Fun with Finance

Pot of gold...

2012-01-15T21:55:00.000-08:00

... at Westpac** ?

** This is not a recommendation to buy or invest in Westpac.

Wednesday Ambition?

2011-10-11T20:14:00.000-07:00

Sometime ago I blogged about some desirable occupations. Jobs that are always in demand, jobs that will help you find a partner (chick or guy magnet).

I want to be a TAXI DRIVER!
You heard me, I want to drive cabs in Sydney (albeit a water version) :)

Wordless Wednesday...

2011-08-30T06:30:00.001-07:00

PS: Google deleted the photo! Why? Dunno?
PPS: 2nd attempt with the photo, lets see what happens

AAA does it matter?

2011-08-14T20:37:00.001-07:00

We read all about how important credit ratings are. How the downgrade of the US credit rating by Standard and Poors to AA+ will increase the cost of US borrowing. Absoute bullsh*t!

USA lost it's AAA after the close of business on 5 August. We would expect the yields on government bonds to jump (USA is now a more risky asset) when the market opens on Monday 8 August.

Source: US Department of the Treasury

Didn't happen. Yields continued down only moving back to what it was pre-downgrade in the last two days. So what happened?

There's disagreement within the ranks. Moodys and Fitch did not lower the US rating.
There's nothing else in the world to buy.
China's not selling it's portfolio anytime soon.

Foreign Exchange????

2011-08-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

It's a mugs game. At a previous employer, the maxim was, if a dealer got it right 51% of the time, he (or she's) great and deserves a fat bonus.

USA's credit rating downgraded yet investors are buying US$ and treasuries and selling the A$. Australia still has a AAA credit rating, employment under 5%, government debt low. Doesn't make a lot of sense...

Chris Zappone gives three reasons why the A$ is falling against the US$.

Tax Time

2011-07-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

Are people lazy?

I can't imagine paying $50 to someone for doing my tax return. Especially all I do is earn a wage. With e-tax, the system even downloads the salary information provided by my employer and the miserly interest earned on my petty bank balance.

So if all you do is earn a wage, maybe some interest or even dividends, go do your own tax return and spend the $50 on a new pair of shoes at Myers (last minute clearance, additional 50% off already reduced prices. I'm eying that pair of Puma leathers!).

Couple of pointers:

Download e-tax from the ATO site.
For work related deductions, claim UP TO $300. You do not need to to substantiate them (i.e. prove that they are kosher deductions. Claiming $297.60 is good).
For other deductions, make sure you have a receipt for them.
READ and consider every question in e-tax.
You may get some offsets especially if you've spent big on medical, have a dependent to support, paid the kids education (primary & secondary only) expenses.

Affirmative Action

2011-05-23T17:56:00.000-07:00

Most countries have a positive discrimination program to assist the disadvantaged. Malaysia is no different, to encourage home ownership by the local populace, these lucky people get a 7% discount on their mortgage.

Nice.... need that discount to buy in Sydney!

Tax Cheat !!!

2011-05-10T18:38:00.000-07:00

Hidden away in the Budget Paper No. 2, Part 1: Revenue Measures, the Government thinks contractors are dodging and not paying tax. So they will be introducing a matching system where payments made by the payer will be reported and matched to the income declared by the receiver.

Starts with the building industry from 1 July 2012, in the crosshairs are the contract cleaners, IT staff and bookkeepers.

Here's the section....

Tax compliance — reporting taxable payments
Revenue ($m)

	2010‑11	2011‑12	2012‑13	2013‑14	2014‑15
Australian Taxation Office	‑	‑	7.9	217.0	288.1
Related expense ($m)
Australian Taxation Office	‑	3.6	8.8	17.2	15.4
Department of the Treasury	‑	‑	7.9	16.5	17.2
Total	‑	3.6	16.7	33.7	32.6
Related capital ($m)
Australian Taxation Office	‑	‑	1.4	‑	‑

The Government will require certain businesses to report annually on payments made to contractors in the building and construction industry, with effect from 1 July 2012. The reporting regime will require businesses to report information that they should already collect under existing tax arrangements.

This measure, which will improve voluntary compliance, also includes an increase in funding for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) of $46.4 million over the forward estimates period which will allow the ATO to undertake data matching, reviews of contractors' tax liabilities and targeted audits. The funding for the Australian Taxation Office will also be used to provide further assistance and education to industry. This will create a more level playing field for businesses and improve tax fairness within the building and construction industry.

This measure is expected to result in an additional $513.0 million in revenue over the forward estimates period. This amount includes $41.6 million over four years in underlying cash GST collections that will be paid to the States and Territories.

The Government will also consult publicly on options to introduce a similar reporting regime for payments to contractors in the commercial cleaning industry.

Breaking Business News

2011-05-05T23:40:00.000-07:00

Spot FX 8 April 2011

2011-04-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

Consistently A$1 > US$1.05 today.
Another milestone!

The Irish problem...

2010-12-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

...in plain English.
W*nking F*cking Bankers? Brilliant!

History in the making

2010-10-16T22:25:00.000-07:00

The Australian Dollar rose to $US1.00 at 11.18pm (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) 15 October 2010.

Property vs Cash, paradigm shift

2010-09-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

It's not often I've seen this, cash beating property as an investment.

The graph above details the change in Sydney's property values over time based on the RP Data-Rismark Hedonic Index. If we take the average house price in June 2005 to be about $500,000, we can see a 20% gain by June 2010 to $600,000.

A $500,000 five year term deposit with Citibank is paying 7.25% p.a every year, without compounding or reinvestment, you earn $181,250 (that's $81,250 better off). Can't guarantee property prices won't rocket but, it appears damn unlikely.

Aussie politics...

2010-08-24T19:43:00.000-07:00

Concise, succinct, pithy, to the point, neat, brilliant!
It's in Mandarin but then who cares, this picture paints a thousand words...

Heartwarming Australian pretzels

2010-08-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

Article by Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich (Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies) in the Business Spectator

Next time you go to Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building you should visit the basement. There, nestled between an accessories store and an Asian fast food outlet, you can learn a practical lesson in successful immigration policy. It can teach you all you need to know about why the integration of migrants is working in Australia and why it is failing in Europe.

To find this place, just follow your nose to the smell of freshly baked sunflower seed bread, apple cinnamon crumble and pretzel-dough rolls. The Lüneburger bakery is a little piece of bread and cake heaven right in the heart of Sydney. Every day, it serves thousands of hungry commuters with a selection of German-style pastries. To add to the perfect illusion of a traditional German bakery, the shop assistants speak with German accents. Even the shop furniture is made in Germany.

None of this would be of any significance for immigration policies if the owner were your average German baker. But the half-bald 47-year-old running the Lüneburger business does not quite look like someone who comes from the Black Forest. And his name, Ahmet Yaltirakli, does not sound very German either.

In fact Yaltirakli was born in Istanbul, Turkey, and migrated to Cologne with his parents when he was 11. Like many other children of Turkish "guest workers" living in Germany, he got only a very basic school education and was subsequently apprenticed as an electrician.

An acquaintance of the family then offered Yaltirakli another apprenticeship as a goldsmith in the early 1980s. Sadly, as it turned out years later, his new employer lacked the formal qualification to teach. In the end, Yaltirakli was left with little else but enough practical skills to open a small jewellery repair business in one of the poorer and predominantly Turkish neighbourhoods of Cologne.

Yaltirakli worked hard. However, there was no escape from his existence as an ambitious yet underqualified manual labourer. Besides, even though he may have spent most of his life in Germany and despite his German passport, he always remained a Turk in the eyes of mainstream society. His family background was the glass ceiling he simply could not break.

If Ahmet Yaltirakli had not switched on his TV one Sunday afternoon back in 1996 he would still be fixing Turkish necklaces and armbands in Cologne. Instead, he watched a documentary about Australia. The pictures of this faraway and exotic place were so enticing that only three days later Yaltirakli and his family were sitting on an Australia-bound plane, willing to explore the country for themselves.

They fell in love with Australia immediately and spent another three holidays travelling around the continent. In 2002, they sold everything they had in Germany and arrived in Sydney with little more than a business visa, a modest amount of cash and a collection of Italian wedding rings that Yaltirakli hoped to distribute in Australia.

A Turkish-born German selling Italian wedding rings in Australia? It may have been too ambitious a plan, and Yaltirakli soon had to find another venture. So he acquired a franchise licence for an ice cream and chocolates parlour. But as he had to discover, Australians don’t buy enough ice cream in winter and not enough chocolates in summer. Again he failed, suffering heavy losses.

After two business fiascos, with few contacts in Australia and nothing but his entrepreneurial spirit, Yaltirakli went for his final attempt: to open a German-style bakery. He was missing good German breads; all his German friends in Sydney told him the same; and when he found a way to import deep frozen dough from Germany, a business idea was born. He was clutching at straws.

All that was still needed was a more German-sounding name than Yaltirakli. He settled on Lüneburger. Not that he had ever been to the historic city of Lüneburg, but you just can’t get more German than that, with the umlaut dots on the "u", he thought.

The first shop in Sydney’s QVB opened in late December 2005, and Lüneburger took off to become more than your average bread and butter business. Regularly putting in 80 to 90 hours a week, Yaltirakli managed to establish seven shops in Sydney. In a few weeks’ time he will open his first bakery in Melbourne. "And this, for sure, is not going to be the end of my ambitions," he says.

Looking back over his turbulent career, Yaltirakli is certain he would never have succeeded in Germany. "In Australia, it is much easier to become a part of society," he says. "If you have an idea, you can make it. In Germany, you will always remain a bit of an outsider and people will judge you by your name and your looks."

