G'Day From Downunder

You get the kettle on for the cup of tea and I'll get a ball of twine and try to pull myself together.

The sad news out of Australia last week was the death of Sam the now world famous and well loved Koala who was badly burned in the hellish bush fires we had here early this year.

Poor Sam survived the scorching fires and then to be crippled by a disease they call Chlamydia. Sadly this disease is rife among the Koalas, it is a bacterium that infects a wide range of animals and is considered to be the main pathogen of Koalas; it causes chronic infections in their urogenital track and the respiratory track, it can cause infertility, blindness and ultimately death. (There's a human version too.)

Never in my thirty-five years in Australia have I seen such an out-pouring of grief for an animal as for little Sam. You may recall from my report on the bush fires that there was a picture of her; it's here again to jog your memory. She was accepting a drink of water from a fire fighter and she then became an instant national, if not international, icon. She is to be preserved as a symbol of hope at the hands of a taxidermist.

Some weeks back I watched a documentary on TV called The Ascent of Money and first thing next morning I went and bought the DVD of the series. It's a BBC UK release for 'Chimerica Media'. This is a must see for everyone who has two cents to rub together. It is brilliantly put together and it explains everything and anything about the finance world and its history in simple everyday language.

If you don't buy this DVD and you get burned again in the next money meltdown you will only have yourself to blame. I promise you it will be the best thing you ever bought I kid you not. Don't be fooled, financial disasters will come again. As always people will move on, greed will become rampant again and they will all forget what caused the last disaster. Remember my previous words, 'when the party is on and everyone is having a good time they don't think of tomorrow's hangover'.

When you watch this gem of a DVD and see how stupid some of those so called finance gurus are, you wouldn't give them the time of day, never mind giving them your money.

It confirms what I have been saying for years, most of them 'egg heads in three thousand suits' play monopoly with your money and they have no relevant experience. Those textbook geniuses only work on numbers with no regard for you, the investor. Now if that isn't enough to scare the pants off you there is also a documentary called Ten Trillion and Counting and I promise you this will send you to the John with a severe case of the trots.

Ten Trillion and Counting is about the USA deficit, this is also essential viewing not only for you but for your children and grandchildren, for they need to know what the future holds for them. It exposes the idiotic decisions of governments past. I reckon those three thousand dollar suit guys should be made to put their money where their mouths are and disclose to their clients where their own assets are invested before they tell clients what to do with theirs and boy oh boy wouldn't that be a hoot!

I bet my ass that in most cases you, the investor, have much more money and if not, certainly more brains than the idiot who is giving you the advice; and as for politicians, they should be made to do an IQ test because I believe most are as thick as bricks.

Look at the financial state of the world now; I think it's called a case of the blind leading the blind. Don't tell me this was caused by bus drivers or window cleaners, of course not! As I have said many times before it was caused by those over educated idiotic egg heads who are lacking practical experience and are prouncing around in their three thousand suits with one hand in politicians pocket and the other on your money, you the trustworthy investor. USA may have lead the charge but you will not be surprised to hear that the situation is similar, if not quite as bad, in Australia.

Of course, what goes down must eventually go up again. The 'experts' who failed to predict the crash have also failed to predict the partial recovery we are seeing now. They were probably shopping for new three thousand dollar suits!

What does it matter to them if the cost of living goes up? If it does go up the government gets more money in taxes and the so called financial gurus just charge it to the company account. They eat at the Ritz and you, the ever poor sucker, pick up the check. Not a feel good situation now is it?

I am sure most of you who read my regular column will be well aware that I have a great disdain for the finance industry and for politicians. To be honest, if I had my way I would put them all on a shuttle to Mars with only enough fuel for a one way journey. I'd better cut off here and change the subject before I let them buggers drive me mad and then I will be driving you mad.

Let me draw in some fresh air and get the foul taste out of my mouth. Okay, off we go again...

There are celebrations here after the Australian Soccer Team humbled the Irish 3-0 in Limerick. Ironically the goals were scored by two lads with Irish names Tim Cahill scored two and David Carney got the other in the 93rd minute; this result was way beyond Australian expectations as they had only beaten very sub standard teams in their World Cup qualifying.

Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek said the game produced the right result even if the score line was slightly flattering. He thought the 3-0 score line was too much. That's the first time I've ever heard a winning coach complain that his team scored too many. When I first heard the coach's comment "we won by too many" I thought the score must have been 36-nil or something like that but no, a modest 3-nil; but still a shock surprise win for the Aussies.

It doesn't say a lot about Ireland's chances of qualifying for the World Cup if they couldn't beat a team who only qualified by beating very second rate teams to qualify.

Ireland is going to have to improve dramatically if they have any hope of going to South Africa in 2010. It's going to be an interesting situation this time in Ireland for the throngs of travelling die hard fans if they do happen to qualify.

I know a lot of them re-mortgage their homes to travel to support the team and to have a good old booze up. This time it might be a bit difficult to re-mortgage a home in Ireland with falling house prices. It may be difficult to top up the mortgage as thousands of houses are already over financed. It smells a lot like the Fanny May and Freddie Mac Circus might soon be coming to town again only this time in Ireland, where the Celtic Tiger has stopped growling and is now limping like a lame duck with no more eggs to lay.

Meanwhile I'm off to the rugby in Sydney to see the Australian 'Wallabies' play the New Zealand 'All Blacks' and I promise you there will be sparks flying at that game as always. Then it's down the pub to celebrate or commiserate [that would be commiserate then - Ed] with friends and foe sharing a good old sing song.

Before I run off let me remind you. Please, please get your hands on the two DVDs I mentioned and you might just save yourself a fortune in the future, Don't say I didn't tell you so because I did!

Until I talk to you again soon be good to those who love you and Slainte from Downunder!