The bogan understands economics. With a level of understanding akin to James Cameron’s grasp of screenplays, the bogan will frequently invoke its right to free speech to opine vociferously on the performance of the economy, thus the performance of the government of the moment. And the bogan knows that there is only one true measure of economic performance: interest rates.
Interest rates are the Reserve Bank’s sole means of regulating an overinflating economy, or spurring on sluggish consumer and business spending by discouraging or encouraging bank lending. However, unlike the ‘conventional’ economic wisdom, which the bogan is assured by News Ltd is spurious, the bogan knows that a truly strong economy exists only when interest rates are at all-time record lows. The bogan approaches interest rates much like a climatologically paranoid beaver. Should it rain heavily, the beaver’s dam could well be fucked. The bogan, loaded up with $500,000 of borrowed money to pay off the McMansion, views rising interest rates much like as incoming inclement weather; that is, a clear signal of impending economic doom.
Thus, every month, there is a near-pornographic obsession in the trashmedia with the upcoming announcements on interest rates, as ‘journalists’ rapidly calculate the monthly cost facing overleveraged bogans’ average mortgage repayments. Accordingly, bogans will express outrage when the banks have the temerity to ‘pass on the rate rise’. National politicians will then fuel the flame of righteous bogan fury, claiming that the banks have a responsibility to bogans everywhere, and that their behaviour (making a profit) is un-Australian.
Once the dust has settled, the bogan will begin complaining to everyone about how the rising interest rates are the government’s and the banks’ fault, and that they are now in ‘mortgage stress’, because that it a term they heard Kochie use once. This is despite the fact that mortgage rates are still about half the level of 1991. This is also despite the fact that the bogan has happily loaded up the credit card at 20% for a new bookshelf from IKEA, a 0.25% increase in the interest rate is enough to send the bogan into a seething rage.
The bogan, under the extraordinary levels of mortgage stress it inherited due to the policies of a government that has no control over interest rates, will approach the bank, asking to fix its exchange rate. It understands economics, but not fixed or variable mortgages. It resigns itself to watching the monthly announcement on the increase in interest rates, and will then exercise its right to free speech to opine vociferously about how unaffordable housing is in Australia.
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Thankfully I am completely aware of the fact that I know nothing about economics.
Neither do ‘economists’, none of them foresaw the gfc, with the exception of a few who’s branch of economics that they practice is different to what they teach in unis.
The former don’t take into account debt levels apparently, which were and are f#cken huge.
Peter Schiff is the man. He understood the debt and housing costs problems. I’m guessing, Martin, that you would be well aware of him.
I love these videos where the ‘mainstream economists’ laughed at him. Man, how wrong were they?
Just a bit.
Yeah I know of him, Steve Keen, Mish, and the greaterfool.ca guy and a few others. It’s a little interest of mine. I don’t get into it too deeply though.
excellent.
thanks mick. I’ve learnt more about economics here in the salon of civic discourse than I ever did anywhere.
look at the Pigs all actually laughing at him.
hope you’re eating shit pigs.
I feel something similar for the likes of My Uncle Drunken who likes to bark about Teh Muslims!!! and OUR WAY OF LIFE!!! (quite the specufestor is uncle drunken BTW); ignoring the fact that a bunch of non muslim terrorists just completely raeped europe and walked off scot free.
Max Keiser used to be, or still is for some, pretty good value. He had a show on BBC and he’s constantly been calling for the big guys at Goldman Sachs and other investment banks to be killed. He was calling for the US people to rise up like a French Revolution and behead the bankers. Then that got canned and now he regularly does shows for a Russian TV channel and an Iranian one. I learned a thing or two but I can’t be arsed getting into all the technical shit and all the graphs and shit.
All the gfc stuff came and went and nobody did nothin. The Goldman guys got a slap on the wrist and even more massive bonuses.
But the public, being bogans, were just as bad as the bankers in my opinion with all their property “investment”. So that’s why there’s been no real momentum behind any revolutions or protests.
