Is the mainstream media deliberately spreading doom and gloom in reporting statistics such as those in this article or is it simply reporting the news of the day?
Judging from some of the comments to the article online, some readers are assuming the former. Disturbingly for me though, as someone who works in the finance industry and comes across these attitudes daily, is the obvious ignorance on the part of the general public of the finance industry’s functionality.
People, the banks are scamming you. When you signed your loan agreement with the bank, there was a clause in there for what the variable rate is, and the formula for how it would change. This formula was based off the prime rate. When the prime rate went up, your rate went up according to this formula. When the prime rate goes down, your rate should go down according to this formula. If the banks do not take your rate down, they are breaking their contract. This is a legal case, not a government case. Their should be mass law suites by all the borrowers against any bank that does not reduce the rate in the same formula (and time frame) that it increased the rates. The banks would have the lawyers, but they wouldn't have a legal leg to stand on.
Posted by: Steve of Brisbane 8:27am today
Can I borrow off the reserve bank? If not , why not?
Posted by: Morrissey of bris 7:25am today
Now we will see how much pull the Swan has. Not much i would guess.
Posted by: Esra Star of Nundah 7:10am today
The banks are greedy. Just goes to show who really controls Australia. Man what an evil system.
Posted by: The dark knight of rip of Brisbane 6:47am today
Scaremongering at its best. The quote 'home loans in the first half of 2008 have recorded their weakest start to the year in almost two decades' should place most people at ease. The big banks can't afford not to pass the cuts on as they know this will encourage new business. Whether the 'full' rate cut is passed on is probably more the issue.
Posted by: Shane of Brisbane 6:41am today
Why do we have a Reserve Bank, if the "real" banks are free to ignore the rates set by it?
Posted by: Andrew R of Deception Bay 6:41am today
The major banks aren't interested in the needs of their customers and are just money hungry businesses. They forget that customers do have a choice to either stay with them or take their money elsewhere. The Federal Government has warned the banks but; are they really listening to both the Prime Minister/Treasurer? The government is attempting to shift the blame onto the Opposition but history also shows that ALP governments have and always will, get it wrong. The government needs to get more tougher with the banks if they're not prepared to do their bit.
Posted by: News_Watcher of Brisbane. 6:33am today
Andrew R doesn’t think much of the RBA’s position in the grand scheme. Morrissey thinks the RBA is a bank, is a bank, is a bank. Steve obviously hasn’t read very many mortgage or loan contract terms and conditions documents. News_Watcher has the impression that government really has the power to force Banks to toe a political line. Well, I guess it does, but de-regulation effectively locked, bolted and hermetically sealed off the Nationalisation avenue in the eighties. Besides, isn’t our economy supposedly better off functioning in a global capitalistic market place where market forces hold sway? Where competition protects and benefits consumers? Ignorance of the realities in finance are abundantly evident in the general community, yet it’s that community which is hurting and complaining about the hurt.
Getting back to the issue of what function news reporting ought to play in society, I believe the reporting we see, as per the above article, is valid to a point. It’s reporting the base issue. That the economy is stalling, as indicated by a wide variety of statistical data. What it’s not reporting is why. Why is employment stagnating? Why is consumer confidence diminishing? Why have new owner-occupier home loan approvals dropped away? Why are major financial institutions claiming ongoing instability in global financial markets, when we see, hear and read daily from politicians of varying stripes that the worst is apparently over? The realities are out there, but I’m not sure that anyone is really reporting on them. Probably more to the point, the realities are known to a few who don’t want to make them known publicly on the grounds that doing so may make those few appear to be the villains of the piece. Shouldn’t news agencies, per se, be adopting an educational role more prominently in these times of uncertainty? Not as any form of mouthpiece for government, and certainly not as apologists for major financial institutions, but as educators of the populace.
Still, there’s no point in writing about the realities without recognizing the reality upon which the news reporting agencies are built, and that’s sensationalism, celebrity and yes, doom and gloom. How often do we see, hear or read news which is buoyant, uplifting and educational? Hardly ever when you stop to think about it. 95% of all news is bad news. Why? Because we human beings are essentially wrapped in a veil of pessimism and expect everyone else to be wrapped similarly. If we had nothing to worry about, there’d be no impetus to strive for improvement. My view, anyway. Knowledge, however, is the counter to that pessimism and I firmly believe that news reporting agents have an obligation to society to not just report the news, be it good, bad or indifferent, but also to educate. It’s a pity that sensationalism and celebrity seem more attractive to us, in general, than learning.
