Comments on: Boom and bust cycle is the same Down Under

By: Ireland 12 Australia 2 - Ireland Wants You BackIreland Wants You Back

Ireland 12 Australia 2 - Ireland Wants You BackIreland Wants You Back — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:33:58 +0000

[...] As bad as things are, Ireland is still a great place to live, and things are now, finally beginning to improve. Meanwhile, there are some who say Austrailia’s boom is coming to an end. [...]

By: oiltrash_in_perth

oiltrash_in_perth — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 07:11:29 +0000

having worked around the world in the oil & gas business for the last 20 years I moved to Perth in 2008 to work on some big gas projects. Perth is the centre of the current boom and only comparable to whats happening in Brazil just now. Anyone who thinks this is not rocky should take a look at BHP’s Olyympic Dam or Port Headland Inner harbour projects along with the coal seam gas projects in Queensland. These projects have been shelved almost overnight and are the tip of the iceberg. The economy in WA is supported by the crazy wages paid to low skilled workers to live in the mining/work camps in the Pilbara, lots of these folks are going to be released back into the real world and its going to be a shock. $1000 AUD/week will rent you an average family home in Perth just now if you can find something to rent,the most expensive rentals in Oz just now are in Karratha, Onslow ,Newman and other well known places in WA … Its going to be a big bang when it happens down here but for now its 300 days sun a year and surfs up …

By: tuatha

tuatha — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 08:48:02 +0000

David, that is a the war memorial in Martin Plaza (it hasn’t been ‘Place’ for 30years), not the Cenotaph(literally empty tomb)which is at the southern end of Hyde Park, about a kilometre away.
You claim to cool down the economy, the central bank raises interest rates, – the Reserve Bank has lowered interest rates on all but one of the last 8 quarterly reviews (no change once, the review before last – currently at historic lows not seen since the early 1960s.
The A$ has NOT risen because the local banks are borrowing foreign money but because the majority of export contracts, esp minerals to China, are written in Oz dollars.
Not big on basic observation are you?
As with your prognostications on Ireland Euroland & the Universe, it makes one wonder about your interpretations or are you just another tap dancer with a rabble-soothing line spruiking self published books like the self help crapola?
interesting that I neither saw nor heard a single report of your visit. Shared a venue with the Lord Mayor you say? Sure it wasn’t Dick Whittington’s cat?

By: joe sod

joe sod — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:00:40 +0000

excellent post joff23, its only 10 years ago that australia was a cheap country by foreigners standards, there were actually australians coming to ireland to work. People forget with the doom and gloom in ireland today that in the late 90s, a golden era in ireland, dublin was regarded as the most happening city in europe. But then by the 2000s irish people took it all for granted and the arrogance crept in which eventually destroyed ireland, the same is happening in australia today afterall human beings are the same the world over.

By: joe sod

joe sod — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 22:45:31 +0000

better still convert your 100k out of aussie dollars into US dollars, any signs of stress in aussie economy and the aussie dollar will be heavily shorted

By: cooldude

cooldude — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 17:28:00 +0000

Excellent shot.

By: joff23

joff23 — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 16:55:32 +0000

Here comes the 100th comment & my min wage/alcohol availability ratio. The defining economic acid test! Was in Oz in 1999, my fond memory (apart from the reliable weather) was the standard of living and how much ‘bang’ you got from your buck. Back then min wage in Ireland floated around Â£5 (Ahhh the punt) and a pint of the plain cost around Â£3, so you were into your second hourly rate when navigating toward your second pint. Downunder I worked bars, sites and even mobile sales for a while (1 day) and min wage was $12-$14. A Schooner of beer cost anything between $3 – $4 which hence allowed a guaranteed 3 beers on 1 hourly wage. I could go in supermarket and feed myself with $5 bucks… Was absolutely shocked this year when I heard Aus min wage now $17 and a beer can cost $9 – $11. Whats more a simple coffee, once $2 is now $9 on average. I get inflation, but the value and cost of living has obviously deteriorated…. Furthermore when I went the Irish punt (Ahhhh bless) got $2.50 Australian and peaked at $3. Today a â‚¬1 (remember Â£1=â‚¬1.27 once upon a time) pays $1.24 Aus. Meaning Aus currency stronger than our old punt, (ahhhh..). For a population of 22 million. Please God most of our diaspora have brought the Irish bust experience with them and not jumped from the pan into the fire.

By: molly

molly — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:00:42 +0000

Where’s the change we where promised ,where’s the new way of doing things.
Where’s the fairness .
The tunnel has no light at the end of it and the big question is where will the December budget leave us .
I hope in my heart of hearts that we go to war with this government.
I deal with the public in my work and I ask every house holder the same question ,what do you think of the present government ,what surprised me is in the last four weeks the response has turned to a lot of people saying they are seriously think of giving there support back to the shower who ruined this country in the first place .
Cock roaches and rats comes to mind.

By: bonbon

bonbon — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 20:44:59 +0000

Ah, so is is about Andrew Jackson. Very well. How about Aaron Burr?

By: Philip

Philip — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 10:24:14 +0000

Say the banks got fixed today. All working fine etc etc. Lending etc and so on and on. And let’s say you even cleared the debts. Nothing would change because the bean counter mentality will persist. The whole lot would collapse again. All risk aversion drives is a convergence to zero growth.

Booms (tiger booms) are merely opportunistic slack takers – where risk aversion in one part of the world gave temporary opportunity to another where risk was relatively much lower. Ultimately – risk aversion pulls it all back down.

We have to make systematic changes to the way we look at progress. This is a full culture change. Such changes tend unfortunately to be crisis driven.

The harm is on using banks to drive progress and having a taxation and reward system that penalises progress and hard work relative to risk.