The totally off-topic thread

[JohnK]

Good to hear you are now ok.

Thanks. Good to get that out of the way.

 

[RAM]

Mine had a radio, but no cassette player and certainly no cd player. Used to hook up my ipod with a radio transmitter.

You are too young for this forum - at risk of being led astray!

The original iPod mini. Pink, clunky and no colour screen.

So that means some time post 2002 in Australia at the earliest.

 

[blackcat20]

You are too young for this forum - at risk of being led astray!


So that means some time post 2002 in Australia at the earliest.

Bought the car second hand in 2002.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Bought the car second hand in 2002.

Had one of our lovely trips to France in 2002.

 

[RAM]

Stop dragging out that old hoary chestnut. it was only at that level for about 3.45 months. You also had massive inflation making the value of your purpose increase at a significant rate. Not to mention the massive wage increases. Basically misleading at best.


A debt situation that will be greatly helped by letting universities set whatever fees they like, no doubt. Maybe a "fixer" needs to fix this.

Already refuted but this graph is worth a look - as it shows just what people went from before they got to enjoy those 17% mortgage rates.



BTW - Sydney residential property prices peaked in 1981 and were flat or fell in nominal terms until early 1988. In real terms they more than halved! Take into account the cost of mortgage interest and well, you were in a bad way. If you priced them in Yen, DM or USD terms then, well you needed a rubber room to bounce around in.

Unfortunately MANY, MANY farmers were told by their local bank manager to take out Swiss Franc Loans to refinance their debt with the bank. Google it for a depressing education.

Have a look at this testimony for example:

ParlInfo - The Swiss loans affair: farmers from all over Australia are now in serious financial trouble

A similar assertion was made before, and I corrected it before in the 'HousingAffordability' thread - with a graph, too!

Keating did a number of good things with the economy. I don't understand why his absolute screwing of mortgage holders can't be accepted as well.

IF you want the full story of what he allegedly did about mortgage loans, that cost the taxpayer (and still does to this day) BILLIONS, well then here goes....

With the election fast approaching and the banks not on good terms with the World's Greatest Treasurer, they decided to seal his fate (all independently of course) - and lift mortgage rates independently of the RBA tightening cash. You see there was a problem at the time with our Japanese friends bidding for 100% of every Treasury Note auction (13 wk and 26 wk short term securities then).

The RBA controlled short term rates by buying T-Notes back from the Australia participants but as the Japanese owned close to 100% (I mean at 18% it seemed good vs the 3% they got on cash at the time. Some even packaged them up as retail products, took out between 5 to 8% as their cut and sold them to unknowing Japanese domestics (like a CMT but worse) giving them AUD exposure to boot.

I happened to have the largest pool of Aust Govt bonds at the time and became 'unofficially' the Lender of Last Resort to the Lender of Last Resort who 'broke the law' by telling all the official dealers to ring me.

So I became totally plugged in to what was really happening.

Back to the Hon PJK. As the banks ramped up the pressure on mortgage rates and PJK had made the mistake by saying "The Recession we had to have" - the ALP number crunchers were a tad unhappy.

They call went out to PJK - get mortgage rates down whatever it takes, and he allegedly did and tax payers are still paying off the bill.

What did he do?

In exchange for the RBA paying banks (and others) interest on their required deposits with the RBA then the banks would lower their regulated mortgage rates. Previously amounts such as SRD held with the RBA got 0% interest. <A bit like any savings account with a major bank today isn't it?>

He later increased the rate to be near market rates.

The impact was that previously this was free money that the RBA had generated interest for the RBA. This then got paid to the Fed Govt as a dividend (earnings for taxpayers - so an unofficial tax on Banks that they could not avoid - so effective and SO HATED by all the foreign banks that came in, for many it was the only tax they ever paid but that's another story).

So the Fed Govt effectively subsidised the entire financial sector (reduced then eliminated a 'tax' that could not be avoided) to ensure mortgage rates started falling before the possible election time frame began.

Of course, later the banks resumed business as usual and went back to the RPP mortgage margins - pocketing the perpetual windfall from the eliminated unofficial but extremely effective 'tax'.

Oh, btw, he also removed the cap on regulated mortgage rates, that banks could charge, years previously.

Up until then bank mortgages could not cost more than 12%. That was to ensure we didn't have a recession (as the press releases at the time said) - I wish he could have just made up his mind....

Sure was the World's Greatest something.

