Links 30 June 2020

By in Links

| 21 comments

Global Macro / Markets / Investing:

Americas:

Europe:

Asia:

Trans-Tasman:

Unconventional Economist
Latest posts by Unconventional Economist (see all)

Comments

    • Ukraine fnMEMBER

      Would be funny to see Mexicans trying to leave the USA to get back in ..reverse caravan LOL.

    • Olaf

      Its a big LOL all around.
      Still cheaper not to move at tripled hourly rates and as one of the manufacturers comments they don’t know how long the higher minimum wage will last.
      That is code for the Democrat working class party might win in November and scrap the changes so we can go back to paying Mexicans $5/hr instead of $16/hr.

  2. Hugh PavletichMEMBER

    NEW ZEALAND … TRANS – TASMAN BUBBLE DISCUSSION …

    Coronavirus: Time for Australia to make calls on trans-Tasman ‘bubble’, PM says … Brittney Deguara … Stuff NZ

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/121981023/coronavirus-time-for-australia-to-make-calls-on-transtasman-bubble-pm-says

    The trans-Tasman bubble could still happen, but it’s reliant on Australia making some decisions.

    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that the next steps for the Covid-19 bubble lay with our neighbours. She said New Zealand’s goal remains keeping Kiwis safe.

    “Ultimately, it’s up to Australia to decide whether or not they’ll go for a whole of country approach or a state-by-state approach. … read more via hyperlink above …

  4. doctorX

    Powerhouse Parramatta will be bigger and better than before by Professor Barney Glover AO is president of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.(Western Sydney Uni VC with 875,000 salary)
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/powerhouse-parramatta-will-be-bigger-and-better-than-before-20200629-p55775.html

    just pure demagogy … enclosed in lies and misinterpretations

    The Powerhouse Parramatta will be at the global forefront of museums. It is designed and engineered to support the exhibition of the collection across seven highly engaged and state-of-the-art presentation spaces. At 30,000 square metres, including more than 18,000 square metres of exhibition and public space, it will be NSW’s largest museum and larger than the Powerhouse in Ultimo.

    existing PHM has 20000 sqm of exhibition only space
    18000 of “exhibition and public space” in new museum includes floor space for 10 cafes/restaurants and bars, a hotel with “60 studio residences”, great banquet halls, performing stages, … very little of that 18000 “exhibition and public space” is going to be museum exhibition space but rather commercial and private use convention centre style space.

    This is from the official design brief (I have never seen a document with so much contemporary “fake left” bullsh%t in it – it hurts as you read – not even Labor/Greens would be able to come up with stuff like that)
    https://maas.museum/app/uploads/2020/02/Powerhouse-Parramatta-Stage-2-Design-Brief.pdf

    RETAIL FOOD AND BEVERAGE – Ten distinctive, fine-grain food and beverage offerings will reflect the cultural diversity of Parramatta and Western Sydney.
    PUBLIC DOMAIN – Major event: Loy Krathong, a Thai community festival which invites community members to give offerings to the river to create wishes for the Lunar New Year. The event will include food programs, workshops, performances and connect broader Sydney communities with contemporary Thai culture.
    PUBLIC DOMAIN – Social and recreational space integrated into the Precinct, supporting wi-fi for working and providing informal spaces for meeting and for culturally specific activities.
    EVENT SPACE – Multi-use space that will support forums, commercial events and conferences. Events may include private corporate events, community social events and fundraising dinners.
    COMMUNITY/INDUSTRY/STAFF MEETING ROOMS – Multi-use meeting rooms will provide amenities for Staff Meeting Rooms community groups, industry partners, Powerlab residents and Powerhouse staff, supporting collaboration and co-working opportunities. Meetings may include First Nations Elders, affiliated societies, TechSydney central start-ups, Greater Sydney Commission planning meetings, and NSW Pacific Communities Council meetings.
    POWERLAB – Sixty residential studios, developed with a range of partners, will support short- and long-term research residencies for up to one year, such as a First Nations urban research residency, an Australian Institute of Architects residency, a NSW Technology scholarship residency, a NSW Department of Education international research residency, a Westmead Health District residency, and a Music NSW residency.

    and so on …

    notice how meeting rooms may include First Nations Elders … meeting but can also include Deloitte meetings that are not mentioned.
    Also residences may include foreign students, event space may include Thai festival during one weekend of the year but will include private commercial concerts and other events during other 51 weekends
    someone calculated that of 18k sqm of “exhibition and public space” around 5k sqm will be real museum exhibition space equivalent to almost 20k in current building.
    more of this demagogy

    The new facility’s spaces will be developed to international standards and engineered to present objects of an incredible scale from the collection including the Catalina flying boat and Locomotive No.1.
    Powerhouse Parramatta will be a museum that supports our future generations from the ground up. Starting in its first year, 10,000 regional NSW students will come to Parramatta for overnight stays to immerse themselves in the museum’s science, technology, engineering and maths programs. They will connect with international leaders in these fields and be provided opportunities to expand their ambitions for future careers.

    there were no enough hotels around Ultimo so regional kids were unable to come and stay overnight … spending billions to build a museum with a hotel was a solution instead of spending $1m per year for accommodation for those 10k kids

    so basically new powerhouse museum will be a semi private convention centre with locomotive No.1 and Catalina airplanes as a decoration.
    This is unprecedented cultural vandalism organised and supported by a “conservative” party in NSW. This is not much worse than what ISIS did in Palmyra and Nimrud

    • PaperRooDogMEMBER

      Went to several museums while in London over Xmas was surprised how much they have changed in the same way, cafes, restaurants, etc around every corner on all levels!

      • doctorX

        That is true but at least they are still museums with cafes built around. This thing in Parramatta is going to be a museum built around entertainment venues. New powerhouse museum exhibition on <5k sqm will be just a decoration for 13k sqm of semi private convention centre space – our historical and cultural heritage will just be scenography for corporate cocktail parties.

  5. migtronixMEMBER

    We live in the dumbest country in the west!

    “Australia will recruit 500 cyber spies and build on its offensive capabilities to take the online fight overseas in a $1.3 billion funding boost, amid rising tensions with China and a growing wave of attacks against the nation’s critical infrastructure.
    …
    The ASD will be given new capabilities to allow the agency and Australia’s major telcos to prevent malicious cyber attacks ever reaching millions of Australians by blocking known malicious websites and computer viruses more quickly.”

    Hahahahahahaha 1 billion dollars for Norton anti virus??

    Is this a joke?

    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/offensive-capability-1-3b-for-new-cyber-spies-to-go-after-hackers-20200629-p557bk.html

    • GavinMEMBER

      Rather than laugh, cook up some way to be on the receiving end of that billion dollar funding and cash in!

    • bolstroodMEMBER

      We live in the dumbest country in the west!
      You bet we do, we don’t even know our West from our South.

    • Ukraine fnMEMBER

      @Simon and this type of corruption flows through down the chain and these are the “Investment Visa” types that come to Australia and buy up business and realestate with the blessings of our stupid Govt.

    • PaperRooDogMEMBER

      “Almost none of Hubei’s local trust companies and banks has been involved in (Kingold’s) financing,”

      The whole of Hubei were in on it, lols, wonder if this will mean counter parties loose trust in each other so even if they take option 2 the markets will seize up any how …

      You would think there must be more of this, so more than 4% of China’s gold reserve affected.