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Post by SA Hunter on Jun 21, 2018 21:35:17 GMT 10
No scare mongering here, but it is interesting that this newspaper is putting out more economic "prepare yourself" articles...... I'll let you be the judge..... Jury still out with me. THESE are the 10 simple steps every Australian can take right now to prepare themselves for a possible economic crisis. OVER the past two years, Australian economist John Adams and others have been warning of a looming global crash, based on record levels of public and private debt, ultra-low interest rates, excessive public spending and a massive housing bubble, among other indicators. www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/how-to-prepare-for-economic-armageddon/news-story/08c0ab60e4184ee2d2f3e3d199a5a803 |
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Post by Joey on Jun 22, 2018 7:38:29 GMT 10
The mining sector in Qld is slowly improving from 3yrs ago, wages are on the steady increase, even for contractors, mines are ramping up, new mines are getting developed there are 1 mega mine due to start construction next year near me(not adani) as well as 1 mothballed mine reopening next year another mothballed mine getting an overhaul of it's wash plant ready to reopen at an undisclosed time, another new underground mine about to start off in the next year or 2 and another mine spending a fist full of cash on a new extension.
This on top of the lack of skilled tradies to work in the workshops to maintain all this new gear coming online means more cash for my pocket, but it also means rent increases in my small town due to greedy landlords trying to make a quick buck, my last rent renewal the owner wanted to stiff me a $60/week increase but I managed to settle him for only 30, but I know he will increase it again at the end of the year. Looking at the real-estate websites, it seems that all the houses in town have started to go up as well, even the 40yr old original weatherboard houses that are pretty much a rats nest are priced just as much as the new houses in town for rent. Back during the minin boom it was common to find houses with the rent at $3000/week !
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Post by Peter on Jun 22, 2018 13:37:16 GMT 10
WA is stuffed at the moment - almost every business manager I've spoken with agrees that things are down by 50 - 80% (that is, some industries are now suffering through 20% of their normal turnover). Auction yards are one exception due to the current rate of repossession, and industrial repair services are another exception; many businesses are now repairing plant & machinery rather than replacing. Shops are closing at a rate I've never seen before, and too many commercial properties sit empty for extended periods.
It's extremely difficult to get finance, partly because the banks are being difficult but mostly because house values took a big hit when the mining boom ended (it wasn't technically a mining boom, rather a construction boom on the mines). Many people were stupid during the peak times; they wasted their very high incomes by a) uncontrolled spending, and b) using the income to obtain finance for luxury items which they can no longer pay for. Many people can't even sell out of their homes because the market value of the house is lower than the existing finance owing. The auction yards are thriving because of this.
We've had a lot of bad governments over here without even rudimentary economic knowledge. They continue to increase spending, and increase taxes, fees, duties, etc to pay for it. It's a disgrace.
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hd1340
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Posts: 334 
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Location: WA
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Post by hd1340 on Jun 22, 2018 14:19:51 GMT 10
WA is stuffed at the moment - almost every business manager I've spoken with agrees that things are down by 50 - 80% (that is, some industries are now suffering through 20% of their normal turnover). Auction yards are one exception due to the current rate of repossession, and industrial repair services are another exception; many businesses are now repairing plant & machinery rather than replacing. Shops are closing at a rate I've never seen before, and too many commercial properties sit empty for extended periods. It's extremely difficult to get finance, partly because the banks are being difficult but mostly because house values took a big hit when the mining boom ended (it wasn't technically a mining boom, rather a construction boom on the mines). Many people were stupid during the peak times; they wasted their very high incomes by a) uncontrolled spending, and b) using the income to obtain finance for luxury items which they can no longer pay for. Many people can't even sell out of their homes because the market value of the house is lower than the existing finance owing. The auction yards are thriving because of this. We've had a lot of bad governments over here without even rudimentary economic knowledge. They continue to increase spending, and increase taxes, fees, duties, etc to pay for it. It's a disgrace. Hearing you Peter on average the houses in the suburb in Perth I still have a house have devalued $100k from when we bought 10 years ago |
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Post by Joey on Jun 22, 2018 14:48:05 GMT 10
We've had a lot of bad governments over here without even rudimentary economic knowledge. They continue to increase spending, and increase taxes, fees, duties, etc to pay for it. It's a disgrace. Same with labor in qld, In their latest budget release they have stated they are going to start with 4 new taxes to be implemented to pay for the billions dollar stadiums they aregoing to build around the state instead of shoring up water security around the state when places like Townsville will be completely dry of water by March next year and instead of building a new dam for their water, they would rather blow $250M on a new footy stadium for them. The multiple new solar farms they are building right now in Central Q for the stupid labor renewable energy target are also earmarked for sale as soon as they are complete. The are boasting about a billion dollar increase on the budget which is solely because the coal miners exceeded their target output last year by $1B absolutely nothing to do with the government over spending but they are claiming it as theirs in typical government clap trap bullshit speak
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Post by Peter on Jun 22, 2018 16:47:46 GMT 10
Yep, don't even start me on government-funded sports stadiums. Mobs like the AFL have more than enough money to build their own stadiums (especially if co-funded with other groups like Cricket Australia). They should even be able to make it profitable.
