Bread and Circuses OR… The $7 Trillion Question

I was watching a video presentation last night by a very pessimistic investment advisory service to which I subscribe. They don’t exactly say to buy Gold, Guns, Toilet Paper, Tinned Food, and Banjos (well, they are pretty keen on Gold at least), but they did point out a few numbers which are a little more …

Skin in the game – putting a toe back in

The share market’s ups and downs fascinate me, and have ever since I got my first minuscule parcel of Mayne Nickless shares almost 24 years ago. Staying out of the market bugs me a lot – it is like not having any red wine in the house, a state of affairs which is quite askew. …

Wikipedia’s Fake News about the Pandemic?

I have two sources I read regularly about the pandemic. One is the news.com.au website and the other is the wikipedia page on the corona virus pandemic. I have noticed an interesting discrepancy. As of a minute or so ago, the News site says that there are 189,633 cases in the USA, and 4,864 cases …

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 …