, and am deeply suspicious of the motives of the folks who dreamed it up.

        Not everything worth measuring can be measured. I think pretending GINI can be used as a framework to measure in aggregate quality of life via a single factor, income inequality, is naive, dangerous and likely to end in tears.

      • drsmithyMEMBER

        I think pretending GINI can be used as a framework to measure in aggregate quality of life via a single factor, income inequality, is naive, dangerous and likely to end in tears.

        Fortunately, nobody actually does this.

    • mild colonial

      The Gini coefficient was a tool of my trade. I once had a boss who complained that I had used it without explanation. Aside from it being a tool of her trade too I was kinda like, which part of google are you not having on your computer?

  65. GavinMEMBER

    This should warm the cockles of everyone’s hearts here.
    https://imgur.com/a/zCsz8cA
    This apartment block went up in Five Dock about 6 months ago and is getting final touches added etc.. All of them appear empty though!

    I mean why wouldn’t you want a balcony overlooking a Petrol Station / 7 Eleven, just think of the fresh aroma of fuel wafting into your living room each night as you dine on your take out, because the kitchen is too small to cook a proper meal. Yummy!

      • LSWCHPMEMBER

        Ya know…thing can’t be too bad in this country when a bloke refers to “us wogs” and I smile and feel like buying him a beer. 🙂

    • Timmeh

      I don’t know why, but that place just looks like it’s going to be a feature in a news story in the future.

    • Freddy

      They would be cheaper than nearby apartments not overlooking a fuel station. What happens to that price when we all go electric and the fuel smell disappears?

      I know even with the discount it is overpriced… just saying…

      • NikolaMEMBER

        they only come with 12 months warranty and in 5 years will be marked for demolition. so there is no long term strategy for you. but if you spot an old double brick terrace next to a petrol station..

    • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

      It looks like he is trying to disavow his white Male privilege,…to a bunch of recipients of White Male privilage,….ie if you F#ck it and marry it or am born to it,…you own that white Male privilage to Sister!

      I’d happily mansplaine the $hit out of this point,… to those privilaged white bitches.

    • d672c804897d

      For want of anything better to do with my white male privilege this afternoon, I wandered onto the Uni Adelaide website where on the first page I see at least two more examples of this vile hate crime.

      https://www.adelaide.edu.au/front/images/mo-partner-with-us-2.jpg

      Oh for the day when the overfed white women of privilege of Straya may rise up and screech out their jarring prose and bestow gynsplaination upon us wretched males. Have faith my brothers, the hour is nigh when we shall finally be freed of our ignorance.

      • davidjwalsh

        keep it up doc ………… I’ve been fighting this shyte since the 70’s (when I was a kid, God help me) ………. tired of it now

        you young types are going to have take the torch and run with it. Hope it works out well for you all, though don’t put money on it.

        IMHO – my advice for what it’s worth ……… work out where you want to be (ie roof over head), how to pay for it and your future income independent of government and then work your arse off to achieve it asap ………….

    • LSWCHPMEMBER

      Caption snuggestion for the pic. The dude is saying:

      “My unit is this long. No, seriously”.

      Shouldn’t need to state the obvious either, that the guy is a recent post surgery trans chap, and the women are all post surgery trans as well so everythig is actually quite ok.

      Diversity is our…our…ah…I dunno.

    • reusachtigeMEMBER

      My main issue with this is that the chicks are bored. The guy just doesn’t have what it takes even if his member is that big. When I have that many birds hanging about me at the parties they are all smiling and often giving each other the look too!

    • T

      I thought it was quite an instructive image. A man explaining something to a bunch of women, who (a) don’t care, (b) are too stupid to understand, but (c) are paid to stand around in bulldust jobs anyways. The man has the look of someone who has done this before, and will have to fix whatever anyways.

      The enforced diversity was what sold it for me, cause that is exactly how an hr dept would hire. You know, not having any idea of what the hapless organisation which pays them, actually does.

    • LSWCHPMEMBER

      Vile Quislings, fifth columnists, sellouts and back stabbing traitors everywhere.

      There simply aren’t enough lamp posts.

      • yeborskyMEMBER

        Whole-heartedly agree, Harry and Mr Point. But we have as much chance of getting “our” Australia back as do the original inhabitants of getting “theirs” back. A cruel irony.

    • Timmeh

      Inpex really winding down now. Not so surprising except for retards that think Darwin is going to boom every year on the back of a tourist industry that consists of backpackers from europe that are pretty much the stingiest tourists you can get.

      • Thallus

        Ah, Inpex, what a cash bonfire.
        no-one seemed to care about costs, not even those tasked to manage it.
        There were stories of some real good arguments between the Japanese, the Americans and Australian contractors on site.
        Alleged to been at least 14 suicides connected to the Inpex site, lucky for Inpex, many happened while they were on FIFO R&R, for if those 14 had of happened in the camps, they would have been shut down for sure.
        Tourist trade is basically no repeat returning business, they come to visit once and once only to see the crocodiles and Kakadu. Especially tourists from the Middle Kingdom, makes you wonder why they purchased the Port of Darwin.
        I’d have to agree with the comment of stingy European twenty something back packer tourists, lots of drunk paddys at night etc.
        Firm foundations to run a city economy.

  71. LSWCHPMEMBER

    Heh. Losses of 60%pa annualised. Heh.

    Darwin property speculators – a word of advice: During periods of reduced financial circumstances, try to ensure that your road-kill is as fresh as possible. Regardless of its age, boil well before consumption to eliminate hydatid worms, and add tree bark, grass and dirt to the cooking water for extra flavour.

  72. skippy

    Ha… ha

    On a recent call, UBS analyst Jonathan Mott summarised the situation perfectly:

    “House prices are not driven by the demand and supply of housing and population growth. Maybe on a 20-year time frame they are. House prices are determined by the demand and supply of credit availability. When you take your hand down at the auction is when you run out of money. And if the banks aren’t lending you as much as they did 12 months ago, well your hand comes down a couple of hundred grand lower”.

    If credit is the sole determinant of house prices, what drives the provision of credit?

    https://www.livewiremarkets.com/wires/credit-availability-is-australia-s-house-prices