All Posts Tagged With: "Rudd"

One need only look to the recent goings on in Australia, your editor’s country of birth, for a glimpse into the real world outcomes of this ideological struggle. Kevin Rudd was last week ousted from Prime Ministership after a botched attempt to impose a “super profits” tax on the most productive sector of the Australian economy – the mighty mining sector. We provided a few details in Thursday’s issue:

Tax-confiscating, power-mongering, pseudo-intellectual moralistic bullies are like terminator roaches. They never go away and they just seem to keep multiplying. We had hoped to return from our quick trip to Seattle to find that the resource super profits tax and been beaten into the submission and defeat which it so richly deserve.

Ok, so maybe that is a bit romantic, but remember that it’s the Germans that are buying the gold. Enough of them know what is coming in Europe. It stands to reason that Merkel does too.

That loss is about $16 billion in shareholder value and counting. And that does not include the loss of Australia’s reputation as stable place to do business and make long-term plans. “If it is what appears to be, a significant tax increase, that’s another competitive advantage for Canada,” said Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

When the man who sets interest rates tells you that you’re rising, it would be wise to at least hear him out. Whether you take him at his word is up to you. But if you’re making financial plans – say, like you’re going to buy a house and are trying to figure out if you can stand a few extra points rise in the interest rate – the man has told you what is going to happen.

It would mean that the hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions of dollars that you’ve accumulated in your superannuation fund would be compulsorily acquired by the government on your retirement and in return you would get an Aged Pension MkII.

The worst thing about it is that it was a commissioned submission…

Your editor spent last night in a discussion with a querulous and drunk Aussie over the stimulus. “It looks like it worked to me,” he said. “Only world economy still growing. GDP up. We’ve got China. Looks like Ruddy and Swanny know what they’re doing. You’re just a hack. You’ve never run a country. And you’re a Yank!”

Standard & Poor’s is preparing to downgrade some $235.2 billion of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), according to our friend Dan Ferris. When these downgrades occur, the banks and insurance companies that own this paper are going to have a big problem,” Dan says. “Prices are already down around 25% in the past year.”