Little wonder, then, that Yaltirakli is now employing more than 70 people in Sydney and Melbourne and not in Cologne or Hamburg. Australia gave him the welcome he and his family were looking for. It did not put obstacles in the way of his business ventures. For him it became the place in which you can try, fail and start again to eventually succeed.

The contrast to Yaltirakli’s Turkish compatriots who remained in Germany could not be more stark. In Berlin, which has the largest resident Turkish community outside Turkey, three-quarters of all Turkish migrants lack any school qualifications (compared with only 15 percent of all German-born Berliners). Consequently, nearly half the unemployed in Berlin are of Turkish origin. And almost 40 per cent of all Berlin-based Turks receive most of their income in the form of welfare payments.

The failed integration of Turkish migrants into German society has many causes. Many migrants lacked the will to assimilate, while mainstream society showed a corresponding reluctance to accept the newcomers. The lack of education and the stifling effects of welfare dependency only made the process of integration even more difficult.

If Germany needs an example of the human potential lying dormant in its Turkish community it should study the case of Ahmet Yaltirakli closely. And if Australians need reminding why migrants can be a great benefit to society, they should look at his case, too.

Ask him about it next time you buy your Turkish-German-Australian pretzels.

Are you a bogan?

2010-08-03T20:22:00.001-07:00

The Gucci bag on the left, costing $US1150, was rated 1/7 for brand loudness and would be preferred by "elite" consumers, according to a Journal of Marketing study. The bag on the right, costing $US640, was rated 7/7 for brand loudness and would be preferred by "cashed-up bogans". Source: Journal of Marketing

Read more.

Bogan? Definition here.

All that glitters...

2010-06-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

Gold is at an all time high, almost 5x the price of 10 years ago.

Why do people invest in gold, it's not like it pays interest nor earns the investor any income. People buy gold because they are worried about the collapse in the financial system (where those pieces of paper become worthless), or as protection against rampant inflation. I can't see either happening.

Australia (or the US) is not going bankrupt, nor will inflation run wild. Maybe there's a shortage of gold, scarcity value much like truffles or rhino's horns. Again, I don't think so. As prices increase, the less efficient producers start mining, supply increases.

How about irrational exurberance? The price of gold has been rising for almost 10 years, hence mums and dads rationalise, gold prices can't fall! Maybe that's the reason.

So is gold overpriced? Is the bubble about to burst? Gold in Aussie dollars is almost $1,300 per oz but when adjusted for inflation, the price is only matching the mid-1980 levels.

But Australia did have rampant inflation then, it does not now. Countries are currently more likely to suffer a recession rather than runaway inflation.

So is gold going up and will it keep going up, I don't think so.

Fat fingers...

2010-06-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Happens to the best of us.

"The market jumped 13.4 per cent during the morning trade to 5012.8, its best since mid-April, after market contributor Standard & Poor's received some erroneous pricing information..."

Hunting the big banks

2010-05-13T22:16:00.000-07:00

I often wonder how people think. Litigation funder IMF Australia Ltd is bankrolling a class action against Australia's major banks and half a million people barging and shoving to join the queue.

Do you think IMF is really doing it for you, helping the underdog?

Bugger me, they're in it for the money! A share of the proceeds, a cut of your damages. The only winner out of this.... the lawyers.

Say the action succeeds, how much do you think you'll get? $1k? If you're very lucky.

Now ask yourself how much did your superannuation fund loose from the scare we can do without?

The XFJ, index of bank shares over the last 2 days

Education Tax Refund - have you claimed?

2010-04-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

The Education Tax Refund is a government initiative to help with the cost of educating primary and secondary school children. It means eligible parents, carers, legal guardians and independent students could get 50% back on some education expenses. This includes items like computers, educational software, textbooks and stationery!

Eligible expenses include the cost of buying, establishing, repairing and maintaining any of the following items:

laptop computers and home computers
computer-related equipment such as printers, USB flash drives, as well as disability aids to assist in the use of computer equipment for students with special needs
computer repairs
home internet connections
computer software for educational use
school textbooks and other printed learning material, including prescribed textbooks, associated learning materials, study guides and stationery, and
prescribed trade tools for secondary school trade courses.

Did you get that? Notebooks and internet connection!! Read more HERE

eBay... let's whinge

2010-03-24T00:14:00.000-07:00

I've always been quite a fan of eBay. As a buyer one can find some pretty good
bargains but as a seller I've just been scr*wed for my effort.

Grateful if anyone can tell me why there's a gap 'tween my text and the table below...)

Sold an item for	$20.00

Paid insertion fee	$0.75
Paid final fee	$1.05
Paid Paypal	$1.02
Paid Paypal trf fee	$1.00
Total Cost	$3.82

That's almost 20% I've lost! I can't even stop the buyer settling via Paypal as it's a must be available option :(

Is receiving $16.18 really fair?

Let's celebrate International Women's Day

2010-03-07T17:47:00.000-08:00

Who's heard of Christy Walton, Alice Walton, Liliane Bettencourt, Susanne Klatten or Abigail Johnson?

From Business Spectator

Christy Walton is the daughter-in-law of Sam Walton, the founder of what has become the biggest retailer in the world, Walmart. Christy, the widow of Sam Walton’s son John, has no direct involvement in the company’s operations and does not sit on Walmart’s board, but she remains a major shareholder in the company. She also owns a stake in solar panel maker First Solar, which has boosted her wealth in recent years. Wealth: $US23.2 billion

Alice Walton is the daughter of Sam Walton, and like Christy does not have a day-to-day role with the company. She founded an investment bank called Llama Company in 1998, and was the driving force behind the development of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. She is also leading the Walton Family Foundation’s building of a modern American art museum called Crystal Bridges. Wealth: $US23.2 billion

Liliane Bettencourt is the daughter of L'Oreal founder Eugene Schueller and retains a controlling shareholding in the cosmetics giant. While she is not involved in the day-to-day running of the business, her daughter and heir Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers sits on the company’s board. However, the mother and daughter are currently locked in a bitter court battle, with Francoise launching legal proceedings against her mother's photographer friend Francois-Marie Banier, alleging the snapper took advantage of the ageing Liliane by accepting more than $US1.37 billion since 2002. Liliane has rejected the claims she is not in full command of her faculties. Wealth: $US22.9 billion

Germany’s richest woman, Susanne Klatten, inherited large stakes in BMW and pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturer Altana from her father Herbert Quandt. She is an active member of the supervisory boards of both companies. In 2006, Altana sold its pharmaceuticals business for $US6 billion; Forbes says Klatten pocketed around 50 per cent of the proceeds. In 2008 Klatten was embroiled in a blackmail case involving a scam artist who threatened to release information about their affair. Wealth: $US13.2 billion

Abigail Johnson takes a more active role in her company Fidelity Investments than the other members of the top five – along with her father, Fidelity chief executive Ned Johnson, Abby (as she is known) runs the company on a day-to-day basis. She has overseen Fidelity's retirement plan services division since 2005, after previously running the company's fund investment unit for four years. In a recent speech she ducked the question of succession, although she is seen as her father’s likely replacement. Wealth: $US11.5 billion

Here you are, the five richest ladies in the world!

Telling on you...

2010-02-14T18:05:00.000-08:00

A recent Sun Herald report shows Australia a notion of dobbers.

Australians have proven themselves to be top rate informers, pointing the finger at hundreds of people every day for alleged wrong-doing.

Tax dodgers, welfare rorters, criminals, litterbugs and water wasters spurred almost 250,000 Australians to overcome a natural distaste for dobbing last financial year.

Nearly 60,000 people contacted the tax office to accuse someone of fraud over the year to 30 June 2009.

More than 96,000 called Centerlink's fraud hotline. From these calls Centerlink identified 9,126 cheaters, people rorting the system of $49.5m.

Crime Stoppers received 60,000 calls over the year, leading to over 960 arrests and 19,465 litterbugs were fined at least $234 each after calls to the Environmental Protection Agency's litter hotline.

In Victoria 3,775 people were reported by neighbours for defying water restrictions. However only 950 were acted on as most were caused by neighbour disputes.

So, what's makes you do it? Jealousy and envy that someone is getting away with it and you're not, or are you merely trying to do the right thing?

Food.

2010-01-21T02:14:00.000-08:00

Year before last, I did some research and looked at what a humanitarian food ration was, as issued by the WFP. My thinking was - this would pretty much be what the poorest people on the planet would have to survive on.. for those who have food. Refugees were given slightly more rations than non-refugees, for an obvious reason - these people had no income earning potential.

Article: WFP's Food Basket
www.wfp.org/nutrition/WFP-foodbasket

I went out and bought the food, the equivalent of a month's rations, thinking - I am curious to see what it is like to live on this, and only this, to see whether it is possible, for a month or so.

There wasn't much - the quantities I bought for one month supply would have fit on a place-mat, and the bulk was made up of rice, lentils, beans, oil, flour, tea, sugar. I understand this changes based on region, and price and availability of food. I did not have the faintest idea what to do with the combination of ingredients that I had before me to make anything other than pasty porridge-type foods, or flat breads (which I did try, courtesy of some recipe suggestions on the web). I couldn't buy the food in small enough quantities sometimes, so had way more than the ration packs would have contained, but the total came out to around AU$25 at the time.

I've read that rations have since been cut, particularly with the price of rice increasing, and a lack of contributions to the World Food Program. The number of daily KJ reduced substantially.