The momentum will build as more and more bogans start losing their shirts as house prices fall. Latest prediction is 15% down in 2012…and that call is from SQM Research. Specufestors like Chubb’s Uncle Drunken are in serious trouble. The negative gearing rort will not save them in a falling market.
Nope, the finger will be pointed. But, in true bogan form, it will be pointed at the wrong people. It will be pointed at those who preached moderation. Why? Because we rooned it for them. All our negativity built up and exploded over the land like a sailor in a whorehouse. Then they’ll want us to pay. The guvmint should bail them out. Those of us who still have jobs will carry them through.
And the pricks who caused all of this will run away. The bankers, politicians, the media, all these so called economists who are in reality mouthpieces for big business…hang them all. F#ck this makes me angry! I’m going to have to cut back from two bottles of red a night to one. F#ck them all!
Yep, they’ll blame it on JULIAR as they like to call her. Even though it all basically started under Howard, or at least his government was the big catalyst and then Rudd exacerbated it. It’s working too, we’re gonna have Abbott for PM. It’ll be hilarious if he screws them hard. It won’t bother me I have to put up with the market all by myself.
Yep, we’re the bad guys Mick. One of the reasons I am pretty misanthropic. I mean how retarded would you have to be to cheer on massively rising house prices without thinking about all the factors? Even just from a libtard point of view, what about people who just want a roof over their head?
The bogans weren’t bailed out in Ireland, the banks were though. But I’m sure they’ll be demanding it.
Probably simplistic but money in a tangible sense no longer exists. It has been replaced by ones & zeros on a computer. And if money has no physical presence then the way it is treated changes. Joe Bogan is happy to spend 700k on his Mcmansion but if he had to go to the bank & withdraw the money in cash to buy his house then the size of the pile might make him stop & think about how much he has spent. Its the same with share trading, its just ones & zeros on the computer. The speed of the market is its sucess as well as its downfall. If share certificates had to be swapped for cash the process would slow & reasoned decisions can be made. People trade shares that don’t exist with money they don’t have & the money only becomes real when the house of cards fall down & the wolves are knocking at the door. Socialist rant ends.
This is all very serious. Perhaps a song?
Harsh words on a whole branch of social science from someone who can’t use the word “whose”
Surely, knowing what we do not know is the beginning of wisdom.
Bogans can’t bear to admit they don’t know something and instead will bellow half truths, opinion and urban myth as gospel fact.
Are they the things we know we don’t know
or the things we don’t yet know we don’t know?
With thanks(?) to Don Rummy.
Moar & Panda I know I have mentioned Nassim Nichilas Taleb’s book,
The Black Swan , before both in this Posting and in other TBL Bogans Subjests, but realy it holds so many answeres to this whole “Money Tree” concept.. One particular Examplar is his story of the Turkey. Every day it is fed and therefore its expectation of the human race, its getting feed every day all as part of what is normal and what is predictable. then the afternoon before Thanksgiving Day something happens that causes a revission of the turkeys exoectations. It gets its head chopped of.
The life of the Turkey is a bit like us playing the stock market or the housing market or intertest rates or any of the things where we humans take the Gaussian Bell Curve crap stastistics as something usefull on which to base our lifes security.
I dont realy expect a bogan to go read books like that and to learn from them but what I am trying to say is that the infofmation is there for those who have the energy to lift ther scales from their eyes.
JH, we’ve been having black swan events one after the other. US, Europe, natural disasters. China slowing down will be the big one to affect us here in Oz. The only reason we haven’t had an economic crisis is due to the guvmint handing out stimulus left, right and centre. Now there be no money left. Just stand back and watch. Get some popcorn.
it’s all about confidence. There’s not much of that going around at the moment.
I’ve picked the wrong time to be an under-employed casual haven’t I.
*Checks prices of kidneys on black market*
Pand,
Might do better on the “White Anglo” Market !! Bahahaha
Sorry I know its no cool to laugh at oneself but i just sort of came over all funny.
