The Prime Minister, John Howard, says he does not like the interest rate rise any more than any borrower.

ABC News.

I am always amused when the Prime Minstrel makes any attempt to draw himself alongside the ordinary ‘battler’ in Australian society. The man doesn’t even have a home mortgage, let alone a job which pays a pittance and falls subject to punative industrial relations legislation. Yet he sings as if he does, and is.

Amid the lowest world oil prices in 20 months, an investigation has found petrol retailers have not passed any of the relief on to consumers.

Herald Sun.

Bannerman is stunned, nay, shocked to read that oil majors haven’t been treating consumers honestly these last several months….years….decades. 

The company says it is relocating because it cannot compete with low-cost imports.

ABC News.

And this despite being the recipient of millions in taxpayer-funded government support. Bannerman wonders why, with all those millions in support, the company simply doesn’t lay off a few workers and slap AWA’s in front of the remainder. That’s the Workchoices solution, isn’t it?

The United States ambassador to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum says America must be included in any Asia-Pacific free trade agreement.

ABC News.

In a parody of the Monty Python sketch, Spanish Inquisition, it seems that absolutely nothing is to be permitted to take place on the face of the globe unless the United States is included. The US is demanding to be included in any Asia-Pacific FTA, and if it eventually is, just watch the rubbery mask come off. Thing is though, everyone expects the United States. To whinge and bitch about not getting their own way when it comes to trade negotiations, that is.

Bannerman says, Fuck ‘em! East Asia is most definitely NOT the Washington ring road.

Minutes after Australia's consumer watchdog declared oil companies had done the right thing by cutting the cost of petrol to appropriate levels, they thumbed their noses at motorists by ratcheting bowser prices up 12c yesterday.

NEWS.com.au.

Bannerman asks a question. Why is there a “normal weekly price cycle” which decrees that oil refiners make more profits at some points in the week than at others? If the Tapis market rate is trending downward, surely the retail price should do exactly the same?

Bannerman thinks something is very rotten in the state of our fuel economy.

Bannerman just finished watching the much awaited ’debate’ between Mister Millionaire, Malcolm Turnbull and Mister Greenie, Peter Garrett on 7:30 Report.

The transcript won’t be available until tomorrow morning, however one thing about the interaction stood out clearly to the Bannerman. As eloquent as Turnbull appears to be, and as well armed with notes as he clearly was, Garrett never once stooped to character assassination of his opponent as Turnbull did on at least two occasions. Bannerman also noted that while Turnbull constantly referred to notes of what Garrett allegedly said at nameless interviews with the media, Garrett issued forth with facts, figures and a well defined stand on where he and his party stand on issues such as carbon trading, climate change and alternate energies.

Less than thirty minutes spent discussing an enormously broad-ranging set of issues such as Turnbull and Garrett represent for their respective parties is hardly indicative of the strength of the proponent’s arguments or the individual’s ability to support it respectively. However, it is clear to the Bannerman just what the tactics of both are in this face-to-face style of presentation. It’s also clear just which one has the more powerful presence.

"Nick Minchin has let the cat out of the bag this morning, he’s admitted that the Future Fund will comfortably meet its target by 2020, well ahead of schedule" - Wayne Swan
ABC News Online

Well, maybe Nick did and maybe he didn’t allow the feline freedom. This is politics at it’s most desperate. It’s "he said", "no I didn’t" type of stuff you’d normally hear in a junior school yard.

So, the RBA has left interest rates alone. For the time being. Was it the right decision for today's economy, where disposible income is almost entirely absorbed in debt maintenance? Where a balance of trade deficit continues to exist despite a supposedly booming economy?

"We're not about winning elections in a year, we're about winning debates over a decade. The conservative ideas experiment has been tried and it's failed. They've left Australia with fragile prosperity based on a boom, far too many kids left behind, a changing climate, a divided culture and knee-jerk responses to real security threats." - Michael Cooney, Policy Director, Per Capita Thinktank

PM credits IR laws for jobs surge - National - smh.com.au

"I do believe, after a year - and a year in which 276,000 new jobs have been created - it is reasonable to assert that one of the contributions made to this spectacular growth in employment has been the removal of the unfair-dismissal provisions under Work Choices," - Little Johnny Howler

Support for Labor IR plans

"It is not possible to see how any of the major announcements are a forward step for jobs or productivity from where we are today,"

According to today's Fin Review, yet another property development and investment entity is poised to go under.

In a word....unimpressed. That's my impression of Peter Costello's 12th budget delivery.

Watching the ABC production 'Bastard Boys' last night, I couldn't help but wonder at the timing of the screening.

Are you wondering, as I'm wondering, just why the price of petrol at the bowser keeps going up & up, while politicians continue to tell us how strong our economy is?

Mortgage repayments Hit New Record High
As someone who works within the Australian finance industry, I'm always alert to news and events which appear in my morning mail alert from Plugger.

The Labor push on groceries follows campaigns on a range of hip-pocket themes, including the high costs of fuel and childcare.

(via News from Australia and around the world online | NEWS.com.au)

Populism? Yes, probably, but consider this. Wages demands are just around the corner especially with cost of living increases escalating as they are currently doing.

Mr McFarlane does not believe regulation is needed in Australia, saying competition will bring the fees down.

(via ABC Online)

"What I know is, we’re up against a very clever politician, a very cunning politician," - Kevin Rudd on John Howard
Poll-driven PM’s ’given up governing’: Rudd - National - theage.com.au

Reserve Bank Governor, Glenn Stevens, announced this morning that the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia believed they'd held off on raising interest rates long enough, and intimated that they were quite concerned at the potential in the Australian economy for a fall in growth to negative returns.