Article : Bhutanese refugees “shocked” at WFP food ration cuts
www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx

I didn't go through with my experiment, partly because I realised I was setting myself up for failure - the availability of tempting foods would be too great, and if I didn't give in to these foods - I'd be constantly distracted by the thought, smell and sight of it. Perhaps I could try this at some point, and donate the money I would have spent on food to the WFP. Perhaps I should stop perhapsing, before it gets ridiculous.

In some parts of the world we are told, the solution to our stagnating economy is to spend more, driving the wheels of industry, so we can build more, sell more, employ more people - whether these activities are beneficial to us as a society or not. we just have to continually be doing and making 'stuff'. I'm not especially political..

but ..

it seems to me, our (edit - Australian) government last year took a shovel to our surplus funds and threw it at us, saying - spend, we don't care what you spend on - just spend. So we did, we spent all that money, money which could have gone a long way further to helping people who are crying out for just a fraction of what even the poorest of Australians received.

I was asked by someone once whether I'd be willing to give up all the trappings of a comfortable modern day life, but to be fair - probably not. Not for any length of time. Even the Amish use mobile phones now, I'm told. But I don't want senseless excess either.

In any event, I think the WFP is something that should be supported to the hilt, even when a catastrophic disaster is not unfolding, if such a time exists.

Being a great boss...

2009-12-21T17:34:00.000-08:00

From: The Business Spectator, observations by Robert Gottliebsen

The year 2010 will see Don Argus step down as chairman of BHP Billiton, ending two decades at the top of Australian business – first as CEO of National Australia Bank and then at the top of Australia’s largest company.

In a remarkable address to Leadership Victoria Argus contrasts the CEOs at BHP since he became chairman in 2000 and in the process he sets out a road map for all those who aspire to be a chief executive and, even more importantly, provides insights for all those who lead corporations or organisations.

A vast number of Australian chief executives fail to meet many of the success points that Argus found in his CEOs. When he has left BHP Argus might consider completing the picture by setting out the weaknesses of each of the BHP CEOs – and they all had weaknesses as well as strengths. Here is a snapshot of what he says about each BHP CEO, and I have added my comments.

Paul Anderson: Anderson was a “ listener” and after being brought in from outside to redirect BHP he quickly created a common purpose for the employee.

“He encouraged outcome thinking by requesting the employees to advise him what was wrong with the enterprise, but also what was required to fix the perceived problems”. To Anderson “the link between deep listening, dialogue and higher productivity from outcome thinking was very clear”.

Argus adds: ”Most of us do not listen well. We get too immersed with the pace of the world around us and are preoccupied with where we are going. We spend too much time thinking about how to respond to, or one-up, the person talking to us”.

From my point of view Anderson was the best communicator of all the BHP CEO’s. I was doing TV interviews at the time and after most big announcements he loved to sit down with me and explain to shareholders what he was doing with BHP. Most CEO’s confine their communication to institutions.

Brian Gilbertson: All Argus says is that “the Board and Paul Anderson’s successor, parted company through irreconcilable differences”. I can add that Gilbertson got the job as part of the merger with Billiton and so the very detailed due diligence that normally goes with a CEO appointment was not carried out. Gilbertson planned to substantially expand BHP and base it outside Australia. The board had a different view.

Chip Goodyear (who replaced Gilberston): Goodyear was “untried and young, and some questioned his experience to lead a large complex company that was only just settling down after the merger between BHP and Billiton.

“Chip did not lack intellect or financial skills. He realised that he had to quickly develop a trusting relationship with his people”.

Argus says that being trusting is “the ability to believe in others” and being trustworthy is “being worthy of others believing in you”

"It is the leader’s job to make sure both elements are present throughout the organisation. Chip pursued this principle extremely well”, Argus says.

He lists other characteristics of Goodyear:

“He was genuine – it was important for people to touch and feel him as a real person.

“He was reliable – his word, whether spoken or written, was credible.

“He was dependable – he made good on his promises whether declared or implied.

“He was predictable – being consistent makes it safe for people to be vulnerable and work together.

"There is no doubt in my mind that in a complex and chaotic world a leader who is consistent and predictable helps the people who work for him or her feel secure. Since they know the ground is not going to shift under their feet, they are open to new ideas. They are willing to take risks”, Argus says.

What Argus does not mention about Goodyear is the family challenges a young person faces running a global organisation. All those characteristics that Argus mentioned also applied to his loyalty to his family and in the end this was a factor in him stepping down.

Marius Kloppers: Argus says, ”Prior to the appointment of Marius Kloppers we had four candidates and even had time to test the profile of the board’s preferred candidate with the outside market.

“What a baptism of fire he (Kloppers) has endured. The global financial crisis, the various iterations of our proposed partnership with Rio Tinto and he has succeeded where many have failed in devolving authority and accountability to the business units in the BHP Billiton group.

“Marius quickly realised that many organisations smother the potential of their employees under layer upon layer of control and bureaucracy. As a result the human assets are painfully under-utilised, not only in a business but in non-profit organisations and governments.

“Marius has devolved authority to his workforce, with accountability, he communicates his objective and plans with simple messages and clear goals. He has created a fast flexible organisation, he shares power, trusts people’s competence and judgement, and has created leaders at all levels of the organisation – people understand personal accountability”.

I was with Marius when there had been just been a fatality at a BHP site and he was genuinely upset by it. Marius is also a young leader but his different leadership style plus modern communications have enabled him to overcome some of the problems that affected Chip.

There is no simple CEO formula but if you combine the elements that Argus highlights among the BHP CEO’s and avoid the Gilbertson pitfall you will have close to the perfect CEO.

Westpac explains...

2009-12-09T15:19:00.000-08:00

Why Interest Rates go up (aka The Banana Smoothie Video)

Wishing all a...

2009-12-06T19:22:00.001-08:00

Hopefully, 2010 will prove to be a much better year as the dreaded GFC* becomes but a distant memory.

* Global Financial Crisis

The Economics of Liposuction

2009-11-23T16:41:00.000-08:00

WARNING: HORRIBLE CONTENT !

Was reading about the terrible murders in Peru, where some 60 people were killed for their fat which was then on-sold for cosmetic use in Europe.

According to the report, police were alerted after discovering a container with human fat being shipped to Lima. General Felix Burga, head of the police criminal division was quoted as saying "the fat can be sold for US$15,000 per gallon (3.8 litres) in European countries".

Got me wondering, how much fat is extracted in a simple liposuction? According to Liposuction4you (yea, corny name), the limit is 6 litres, can we then conservatively assume the average fat removed be a third or 2 litres?

Wiki tells us that in the US alone, there were 403,684 operations. At US$15,000 per 3.8 litres, this equates to US$3.2b, YES billion dollars!

The average cost of a tummy liposuction can be up to US$7,500... I can make more money flogging the fat. Have you seen the price of cosmetics recently?

Lies, damn lies and Headlines !

2009-11-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

NineMSN: Unemployment numbers hit seven year high
Wall Street Journal: Australian Jobs Surge in October
ABC NEws: Unemployment rate creeps to 5.8%
Sydney Morning Herald: Surprise rise in new jobs

so, is it good or bad news?

Mother of all carry trades faces an inevitable bust

2009-11-05T18:59:00.000-08:00

By Nouriel Roubini professor at New York University’s Stern School of
Business and chairman of Roubini Global Economics

Source: The Financial Times Limited 2009. Published: November 1 2009

______________________________

Since March there has been a massive rally in all sorts of risky assets – equities, oil, energy and commodity prices – a narrowing of high-yield and high-grade credit spreads, and an even bigger rally in emerging market asset classes (their stocks, bonds and currencies). At the same time, the dollar has weakened sharply , while government bond yields have gently increased but stayed low and stable.

This recovery in risky assets is in part driven by better economic fundamentals. We avoided a near depression and financial sector meltdown with a massive monetary, fiscal stimulus and bank bail-outs. Whether the recovery is V-shaped, as consensus believes, or U-shaped and anaemic as I have argued, asset prices should be moving gradually higher.

But while the US and global economy have begun a modest recovery, asset prices have gone through the roof since March in a major and synchronised rally. While asset prices were falling sharply in 2008, when the dollar was rallying, they have recovered sharply since March while the dollar is tanking. Risky asset prices have risen too much, too soon and too fast compared with macroeconomic fundamentals.

So what is behind this massive rally? Certainly it has been helped by a wave of liquidity from near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing. But a more important factor fuelling this asset bubble is the weakness of the US dollar, driven by the mother of all carry trades. The US dollar has become the major funding currency of carry trades as the Fed has kept interest rates on hold and is expected to do so for a long time. Investors who are shorting the US dollar to buy on a highly leveraged basis higher-yielding assets and other global assets are not just borrowing at zero interest rates in dollar terms; they are borrowing at very negative interest rates – as low as negative 10 or 20 per cent annualised – as the fall in the US dollar leads to massive capital gains on short dollar positions.

Let us sum up: traders are borrowing at negative 20 per cent rates to invest on a highly leveraged basis on a mass of risky global assets that are rising in price due to excess liquidity and a massive carry trade. Every investor who plays this risky game looks like a genius – even if they are just riding a huge bubble financed by a large negative cost of borrowing – as the total returns have been in the 50-70 per cent range since March.

People’s sense of the value at risk (VAR) of their aggregate portfolios ought, instead, to have been increasing due to a rising correlation of the risks between different asset classes, all of which are driven by this common monetary policy and the carry trade. In effect, it has become one big common trade – you short the dollar to buy any global risky assets.