If a stadium loses money, why the hell are taxpayers funding it? As someone who couldn't care less about team sports I hate seeing my taxes stolen to fund this nonsense.
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Post by spinifex on Jun 22, 2018 17:38:13 GMT 10
Government is doing an excellent job of propping up the construction industry.  Our town just had a recent and very expensive hospital upgrade and extension. Millions spent on construction. Guess what? We still have a 3-4 week waiting list IN that new hospital for ultrasounds because the same government won't pay for extra radiology STAFF to provide the actual SERVICES we go there for.  But hey ... we get to look at a nice flash building while we wait.  Meanwhile the construction business owners can afford the latest model Riviera Cruiser and Imported luxury cars. And when they need a medical service they have the cash from their construction contracts to afford to fly to Adelaide to get it done.  Don't get me started on the mega-spend on building the new Royal Adelaide Hospital ... again ... classic case of plenty to spend on buildings while they about paying for the STAFF to run the place and try and cut their numbers whenever possible.  I think I'll go and have a nice rum and burn some pallets in the back paddock now ...  |
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Post by SA Hunter on Jun 22, 2018 19:20:11 GMT 10
Government is doing an excellent job of propping up the construction industry. Our town just had a recent and very expensive hospital upgrade and extension. Millions spent on construction. Guess what? We still have a 3-4 week waiting list IN that new hospital for ultrasounds because the same government won't pay for extra radiology STAFF to provide the actual SERVICES we go there for. But hey ... we get to look at a nice flash building while we wait. Meanwhile the construction business owners can afford the latest model Riviera Cruiser and Imported luxury cars. And when they need a medical service they have the cash from their construction contracts to afford to fly to Adelaide to get it done. Don't get me started on the mega-spend on building the new Royal Adelaide Hospital ... again ... classic case of plenty to spend on buildings while they @#$% about paying for the STAFF to run the place and try and cut their numbers whenever possible. I think I'll go and have a nice rum and burn some pallets in the back paddock now ... Yes, same said hospital looks very nice, and since the upgrade has........... 0 more beds!!!!! I'll pass on the Rum for a JD, and I have plenty of pallets too! |
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Post by jonasparker on Jun 28, 2018 6:30:07 GMT 10
To answer your question: pay off your mortgage, get fractional foreign gold coins, silver coins, and lots of storage foods.
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Post by Peter on Jun 28, 2018 23:27:50 GMT 10
To answer your question: pay off your mortgage, get fractional foreign gold coins, silver coins, and lots of storage foods. Mortgage paid off, and lots of stored foods (and incidental items) here. I continue to question the value of precious metals/coins in Australia, as the average person has no clue of their worth. I hope this doesn't start another debate on the issue... |
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Beno
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Post by Beno on Jul 1, 2018 9:24:03 GMT 10
after paying off mortgage it would be beneficial to have a savings stash to pay for a few years of bills incase of financial collapse, that way you have a better chance of keeping your house and rebuilding life afterwards.
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fei
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Post by fei on Jul 5, 2018 20:02:57 GMT 10
I continue to question the value of precious metals/coins in Australia, as the average person has no clue of their worth. I hope this doesn't start another debate on the issue... Not sure about the average Anglo Pete, but many people from Asia (especially China, India and SEA) can tell you the price of gold off the top of their head. Many people in my wife's extended family all wear chunky 24k gold necklaces - partly as a way off showing off their wealth, but also because family lore points to it coming in handy if a ready source of cash is needed (ie. to bribe a cop). |
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Post by spinifex on Jul 5, 2018 20:23:09 GMT 10
Just wondering Fei, how do folks over in China assess the metal? As in decide wether it's 24K, 18K, 9K etc? And does silver or any other commodity figure strongly in Chinese minds when it comes to spreading risk away from holding currency?
