Comments on: Confusion by design?

By: Ronda Jambe

Ronda Jambe — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:56:15 +0000

Thanks for the ref to the site, will check it out when I get home.
A new financial instrument causing problems has come to my attention: Contracts for Difference. According to the weekend Australian, betting on these has worse odds than putting it all on the red at the casino.
Not only that, but it has highlighed the conflicting dual role of the ASX as both a money-makaing enterprise and a regulator, a sure recipe for disaster in terms of governance.
Meditation may help, I guess my version of that is doing green things, perhaps futile, but it helps to know a) I have a conscience and b) am capable of acting on it as best I can.

By: mr_nobody

mr_nobody — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:23:04 +0000

Yes Rhonda, trusting in the markets is the hallmark of an optimist and will most times work out for the best, but not all the time.
Are the fundamentals changing? It appears to me that collectively we (all world markets) have overshot the mark with exuberance. Exuberance is not a bad thing at all and is indeed a fine quality to find in a person, so long as it is manifested in positive direction. Gambling on 10 â€“ 20% growth in asset prices, year out year, with no tangible productive output (other than a few chunks of iron ore and a few boats with LPG) however may be overly optimistic for Australia.
Time will tell.
Thanks for the book recommendation, but I think I have found a better one (article actually). If you would like to understand the root of the problem from someone who had a wide and clear vision I can recommend the following â€“ go to website of Barry Long (1935 â€“2003) http://www.barrylong.org/ and go to the articles link. Barry Long was an spiritual teacher (Australia) with such an insightful way of getting to the core of any issue. Rather than my describing who he was it is better if you check. You may or may not like it, it depends on where you are at.
You ask â€˜who do I trust?â€™
That is a good question, and reminds me that it is almost time to meditate again.

By: Ronda Jambe

Ronda Jambe — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:03:15 +0000

Spot on, and I have cleared personal debt, but might borrow again if it suits me.
A friend said two relatives working in the financial sector, one in NY and one in London, have both independently warned that the US problem is much bigger than they are letting on.
The problem seems to be the tentacles that infiltrate all areas of the economy, here and elsewhere. And of course the Chinese themselves are heading for the limits of their growth.

By: al loomis

al loomis — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:02:49 +0000

does the market really go up? or does the money go down?

By: Arjay

Arjay — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:43:07 +0000

The personal debt is a real worry.I hear today that our total debt is a one trillion dollars.This is one yrs GDP.This is scary stuff if the figures are correct.I know the balance payments deficit is about 540 million so the rest must be business and personal debt. We have no way of repaying this on a per capita basis.
The share market debacle has not finished.It will slowly lose value in the shape of a sine curve, suffering peaks and troughs.Pumping more money into the system may just be delaying the inevitable.Western countries have serious structural problems of importing more than they export.We don’t actually make anything,so we end up with economies based on froth and bubble.High taxing big Govt,service industries that cater for wants rather than needs,and a system that neuters small business innovation.
No body really wants to employ anybody because of the legal, Govt and union BS.
We flog off all our resources so the Govt has a super abundance of wealth which it cannot redistributed because we don’t have the skilled labor force to use this excess money.So to keep inflation down the Reserve Bank increases interest rates.Rather than selling our natural gas cheaply to China,wouldn’t it be better to consume it at a lower price here to keep interest rates low,so the RBA won’t have to increase rates?The world has gone mad!I don’t think that our Govts or financial institutions have a clue.

By: peter hindrup

peter hindrup — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:31:19 +0000

A lot! And if the US gets out of this one, then Houdini is passe!
The Australian economy is ‘strong’? Which sector?
Looking around at the small businesses in our area I don’t see any evidence of it.
Australians have massive personal debt, and costs are going up across the board. Clear whatever debt you can, cut your ongoing expenses as far as possible and sit tight.
I believe that this is just the beginning,that the bottom is far, far away, and when it settles the Euro will have supplanted the $US, the US’s creditors will have called in their debts and the only ‘assets’ the US will have is a pile of obsolete scrap.
High tech weaponry and defence, like armour in the past, has had its day. It offers no defence against those who would smuggle in a nuke and truck it a city centre in a truck.
We live in interesting times!