Yet, at the same time, the perceived riskiness of individual asset classes is declining as volatility is diminished due to the Fed’s policy of buying everything in sight – witness its proposed $1,800bn (£1,000bn, €1,200bn) purchase of Treasuries, mortgage-backed securities (bonds guaranteed by a government-sponsored enterprise such as Fannie Mae) and agency debt. By effectively reducing the volatility of individual asset classes, making them behave the same way, there is now little diversification across markets – the VAR again looks low.

So the combined effect of the Fed policy of a zero Fed funds rate, quantitative easing and massive purchase of long-term debt instruments is seemingly making the world safe – for now – for the mother of all carry trades and mother of all highly leveraged global asset bubbles.

While this policy feeds the global asset bubble it is also feeding a new US asset bubble. Easy money, quantitative easing, credit easing and massive inflows of capital into the US via an accumulation of forex reserves by foreign central banks makes US fiscal deficits easier to fund and feeds the US equity and credit bubble. Finally, a weak dollar is good for US equities as it may lead to higher growth and makes the foreign currency profits of US corporations abroad greater in dollar terms.

The reckless US policy that is feeding these carry trades is forcing other countries to follow its easy monetary policy. Near-zero policy rates and quantitative easing were already in place in the UK, eurozone, Japan, Sweden and other advanced economies, but the dollar weakness is making this global monetary easing worse. Central banks in Asia and Latin America are worried about dollar weakness and are aggressively intervening to stop excessive currency appreciation. This is keeping short-term rates lower than is desirable. Central banks may also be forced to lower interest rates through domestic open market operations. Some central banks, concerned about the hot money driving up their currencies, as in Brazil, are imposing controls on capital inflows. Either way, the carry trade bubble will get worse: if there is no forex intervention and foreign currencies appreciate, the negative borrowing cost of the carry trade becomes more negative. If intervention or open market operations control currency appreciation, the ensuing domestic monetary easing feeds an asset bubble in these economies. So the perfectly correlated bubble across all global asset classes gets bigger by the day.

But one day this bubble will burst, leading to the biggest co-ordinated asset bust ever: if factors lead the dollar to reverse and suddenly appreciate – as was seen in previous reversals, such as the yen-funded carry trade – the leveraged carry trade will have to be suddenly closed as investors cover their dollar shorts. A stampede will occur as closing long leveraged risky asset positions across all asset classes funded by dollar shorts triggers a co-ordinated collapse of all those risky assets – equities, commodities, emerging market asset classes and credit instruments.

Why will these carry trades unravel? First, the dollar cannot fall to zero and at some point it will stabilise; when that happens the cost of borrowing in dollars will suddenly become zero, rather than highly negative, and the riskiness of a reversal of dollar movements would induce many to cover their shorts. Second, the Fed cannot suppress volatility forever – its $1,800bn purchase plan will be over by next spring. Third, if US growth surprises on the upside in the third and fourth quarters, markets may start to expect a Fed tightening to come sooner, not later. Fourth, there could be a flight from risk prompted by fear of a double dip recession or geopolitical risks, such as a military confrontation between the US/Israel and Iran. As in 2008, when such a rise in risk aversion was associated with a sharp appreciation of the dollar, as investors sought the safety of US Treasuries, this renewed risk aversion would trigger a dollar rally at a time when huge short dollar positions will have to be closed.

This unraveling may not occur for a while, as easy money and excessive global liquidity can push asset prices higher for a while. But the longer and bigger the carry trades and the larger the asset bubble, the bigger will be the ensuing asset bubble crash. The Fed and other policymakers seem unaware of the monster bubble they are creating. The longer they remain blind, the harder the markets will fall.

Gold and the US Dollar

2009-11-03T17:37:00.000-08:00

The top chart shows the value of the US dollar to the Aussie over the past year. The lower chart shows the price of gold in US dollars over the same period. Notice anything?

Last week India bought some gold, 200 tonnes of it.

"I would have advised the governor of RBI to buy gold as our forex reserve is comfortable," said Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. "The RBI has done just that. That doesn't mean we don't prefer dollar any more or like gold any better."

Epilogue

2009-11-01T18:34:00.000-08:00

Never invest in companies that put a pretty face on the prospectus....

My itsy bitsy bit of Myer

2009-10-19T15:57:00.001-07:00

How good this investment is, I really don't know. I'm just a sucker for a pretty face especially if it's Jen's.

Irrational exuberance

2009-10-08T23:20:00.000-07:00

The worst is past! Let the good times roll..... wheee ! Utter bull sh*t.

Creations of Chen Wen Ling.

Prices, wages and bargains...

2009-09-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered why stuff is so cheap in Malaysia? RM4.50 = A$1.50 = U$1.20

Redundancy?

2009-06-17T16:51:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't wish it on anyone but in these tough economic times, the axe may fall anywhere. So, you've been retrenched, have you paid the correct tax on that measly amount?

The tax free amount is $7,350 + $3,676 for every complete year or service.

If you're lucky enough to get more that the tax free amount... how much tax one should pay on that excess? That depends on your preservation age.

Born before 1 July 1960 your preservation age is 55
Between 1 July 1960 and 30 June 1961, it is 56
Between 1 July 1961 and 30 June 1962, it is 57
Between 1 July 1962 and 30 June 1963, it is 58
Between 1 July 1963 and 30 June 1964, it is 59
After that it's 60

If you're at or over your preservation age, you're taxed at 16.5% up to $145,000. More than that, it's 46.5%

If you're below your preservation age it's 31.5% to $145,000 and the amount over that, it's 46.5%

There are some transitional rules that are a little more generous. These lucky buggers have a contract or agreement dated before 9 May 2006 that states the amount of the payout or how it's to be calculated. They get to take home $1.045m before the 46.5% tax rate kicks in. If they want, they can even roll the payment into super.

Other bits of the pay like long service leave, annual leave and notice period, all taxed at marginal rates I'm afraid :(

Interesting this....

2009-05-14T00:24:00.000-07:00

For the third month in a row, the stock exchange in Shanghai has a bigger market cap than London!

Common Management Mistakes...

2009-03-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

... in bad times. Stolen from Robert Half Recruitment.

Morale and retention

Feeling people are lucky just to have a job.
True, many people feel fortunate to have a stable position in this economy, but your most talented employees always have options. Good people are marketable in any economy, and you want your best people to stay with you for the long-term.

Assuming employees are mind readers.
You’ve spent your week implementing cost-cutting measures – and now your Sales Assistant has requested a salary increase. Bad timing, but unless you communicate openly and often, your team will not know the business realities of the company.

Ignoring rumours.
The rumour mill exists in every organisation especially when there are shut doors, cancelled meetings and people speaking in hushed tones. If your staff don’t hear the news from you, they will hear it from someone else, and it may not be entirely accurate.

Lack of showing recognition.
Many senior managers would be the first to admit they could offer a bit more positive reinforcement to their teams. There is no such thing as too much praise, as long as it’s specific, genuine and timely.

Saving the praise for last.
It’s nice to thank people for a job well done, but keep in mind that encouragement along the way works wonders too, in building motivation and productivity.

Not standing by your employees.
Managers who do not support their workers lose their trust. Stand up for your team members, particularly if they are unfairly criticised. If you are there for them, they will be there for you.

Productivity
Failing to give star treatment.
Many managers make the mistake of spending too much time and resources trying to improve the performance of average employees while ignoring their strongest talent. While skills building is important, it is the top talent that are often responsible for your company’s greatest successes.

Cutting back on training.
Think twice before cutting staff development budgets, since enhancing your employees’ skills can pay off in both the short and the long-term.

Equating busy with productive.
Don’t base employee recognition on who’s working the longest hours. Instead, reward people based on the results they generate towards company objectives.

Making work ‘mission impossible’.
Lay offs and budget cuts may mean one person will have to do the jobs of two or more people. Decide which projects are mission critical and delegate remaining tasks. Bring in temporary workers to assist your staff.

Waiting for an economic turnaround.
If you have a good idea, don’t wait for a recovery to implement it. You’ll get a head start on the competition by making your move now.

Building business

Sacrificing quality.
When people are busy, mistakes are more likely to occur. But don’t let service levels slide because your team is swamped. You’ll create a standard that will be difficult to break once workloads return to normal.

Making the wrong cuts.
Most companies have had to reduce spending, but be careful about slashing services to your clients. If they’re used to receiving certain benefits, taking them away can be a mistake.

Shifting the focus from the front lines.
Customer service counts all the more when times are tough. Are you doing everything possible to make sure those who are the first point of contact with your company send the right message? If these employees come across as indifferent, you could lose prospective and existing clients.

Tying your employees’ hands.
Empower your team to make decisions that will ensure positive customer and client experiences. Provide guidance on how to resolve dilemmas most successfully, and let them know what they did well and what could have been done better.

Cradle

2009-03-17T23:13:00.000-07:00

The first installment of on my Cradle to Grave series.
You’ve finished with full time studies, school's out not just for the summer but forever. For most of your life you've been mollycoddled or supported by your parent(s). There’s so much you want to do, get a job, be independent, have fun…

It’s not just getting a job and spending on clothes or a flash car. You’ll have other expenses like rent, you may even want to start thinking about putting something aside for a home too or even... retirement.

“What the f*ck??” I hear you scream.

Hmmm… Think of it this way. Let’s say you’re 21 and you want to retire at 60, that gives you 39 working years. Average life expectancy for a girl is 84 and guy 79. Girls, you’ve got a good 24 years, guys 19 years, that you have to live off your savings.

