The Reformed Broker has a call to arms on his website. It's good advice for a grumpy perma-bear like myself in crisis-wracked Europe. 
Get Your **** Together
Enjoy!
Get Your **** Together
Enjoy!
Get You S*** Together
- Thread starter Graemsay
- Start date
It's probably because in the US (and UK where I am), we're three years into a downturn, and things aren't getting better. I reckon that there are going to be several more years of this too.
There's probably something in the air. Clint Eastwood's (overly sentimental) It's Halftime in America catches the same mood. (See also this rebuttal by a gold-hoarding doom and gloomer.)
Over here, wages are down, living costs are up, and there are sections of the population who are being disenfranchised.
For example, I picked up on a blog post earlier expressing an opinion that the housing market is inaccessible for Generation Y. (Incidentally, I know several people who bought houses in Brighton in the mid nineties whilst being students.) My sister, who's the same age as the author, has expressed sentiments that she'll never be able to afford to buy.
So you've got a lot of economic pain, no end in sight, and a strong chance that Europe is going to dip back into recession.
In contrast, the Australian economy is slowing, but the country's not on its back.
The piece strikes me as arguing for a need to pick yourself up and try to pull yourself out of the mess. That's not a bad sentiment.
There's probably something in the air. Clint Eastwood's (overly sentimental) It's Halftime in America catches the same mood. (See also this rebuttal by a gold-hoarding doom and gloomer.)
Over here, wages are down, living costs are up, and there are sections of the population who are being disenfranchised.
For example, I picked up on a blog post earlier expressing an opinion that the housing market is inaccessible for Generation Y. (Incidentally, I know several people who bought houses in Brighton in the mid nineties whilst being students.) My sister, who's the same age as the author, has expressed sentiments that she'll never be able to afford to buy.
So you've got a lot of economic pain, no end in sight, and a strong chance that Europe is going to dip back into recession.
In contrast, the Australian economy is slowing, but the country's not on its back.
The piece strikes me as arguing for a need to pick yourself up and try to pull yourself out of the mess. That's not a bad sentiment.
Just luck. Commodity wealth divided by low population will keep Australia, Canada and the like wealthy without the need for secondary industries. Not so the UK. I think it's inevitable that lots of western nations without commodity wealth will suffer a permanent drop in living standard as manufacturing moves elsewhere. Service industries depend on wealth to be generated initially in primary or secondary industries.
Graemsay? When you first joined here you were considering moving here? Still thinking about it? You haven't mentioned it lately?
See ya's.
I'm not convinced that the resources sector is as much of a get out of jail free card as it's reputed to be. Australia's GDP is somewhere around a trillion dollars, and mining is nearly 6% of this, around $60 billion a year.
Apple brought in $108 billion in revenues, making it nearly twice as big as the Australian resources sector. Then there's Google, Oracle, Facebook, eBay, Yahoo and Adobe all headquartered in California, and all bringing in multi-billion dollar revenues. All this in a state with a population 50% bigger than Australia's.
I'd take Silicon Valley over the Australian resources sector.
But California is still bankrupt, so maybe there's a lesson there.
I was originally planning on moving Down Under in late 2010. There have been family crises (mother's been ill, brother's been getting messily divorced), which have been the focus of my attention over the last two years, and rather screwed up my plans.
Australia is currently tempting, and I'm thinking of giving it a go later this year. I've been taking a few weeks out of work, and trying to decide where I want to go with my life, as I've not really had much direction for a while.
Apple brought in $108 billion in revenues, making it nearly twice as big as the Australian resources sector. Then there's Google, Oracle, Facebook, eBay, Yahoo and Adobe all headquartered in California, and all bringing in multi-billion dollar revenues. All this in a state with a population 50% bigger than Australia's.
I'd take Silicon Valley over the Australian resources sector.
But California is still bankrupt, so maybe there's a lesson there.
I was originally planning on moving Down Under in late 2010. There have been family crises (mother's been ill, brother's been getting messily divorced), which have been the focus of my attention over the last two years, and rather screwed up my plans.
Australia is currently tempting, and I'm thinking of giving it a go later this year. I've been taking a few weeks out of work, and trying to decide where I want to go with my life, as I've not really had much direction for a while.
I reckon your figures are a decade or more out of date. Just export earnings from energy and minerals will be $218 billion this year. Agriculture will contribute another $34 billion. And this is just exports, we obviously also consume a lot ourselves, especially food and coal, so the GDP figure will be way higher again.
http://www.daff.gov.au/abares/media...commodity-export-earnings-in-sight-or-2011-12
Energy, mineral and agricultural exports make up most of our export earnings.
But you Poms have to import food and energy and minerals. So your manufacturing industries are still vital to maintain living standards. Good luck there.
Those figures from apple are amazing.
But I'd rather commodity wealth. The world needs ever more food, energy, steel, etc, and we have it in excess. You either have it or you don't. Apple makes consumer electronics. They are the kings now, but there will be a lot of competition ahead. Manufacturing is tough in western nations as we all know. There is a billion Indians and billions of Chinese figuring out how to make the next 'apple' company.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do. And if you become an Aussie, you become part owner of trillions of dollars worth of commodities still mixed up in the dirt and divided by twenty or so million people.
See
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So if that's the only risk, and keeping up with the Joneses is not your cup a tea, all's good then, cause who cares what everyone else is doing ?
Thanks Topcropper.
I didn't realise that the resource sector was so big. It certainly makes a difference to the country's outlook.
The other attraction of Australia is that the country's fiscal position is a lot better than here in the UK. The latest edition of McKinsey's Debt and Deleveraging report puts total liabilities (household, government and business) at 507% from Britain versus 277% Down Under. That gives the government a lot more room for manoeuvre if or when things turn nasty.
(The only part of Australia's economy that's looking worse than the UK is the amount of debt held by households. And at 105% versus 98%, it doesn't strike me as being significantly worse.)
I'd prefer Silicon Valley over the Australian resources sector because it's a renewable resource. Sure, Apple is having it's moment in the sun right now, and will almost certainly fall back within a decade. But there'll be others taking its place, such as Google, Facebook, or that little company that no-one's heard of right now.
That said, Sydney has a surprisingly large number of tech start ups, at least according to the cheer-leading in the SMH. The UK is behind on this, and I suspect that a lot has to do with the banks sucking up talent.
I didn't realise that the resource sector was so big. It certainly makes a difference to the country's outlook.
The other attraction of Australia is that the country's fiscal position is a lot better than here in the UK. The latest edition of McKinsey's Debt and Deleveraging report puts total liabilities (household, government and business) at 507% from Britain versus 277% Down Under. That gives the government a lot more room for manoeuvre if or when things turn nasty.
(The only part of Australia's economy that's looking worse than the UK is the amount of debt held by households. And at 105% versus 98%, it doesn't strike me as being significantly worse.)
I'd prefer Silicon Valley over the Australian resources sector because it's a renewable resource. Sure, Apple is having it's moment in the sun right now, and will almost certainly fall back within a decade. But there'll be others taking its place, such as Google, Facebook, or that little company that no-one's heard of right now.
That said, Sydney has a surprisingly large number of tech start ups, at least according to the cheer-leading in the SMH. The UK is behind on this, and I suspect that a lot has to do with the banks sucking up talent.
Did you read the article? In no way was it about "keeping up with the Jones's".
It was about the changing face of employment, the divide between the rich and poor, about what side of the financial divide you want to be on when the dust settles.
