No Interest Rate Cut From RBA
After the hoopla leading into this week, the RBA opted not to cut rates today. Here is a list of my random thoughts in no particular order:
No.1, I'm amazed that I'm blogging about it. If you told me as a teen that I'd be interested in this topic, you could've knocked me over with a feather. I'd quit on Commerce and flunked Economics. Mr, Kramer was a cavalier sort of teacher who gave me the shits. And Liza-the-teacher's-pet was pretty insufferable so I dropped economics going into my senior years at high school. But here I am blogging about friggin' interest rates - I do surprise myself, yes, I do.
No. 2 is "I guess they're keeping their powder dry". They've been using that phrase a lot since the GFC and what they seem to mean is that things could always get worse, so when it really gets worse, they'll unleash the even-lower-interest-rates. And on to ZIRP we go, eventually... but for now, no cuts. Which is also interesting because nobody has been suggesting they should go up, and that means the economy really is worse than when it was much higher.
No. 3 is "Wow, they were spooked by the Sydney Real Estate market". What can one say? The indiscriminate rise of the property bubble souffle in Sydney does seem like a kind of moral hazard writ large, so it does make some sort of sense that they might want to rein in the excess even if it means not lowering the rates. The corollary of that is that Sydney's property excess is weighted exactly the same as the immediate needs of the rest of the economy. Think about that for a moment and then think through whether that's sustainable. No? Didn't think so.
It's The Wrong Order, Tones
One of the phrases that Tony abbott is known for is 'Dead Buried and Cremated'. He famously uttered these words in reference to Work Choices which buried the Hoard government and John Howard's seat in his own electorate in 2007, and how theLiberal Party had abandoned the thought of trying to go back to it.
Today he's saying the GP Co-Payment is 'Dead Buried and Cremated'.
Now, you might not believe it from this blog but I am a stickler for some detail and it seems to me you don't cremate a body after it's been buried. Logically, he should be saying 'Dead Cremated and Buried'. That makes sense. The way he's been saying it makes no bloody sense, and so lends us the suspicion that perhaps he is not a very logical human being - and being a Prime Minister, this might present problems.
Anyway, just though I'd fire off that cheap shot because it's been bothering me for a long time.
Renewables On The Rise
The Denialist Abbott government has done a great deal of harm toinvestent in reneablesin this country but it's nice to see some comaniesgetting things done. Here's Carnegie Wave Energy doing their thing.
The world’s first grid-connected wave power station has been activated off the coast of Western Australia (WA).
After more than a decade of testing and demonstrations, Australian company Carnegie Wave Energy has switched on a pilot project that has begun feeding wave-generated electricity into a local WA grid.Which is pretty damn cool. We're not all totally drongo backward climate change denialists in this country.
“This is the first array of wave power generators to be connected to an electricity grid in Australia and worldwide,” said Ivor Frischknecht, CEO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, in a statement. The Agency has provided $13 million of the $32 million project.
The company’s technology named CETO after a Greek goddess of the sea converts ocean swell into zero-emission renewable power and zero-emission desalinated freshwater.
The company says its system is “different from other wave energy devices as it operates under water where it is safer from large storms [and corrosion] and invisible from the shore”.
Worst Treasurer Ever Joe Hockey Pushes On A Rope
This is kinda interesting. WTE Joe has ordered a forced sale of a mansion in Point Piper bought by an overseas (read Chinese) investor for 39million. The investor has 90 days to sell. Which will likely result in a lower price which would put some downward push on the wonderful property bubble in Sydney from the top end of the market. It might be irrelevant to the extent that everybody else still wants in on Sydney.
However, it might be the beginning of a process whereby Chinese investors trying to repatriate their money outside of mainland China - read 'capital flight' - might see Australia as not such a good destination. Especially if the place is sold for much less than the $39m that was originally paid for last year. That might send a signal to the Chinese-runaway-money sector that maybe Australia has just as much irrational risk as mainland China, with as little recourse as mainland China. If so, it might cool down the top end of the market significantly.If the FIRB and WTE Joe start doing a lot of these, then it might lead to a rout.
In other words, depending on WTE Joe Hockey's commitment to this course of action, it could indicate a political willingness to prick the Sydney property bubble. Of course, it's not clear what would happen should the Sydney property bubble get pricked - but it's something new coming from the WTE Joe Hockey.
Or he could be doing it just so one of his cronies can pick the property up for cheap. That wouldn't be surprising in the least bit.
The End Of The Road
Well, this is most likely it. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are going to be transferred to be transferred to Nusakambangan where they run the executions. It's a drag.
I haven't given it a whole lot of thought over the years because I figure you have to respect the local laws. There's sufficient merit in the legalistic argument that the local laws should be obeyed. Socrates took the hemlock saying even bad laws are laws. It has been embarrassing to see just how much the Australian media has made of their plight in one sense that the more we argue for leniency, it looks like we're pleading a case of exceptionalism to apply tour citizens.
Be that as it may, there's also a fairly fundamental question what a prison sentence is supposed to be. If it is to punish, then that's the moral dimension we find ourselves in and no argument about mercy issuing to get us over the line with the punishers. But if the prison system genuinely about rehabilitation, then there is no place for capital punishment. And so with Andrew Chan and Myruan Sukumaran, we have prisoners who can prove the system correct. Executing them is contradictory.
The longer this has dragged on, I confess that I've grown more hostile towards Indonesian arguments that are bolstered on sovereignty and post-colonial retribution. Those issues have nothing to do with these men they are about to execute. The Australian position requesting mercy and leniency is that we object to the capital punishment, universally. That we would argue with the same vehemence for their citizens facing decapitation in Saudi Arabia seems totally lost on the Indonesian government. Contrary to the accusation that Australia is somehow hypocritical, it's simply not true. We would argue against all the death sentences being meted out on this planet, equally, with equal vigour.
Yet now we are down to the point of miserable acceptance and burgeoning insults. Indonesia is going to have a really hard time winning back the sympathy of the average Australian. It doesn't make any difference to them; but it probably should in the same way that we should hope to win their respect.
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