The age pension is crap. The maximum you can get is $285 a week. That wouldn’t even pay for your pacemaker. What if you’re unlucky and live to 90?

________________________

Superannuation

You’re lucky, in that your employer must pay 9% of your salary into a superannuation fund. This is called the Superannuation Guarantee. Subject to what you earn, if you put aside an additional $1,500, the government will match that. Money for jam. This is the Superannuation Co-Contribution and it’s great.

Do you realize how big a small amount of money can grow to when you put it away for 30 years!

________________________

Checkpoint

1) Do you make any debt payments? (Loans, credit cards and the like. Omit HECS)
Points
20 – No
10 – less than 10% of your pay

2) How much do you save?
Points
20 – 20% or more of pay
10 – 10% to 19% of pay

3) Do you have a written budget?
Points
20 – Yes

4) Do you have written realistic goals or objectives (sex with Bruce/ Sally or make a million does NOT count)
Points
20 - Yes

5) Do you have a will?
Points
20 – Yes

6) Did you complete tertiary education?
Points
20 – Yes

________________________

Scores
80 – Excellent but don't get complacent.
60 – 80 you’re doing ok. There’s room for improvement
Below 60 – er… you’re buggered! No you’re not.
You definitely need to get your act together. Get a will, make a budget and make a list of goals!

Next up... marriage, kids and a mortgage :(

Property, first home and the pork barrel...

2009-03-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

We can thank Kev and his team, the first homeowners grant is creating a buying frenzy in properties at the lower price range. I attended an open house for a three bedroom unit and it was packed!

So what do first home owners get?

1) A $7,000 grant from the NSW government.
2) Buy a new place and you'll get $3,000 more. (Your new pad's got to be less than $750,000, bad luck investment bankers!)
3) The Federal government will throw in a $7,000 booster. Love that word!
4) If it's a new place, you get another $7,000!
5) There's NO stamp duty if your property is less than $500,000 (that's a saving of almost $18,000.)

So buy yourself a new apartment for $499,999, you'll get $24,000 from the government. Buy an existing apartment, you'll get $14,000. And you'll save on stamp duty too.

Throw in a super low mortgage interest rate, and midnight fast approaching (the grants end 30 June 2009) no wonder Cinderella's doing the pole dance.

If the government extends these handouts, we can expect demand to cool off slightly, giving Cinderella a little more time to shop for her Prince Charming...

** The photo is of Kevin's home in Sydney ;)

What half a million US$ buys you....

2009-03-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

In New York a 1 bedroom

In Sydney a 2 bedroom

Or this in Bali with 5.5 acres.....

Interesting if not depressing...

From http://www.moneycompare.com.au/blog/house-prices-compared-what-usd-500000-buy-worldwide.php

I know where I'm retiring to!

From Cradle to the Grave

2009-02-22T21:22:00.000-08:00

As we go through life, from leaving school to retirement, we face many challenges, on love, on family, on money and finance. I've no idea on the first two but on money and finance, we may just get you thinking.

We often ask how should we invest for that rainy day, where should we have our money, what our priorities are? No one size fits all, the strategy or plan depends on which stage of life you are at.

What I would like to do over the next few weeks is to look at various stages most people go through, and throw in my 2¢ worth on living comfortably, providing for your dependents and saving for the future.

It may help, it may not. Hopefully it will get you thinking.

He who fails to plan, plans to fail
~ Proverb

The Bailout Is Robbing the Banks

2009-02-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

An excellent article by JOHN C. COATES and DAVID S. SCHARFSTEIN

Published: February 17, 2009 in the New York Times

MANY Americans are angry at banks for taking bailout money while still cutting back on lending. But the government is also to blame. For reasons that remain unclear, the Troubled Asset Relief Program has channeled aid to bank holding companies rather than banks. The Obama administration’s new Financial Stability Plan will have more influence on bank lending if it actually directs its support to banks.

To see why, it’s important to understand the distinction between banks and bank holding companies. Banks take deposits and make loans to consumers and corporations. Bank holding companies own or control these banks. The big holding companies also own other businesses, including ones that execute trades both on their clients’ behalf and for themselves.

It would seem obvious that helping banks, not holding companies, would be the most direct way to stimulate bank lending. But when TARP purchased preferred stock and warrants, it bought them from holding companies, not their bank subsidiaries.

While TARP has been generous with bank holding companies, these companies have not been so generous with their banks. Four large holding companies — JP Morgan, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo — initially received a total of $90 billion in TARP money in the fall, but by the end of 2008 they had contributed less than $15 billion in equity capital to their subsidiary banks.

The holding companies seem to have invested most of their TARP money in their other businesses or else retained the option to do so by keeping it in deposit accounts, even as the capital of their banks decreased. At the same time the banks, which provide the majority of loans to large corporate borrowers, drastically reduced lending to new borrowers.

It’s easy to see why holding companies would withhold capital from their troubled banks. If a bank is insolvent — as many are now believed to be — and the government has to take it over, the holding company loses any capital it gave to the bank. Rather than take that risk, the holding company can opt to spend its money elsewhere, perhaps on trading of its own.

But this is not a good use of scarce capital. We might end up with too much of this proprietary trading and too little lending. It also means that when it comes time to recapitalize banks there is a bigger hole to fill, and when banks fail there is less capital available to meet the government’s obligations to insured depositors and other creditors. Keeping money at the holding company may benefit its shareholders, but it is costly for taxpayers.

Bailouts, at the very least, should reach their target. When Washington wanted to help Chrysler, it gave money to Chrysler. It did not write a blank check to Cerberus, the private equity firm that owns Chrysler, in the hope that the money would somehow find its way to the carmaker and not to the other companies Cerberus owns.

Some politicians, frustrated that the government’s costly interventions have not had their desired effect, have wanted to mandate higher levels of bank lending. Others have tried shaming chief executives of financial institutions into lending more, as when Representative Mike Capuano of Massachusetts admonished eight of them who came before the House Financial Services Committee: “Start loaning the money that we gave you. Get it on the street!”

It would be more effective to simply ensure that the Financial Stability Plan is directed at banks. When the government buys stock, it should buy bank stock. And if it chooses to buy stock in holding companies, it should at least require that the new capital reaches the bank and non-bank subsidiaries that the government wishes to support. If the government chooses to help private investors buy toxic bank assets, as the planned Public-Private Investment Fund is supposed to do, it should not allow the banks to send those investments to their holding companies. And if the government decides to guarantee debt, it should guarantee the debt of banks, not of holding companies.

The Obama administration seems to understand that reviving bank lending is key to economic recovery. Now it needs to make sure that the banks get the money.

John C. Coates is a professor at Harvard Law School. David S. Scharfstein is a professor of finance at Harvard Business School.

Health Checks

2009-02-11T18:03:00.000-08:00

Prevention is better than cure so they say!

Besides eating healthy and some exercise, it's important that you spend a little time on a service check. You do it for your car, so why not for your body?

So if you're over 25, here are some pointers...

Blood Pressure
Annual check. Those with high blood pressure will need more frequent testing.

Glaucoma (pressure in the eye)
Age 30+ every 5 years (if there is family history of Glaucoma)
otherwise age 40+ every 5 years

Dental Checkup
Every 6 months

Bowel Cancer (occult blood)
Age 50+ every 2 years. did you know around 80 Australians die each week from the disease!

Glucose
Age 40+ every 5 years (for those who are obese or there is a family history of diabetes)
otherwise age 60+ every 2 years. Diabetes affects over 900,000 Australians, and many of these are not even aware they have the disease.

Cholesterol
Annual check

Vision
Those who wear glasses or contacts, every 2 years. If your vision is blurred or you're experiencing some problem, get it looked at now!

Hearing
Those with hearing aids, every 2 years (an Ipod is not a hearing aid!) If you're experiencing hearing problems have a hearing test done.

Immunisations
Tetanus booster every 10 years.
Annual flu shots if you suffer from breathing or heart problems.
otherwise age 60+, annual flu shots
_______________________________

Ladies ~ Pap smear
3 - 5 years if previous tests are negative. There is a vaccine that protects against certain strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), which are known to cause cervical cancer and genital warts.

But some people can suffer adverse reactions (such as seizures, rashes and paralysis) to the vaccine.

Ladies ~ Breast Self-Examination
Age 30+ Monthly

Ladies ~ Mammogram
Age 40+ Every 1-3 years for high risk groups
otherwise age 50+ Every 5 years
_______________________________

Guys ~ Testicular Self-Examination
Age 30+ Monthly

Guys ~ Prostate Examination
Age 40+ Every 3 years
Age 60+ Every 2 years
Each year in Australia, close to 3,000 men die of prostate cancer. Around 18,700 new cases are diagnosed!

Treasure your health, don't leave it till it's too late.

Credit Crisis !

2009-02-10T17:41:00.000-08:00

Sold Out!
http://www.japantrendshop.com/bubble-bath-money-yen-p-240.html

Scary predictions

2009-01-22T14:04:00.000-08:00

Dow 4,000. Food shortages. A bubble in Treasury notes. Fortune spoke to eight of the market's sharpest thinkers and what they had to say about the future is frightening. By Beth Kowitt, Jon Birger and Brian O'Keefe

Nouriel Roubini

Known as Dr. Doom, the NYU economics professor saw the mortgage-related meltdown coming.