Oh James Hunter.
Stop it now. ;-)
Panda,
On a more serious note (like an F sharp), mDo you find it interesting the number of people who are happy to donatew a kidney cimpared to the n8ubers not anxious to donate say a finger or an arm ear or half a liver or an eye ? All of these we can live with out. Like I can understand the lack of desire to donate a lung, which we could live without , and a heart which we cant live with out.
I just find it a bit strange. people almost que to donate kidneys..
Mind you I am also concerned at the close proximity of The John Hunter Hosp[ital and its Renal Unit to the famous Newcastle “Darbys Pie Shop.
Heart & Kidney Pie
Now with extra human.
I imagine we have 2 of some things because they are important & prone to failure.
The thought of the humanitarian praise they expect to receive makes the idea of organ donation attractive until cut comes to shove.
If only more people would read and understand “The Black Swan” then the charlatans who pose as economics forcasters would go do something usefull like forcasting the weather.
Oh, James Hunter, whether it’s your suggested economic reading or your opinions on low interest rates one thing’s for shizz: I have no interest in you, pops!
So this is your last comment then Pete,
Ehhhhhh. *Upward Thumb*
When it comes to being an informed citizen, an ability to grasp all the contradictions inherent within any issue is far more essential than deciding whether I am for or against something. It’s not hard.
Sorry Peter but when you typed “I have no interest in you, pops” I naturally assumed that you had lost interest in your quest (whatever it is). But I will happily admit my mistake.
Get help.
Today.
Go see your GP.
Call Lifeline.
Anybody.
Waterskinsky,
Stranger and stranger is Pete Babe.
Says he has no interest in me yet strangely spends extraordinsary amount of time making potty mouth guttersnipe comments on anything i say.
I realy wish TBL would take him to the vet and have him put down.
Oh, James Hunter, the sum total of time spent by me on this site is minimal. It amounts to no more than a few minutes each time I check it out. Unlike you, pops, I don’t agonize over every word I write (and yes, I realise my folly when referring to your scribble as writing; only with the greatest generosity could it be referred to in such a way, but let’s press on) So worry not about my time management. Be more concerned about the management of your meds – which, incidentally, are grossly mismanaged.
that’s actually quite a good point.
we should be able to argue for or against it, if we really get it.
Shoosh Chubby, PT has decided to leave us (JH) alone.
Hopefully.
.
Oh, James Hunter, make no mistake, re. you: I am, like all right thinking folk, decidedly against.
Bogans in the retail sector demand low interest rates so they can get rich off the challenging work of importing shit from China, marking it up by 2000% and selling it. Bogans with investment properties demand low interest rates too. They are the only people who matter and everyone else is a non entity. Like savers and the non profligate.
the bogan’s obsession with interest rates reflects on the thrash media. but things might change soon…
i believe the bogan’s faith in the thrash media is shaken after the fake reporting debacle
http://www.skynews.com.au/showbiz/article.aspx?id=654331&vId=
apparently channel 9 has been on an immigrant hiring spree for the past few years thus the massive decline in stellar reporting standards they set before (thats the explanation around the bogan pubs)
Speaking of the GFC and how alleged ‘economists’ missed it, it was amusing a few years back on those yank schlock-reality shows like The Bachelor/Bachelorette (the word ‘spinster’ was too estoteric I assume) and all that crap, that every ‘contestant’ was a ‘mortgage-broker’. They were obviously ‘broking’ to American trailer-bogans for houses they could not afford in order to get the commision to pay for the appallingly overwhite porcelain teeth, permanent tandoori tan, big guns/hooters, elocution lessons so they could say ‘oh my god’ in the appropriately-affected idiom incessantly, and the obligatory convertible. Gee, it wasn’t obvious that it all was gonna go bust was it?
