Prologue This is the most difficult blog that I’ve ever undertaken to write, not conceptually of course, or technically although I’ve made little attempt to smooth the jargon. It’s difficult because I believe that there’s little short-term reward to saying that the emperor has no clothes. In the euphoric hype of the roaring 20’s, no-one…
The Dutch disease, Produces dependency, Dependency has produced complacency, Complacency produces despair. Pulling back the sheets There’s the moment, many of us are only too familiar with, when we realise the three-and-a-half-star hotel that we decided to settle for wasn’t celestial enough. The sheets had known whiter days, the mattress sags in the middle,…
In 2017, Janet Yellen, the then Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of America, which is arguably the most prominent and influential financial position to be held by anyone throughout history, boldly stated that “another financial crisis not likely in our lifetime”. In every sense, Yellen must be considered the highest source of authority for a statement…
We’ve all experienced that moment when a business meeting, a dental appointment or a shopping trip took slightly longer than expected only to escape a while later to find a small white piece of paper sitting under the windscreen wipers of our car demanding that we fork out over $100+ to a local government with…
Not to blow my own trumpet… too much … in April last year, I was writing about how Australia was heading to a mortgage crisis. The issues that I saw unfolding were that politicians on both sides of the political fence had misplaced priorities regarding housing prices. Primarily, their focus was on getting more and more…
“The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little…
‘The chance of gain is by every man more or less overvalued, and the chance of loss is by most men undervalued.’ – Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations. 2017 marked the year that Bitcoin, a virtual “cryptocurrency”, exploded in value with recent prices as high as $18,000 AUD creating a whole new generation of millionaire…
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” – John Kenneth Galbraith Abstract: The numbers are astronomical. The worldwide debt is beyond comprehension. The great ‘recovery’ post-2008 never happened. The only thing looking good at the moment is the stock market as company buybacks are at record highs due to low-interest rates…
It’s been some years since I seriously attempted to study software development in any degree of detail, however, I still remember vividly thinking “humans will never make a viable AI (artificial intelligence)”. Having a basic understanding of how software worked, how machines crunched problems, along with a general understanding of our own lack of understanding…
“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.” Thomas Jefferson Democracy is projected by many as the pinup boy of a truly liberated society. While the notion of the people ruling themselves often results in…
Economic books are written throughout the times of prosperity and generally re-written after a crisis. Venezuela is no exception. For a while Politicians, Actors and Nobel prize-winning Economists alike praised Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez for his socialist policies, his attention to the poor, his dedication to health care and education. But not anymore. No one is praising…
“Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction, for we have made fiction to suit ourselves.” Gilbert K. Chesterton As a child I would spend large amounts of time playing with mirrors. I know, I know. It’s a strange choice of entertainment but the game that my cousins and I invented became a classic…
A wise man once said that common sense, of all virtues, seems to be the most equally distributed, after all, when was the last time you heard of anyone in want of more or even less of it? Of all the critiques that you can direct at a man, no one has ever said, in any form…
Housing is a hot topic at the moment as city housing prices skyrocket. While many monotonously drum the bell against negative gearing, the question arises: why are prices skyrocketing to the extent that they are? Population growth, combined with younger families entering or wanting to enter the market, are all natural contributors that can lead to price…
Over the next decade, we will undeniably see a vast change in our economic landscape. Businesses that were once thought unsinkable will disappear into the ether, the nature of employment will morph and change and, most likely, we will see a worldwide levelling effect on wages as globalisation moves to higher bandwidth fibre optic lines.…
The Australian dream, like its American sister, has, for a long time, been centred on the idea of home ownership combined with a stable, well-paying job followed by relatively early retirement. In recent years, this dream has been modified by the millennialists where job security takes the back seat to job fulfilment, home-ownership is an assumed…
Alvy Singer: This guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, “Doc, my brother’s crazy; he thinks he’s a chicken.” And the doctor says, “Well, why don’t you turn him in?” The guy says, “I would, but I need the eggs.” Well, I guess that’s pretty much how I feel about relationships; y’know, they’re totally irrational,…