We are in the middle of a very severe recession that's going to continue through all of 2009 - the worst U.S. recession in the past 50 years. It's the bursting of a huge leveraged-up credit bubble. There's no going back, and there is no bottom to it. It was excessive in everything from subprime to prime, from credit cards to student loans, from corporate bonds to muni bonds. You name it. And it's all reversing right now in a very, very massive way. At this point it's not just a U.S. recession. All of the advanced economies are at the beginning of a hard landing. And emerging markets, beginning with China, are in a severe slowdown. So we're having a global recession and it's becoming worse.

Things are going to be awful for everyday people. U.S. GDP growth is going to be negative through the end of 2009. And the recovery in 2010 and 2011, if there is one, is going to be so weak - with a growth rate of 1% to 1..5% - that it's going to feel like a recession. I see the unemployment rate peaking at around 9% by 2010. The value of homes has already fallen 25%. In my view, home prices are going to fall by another 15% before bottoming out in 2010.

For the next 12 months I would stay away from risky assets. I would stay away from the stock market. I would stay away from commodities. I would stay away from credit, both high-yield and high-grade. I would stay in cash or cashlike instruments such as short-term or longer-term government bonds. It's better to stay in things with low returns rather than to lose 50% of your wealth. You should preserve capital. It'll be hard and challenging enough. I wish I could be more cheerful, but I was right a year ago, and I think I'll be right this year too.

___________________________

Bill Gross

The founder of bond giant Pimco warned of a subprime contagion back in July 2007.

While 2008 will probably be best known as the year that global stock markets had their values cut in half, it was really much, much more. It was a year in which every major asset class - stocks, real estate, commodities, even high-yield bonds - suffered significant double-digit percentage losses, resulting in the destruction of over $30 trillion of paper wealth. To blame this on subprime mortgages alone would be to dismiss an era of leveraging that encompassed derivative structures of all types, embodying a belief that economic growth was always and everywhere a certainty and that asset prices never go down. As 2008 nears its conclusion, we as an investor nation have been forced to face a new reality. Wall Street and Main Street are fearful that a recession may be replaced by a near depression.

The outcome essentially depends on the ability of the Obama administration to rejuvenate capitalism's "animal spirits" by substituting the benevolent fist of government for the now invisible hand of Adam Smith. Federal spending and guarantees in the trillions of dollars will be required to fill the gap created by the deleveraging of private balance sheets.. In turn, lenders and investors alike must begin to assume risk as opposed to stuffing money in modern-day investment mattresses. The process will take time. Twelve months of the Obama Nation will not be sufficient to heal the damage of a half-century's excessive leverage. The downsizing of private risk positions - replaced by government credit - will also result in reduced profit margins and a slower rate of earnings growth after the bottom is reached.

Investors need to recognize these titanic shifts in market and public policies and be content with single-digit returns in future years. Perhaps the most lucrative pockets of value are in high-quality corporate bonds and preferred stocks of banks and financial institutions that have partnered with the government in programs such as the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). While their profitability may be restricted, their ability to pay interest and preferred dividends should be unhampered. Above all, stick to high-quality companies and asset classes. The road to recovery will be treacherous.

___________________________

Robert Shiller

The Yale professor and co-founder of MacroMarkets called both the dot-com and housing bubbles.

We don't currently have anywhere near the level of unemployment that we had in the 1930s, but otherwise there are many similarities between today's environment and the Great Depression, with things happening today that we haven't seen since then. First of all, there's the magnitude of the stock market's move up and down. The real (inflation-corrected) value of the S&P 500 nearly tripled from 1995 to 2000, and by November 2008 was down nearly 60% from its 2000 peak. The only other comparable event was the one in the 1920s where real stock prices more than tripled from 1924 to 1929 and then fell 80% from 1929 to 1932. Second, we've had the biggest housing bust since the Depression. Third, we've seen 0% interest rates. We've actually seen briefly negative short-term interest rates. That hasn't happened since 1941. There was a period from 1938 to 1941 when we were bouncing around at zero and sometimes negative, but that hasn't happened since.

And the list goes on: Our numbers don't go back as far as the Depression, but consumer confidence is plausibly at the lowest level since then. Volatility of the stock market in terms of percentage changes day-to-day is the highest since the Depression. In October 2008 we saw the biggest drop in consumer prices in one month since April 1938. Another thing is that it's a worldwide event, as it was in the Depression.

I'm optimistic that we'll do better this time, but I'm worried that we're vulnerable. One of the lessons from the Depression is that things can smolder for a long time. What I'm worried about right now is that our confidence has been hurt, and that's difficult to restore. No matter what we do, we're trying to deal with a psychological phenomenon. So the Fed can cut interest rates and purchase asset-backed securities, but that only works in really restoring full prosperity if people believe that we're back again. That's a little hard to manage.

In terms of the stock market, the price/earnings ratio is no longer high. I use a P/E ratio in which the price is divided by ten-year average earnings. It's a really conservative way of looking at it. That P/E ratio got up to 44 in the year 2000, which was a record high. Recently it was down to less than 13, which is below the average of around 15. But after the stock market crash of 1929, the price/earnings ratio got down to about six, which is less than half of where it is now. So that's the worry. Some people who are so inclined might go more into the market here because there's a real chance it will go up a lot. But that's very risky. It could easily fall by half again.

___________________________

Sheila Bair

The FDIC chairman has been pushing to get mortgage relief for borrowers.

My 87-year-old mother is a native Kansan who grew up in the throes of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. She is a classic "buy and hold" investor who would make Warren Buffett proud. Her investment returns always exceeded those of my father, to his eternal consternation. He actively traded his stocks and produced decent returns, but nothing like those my mother achieved by simply buying stocks of companies she understood and liked, and then holding onto them.

So I have become a strong advocate of the "basics" when it comes to investing: Do your homework, invest in securities you understand, and then hold on.. As a government policymaker, I advocate informed investment decisions - not only to protect investors from losses but also because the efficient functioning of our capital markets relies on investors' doing their homework.

The private-label mortgage-backed securitization markets are a prime example. Trillions of dollars of investor money funded millions of mortgages that borrowers had little chance of repaying. Investors relied heavily on ratings agencies, which in turn relied too heavily on mathematical models instead of analyzing the underlying loans. To be sure, borrowers, brokers, lenders, securitizers, as well as state and federal regulators, all bear responsibility for the widespread deterioration in lending standards. But the problem was compounded by the fact that those ultimately holding the risk - the investors - did not look behind their investments at the quality of the mortgages themselves. If they had, they would have seen high loan-to-value ratios, little income documentation, burdensome fees, and steep payment resets. They would have seen mortgages unaffordable from the beginning, originated based on the assumption that home prices would continue to rise and borrowers would refinance. Of course, we now know that as home prices began to depreciate, borrowers were unable to refinance, leading to massive foreclosures and further price declines. This self-reinforcing downward spiral is at the core of the economic problems we face today.

We will dig out of this. And when we do, I hope for a back-to-basics society - where banks and other lending institutions promote real growth and long-term value for the economy, and where American families have rediscovered the peace of mind of financial security achieved through saving and investing wisely. We need to return to the culture of thrift that my mother and her generation learned the hard way through years of hardship and deprivation. Those are lessons learned that the current crisis is teaching us again.

___________________________

Jim Rogers

The commodities guru predicted two years ago that the credit bubble would devastate Wall Street.

We are in a period of forced liquidation, which has happened only eight or nine times in the past 150 years. The fact that it's historic doesn't make it any more fun, of course. But it is a pretty interesting time when there is forced selling of everything with no regard for facts or fundamentals at all.. Historically, the way you make money in times like these is that you find things where the fundamentals are unimpaired. The fundamentals of GM are impaired. The fundamentals of Citigroup are impaired.

Virtually the only asset class I know where the fundamentals are not impaired - in fact, where they are actually improving - is commodities. Farmers cannot get a loan to buy fertilizer right now. Nobody's going to get a loan to open a zinc or a lead mine. Meanwhile, every day the supply of commodities shrinks more and more. Nobody can invest in productive capacity, even if he wants to. You're going to see gigantic shortages developing over the next few years. The inventories of food worldwide are already at the lowest levels they've been in 50 years. This may turn into the Great Depression II. But if and when we come out of this, commodities are going to lead the way, just as they did in the 1970s when everything was a disaster and commodities went through the roof.

What I've been buying recently is agricultural commodities. I've also been buying more Chinese stocks. And I'm buying stocks in Taiwan for the first time in my life. It looks as if there's finally going to be peace in Taiwan after 60 years, and Taiwanese companies are going to benefit from the long-term growth of China.

I have covered most of my short positions in U.S. stocks, and I'm now selling long-term U.S. government bonds short. That's the last bubble I can find in the U.S. I cannot imagine why anybody would give money to the U.S. government for 30 years for less than a 4% yield. I certainly wouldn't. There are going to be gigantic amounts of bonds coming to the market, and inflation will be coming back.

In my view, U.S. stocks are still not attractive. Historically, you buy stocks when they're yielding 6% and selling at eight times earnings. You sell them when they're at 22 times earnings and yielding 2%. Right now U.S. stocks are down a lot, but they're still very expensive by that historical valuation method. The U.S. market is yielding 3% today. For stocks to go to a 6% yield without big dividend increases, the Dow will need to go below 4000. I'm not saying it will fall that far, but it could very well happen. And if it gets that low and I'm still solvent, I hope I'm smart enough to buy a lot. The key in times like these is to stay solvent so you can load up when opportunity comes.

___________________________

John Train

The author and chairman of Montrose Advisors has 50 years of Wall Street experience..