Actually, these thoughts come upon me at completely random moments, so why bother nominating a day to express them? I listened yesterday to this radio program on ABC Radio National, dealing with music and it's effects upon our psyche. The speaker was Doctor Oliver Sacks. I found the program to be both informative and amusing, as just about all of RN's offerings are. Today, I find myself halfway through the second of probably three bottles of home brewed beer - a delightful drop of wheat beer with raspberry jam added for flavour - listening to random cassettes from my music collection. Yes, cassettes. Remember those things? If you were born in the mid eighties, you're probably wondering what I'm on about. Audio cassettes were the late 1960's-1970's advance on bulky reel-to-reel tape recordings. They were extremely portable, especially in car stereo players of the time. I even have a couple stored away here in near perfect condition. Car stereos, that is. Audio cassettes, I'd probably have close to 100.
Anyway, music playing and alcohol fogging the consciousness, I found myself suddenly aware of what Dr. Sacks related yesterday to do with music and it's ability to trigger place-time-event memories from deep within our minds. I'm sitting here listening to two Steve Miller Band albums. Book of Dreams and Fly Like An Eagle.
The latter came before the former, yet the former was what sparked my interest in this mercurial band. Book of Dreams is heavily rendolent with what is today identified as synthesised sound. Feedback effects and the like. It's impact when one is seven parts shot is to create a very thoughtful and contemplative mood. A willingness to sit, absorb the music and become enveloped in the sound. Listening to it again, I find myself transported in mind if not body, to early 1978, #9 Barlow Street Manundah, a suburb of Cairns. Bank leased premises - I worked for the NAB back then - with shitty, stained carpet, four bedrooms, large under house area concreted and prime for entertaining, ceiling fans in every room, poor quality 1960's furniture, a rented cabinet-style television set and a three piece stereo unit belonging to one of my fellow housemates. An evening sometime in March, I think, sitting in the loungeroom with my room mate Gavin. Tinny in hand, three sheets into the wind and we're discussing the wiles of the world in general, the Bank in particular and specifically, my relationship with a woman six years older than I was. 20 years of age at the time. I can smell the dope being smoked downstairs, the stale sweat smell of Listy's room, the dank, somewhat musky odour of Gavin's eau de cologne or whatever it was he drenched himself in daily. I can 'see' the colour and fabric of the chairs we're sitting in. 1970's swivel rockers. You know the type. Vinyl back and arms with fabric covered cushions for the back and squab. Stained, of course. Stained with beer, primarily. I'm smoking, Gavin never did. He drove a powder blue VW Combi with a "Get Stuffed" sticker on the back window. He'd had one stolen previously. Sticker, not Combi.
Memory is a fascinating thing, don't you think? Clearly, we record everything we see, say and do on a seemingly limitless hard drive of Roddenberry-like proportions. Some memories although recorded, remain submerged within the sub-conscious for a long, long time, perhaps forever, while others are easily recalled, at will. Others are apparently recalled with stimuli. Example .... I'm listening to a compilation album of The Sweet at the moment. Ballroom Blitz - remember that one. Brings back to me memories of a friend's wedding, another friend placing a fourex stubby cap in his eye as a monocle, the rest of us cracking up with laughter. A mad, intense dance session to the song Ballroom Blitz. Feelings of intense pleasure, comradery and just damn good fun.
We're a complicated lifeform, Homo Sapiens sapiens. Self-determining, conflicted, prideful, arrogant, uncertain, curious, exploratory, aware and yet not completely even though we like to think so. I'd like to think that where we are now is merely the beginning of a long and fruitful evolution, but something keeps reminding me that the star which burns brightest lasts least longest, growing larger than all others before vanishing in a flash of brilliance, perhaps seeding the next generation. I wonder which we are?
In honor of the upcoming Olympics, what could you win a gold medal in?
