Author Archives: Peta Guy

Meltdown

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Here we are at a point where it is only one or two days from a stock market crash similar to 1929. Only time can really tell us where it is going. Market sentiment seems to have taken over any underlying realities.

Australia is still looking like its fundamentals are sound but there is no escaping the affect that the USA and Europe will have on the world. Looking at a report a year ago from an ABC reporter in New York was a little scary. This reporter predicted almost exactly what is happening now. He reported that George Sorros and Warren Buffet (the most wealthy investors) felt that they could not understand the complex financial arrangements underpinning the NINJA loans and market growth in recent times.

Once again, it was not that there no warnings and that smart people were unable to work out that there was a problem. The opposite is true.

Once and for all we need to say Greed is NOT Good

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Capitalism is dead. Long live the king

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The events of the past 6 weeks should mean that the world realises the near end to free market capitalism of Adam Smith etc (and perhaps expressed in its most ugly form by Gordon Gecko in the film Wall Street). I have pulled together a number of articles that I wrote in the past and put them into one post. Read or skim where you wish.

The argument given by “traditionalists” that the market is best able to decide should by now be finished. The market is clearly not able to do so in some circumstances. Markets measure specific things and they are not always the things that matter to people. We should stop asking if the common good or free markets are the choice. Economic Darwinism is a falsehood and therefore we should move on and just say we want the greater good. If that means regulation then so be it. We are not in the 19th century anymore and we can do better.

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Is renewable biofuel energy the “fix” for global warming?

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We are sure as you can be that we are experiencing effects of global warming. Observed temperatures are in line or ahead of predictions from the Greenhouse Effect. We have been told many times that the main cause of that is emissions from burning fossil fuels. Clearly this is a problem that needs to be met head-on by replacing fossil fuels with renewables. Or does it?

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Wall St, we have a problem …

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What is Governance? Government in so called democracies is about doing things for the people, of the people and by the people who are governed. At that level the accountabilities are with the Parliament, Senate, House of Representatives or whatever local variation exists. This is largely based on ancient Greek and Roman models with the major innovations being in the areas of how people get elected (see Democracy). Governance of Public Administration is also relatively easy to understand. If Public/Civil Servants are to serve the people they must server the Government and still do the right thing, personally and for the greater good. Failed States fail mainly for poor administrative Governance. That is what allows them to continue to do what has previously failed to succeed until failure is irretrievable. What about Corporate Governance? I mean this in the sense of Companies and large Non-Government Organisations such as major charities. This is where the waters become muddy … Berings Bank, Enron, the NAB foreign currency trading scandal, the Japanese Banking collapse and now Bear-Sterns, the Mac-Mae twins, Merrill-Lynch, AIG and Lehman Brothers. Why can this happen? Continue Reading →

When you vote you cannot avoid voting for politicians

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There are two ideas going around as to where the word politician came from.

1- polis. the Greek word that refers to those who seek to influence public opinion. This is by far the most reputable idea, so I will ignore it :p

2 – Polit. To lie. I cant find any reference in any reputable book so I would like to offer this (frequently stated) explanation. It is supposed to come form Rome where “to polit” was to lie by pretending to tell people the things that they already know. This has also been called “The Big Lie” when referring to Nazi and Stalinist rhetoric.

Even if the second definition is totally made up, it is more true than not… witness the USA Presidential elections and the sad state of Australian politics for the past decade. Add to that what we have seen in Bejing, Tibet, Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkazia. They all show how “spin” is used to pretend that things are in some way comfortable to the audience being targeted while leaving the truth a long way behind.

When electing politicians, we usually get to choose from the least bad.