I presume that although we are in a severe recession it will not decompose into a full-scale depression, because that is what everyone is afraid of and desperate to avoid. Wall Street likes to say that the market has anticipated five of the last three recessions - the point being that a market crash frightens the authorities into taking necessary action.

Keynes observed that pragmatic businessmen often could not imagine that they were the slaves of defunct economists, but ironically, never is this more true than today of Keynes himself. So we run a huge deficit to postpone the worst. That means inflation, so bonds are unsatisfactory.

Investment opportunity is the difference between the reality and the perception. And since many equities are priced as though a depression might be on the way, many of them are attractively priced.

One approach I am comfortable with is owning shares in wonderful businesses that do well in all circumstances - Johnson & Johnson and the like. They rarely fly out of the park, but provide long, steady gains that will get you where you want to go. They often have huge cash hoards, e.g., Cisco, Apple, Microsoft, and Berkshire Hathaway, whose war chests exceed $20 billion. Or Hewlett-Packard, Google, Intel, or IBM, all in the $10 billion league. Such companies can take advantage of a weak market just as private investors would, with the difference that they know very well how much to pay for what fits their product line.

In the present environment I favor companies that can prosper in the lean years ahead. So, not Saks, but Wal-Mart; not Neiman Marcus, but Dollar General. Or specialists, such as Fastenal, Monsanto, or Schlumberger.

And when should you buy? In or near what I call the Time of Deepest Gloom, if you can spot it.

___________________________

Meredith Whitney

The Oppenheimer & Co. analyst was among the first to warn that the big banks had big problems.

What the federal government has done so far- with TARP, bailing out Citigroup, etc. - has stemmed the bleeding, but what it hasn't done is fundamentally alter the landscape. Yes, there's been a tremendous amount of capital thrown into the system, but my concern is that it's just going to plug the holes. It's not going to create new liquidity, which is what the system so desperately needs.

When the government announces these plans, investors get excited and hopeful. But details have been slim, and while I appreciate the government saying, "We've been wrong here. Let's try something different," the strategy changes have not solved anything. So far we've had TARP 1.0, TARP 2.0, and TARP 3.0, and I'm certain there will be a 4.0, a 5.0, and a 6.0. There has to be, because the companies cannot raise the capital they need, which means that the default provider of capital has to be the federal government.

What happens in 2009? Frankly, it's hard for me to predict what's going to happen next week, never mind next year. What I will say is that I expect all these banks to be back in the market looking for more capital.. We'll also have a wholesale restructuring of our banking system, probably toward the end of 2009. There will be banks getting smaller, banks going away, and banks consolidating. At the same time, though, I think you'll see more new banks created. We've already seen more applications. And it's a great idea: You start with a clean balance sheet and make loans today with today's information. Plus, right now you've got a yield curve that's good for lending.

I think the overall economy will be worse than people expect. The biggest issue will be consumer spending. If 2008 was characterized by the market impacting the economy, then 2009 will be about the economy impacting the market. It's already started.

___________________________

Wilbur Ross

The billionaire chairman of W.L. Ross & Co. specializes in turning around troubled companies.

We are clearly in a serious recession, and more aggressive action is needed to turn things around. The federal government initially underestimated the scale of the mortgage and housing crises and later panicked into an ever-changing series of ad hoc measures that at best dealt with some of the effects of the original crises. But homeowners have now lost $5 trillion, and 12 million families have mortgages in excess of the value of their homes. Therefore the economy will not stabilize until mortgages are adjusted down to the value of homes, with affordable payment schedules, and until new mortgages become available across the home-price spectrum. Till then, the poverty effect of falling house prices and unemployment moving up toward 7% will hold consumer spending back from its former 70% contribution to our economy.

I'm optimistic about the choices that President-elect Obama has made for his economic team, and I've got some suggestions for what they should do. Hopefully the new Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, will incentivize lenders to restructure mortgages by guaranteeing half of the reduced principal amount and sharing among the government, homeowners, and lenders any subsequent appreciation. Lenders would gain liquidity by selling the Treasury-guaranteed portion of the loan, and government would receive annual insurance premiums to further protect it against loss. That would cost taxpayers nothing now and probably little or nothing in the future.

Addressing unemployment is paramount. Detroit needs government support in order to implement independently verified concessions from all stakeholders - not just labor - which are sufficiently large to permit profitable operations even if auto sales remain as low as 11 million cars per year. A pre-negotiated bankruptcy may be necessary in order to implement the restructuring, but both the industry and the economy are too fragile to withstand the domino effect that a free-fall bankruptcy would have on a car company, its dealers, and its suppliers.

In addition, to avoid reversal of the 242,000 jobs created by state and local governments in the past 12 months, Washington should provide or guarantee funding for sorely needed infrastructure projects that would create immediate construction jobs and meaningful amounts of permanent jobs.

If President Obama promptly and decisively resolves these problems, whether or not he adopts my recommendations, and restores public confidence, he can end the recession by early 2010. If not, the economy will languish for a long time. Given the economic uncertainty, investors who are too worried to buy equities might consider tax-exempt bonds with yields around 6%, equivalent to almost 10% before federal, state, and local taxes. Investors who want to hedge the risk that federal deficits might lead to longer-term inflation and drive up interest rates, causing these bonds to decline, might buy some TIPS, or Treasury inflation-protected securities, as well. TIPS are U.S. Treasury bonds whose principal amount varies with consumer price indexes to provide holders with a rate of return in constant dollars. TIPS prices currently imply near-term deflation, and that means that they would appreciate in value if inflation comes back.

At my firm, we've been starting to invest in some distressed financial companies. That seems as if it will work out reasonably well, because they're very, very cheap. The financial services sector is kind of where the problems started, and it's probably going to need to be fixed in order for the problems to be resolved. We see opportunities there.

That dreaded Job Interview....

2009-01-07T16:05:00.000-08:00

Turning up naked at an interview is NOT
recommended!

Noticed a couple of fellow bloggers on the prowl for that corner office and stratospheric remuneration (Salary/ Pay - for the workers; Remuneration - for the executives).

Recall coming across some pretty good material a long time ago albeit from the interviewer's point of view. Theses are the questions designed to put you off, make you sweat and shake.

Basically, the objective of the interview is to see if you can:

Do the job
Want to do the job
Get on with the boss and his crones

So when you're in that room, don't panic. Here's some pointers....

Appearance

Don't scream "pervert" if the guy's staring at you. Just trying to decide if that nose pin matches with the outfit (get rid of those studs and hide the tats).

Work Experience. They will ask some irrelevant questions, things like:

Things you liked best about your last job
Things you liked less
What were your accomplishments and how did you achieve them
What did you learn from job
What were the difficult problems you faced and how did you handled them
Were there opportunities for promotion and advancement (why weren't YOU promoted?)
Ways you found most effective with people
Type of challenges you faced and how did you meet them
What's the reason(s) for changing job
Any frustration’s on the job and how did you go about resolving them
What's your preferred job environment
What are you looking for in a job and where do you see yourself in X years (your career ambitions)

Education

Subjects you liked best (no point going for a book-keeping job and saying you hate maths)
Those liked less and why
What were your reactions to teachers(if you hated maths, you'll be asked if your maths teacher was bad).
What were your grades and how much effort did you put in (are you a quick learner or a little slow?)
Why did you chose the college that you did
How did you chose your major
What were the toughest courses
What were your major achievements and how you managed it (sitting at the pub).
What were your extracurricular activities (careful here!)
Relate your education with your career ambitions (make sure it's consistent with 12 above)
Satisfaction with your education
Any specialised on-the-job training (Save the guy money since your last boss' trained you)
Recent courses attended (ditto)
Future educational plans (don't say none!)

Attendance (just making sure you're not a lazy b*stard)

What do you do in your spare time (boozing is not the right answer).
What are your hobbies and interests
Do you get involved in the community
What have you learned from these activities
What activities would you like to be involved in but currently aren't

and the sneaky one...

Given these commitments, what's your availability for the specific job requirements such as:

travel
relocation
overtime
weekend work
evening assignments

Attitude/ Initiative
Positive

What contributions have you made to your current job/ school
Do you have any specific talents or abilities
How was your recent performance review (good stuff)
What are your best qualities as seen by others
What are your assets in working with others
What are your interests

Negative

Where do you need to improvement
What are your weaknesses
Qualities wish to develop further
What advice have you received from others
Any areas needing improvement in working with others
What further training or experience do you think you need
Recent performance review (bad stuff)

What is your present or last salary
(don't lie here, unless the Company's hit the wall and the truth will never be known)

... and Luck! You'll need plenty of it.

Next up.... I'm going to pay you to borrow from me!

2008-12-09T15:49:00.000-08:00

That's what's happening in the world today. From BusinessWeek...

"The U.S. Treasury completed a remarkable auction of four-week Treasury bills today. There were bids worth $120 billion for the $30 billion of bills being sold. But how low did bidders go? All the way down to zero. That’s right, the U.S. government just borrowed $30 billion at a cost of zero percent interest."

And there's more...

"According to a Bloomberg report on the bond market, the 3-month bills are now trading at a negative yield, meaning buyers get a guaranteed loss, albeit a small one. That’s an awfully high price to pay for sleeping soundly at night, but if you have more money than can be easily kept under bank insurance deposit limits, there aren’t many alternatives."

In Australia the government's guarantee on bank deposit is $1,000,000. So If you've got a couple more million, just pop round to NAB, Commonwealth, ANZ or Westpac. That's $4m taken care of or you can stash it under the mattress.

In US the limit is $250,000, in UK £50,000.

Ho Ho Ho!

2008-12-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

Time to put up the Christmas Tree.