Submitted by TheFiercestCalm.
Beer Making!
What happened to Friday Night Musing? Dexter happened. The latest-in-Oz/ancient-in-America television entertainment, that's what happened.
I stumbled across a review of Dexter about a month back, then downloaded the audio book which the show is based on for a listen. I was intrigued by the plot, so went looking for bit torrent files and discovered the show is now in its third season in the States, with full torrents of seasons 1 and 2 available. I whacked them into UTorrent and a week or so later, we were sitting down nightly to watch one or two episodes of Dexter.
If you've not seen the first two episodes of season one on Network Ten, Sundays over the past fortnight, then you've missed a treat. The show is an engaging one about a Miami Police forensic scientist, Dexter Morgan, who due to a childhood trauma, carries a deep-seated sociopathic psychosis within his make-up. He feels empty, emotionless and seeks just to feel alive. Growing up, he found the closest he could come to feeling alive was by killing. It thrilled him. His foster father, Harry, recognised that his son had troubling undercurrents in his psyche, and so helped the young Dexter to manage and channel his urges. To pretend to be just like everyone else, while latently satisfying them but only in terms of the code of honour Harry instilled into Dexter. Dexter is a serial killer, but he only kills those who have done bad things and escaped the law. He's an artist, a collector and overall, a seemingly harmless and extremely likeable character. He gets into scrapes and despite the often morbid and macabre elements in the show, you find yourself always on Dexter's side, often chuckling as each episode develops.
We finished season one during the week and are now into season two. As I say, it's a very engaging, often funny and thoughtfully constructed show. The actors and characters are very believable with numerous sub-plots always running in the background. I highly recommend Dexter to anyone with a bent for something different.
Apple released it's IPhone in Brisbane on Friday just past. Shed loads of 'gadget geeks' apparently want one of these things, which from all accounts, isn't quite what it's been hyped to be. In the United States, there's clearly a similar hype. Evidence the following from one of my Vox neighbours, who shall remain nameless.
I'd like to buy an iPhone today. I'd be happy to hand over too much money (I'm not eligible for an equipment upgrade at the moment) for a device that in many ways is inferior. Sure, the overall usability overcomes the shortcomings, but just barely. That said, I'm not going to wait in line for hours and hours to do it.
I'm bemused as to why a piece of seemingly inferior technology, has so many people wanting to get a hold of it. Over-priced, over-hyped, inferior, although no-one seems to be able to specify just what this thing is inferior to. From what my 'neighbour' writes, in America anyway, the thing needs to be activated in-store before you can use it. The lines are hundreds of people long.
I'm not what you'd call a 'gadget geek' although I do tend to accumulate technology as and when the need arises, or I find I have a need for certain pieces of it. Example: I obtained a relatively outdated IPAQ 3850 a few months ago, and am still finding uses for it other than the portable music, games, email and database device I bought it for. I doubt I'll ever really use it to it's optimum, but it does serve efficient purposes.
I have a mobile phone - actually, these devices are UHF radios, so why marketers persist in calling them 'telephones' is beyond me - which also plays music, takes photos and nice shots too, stores contact data, etcetera. Why would I need an IPhone? What's so all powerfully overwhelming about the IPhone? As a combination communications device and personal data assistant, surely even the most average cell phone would suffice? Digital photos? I have a Kodak V610 which out performs any mobile phone in a blink. As a communications device, all that's needed is for whatever device is acquired to answer the selcal signal by 'ringing', and allowing the user to access the nearest broadcast frequency cell to call out, as and when required. Whether or not the device has a touch sensitive, bright, colourful screen is irrelevant to it's function.
Personally, I think the inhabitants of the developed world have become so much like the genus Ptilonorhynchus as to be virtually indistinguishable, save for the fact that Homo sapiens sapiens can't fly unaided.
Before I go any further, let me simply say a thank you to Voxer, Snowy for the idea of singling out my favourite day of the week for a quite muse and expression of thoughts. I think it's a grand idea, and does give one the opportunity to sit, think and write. If you're at all like me, you'll have become somewhat addicted to the blogging phenomenon, and the art of writing.
