Comments on: There Are Two Ways of Studying Economic Theory

By: christina

christina — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:55:33 +0000

Confucius say "he who spends more than earns go broke"

By: Mireille

Mireille — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:14:33 +0000

But this was a no brainer. It didn't take math to see that we were headed into economic tumult. houses are not stocks. They can't keep increasing in value every 3 months if employment income is not. Debt can't keep being ladled on like gravy, if there is no money to pay for it? so I believe something larger was at work.

By: justin

justin — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:53:26 +0000

cjb

Take a look at http://www.rba.gov.au

By: Joseph Phelan

Joseph Phelan — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:02:10 +0000

Read Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Black Swan for a more comprehensive take on this...

By: one of the wolves

one of the wolves — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:05:03 +0000

it came as no supprise to me, i saw it 5-7 years ago when house and land prices in sydney grew beyond inflation. i was further tipped off when i found out real estate agents from neighbouring suburbs were bidding and pushing housing prices up. and the fact that wankers were buying shit they didnt need. and simple statistics like in 95' it was said every man woman and child in australia owed $2500 in credit card debt, i didnt have any and thought which guy has my estimated debt. and the fact the govt was pushing and subsidising housing loans, that sent a shiver up my spine like nothing else as everything the govt pushes fails. private healthcare? fail superannuation fail workplace agreements fail. first baby bonus fail (we're seeing the results of single parent greed in the news). im quite happy to see these people go broke and lose their houses as its a perfect punishment for not thinking freely and like sheep pulling the whole herd down the drain.

By: Heretic

Heretic — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:33:24 +0000

It seems we are blessed in Australia to have columnists like Terry McCrann and Alan Kohler who have provided a mix of history, technical analysis and balance sheet information. Thanks to their most accessible and consistent commentary prior to 30/6/07 I took avdantage of last years "one off" superannuation contribution generosity on the warnings from those two and sold much of my holdings to put into super as cash. They are still bearish based on technical analysis, history and balance sheets. The only people who didn't see this coming were those "experts" focussed on a specific aspect of activity. As always, the big picture observers win long term. But they get lost amongst the clamour for sexy short term gyrations. Kohler and McCrann may not have anticipated initially how badly this is panning out, but they were ringing warning bells and putting their credibility on the line well in advance of the inevitable happening. Actually, they were putting every other commentator's credibility on the line.

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:15:55 +0000

A very useful perspective, mathematics is interesting as it is a model of a defined reality. But it is not reality itself.
Heisenberg set it out for science when he showed you can never really know what is going on with absolute precision.
mathmatical modelling is useful but the map is not the territory.
Invariably the assumptions become invalid, or should never have been assumed at all such as oil is infinite, a butterfly flapping its wings has no impact on this problem, or people behave rationally. Mathematics applied to the real world is only an approximation of reality and I am amazed that anyone would think otherwise.
I am heartened to hear that there is a mention of balance sheet, it is just the items on the balance sheet need consideration, especially enabling assets such as the environment. i have lived by the concept Its not what you earn but what you keep and we should remember this.

By: cjb

cjb — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:05:33 +0000

Can I ask a very basic question?

ive been watching some youtube vids on the fedral reserve and banking in general..

Q: where does the all the interest go that the RBA collects?

there is over 1 trillion circulating in the aust economy so at 7.25% that would be over 72 billion collected, or do I have this completely wrong..

anyone?

By: justin

justin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:45:47 +0000

Trying to work out what's going on? Try http://www.professorfekete.com/articles.asp. In particular his Monetary Economics 101 lectures, a lot to get through but much will be revealed.