And skipping forward a couple of years, an 26 year old unemployed former mortgage broker, Mike Sorrentino (who felt he still needed stuff, but found that stuff was no longer available to him through his previous method of obtaining the aforementioned stuff) , would be inflicted on the world, as The Situation (on The Jersey Shore). Prior to this he had only been inflicted on co-workers, his unfortunate N.I.N.J.A./sub-prime loan clients and occasional strangers, who he collided with on evenings out (much to their detriment). Now he obtains stuff by being a professional ar$e#ole.
Oh, too true. I forgot about the trainwreck that is The Situation and Jersey Shore. I note that 7 Maaaate yanked it halfway through the initial series didn’t they? as it was too awful even for their intended demograhic of cretinous bogans?
Don’t hate on Jersey Shore.
When approached in the right frame of mind, nothing – and I mean nothing – can match it as a sheer ego boost.
On an aesthetic and behavioural level I agree. On a financial level, no. I hear “The Situation” made about a million bucks from some book and no doubt they’re all making a few hundred k per episode. People who make more money than I do and who are patently inferior to I am gives me nothing but anguish and torment.
Martin,
Can I help with auguish and torment management ?
I am not an expert so therefore I may actually be able to help.
Alright, James Hunter, I get that you no longer want to engage in light badinage. I will post no more nor will I browse this site again. For me it was merely a random distraction. A few laughs without intended offence. Proportionally – and pardon the bad grammar – you gave as good as you got. Enjoy what’s left of this place.
Nah I’m alright James. Thanks anyway. I like to give my posts a bit of drama in an attempt to make them more interesting.
It is all good.
I stole copies of his and Snooki’s books when I was in NY.
They are literary masterpieces.
Were they written in crayon?
I don’t think so, Micky boy. I’m guessing the originals were typed in text speak.
I guess if you have absolutely no shame, morals or concept of embarrassment, then you can be a star in todays world. I have watched a few episodes of Jersey Shore and it astounds me what they are prepared to do in front of millions of viewers. They truly believe they are the coolest people on the planet. My two pug dogs have more decorum!
I lack all three.
Why aren’t I a star yet?
It’s farkin’ racism, I tell ya. I’m calling ACA. They’re always keeping us Fijian-Indians down.
One episode involved Snooki “going wild” in the local nightclub. Her dress which was nothing more than your average belt anyway, was hiked up so high when she danced that you could just about see her breakfast. The others girls were commenting that it was “great to see her having such a good time”. Unfortunately the good time consisted of doing backflips where her tits almost popped out of her dress and and her dress rode up so high that you had full view of her knickers. She did it so many times that I just wanted to reach into the TV and punch her. I fully understand why she was actually punched in one episode.
I remember that one.
Ha! About five years ago I was wandering through Africa and met a couple of these mortgage-broker types from the States. Money to burn and quite eager to tell me about it. Where were they from? Maricopa, Arizona. Otherwise known as ‘the poster child of the housing crisis’.
They’ve burnt. I feel sorry for the younger bloke ’cause he was a decent lad. A greedy lad though. Probably deserved it. Lots of people burnt with them. That is what is coming here.
My brother is an investment banker in the US. He moved there several years ago for love. He can see many similarities in our current financial situation in Australia that occured prior to the meltdown in the US market. Make no mistake, we are definitely headed for a financial crisis here! You just have to look at our over heated housing market!
Hey Kelly Kapowski, you out there?
My GOD cd’s came in the mail today.
Thank You
Thank you
Thank You
Rock on.
What Panda Likes about punk is
that it is just like Melbourne
weather. If you don’t like it
just wait a couple of minutes
& it will change.
Ni-ice, Panda.
Still here, but been keeping kosher and searching soul since I was accused of being a Peter Thornton schlockpuppet…
Oh yeah, no longer Klan neither. Gene Hackman crushed my nuts in his eye-watering vise grip and I subsequently saw the error of me ways. Tend to get bored with the same old screen name too. Short attention span. Bogan.
There is a tragic side to my purchase.
I put it on in the car on the way home.