RBA Governor Glenn Stevens said he had no reservations about tightening monetary policy following its August Board meeting, despite the recent escalation in financial market volatility. Indeed, the key phrase from the opening statement in our view was this:

Roll up! Roll up!
You want uranium? Well, buddy....do we have a deal for you!

Remember what I wrote earlier this week in regard to the finance industry's non-conforming lenders?

John Symons, CEO of Aussie Home Loans, stated earlier this week that in the shadow of the US sub-prime mortgage meltdown, some re-pricing of risk in the Australian, if not the world financial marketplace would result.

Live for today, people! That's the general message being touted by financial institutions and so-called financial advisors, according to this site I came across in the morning news mail. I'll be bookmarking this site as it seems to have some interesting commentary on matter fiscal.

Over the fold is a brief I received via email from the Senior Economist, Macquarie Bank. A new turn of events in regard to the RBA's domestic lending activities, and a sound indicator that alert bells, while not stridently ringing yet, are starting to tinkle. Recession is still not out of Australia's future.

Great word that, isn't it? Pusillanimity. Perfectly describes the current attitude by fuel companies to price structures while the ACCC Public Inquiry into the Price of Unleaded Petrol is running.

What are petrol prices doing in your neck of the woods? In mine, unleaded fuel hasn't moved awhisker for well over a week now. I filled last Tuesday at 105.9¢/l and noted this morning it's exactly the same. It's been that price now since last Sunday, as I recall. Mind you, Distillate is going through the roof, but there's no public inquiry into distillate pricing, is there?

Better get in for your chop, dearest reader, before the public hearings end. Ballarat is the last one, this coming Thursday. You can bet your bippy that once the public face of the inquiry vanishes, so will the inertia of unleaded fuel prices. Results won't be made public until October 15, and I'll bet my lefty nothing untoward will be found.

Remember, earlier this week, I warned about the strange absence of the so-called fuel cycle? Fuel prices in Queensland leapt $0.20/l on Wednesday and haven't budged a cent since then. How absolutely coincidental that third semester school vacations start tomorrow.

ACCC? Who or what is that, exactly?

There's a very interesting post on Troppo by Nicholas Gruen which is attracting some equally interesting commentary. It's a boring subject. Money, and the administration of it by supposed predatory lenders.

Let's take a gander at just what Glenn Stevens had to say on behalf of the Reserve Bank of Australia board yesterday.
over the fold...

As a subscribed member of Getup!, that relatively newly created think-tank and public activism group, I've received a couple of emails promoting a program of public submission to Treasury to do with just how I'd like to see my taxes spent by government.

It’s a play on words, a political mechanism, and hopefully a means of Government actually achieving something positive in policy direction for the longer term benefit of Australia.

Political opportunist, Steven Fielding, has come out claiming

"it's about time the Rudd Government really got a handle on this issue by cutting petrol tax"

The expected norm when the Reserve Bank of Australia exercises monetary policy is for banking houses to mirror the increased cost of funds by raising appropriate retail lending rates. That's 'mirror', which means to pass on whatever the rise was to customers through their contracted interest rates. Of course, anyone who has ever read a loan agreement will realise that lenders in Australia can lawfully charge whatever they please in interest rate terms. The simple fact that we expect only to bear the RBA rise in rates, doesn't mean we actually get the RBA rise in rates.

Today's rise in housing rates by the Commonfilth Bank departs from the expected norm in a somewhat troublesome manner. Clearly, what this 0.05% higher rise than that decided upon by the RBA says that the CBA under-estimated their losses during the October-November period of 2007, when the first tranche of sub-prime mortgage losses were felt by lenders in Australia, and the 0.10% increase applied by the CBA in January wasn't sufficient to recoup those losses. The question which arises is this. Is it ethical of the bank to adopt a bloody-minded attitude which says, "fuck you, borrower.....read your loan agreement!"?

The cure for such attitudes is regulation, and I seriously doubt whether any government of any persuasion would ever head down that road. The other option, which remains open to all borrowers at any time, be they business, commercial or retail home borrowers, is to fixed their lending interest rates. I did, several months ago. If you're smart, especially on a home loan, you'll do the same. Leaving one's self open to the whims and fancies of the financial marketplace is a prime example of caveat emptor.

This is an interesting article and harkens back to past posts I've made on the credit crunch and finance industry in Australia.

Another twenty-five basis points today added to the 'cash rate' by which the RBA monitors Australia's economic need to grow or slow.

Today's editorial in the Oz highlights, for me, a couple of things.

Is the JSF, F-35, which Australia has already committed some A$16m to as an international partner along with 8 other countries, going to wind up being another long-winded, expensive F-111 exercise?

Anyone who believes that supermarket chains are in the petrol game for any other reason than to boost bottom line profits, must also believe that politicians never tell lies and Santa Claus is real.

Stagflation. Coined in 1965 by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, intended to describe an economic phenomenon whereby inflation rises while economic growth stagnates, or even recedes.

Today, Honda Motor Company announced, what I believe, will be the next generation after fossil fuel powered road transport. The hydrogen fuel cell powered motor vehicle, which in it's current incarnation, Honda call FCX Clarity.

Apropos of yesterday's post on alternatively powered motor vehicles, I thought I'd make a point about something which rolled into my Inbox today, courtesy of one of my brokers.

"Fuelwatch is about empowering the consumer. If there's going to be a price hike tomorrow, you will know about it ... and you will know where to buy petrol and how to avoid the price hike" - Graeme Samuel from this article in today's Fin Review.

Nothing much in the news today, so it's back to banging on about the price of petrol

I spotted this in the Oz today, just before beetling off to the grindstone.