I enjoy Fridays for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the end of the working week and all of the implied stresses which that series of five contiguous days brings. The early start, commuting, responsibilities and demands of the working day and the commute home. Five days of that in rotational succession is enough to wear me out, but Fridays mean that tomorrow, I can sleep in and catch up on the hour per day I lose between Monday and Friday. I find I need, on average, a minimum of seven hours uninterrupted sleep per night. I'm a night-owl, which doesn't aid my sleep patterns. I find difficulty in winding down sufficiently after a day's grind to get the head down before 11pm and asleep before midnight. Yes, I've tried all the usuals. Warm milk; reading for an hour or so before lights out; taking a walk before bed. My internal clock doesn't like being reset.
So I look forward to Fridays. I also look forward to the think-time. When the mind realises that it doesn't have to stay just that little bit aware of the coming tomorrow, it tends to think about the issues which surround us all, but which we don't necessarily pay due attention. Currently, there are plenty to consider. Climate change, vigilantism, paedophilia, politics, interest rates and the costs of living. Much of the aforementioned we can do nothing about. Oh sure, turn out the kitchen light when no-one's in the kitchen ( I wish I could get my wife to do that! ) and not use the car unnecessarily to save petrol, but the issue which has irked me most this week, is that of Dennis Ferguson's fate.
For those who don't know, and you'd have to be a non-Aussie not to have been bombarded by all manner of media with the non-exploits of Dennis Ferguson. Who is this person? Dennis Ferguson is what prison inmates colloquially call a Rock Spider. A Paedophile. Ferguson is a particularly nasty form of the species. However, due to a set of circumstances which have unfolded in his favour, and due entirely to the type of individual he is, Ferguson is currently a free man. As free as his well-deserved reputation allows at any rate. It's ironic that while society rejects him overwhelmingly, that same community is forced through adherence to the rule of law to support and protect him.
I find the situation incongruous and somewhat troubling in that, as low a form of life as Ferguson may be, he remains a human being on some level. He is entitled by law to the protection which the law provides to those who do not transgress it. Being a free man by decree - at least until the State Government appeal to the judicial decision to release him. While this Courier Mail article focusses on the sensational aspects of the case, it does raise an interesting point, being the out-of-touch attitude the judiciary have clearly exhibited to this case. As the article states, the government and police are in no-win situations. Ferguson is entitled to police protection, as would any of us be, and as any of us are on a daily basis from those who would do us harm. My belief is that while this reprehensible individual might perceivably pose a threat to whatever community he resides in, that threat is effectively negated by the intense police presence guarding his welfare. The questions to ask, I suppose, are these.
If the community didn't express it's ire and disgust at having this individual in its midst, would the government and police be applying the level of two-way protection to both Ferguson and community through the close guard they have on the former? Is the monetary cost justified? Is the media justified in sensationalising Ferguson's whereabouts on the basis of informing the public? Does the public have the right to know, as I heard the Police Minister Judy Spence claim it didn't, about the status quo of individuals like Ferguson? Most importantly, does any society which calls itself 'developed', have the right to hound any individual into exile?
Troubling questions. I'm a parent. I despise the perversion which corrupts these type of people. However, I also realise that an individual has rights, regardless of how they might, through their actions, impact on the rights of others. So, just how should a 'developed' society deal with those who have a history of harming children?
If you could leave notes for the future, what message would you have left in the past for today?
Submitted by Nameless.
Two things ....
"Sorry about that" and "Told you so"
... issues like this one from the recently despatched dark ages of Australian politics are going to keep coming to the surface as time passes and keepers of forbidden secrets are replaced with more forthcoming individuals.
I have never believed the rhetoric palmed off by the Howardians about so-called War-On-Terror tm happenings which were vehemently denied as never having happened. John Howard and his corrupt crew have much to answer for. Sadly, they'll never be brought to account because the evidence is so well confused and hidden, they'll all be dead before the truths are revealed by the fullness of time.
The best we can hope for is that karma addresses the imbalances.
I've written a few posts of late on my 'serious' site, on the contentious issue of petrol pricing, and our government's unwillingness to do what we know they can do about relieving the inordinate burden impacting on our lives and quality of living. I'll link to them, here and here, to see what my Aussie Vox friends think.