And had to turn it DOWN.
*Ageing sign # 56*
*Hangs greying head in shame*
Panda’
What the hell use is it haveing those 1200Watt Sub Woofers and power amps taking up most of your boot space if you don’t have them thumping fit to kill ? Not to mention the Honda Gen set on a bike trailer tagging alone to frovide the power.
Ha Ha James, good one. :-)
I have the right car (Twin Cam Corolla)
but that setup would blow the
standard 15 watt speakers through
the roof. ;-)
Doof cars are stupid.
Funny, but stupid.
I prefer my watts under the bonnet.
Panda,I have been known where a boom box car full of boaban wankers is making so much bass uoy get deaf sitting beside them at the lights,to pull up beside them and just sit there with mu front bumper next there drivers door and just keep my hand on the horn ! Dosnrt take long to get a stream of abuse. Realy ,realy revs em up.
I was driving the work ute one day & this rythmic buzzing noise started coming out of the dash. I could not work out what was happening.
Coming the other way (on the other side of a 5meter wide medium) was a Suzuki Swift & it was his stereo that was causing the buzzing.
His numberplate, MRLOUD.
I shit you not.
Yes, sorry about that. It behooves that I apologize personally. I got it wrong. There was a post I didn’t read carefully enough, in which I thought there were some syntactic similarities. After checking back later, I realized that I had missed some irony.
And ‘bater, don’t worry about it, in years to come, that driver will be driving a different car with a different number plate. I don’t know what the car will be, but the license tag will read “MR DEAF”. Just like all the kids using iPods with ear-buds, but you can hear what they are listening to. It’s turned up so high that it’s possible to identify the song. Not only the bass is audible, so is the treble.
I’ve said it before, people seem to need a wave constantly directed at them. If there is no outside stimulous coming in all that is left is the emptyness of their own existence. Have you noticed that people cannot just sit anymore, they have to talk, all of the fcking time.
I think it may be a Generation X/Generation Y phenomenon. There seems to be an increased need to be entertained. Something to do with increasingly sedentary (and possibly affluent lifestyles) ?
As a child, I remember riding down through Mount Pleasant, over the bridge, and along the river, if there weren’t anything in particular to do. It filled an afternoon very well.
I still do something of the sort, except I am on foot, and destination is Hyde Park. I guess I still know how to make my own fun.
I like to sit at the headland,
watch the ocean & just
breathe.
I work in childcare in a private school. The emphasis is on old fashioned play where the children play outside as much as possible. They have sandpits, bats, balls, swings and all manner of great activities that keep them active. It is really heartening to see that the children like to be outside and will keep themselves entertained for hours as long as you have enough for them to do. We do not have any electronic activities for the children in this age group (3 and 4 year olds). Sometimes I will even lay out a rug outside and put books on it for children who want to have some quiet time. Usually they would rather climb on the equipment or play with the bats and balls. It is not natural for young children to be bored.
Panda,
Again like Melbourne weather, the changes are not necessarily for the better.
Wow – It didn’t take long to turn back into the Peter Vs James fiasco again…
But – being a well educated bogan – I can read between the lines… ;)
Loftie,
I have not returned his comments for a few days,untill this morning and will again continue ignoring him mostly.
I do ultimately run out of patience taht every comment I make replying to anyone about anything brings this vituperous tirade from him.I do not feel obligated to simply stop visiting this site because of him as one it is unfare and two it would only be a matter of days and he will turn his atterntion on others.
Sad but true.
Yawn!
The Bogan has 2 responses to interest rate fluctuations,
(Is anyone on reality tv called The Fluctuation)
Rates go down, Equity Mate.
Rates go up, refinance.
Both are free, aren’t they?
I believe that was the Storm Financial business model.
That worked a treat.
I know very little about economics so I shall keep my mouth shut here. Good day to you all.
