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...

Apologies for the lack of anything substantial this week, unfortunately I do have employment and other things going on. Needless to say little has changed in Tasmania - except for it getting worse. Burnie listings have exploded, so much so, I feel like a bear handler from a former Soviet state when talking about it - I could be up on cruelty charges, it's almost poking a caged animal with a stick at this stage. Devonport continues to rise and Launceston looks like it's about to blow after adding another fifty plus listings before the week is out. After reading Jeremy Grantham's latest "Night of the Living Fed" newsletter at work today, I had hoped to present it as some super new news, but David Llewellyn-Smith squeezed me out on that front. I will say, in a moment of Chris Joye pomposity, I'm taking credit for Grantham's follow up, given the fact I made sure GMO was fully aware of the the howling from Australian vested interests to his bubble claims. Take...

As I woke up with morning breath to make any canine proud, I poked my head out the front door - finding I'd once again left out money for the paper boy, who'd once again delivered me Tasmania's worst newspaper. I gotta have words with that little creep. The Launceston rotter, The Examiner, or in this case The Sunday Examiner - an even more uninspiring version of the Monday to Saturday version - is one of those newspapers you can count on to toe the expected business line, while smashing the usual suspects and soft targets with full force. Look out bogans and drink drivers. Four pages in, readers were treated to an story entitled "Opening doors on property", where Australian Property Monitors, Anthony Ishac was busy sending out some conflicting signals. The data presented showed Burnie down 11% in the last quarter (I won't be the smart arse who extrapolates that to an annual figure) and Launceston down 2%, which mirrored the state and national decline. Yet as b...

In the face of continuing rodent infested news for housing, what better time for BIS Shrapnel to come out with one of their housing outlooks, predictions, forecasts, whatever. One seems to roll out every quarter, under a different guise, reheating essentially the same information. Basically with the job of communicating from the sector, to the naive, through a lazy media, how awesome shit is gonna get. The equivalent of an agent reassuring you: "you'll never lose in this location." And if you are naive, or just twelfth man on the deal team, last to know - this one rolled out after being commissioned by QBE LMI. Yes sir, they're a big old issuer of mortgage insurance. Needless to say house prices are going up. So don't delay, buy one for Mum, one for Dad and one for QBE. In the face of all common sense, you can make 13% in Hobart over the next 3 years, or you could go backwards even further, like some Hobart residences previously featured in this blog. Which bring...

Just when you think it can't get any worse... If you're one of the illustrious eight people who read this blog, yes I'm actually growing at the rate of 4 people a month, you may remember this house in Launceston I've previously mentioned: Last sold for $335,000 in mid 2009. The going price in my post was $325,000, that was after the first discount. It's yours now for $315,000. With $20,000 already flushed and another $11,000 torched in stamp duty, it's worthwhile asking how far ahead would the renter be in this situation? Price to rent a similar house, in the same suburb for 14 months? Around $17,000. Of course I'm presupposing the occupants are still in this house, which they aren't. They're long gone along with a good chunk of any equity they might have had. Be it they had to move on, or were forced to, they left with less than they came with. We're on the eve of an RBA interest rate decision and thousands now have a nervous night ahead - they...