nyonyamansor09

When a newspaper croaks, a loyal and important servant to its community is lost. Or that's what the obituaries say. The truth is, a dead newspaper scarcely bears any resemblance to the mythical beast that will be lionised when the printing presses shut down and the plastic bag full of paper and ink stops landing on lawns each morning.  The Advocate, its death assured as a marsupial on a Tasmanian road at dusk, will be one of those lionised newspapers. It shouldn't be. The Advocate's turf is one of Australia's most economically disadvantaged electorates, something that goes hand in hand with low education levels. It's almost assured when The Advocate recycles a press release or culls stats to craft a story, the readership won't find themselves digging any deeper. Forget them trawling ABS spreadsheets for reality.  Sean Ford, senior journalist amongst a bunch of 12 year olds, knows this. He's The Advocate's "resident numbers man" (yep, that's...

"Australian's deserve a lot better, especially on Melbourne Cup day." - Wayne Swan You've really got to wonder about the brain-dead, no real world experience, "thinks they're playing West Wing" staffer, who cooked that one up for Wayne Swan. Really, who has the cheek to raise interest rates on Melbourne Cup day? Clearly it's Australia's right to gamble in peace - on horses and houses. Cheap populism takes no courage. Wayne Swan has no courage and Joe Hockey has no courage, because the easiest scenario here is to hook into a faceless bank and continue to ignore the elephant in the room - Australians are addicted to debt. They continually mainline it into their veins, while hitting a full pipe at the same time. And who acts as the enabler to this situation? The politicians who won't suggest fiscal responsibility. Apparently being so indebted that a rate rise could push you over the edge is someone else's fault. Where is the encouragement to...

We aren't even there yet and life is beginning to imitate art. With news again rumbling out of the RBA about potential rising interest rates and credit card debt back scaling the mountain of stupidity, a dude in the Hobart suburb of Moonah has gone all Nancy Botwin, moonlighting as a pot barren to ease his financial distress. Why? Well for this guy, the brown stuff from the bowels hit the air displacement mechanism when the fixed rate mortgage on a rental property switched from fixed to variable. It was then, the mild mannered father of three, junior soccer coach and scout volunteer, saw a grow-op as his best chance to get things back on track. As you'd understand, for any average guy who was earning over $100k a year - well it's hard out there for a pimp - when he trying to get money in as rent - SUV and petrol money spent - and bitches like me talking shit. That's right, brother was earning over $100k a year and still struggled with the payments before he turned hydr...

Rotten. That would be the only way to describe the latest ABS housing finance statistics for Tasmania. Sure they're up on last month and you can make statistics dance anyway you choose, if you're so inclined. Yet for the whole of 2010, Tasmanian housing finance commitments have not cracked 1000 in any month. Well what does that mean? August and September of 2008, in the midst of the global financial crisis, was the last time figures hit this mark and looked like staying there. And we know what happened next, Rudd and Swan tossed money out into the battlefield and their doe-eyed saleswoman, Tanya Plibersek, sold the cash bribes to the naive and inexperienced first home buyers. Thanks to that intervention, the figures climbed above 1000 and stayed there until January this year, when the bribe was withdrawn. Since that point Tasmanian housing finance commitments have continued in a bottom bumping trend, under 1000 per month. To put this in perspective, sub-1000 is a figure not con...

On Hobart's eastern shore sits this 4x2 - now begging for a bid at 440k.See nothing was forthcoming at an ambitious 500k and reality soon set in. Well not quite that much reality, this house is two weeks off chalking up six months on the market - one of those dubious milestones, that can only signal one thing - buyers must be stupid! That's what it is, right? Not your agent actually levelling with you, very bluntly and suggesting you're well overpriced. Or you actually considering your price might be too high. No it must be those morons who want you to give it away! Unfortunately, in these circumstances, modesty prevents a discount, because back in late 2007 the princely sum of $430k was paid. And we all know real estate only goes up, so how can anyone expect to sell for less than they originally shelled out? Things get very sticky around this point, with saving face the prime objective, but ask yourself a question - when Dun & Bradsteet reports that referred debts for ...