Big thank you Carmen who sent it to me as a gentle reminder
"the higher you are, the more painful the fall" or
if one is the optimistic sort
"The harder you fall, the higher you bounce" :)

Simple Saving Tips

2008-11-25T16:34:00.000-08:00

Don't attempt too many at once, you don’t want to take all the fun out of life. Just pick a couple, you’ll notice the difference.

Make a sandwich and take your lunch to work twice a week. Cutting back on the laksa and lasagna would do wonders for the waist too :) That’s $16 a week or $830 p.a.
Cut back on the $3 Cappuccino or Skim Soy Latte! Stick to the stuff provided by your bosses. You could be saving $780 p.a.
One less visit per month to the take-away. Convenience versus having to cook and having to do the dishes. But the saving of $30 per month, that's $360 p.a.
Frozen and TV dinners cost more. Try one less frozen food item per week. Fruits instead of chips and chocs, that's a saving. $15 per week or $780 p.a.
Small households often fall into the bad habit of shopping at the corner store instead of the supermarket. Up to $15 can be saved weekly by carefully shopping for regular items. 2 ltr milk costs $2.50 at Coles compared to $4 at the 24 hour City Convenience Store. That's $780 p.a.
Book purchases, DVDs, CDs, is it necessary? If you want to hire movies look for the discount vouchers and shopper dockets. Perhaps you can even use the library and save a bucket load of money. Where I live is great, we get access to five libraries. They even have Stephenie Meyer. The CD collection at Stanton is really good, not that I’m suggesting anything illegal. Savings of $40 a month or $480 p.a.
Regular habit of Friday lunch or drinks after work? One less can save you $35 per month or $420 p.a.
Clothes addict? Maybe you can do without that extra shirt, blouse, tie or skirt and save $50 that way. This equates to $600 p.a.
For the must have things, do they have to be branded? Target instead of Prada, Sorbolene instead of Clinique, Homebrand instead of Kleenex tissue. You can blow the whole year’s savings on a Prada, literally :) $40 per month or $480 p.a.
Do you make quick buys, spur of the moment purchases of expensive toys or gifts for your partner and family. Changing this habit can remove the guilt and save you $300 p.a.
In the garden do you do your bit for saving the environment. Compost instead of fertilizer, this can save you $10 per month or $120 p.a. Don’t forget you can save too by growing your own.
Maybe your household qualifies for some special discounts or saving opportunities. Bundling your telephone, mobile and broadband, discount newspaper or magazine subscriptions. This can save you $300 p.a.

And now the biggies!

When the next pay rise comes along (or that bonus) save half of it rather than spending just because you’ve got some spare cash. $1,500 p.a.
Go out much to the restaurant? Change your habit, go once less per month. You could be saving $1,200 p.a.
Changing cars? Buy a cheaper and smaller model. You don't need that Landcruiser to pick up your latte or take the kids to school! Fuel and other running costs can set you back $1,000 p.a.
Stop smoking. Based on three packs a week, you’ll be saving at least $45. $2,340 p.a.
Do you really need two cars? The registration, insurance, service, petrol can cost at least $2,000 p.a.

What time is it Mr. Wolf ?

2008-11-20T23:04:00.000-08:00

An odd looking one hand clock...but hey what the heck.

Is it accurate, are we on time, does it need a new battery?
Only time will tell...

Eggs (and it's not Easter!)

2008-11-16T18:45:00.000-08:00

Discovered something yesterday, hens lay eggs without a rooster. Pretty sure it's the beginning of the end for the male species.

I digress, the reason I'm talking about hens - free, free-range eggs! So good you have to say 'free' twice ;)

Why keep hens?

It's green and environmentally sound;
Hens eat most of your kitchen scraps;
Ethically it right, eggs from a happy hen taste better than an unhappy battery chicken;
Hens remove weeds and dig around in your compost heap. Their poop makes pretty good fertiliser (save a bundle on the Dynamic Lifter);
A pet (?) for the kids;
A hen lays on average one egg a day and
Keeping hens is permitted in Sydney's 'burbs so long as the coop is 4.5m from the house (keeping a rooster is prohibited, not a problem. Male NOT needed!)

And how much can you save. A carton of 10 Free Range eggs cost $7 at Coles. A carton a week that's $364. Cost of feed 3 x 25kg of the very best organic stuff $120. You're still up $244.

Almost forgot the hen, Isa Brown (cross between a Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites) at $20 each.

Credit Crunch... What credit crunch?

2008-11-13T21:17:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of the Daily Telegraph

A Budget Rant!

2008-11-13T20:23:00.000-08:00

Governments are elected by the people, for the people. Their priority should be to look after the people, spend when they have to, borrow if they need to and not worry whether they have a AAA rating from some rating agency.

The NSW Government announced that they need to maintain its AAA credit rating. If it were downgraded, borrowing costs would rise. WTF, for gods sake NSW has no debt, why have a AAA rating when you're not borrowing, when you're always trying to run a budget surplus.

Come on Rees, hospitals need money, public transport needs to be fixed, NSW is broken. Fix it!

And do we really care about credit ratings, weren't sub-prime debt rated AAA. If you ever wondered how on earth this rubbish can be rated AAA, it's quite easy, just pay an insurer who's rated AAA to insure the stuff. Someone like Financial Guaranty Insurance (FGIC) who was rated AAA in January 2008. Two months later they have a junk status...

Great ideas....

2008-11-12T14:27:00.000-08:00

I'm an avid follower of Sparkle and Glitter and she's just written this fantastic blog which I've copied wholesale. It's so worth repeating. Go read the original one here!

Thank you Vixel :)

- ~ -

Improve Your Day for Free (or almost!)

Image by flickrsven

Apparently unemployment in the UK is at it’s highest level in 11 years, so many people are having to get by on a lot less money than they’re used to. It’s not all doom and gloom though - there seems to be a growing trend, fostered by necessity, for creative money-saving where staying in is the new going out and Primark is the new Prada! These are certainly not times for comfort-shopping so here are a few of my favourite suggestions to brighten your mood without spending a penny!

Go through your kitchen cupboards, pick a few totally random items that you’ll probably never use and cook something amazing with them! Some of my favourites include canned soup potato bakes, fried rice with made-up mixtures of seasonings, and smoothies made out of canned fruit sweetened with icing sugar!

Go online and find free samples! If you’re in the uk then Bob’s Free Stuff Forum is an excellent resource. Getting freebies through the post can be just as satisfying as receiving eBay purchases and most of them won’t cost you anything! (Some require you to pay for postage and packing)

It’s probably obvious, but join your local library! Even if there’s nothing you particularly want to read at the moment, borrowing books free of charge means you can browse, pick up titles that look interesting, even if it’s just because the cover art appeals, and if you read the first few pages and realise they’re rubbish it doesn’t matter!

Look at the bottom of drawers and the back of your wardrobe to find the pieces you haven’t worn in years. Incorporate them into outfits and it’s almost as good as having new clothes!

Prance around the house in your favourite finery, dress up in the outfit you wore to your school ball / prom and dance around your living room to the hits of the time, experiment with your makeup and create outlandish new looks, practice walking in heels whilst you cook dinner, it’s all great fun!

Play free online games at sites like MiniClip, preferably on a laptop whilst curled up on the sofa, or download your favourite old games that are now out of copyright and classed as abandonware, there’s a good selection at XTC Abandonware.

Re-watch old movies you haven’t watched in years because you over-watched them at the time, then laugh at yourself for remembering every word.

Go for a walk, exploring parts of your hometown you’ve never really bothered looking at before, take photos of monuments, pretty plants you see on the way, other peoples’ cats or artsy photos of crumbling brickwork and rusty fences.

Saving money doesn’t have to be boring, in fact, it can be a really good opportunity to spend time with the most important person in your life - you. Get re-acquainted with the person behind the hectic social life and punishing work schedule, make plans for the future, for things you’ll do once you have spare funds again, or get on with all the little tasks you’ve been putting off for so long.

Most of these things can be done with friends just as well as they can be done alone, so if there are a few of you in the same situation, get together and share resources!

What do you like to do when you’re in need of a little sparkle but funds are limited?

You've lost me!

2008-11-05T18:33:00.000-08:00

Obama wins the election and the Dow falls 486 points. What's with that? Thought a Democrat win, someone with Keynesian willingness to spend should push the market higher.

I was wrong.

LA Times blamed the discouraging employment data;
CNN is waiting until Obana talks about an economic plan;
Reuters mention a fresh batch of dismal economic data;
Bloomberg reports that jobs and service industries stoked concern the economy will worsen even as President-elect Barack Obama tries to stimulate growth;
Business Spectator says that gloomy jobs and services sector data hurt market sentiment.

Half price?

2008-11-02T16:54:00.000-08:00

Call me a scrooge but with trying times I'm happy to be able to save a dollar when I can. Discount vouchers and shopper dockets are an excellent way to save.

So, what are these vouchers? The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says discount voucher and shopper dockets, may give you the opportunity to purchase goods and services from participating businesses at a discounted cost or with some other benefit. Businesses are entitled to attach terms and conditions to vouchers and may include:

available only at certain suburbs;

watch out for the expiry dates;

vouchers can't be used with another special offer.

In Australia there are a couple of sites one can go to and print-your-own:

Clever Coupons
Discount Vouchers
Go Vouchers
Hot Dockets
Smart Saver
Why pay full price

Personally, I like Hot Dockets. Currently on offer $6.95 for a Domino's Pizza. Waiting for the Video Ezy offer to return....