John Linton
....... said Hanrahan, In accents most forlorn, Outside the church, ere Mass began, One frosty Sunday morn - (John O'Brien).
Well its far from a frosty morn in Sydney today though Whine Swan must not have known that after his rambling, boring, pointless and just plain pig ignorant waste of time on ABC TV. It was enough to make me choke on my morning coffee. It reminds you that some of the dimmer bulbs in the Australian electorate have voted for these morons who, very, very clearly, have absolutely no idea of what is going on in either the world's or Australia's economies (understandable as neither CK nor Whine have any financial credentials or other related knowledge whatsoever) but they just have to open their stupid mouths and talk so much cr** they demonstrate that they will be a massive barrier to anyone associated with running the country who might be able to take some sensible actions.
Oh well....one good thing came out of Whine's whining this morning - Annette and I immediately used the internet to open an on line share trading account after not trading shares actively since we participated in creating Exetel as we were fairly sure that there would be no time for 'hobby' share trading and every second of every day would be needed to operate a fledgling business during its early years.
I'm sure I know less than Whine and CK and rest of the poorly aided union apparatchiks, pop singers and TV 'personalities' that masquerade as an Australian Federal Government in Canberra - but at least I invest my own money and take the responsibilities for what happens as a result and I try and do so based on a career accumulating information and then acting on that information and then testing the results of those actions before taking further actions. Something NOT ONE of the so called current "Senior Federal Ministers" can claim is the case with each one of them (is anyone else concerned that a major 'slice' of the current Federal budget is being put into the hands of a Minister of Defence who didn't finish high school?).
The President of the Russian Federation is not the first, but he is head of the largest country so far, to use the word "depression" to describe his country's financial situation. Maybe he knows what he's talking about - more probably not - but the Russian share market has fallen 60% which is quite close to the 83% in the US in July 1929. Shortly after CK's pathetic and totally uninformed rant on to Kerry O'Brien Thursday night (there is nothing wrong in Australia - our economy is in good shape etc etc) the ASX fell a record amount to a low that is 40% off the record high of a year ago.
However, and this is from another totally uninformed person so take it for what it's worth (nothing), despite the chances that the stock markets around the world will keep falling - at some point they have to stop simply because people are selling shares below the price of the actual cash and cash equivalent securities held by the companies whose shares they are selling. While the people selling may have to sell (for all sorts of reasons) there will no longer be any reason for people not to buy.
I read this while Whine was making ridiculous comment after ridiculous comment:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122368241652024977.html
It's a very incisive look at facts(?) and figures and towards the end makes this point:
"Nearly one in 10, or 876 stocks, trade below the value of their per-share holdings of cash -- an even greater proportion than Graham found in 1932. Charles Schwab Corp., to name one example, holds $27.8 billion in cash and has a total stock-market value of $21 billion."
A combination of Whine's irrational and irritating whining and the easy to understand "how to invest in a market crash for beginners" outlined in this article sent us scurrying to a computer to re-open an on line share trading account. I doubt I have any knowledge at all of how to either pick the 'bottom of this bear market" or know anything about individual companys likely future performances but I can read a balance sheet and do the simple arithmetic involved in calculating the C&E/PPS value of a company without needing a calculator and that might be a 'good start'.
Fortunately, and more by good luck than good judgement, we moved all of our superannuation out of shares and into cash 18 months ago (when we were thinking of investing in a CBD floor for Exetel) and didn't bother to move it back as we dithered and delayed and generally procrastinated. So perhaps it's time to buy back in to the share market?
The chief of the IMF, and the IMF's chief economist make some interesting observations about how far markets might still fall:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article4926584.ece
so sometime in the next week or so might be the time to buy.
One thing's for sure - there's no point expecting the current d***heads in Canberra to do anything to look after any Australian citizen - we're going to have to do it for ourselves.
PS: ...and for those that think my anti Rudd rhetoric is simply a reflection of my 'class bias' - what hope is there for that clown who vehemently insists over and over again to Kerry O'Brien on Thursday night that "there is no problem in Australia" and then turns around today (less than 72 hours later) and talks of "a serious financial crisis affecting all Australians". What a complete f***ing idiot. Did he finally read a briefing paper from one of his staff? Rudd is already the very worst prime minister this country has ever had, (in a country not known for having prime ministers of any great ability) and he gives every impression of going on to set a record of don't give a toss stupidity that will never be approached in the future. And for anyone reading this who voted Labor in the last election - don't forget he is treating you as if you were a complete idiot by thinking you won't notice his 180 degree reversal of 'position' in less than 72 hours.