 

[RAM]

Just in case (my inexperience shows) - did I successfully (and in the right place) create a thread about this (true unfortunately) story?

What I found incredible is that no major media outlet has picked this up at all. Of course it would have nothing to do with all the advertising that print, radio, TV & Pay TV get from an unnamed airline would it?

Medhead - am I too cynical?


Emirates sues passengers after flying them to wrong destination | Altmedia

 

[RooFlyer]

Yes. Sounds like Emirates.

 

[amaroo]

Had one of our lovely trips to France in 2002.

Hayman Is for us, 18 month toddler, another in the oven - great hols. The Bali bombing is also one of the memories unfortunately.

 

[RooFlyer]

BTW thanks for the finance story. Would like to buy you a glass of red or 3 in a lounge one day and hear more. I'm pretty sure you are not The Elephant?

 

[RAM]

BTW thanks for the finance story. Would like to buy you a glass of red or 3 in a lounge one day and hear more. I'm pretty sure you are not The Elephant?

That was one way I got to find out so much real information. Senior soul with say the ACTU, a restaurant in Melb that serves giant steaks and 2 or 3 bottles of red for him to drink. Also worked wonderfully with rival fund managers!

Amazing what never sees the light of day. Just amazing. Always good to have copies spread around though just in case...

 

[JohnK]

Yes. Sounds like Emirates.

How people rate this airline highly is a mystery to me. Stay away from Emirates and any middle Eastern airline.

 

[mannej]

How people rate this airline highly is a mystery to me. Stay away from Emirates and any middle Eastern airline.

Out of interest, is that based on experience flying EK or perception only JohnK?

 

[whatmeworry]

Today the interest rates are a third of what they were then and my salary has not changed much because they have been bringing people in on 457 visas to drag the salaries down. We are all part of a team and paid as a team even though those on 457 visas do 1/4 of the work. And the worst part is you can't say anything because you are then labelled a racist.

Your not being racist. Last job worked with a Thai woman who originally was a 457 on a farm. That farm business went under, so she needed a new job to maintain her 457 visa.

My ex-boss took her on, despite not even advertising the role. I found out she was on a similar salary to me despite being there for over 8 years. Told her she should be on more, considering her experience. Also found out she had quite a bit of debt on the CC due to visa and PR fees.

Made me look at then boss in a different way but the icing on the cake was when I found an old web article where he boasted of having low overheads.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Hayman Is for us, 18 month toddler, another in the oven - great hols. The Bali bombing is also one of the memories unfortunately.

Ah Bali for me was in the good old days of the AUS (Union of students) overland hippie trail to Europe starting in Bali after a cheap student flight from SYD in '73. Not the same place now. We lived on $2 a day including food, accomodation and beach mushroomes. Now it's 'rooined' if you ask me (which no one does, obviously). But we're getting a bit Monty Python now.

I still remember the whole lobster mornay dish served on the 'Djakarta' to SIN flight in discount whY. Ah whY ain't like it used to be!

 

[TheRealTMA]

How people rate this airline highly is a mystery to me. Stay away from Emirates and any middle Eastern airline.

On the contrary, we almost never fly anything but EK internationally these days.

 

[Pushka]

We seem to get upgrades on Emirates that we never get on Qantas. Just as well, not as though in Adelaide we get any choice of Q direct flights.

 

[amaroo]

Ah Bali for me was in the good old days of the AUS (Union of students) overland hippie trail to Europe starting in Bali after a cheap student flight from SYD in '73. Not the same place now. We lived on $2 a day including food, accomodation and beach mushroomes. Now it's 'rooined' if you ask me (which no one does, obviously). But we're getting a bit Monty Python now.

I still remember the whole lobster mornay dish served on the 'Djakarta' to SIN flight in discount whY. Ah whY ain't like it used to be!

I've never been to Bali and have zero plans to change that status! I only mentioned Bali as it was one memory of our Hayman stay ... remember reading about the bombing by the Hayman pool.

 

[Bindibuys]

I've never been to Bali and have zero plans to change that status!.

Ditto.....

 

[TheRealTMA]

We seem to get upgrades on Emirates that we never get on Qantas. Just as well, not as though in Adelaide we get any choice of Q direct flights.

Just gotta hate flying those middle eastern airlines. Fly QF and keep to your allotted status!

 

[RAM]

Ditto.....

So there could be a market for T-shirts with;

"I haveN'T been to Bali too" on the front,

with

"and never intend to" on the back.