This is more or less just a repeat of what’s been said, with the addition that apparently those who whinge about high house prices are bogans. Correction, those that think low interest rates would make for more affordable houses are bogans. Which is not me. Raise the f#ck out of them I say, which would amount to 0.5-1%, which isn’t much at all but given the bogans’ appetite for debt it would annihilate swathes of them.
They don’t need to go up martin, the damage is already done.
“High debt at low interest rates is harder to pay off than low debt at high interest rates.”
I don’t know who said that. Someone did.
It would appear that I am one of the newer posters.
Haven’t i seen you here plenty of times before?
Doesn’t matter, we need fresh blood in the mix.
hasn’t this been done before ….. or am I getting confused with earlier post about the A$
It appeared in different format on our Macrobusiness blog…could be that? TBL
Bloody! Interest rates on hold?! Again?! Sh#t! Bloody! Feelings of indifference and ambivalence! Them makes me angry!
C’mere, Glenn Stevens!
*glass*
Hold that, nudenut!
What the f#ck’re you lookin’ at, RBA deputies?!
Buncha pasty pricks… Take yez all on…
Poor Glenn Stevens. Maybe the extra n in Glenn gives him his resolve.
Either way there’s a solid portion of people who thinks he’s a pussy. Well I think he’s a pussy. Bogans think he’s a bastard child of the Freemasons and Illuminati for not reducing them.
Bah!
That blasted extra “n”… mocking us hardworking Aussie battler types with typical central bank innefficienncy…
Or maybe it’s so people won’t mistake him for some pleasant, leafy suburb in Melbourne’s east.
How many Duthies would you think are listed in the telephone book ? I noticed an Amanda Duthie listed in the credits of Spicks and Specks (as an Assistant Producer, I think).
Fi,
There are 218 listed for the whole of Australia if that helps ?
As for Glenn 20, well he obviously has 19 rellies on hand to take up the slack ?
Be very hard to say he’s “on the nose”
I was thinking of Kim Duthie, “the Saint Kilda schoolgirl”, and wondering if there were a connection. All in keeping with a theme of bogan-ology.
Word is Duthie’s management is armpit-deep in negotiations with Raquel Moore’s people about the possibility of getting the two young ladies together for a red-hot faux lesbian porn DVD.
The downward-spiraling Max Markson, whose suction-cupped mitts are connected to the project, is currently casting for the part of homme-bogue meat in the femme-bogue sannitch… and he’s not above taking suggestions…
Well Todd Carney is out of a job.
Bogan hero to boot.
And, because I’m travelling interstate tomorrow, I’m bringing you a nice early episode of …
THE BOGUE & BOGUETTE SHOW!!!
And this week – we explore Boguette’s nastier side – and we discover an unlikely hero!
http://bogueandboguetteshow.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/episode-34-feline-fracas/
Panda,
Money has had no intrinsic value since we abandoned the glod standard.
All part of the softcock concept of world trade benefits everyone , a delusion for the masses to believe in so the bankers can make money until every now and then we have a depression , always unexpected ( note economic forcasters cant) and always with millions of poor people in poor countries starving. The good things about depressions is that a goodly number of the causative agents jump off tall buildings(something economic forcasters can)
Check what the prices of all the precious metals have been doing Gold Silve Platinium. now that is real money.
Too right James & as an aside it seems as if the product has actually out-performed the share price of the producers.
“for a new bookshelf from IKEA, ”
That can’t be right. The bogans I know don’t own any books.
See #36
James Hunter said “Money has had no intrinsic value since we abandoned the glod standard. All part of the softcock concept…a delusion…until every now and then we have a depression”
You know, the depth of ignorance in this statement is so deep it’s hard to know where to start. Perhaps all I need do is point out that depressions (including the Great Depression) happened when the world was on the gold standard.
dendy,
I did not actually say that the depression was before or after the dumping of the gold standard though I can see that a superficial reading of what I did say could be so construed.
I will attempt for you to separate concepts and address the whole matter of posting in a much more didactic fashion.
Sorry , have to rush off to hang myself.