Class

In the midst of an ungodly amount of media fuelled disaster porn, it's tough to find any urge to post. Despite some of the ham-fisted, cliché-ridden, one eye on an award, reporting seen this week, I still managed to get a sense of the devastation, mainly through turning the TV's sound down. And what I took in really didn't put me in the mood to have any concern for the property market, nor its ups and downs.

Yet doing a quick whip around of property investment forums, and other classless hives of legislated looters this morning, I noticed more than a couple of people had one eye on the TV and the other on their wallet. Wondering if they will be winners or losers out of this. The possibility of jacking rents being the question ever so subtly eased out following a variant of the lead in disclaimer, "first let me send my thoughts out to those affected..." As if in-between wiping mud off their walls, people in Brisbane would be checking in and might be miffed at the discussion.

Not that you could be surprised at any cloven hoofed behaviour coming from the cabal of property investing; Australian Property Investor Magazine managed to cook up an article on the potential price direction for some Brisbane properties even before the Brisbane river had peaked. Scotty McGeever found himself as the main talent and while he didn't drop anything too rotten, you find yourself wondering why he didn't hang up on the unnamed douche who called looking to wrangle some quotes.

While I wish I could say this was limited to property, it's clearly not. Swine flu hasn't gone away and as it picks up so does the share price of local biotec company Biota. Not that there's anything surprising here, even I have benefited from riding one of the expected Biota spikes in the past. What's more than a little suspect is setting up a google alert for swine flu deaths, then manically stroking one out across multiple investment forums as the confirmed deaths continue to mount.

Of course there may be a hint of irony in all of this; I'm regularly pointing out potential property market carnage, sometimes making light of unfortunate situations, and now I'm admonishing others for behaviour that's on the nose. I can't deny that, but I'd hope this blog serves as some balance, despite the tone sometimes taken, to the rubbish most of us have long choked on from the pushovers at major media outlets.

All the best to those affected by floods, though I suspect you'll be fine, as Karl Stefanovic reminded me at least 400 times this week, "they breed 'em tough in Queensland."