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fei
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Post by fei on Jul 5, 2018 20:32:42 GMT 10
Just wondering Fei, how do folks over in China assess the metal? As in decide wether it's 24K, 18K, 9K etc? And does silver or any other commodity figure strongly in Chinese minds when it comes to spreading risk away from holding currency? All jewellery is 24k / 99.999% gold. Years ago I bought my wife a 12k ring in Aus. MIL wasn't impressed and wanted to know why I was so cheap, as "everybody" only buys 24k in China and she couldn't believe that no-one does in Australia. My wife's grandpa left all his grand kids a few solid silver coins from the 1920s "as an investment". I'm not sure where my wife's are, but none of her cousins were impressed with them and didn't want anything worth so little. Having said that, we do have a range of gold and silver in various forms, although mainly jewellery. |
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Post by Peter on Jul 5, 2018 21:52:40 GMT 10
I continue to question the value of precious metals/coins in Australia, as the average person has no clue of their worth. I hope this doesn't start another debate on the issue... Not sure about the average Anglo Pete, but many people from Asia (especially China, India and SEA) can tell you the price of gold off the top of their head. Many people in my wife's extended family all wear chunky 24k gold necklaces - partly as a way off showing off their wealth, but also because family lore points to it coming in handy if a ready source of cash is needed (ie. to bribe a cop). True on all points AFAIK. I have Chinese friends who received so many gold items - and as you say, all 24k - as wedding gifts that some have bought safes and/or hold safe boxes at banks to store them. Some have as much as AUD40k in gold stowed away. In direct contrast, for our wedding Mrs Pete and I received kitchenware, dining ware, and novelty crap. |
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Post by spinifex on Jul 6, 2018 19:01:40 GMT 10
Just wondering Fei, how do folks over in China assess the metal? As in decide wether it's 24K, 18K, 9K etc? And does silver or any other commodity figure strongly in Chinese minds when it comes to spreading risk away from holding currency? All jewellery is 24k / 99.999% gold. Years ago I bought my wife a 12k ring in Aus. MIL wasn't impressed and wanted to know why I was so cheap, as "everybody" only buys 24k in China and she couldn't believe that no-one does in Australia. My wife's grandpa left all his grand kids a few solid silver coins from the 1920s "as an investment". I'm not sure where my wife's are, but none of her cousins were impressed with them and didn't want anything worth so little. Having said that, we do have a range of gold and silver in various forms, although mainly jewellery. Yeah ... but how do they know it's all 24k? How hard is it to fake it? Is there a test of some kind to make sure? There seem to be plenty of cases of fraudulent bullion getting into circulation over the last decade. Was only discovered by drilling the ingots/coins to see what was inside. In some cases small 1oz ingots have been faked too. |
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fei
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Post by fei on Jul 7, 2018 13:31:06 GMT 10
All jewellery is 24k / 99.999% gold. Years ago I bought my wife a 12k ring in Aus. MIL wasn't impressed and wanted to know why I was so cheap, as "everybody" only buys 24k in China and she couldn't believe that no-one does in Australia. My wife's grandpa left all his grand kids a few solid silver coins from the 1920s "as an investment". I'm not sure where my wife's are, but none of her cousins were impressed with them and didn't want anything worth so little. Having said that, we do have a range of gold and silver in various forms, although mainly jewellery. Yeah ... but how do they know it's all 24k? How hard is it to fake it? Is there a test of some kind to make sure? There seem to be plenty of cases of fraudulent bullion getting into circulation over the last decade. Was only discovered by drilling the ingots/coins to see what was inside. In some cases small 1oz ingots have been faked too. In my experience, people only buy from the big well-known jewellery chains. The most popular ones are often Hong Kong-owned, with quite a few on the HK stock exchange. People do buy bullion too, although its usually of the electronic / paper variety (ie. buy online and never see the physical gold), however that isn't so popular nowadays as there has been scams with exchanges selling the same bullion to multiple buyers. If you're referring to the bullion scams where ingots are found to be made of base metals and just gold plated (or even worse, gold painted), I'm sure that happens too, but you don't really here about it. |
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Post by spinifex on Jul 7, 2018 20:02:18 GMT 10
Hmmmmm ... I never thought the Chinese would be that trusting.  I know I'm not! I wonder how many alleged 24K chains etc are actually much lower purity. I did some metal testing as part of my science degree ... certainly here in Oz we found discrepancies in claimed and actual gold and silver percentages in jewelry samples. |
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spatial
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Post by spatial on Jul 14, 2018 16:52:42 GMT 10
ZeroHedge had a lot of doom porn this week. They are also publishing that the Australian housing bubble is deflating with lots of follow on consequences. It "Hit The Mortgage Market Over The Head With A Baseball Bat"www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-13/it-hit-mortgage-market-over-head-baseball-bat"There are repercussions. Lindsay David, from his perch at LF Economics, concludes the note: We stand with the view the Sydney housing bubble appears to have been pricked, and we are confident that house prices will continue to fall at a moderate to fast pace over the coming months. This should eventually have knock-on effects to the banking system and its stability and ability to maintain profits. Furthermore, we can expect the residential construction sector to feel the pressure as more developers come to the realization that there is now no real profit to be made in a falling market. In a feedback-loop economy so reliant on rising land prices, the risk of eventual job losses filtering through the Sydney economy appears to be on the increase which could easily spill into the broader Australian economy." |
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spatial
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Post by spatial on Jul 23, 2018 13:44:35 GMT 10
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Our town just had a recent and very expensive hospital upgrade and extension. Millions spent on construction.
Meanwhile the construction business owners can afford the latest model Riviera Cruiser and Imported luxury cars. And when they need a medical service they have the cash from their construction contracts to afford to fly to Adelaide to get it done. 
