Disk Smith 2.0

Sounds like he's becoming Dick Smith 2.0
- https://www.theage.com.au/national/fair-dinkum-power-pm-inspires-atlassian-co-founder-to-create-pro-renewables-brand-20181031-p50d69.html

Good on him, we need more successful founders to shake up the status quo in Australia.

Spouses of H-1B visas banned from working

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2018/10/19/spouses-of-h-1b-visa-holders-banned-from-working.html

As a spouse who came to the USA on a spousal visa (I was on a L2 as part of my wifes intra-company L1) i find this very short sighted on the part of the President.

However.....since when has that ever stopped him making bad mistakes.

(BTW signing up for a greencard is a terrible idea....make sure you google "Heart Taxation Act" or click here http://bit.ly/HeartTaxationAct to understand the issues around going down this path).

Sydney traffic

Proof yet again we need more subway underground railways in Sydney.....yes they are expensive.....but until we do - living in Sydney is only going to suck more an more

- http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-15/traffic-congestion-australian-automobile-association-report/10376444

(and no- sorry these toy trams that they put out to the uni dont count- absolutely ridiculous).

First Man

Jodie and i just watched First Man https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213641/



Congratulations to Ryan Gosling. We weren't actually planning on seeing this at the movies and ended up watching it by accident. But very glad we did as it was an amazing piece of true cinema art.

Very interesting watching this 50 years later in a time when we are just on the cusp of "space tourism" in that it shows the gritty true engineering nature of space flight.



I came across this review - perfectly accurate.

"First Man" is so immersive in its glitchy, hurtling, melting-metal authenticity that it makes a space drama like "Apollo 13" look like a puppet show.
- https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/first-man-review-ryan-gosling-damien-chazelle-1202920157/

Bloomberg SuperMicro article

Reading this my thinking is huh? Whats the big deal - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies  


I'm not sure if the Bloomberg reporter either doesn't understand the technology OR its a govt led PR propaganda piece they are making out this was a hack, its simply management access "out of band".


Here’s a shocker......every CPU made by Intel since the P6 in 2008 (eg Core2 Duo's and Core 2 Quads) has something very similar.

American finance websites commenting on Australian property

American finance websites commenting on Australian property.....
https://wolfstreet.com/2018/10/01/australia-sydney-melbourne-house-price-condo-unit-bubble-new-construction-supply/#comment-154939
Every housing bubble requires the connivance of the banks and their regulators, and Australia is no exception. A banking scandal of enormous proportions has partially come to light via the Royal Commission investigation



My Thoughts;
1/ Australia doesn't have jingle mail.....so borrowers are unlikely to leave banks on the hook for anything.
2/ Australia has 2 big cities and 5 country towns.....so borrowers tend not to sell because they are moving interstate for a better job.
3/ Australia only has 2 "high cost cities" eg imagine trying to work out cost of living in the USA if 50% of people lived in LA and NY......
4/ Unless you bought in the last 6 months of the peak.....you are still in the money. eg 15% up in 2017 means down 5% you are still ahead.
5/ We don't have strippers buying 5 properties (well not as many as the USA) so you wont have a Las Vegas style contagion happening in Australia.

Instead what will happen is, as banks increase mortgage rates due to RBA and out of cycle mortgage increases....hard working people will pay down their debt and reduce leverage.

Snoozefest.


Cheers,
Dean

Oh and people wanting a 40% crash so they can "get in to the market" are still going to be whining in 5 years everything is still too expensive.....