It occurred to me around 4pm, when I was writing my duty manager’s report for the day (I am mostly working from home, but being in the office on Wednesdays and Thursdays to cover any spot fires which might come up), that it was April 1st, and that I had not seen any April fools …
Author Archives: Ernest Zanatta
The Problem with Financial Journalists
I knew a chap at uni who later went on to become a financial journalist. We did not exactly get along well. Probably at least partly, if not mostly, my fault. But not entirely. When he got his own byline in the business pages of one or other of the Fairfax papers, I remember reading …
Entering Lockdown, well, sort of….
Much as I prefer to believe that the coronavirus pandemic is not cause for concern, things are getting weirder and weirder. Whilst we are not now in lockdown per se, we are not meant to leave our homes except to go to work/study, the doctor, the supermarket, or exercise. Work has made this a bit …
First World Problems
It’s a bit amusing to read that people are not happy about bring quarantined in five star hotels. Free of charge. It might be a lot boring, but it’s better than where I usually stay when travelling. I do hope they have plenty of books to read – I always carry a stash of books …
On The Beach?
It was through Nevil Shute borrowing the name for his 1950s post-apocalyptic novel On The Beach (which was almost immediately filmed with Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire) from a passage in the poem The Hollow Men that I first discovered T.S. Eliot when I was 15: In this last of meeting places We …
The $7500 question….
On the weekend, I did some sums. I added up all of the Federal Government’s current and promised commitments to keep the economy going and to relieve the suffering of the un and under employed during the current crisis, and then divided it by the population of Australia. It comes to about $7500 which is …
Spock and Kirk – why Economic Man is not rational
I have always considered myself, ever since I replaced my innate conservatism with more well reasoned libertarian views, a supporter of economic rationalism. I still do, for the most part, as it is both the most morally appropriate and effective model for economic thinking. But, as I get older, I see it simply as a …
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Looking to ‘Leeward’ – a eulogy for share traders
At one point today, the losses which I avoided by bailing out of the share market 20 days ago were up to $90,000. Right now, they only stand at $85,000. In other words, the one decision to get out of the share market has saved me more losses than I have made from a series …
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Qantas Frequent Flyer spams during the Corona-crisis
I am not exactly enamoured of Frequent Flyer programs. The collapse of Ansett Airlines in mid 2001 cost me almost 60,000 points, which had been earned mostly through spending on my linked credit card. Ever since then, I have made sure to cash out my credit card reward points regularly, originally as gift cards, but …
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In which I am visited by an Owl
Whilst it flew off before I could take a photo of it, I saw an owl in my gum tree in my backyard last night. Cool. I have never seen an owl in the wild before – if you can call my backyard the wild. Aside from my surprise owl visitor, I get bats and …
Lost For Words! 