Austerity has crept into our public affairs, disguised as good economic management. Mike Dowson thinks we should unmask this imposter.
Category: Financial Planning

Malcolm Fraser and John Hewson back ANU fossil fuel divestment decision
Former Liberal leaders sign open letter in support of university’s decision to divest from a number of fossil fuel companies
Dock the universities the cost of what they’ve helped block Andrew Bolt’s leftist call to socialise/ and or police and regulate university investment funds. Challenging Christopher Pyne’s call for ‘free market’ independance
“We cannot understand why a government that is committed to deregulating the university sector would question the ability of a university to make investment decisions,” the letter says.
The university has announced its offloading holdings in Iluka Resources, Independence Group, Newcrest Mining, Sandfire Resources, Oil Search, Santos and Sirius Resources for ethical reasons.
The decision represents 1% of the university’s total investment holdings.
Treasurer Joe Hockey and education minister Christopher Pyne have criticised the move.
Hewson warned against bullying from vested interests.
“The mining industry has bought this government like it bought the last one,” Hewson told ABC Radio.
The Liberal party was supposed to stand for freedom and individual choice.
“It’s a totally unjustified intervention by government,” he said.
“If I was a superannuation fund manager I would wonder how long it would be before they start instructing us where we should invest our money.”

Sounds like Abbott’s home grown terrorists are easier to spot than good financial planners. When we had sold our business and were in transition to retirement our CBA business manager turned up with a lady who was a CBA financial planner. She assured us she had our best interests at heart and would turn a profit with our newly liquidated assets. We asked for her qualifications and she said she was an agricultural scientist. I nodded and said that was good as it indicated she could do math and at least use a computer. Obviously my next question was why she thought she had our best interests at heart and could manage our money better than us.
” Because I love making a profit and love making my clients happy”
That was the best she could do.My response was that we could trump her on all counts as it had taken us 30 years of hard work to make the savings 30 years of continuous profit and that we were eager not to make a loss. Hadn’t she noticed we were too old for risky ventures and that our happiness was of far more value to us than her. We never really moved on from that point. Given the recent revelations of the CBA and it’s financial planners now I’m now quite relieved we didn’t take up her offer to be serviced.
FPA has lifted it’s professional standards we are told by Corman. The Finance Minister is telling us to forget the past and move on. Sounds awfully what a ponzi schemer would say and if bold enough would ask to start again. Why weren’t standards lifted 30 years ago the goals of financial planning have remained the same haven’t they. It’s as if the fox owns the hen house and is making lots of promises after being caught out with the umpire on side.
The coalition wants savings built on labour to be given back to Capital to manage we aren’t even invited to the board. Capital already made profit on those savings once if they lose tough luck. Capital just moves on with an oops and Corman saying that’s life. There are no manslaughter charges handed down on the suicides that have resulted in the past
Just launched is the ‘Most Trusted Register’. Planners who clients say are giving them exceptional service and performance. Planners pay nothing to be listed it’s not funded by any body or financial services firm or any association. mosttrustedadvisers.com there is also a free apple app. It all sound like betting to me. The Abbott government just wants it made easier for capital to get at our money. It still all seems like betting to me it’s about risk management. It would be far better to offer self management courses to seniors before being told to swim in a pool with a history of sharks that have in fact caused far more deaths than the real

“Climate Science is the new false god” Bolt’s repititious mantra.
It’s costing the economy by it’s inexactness. It’s unable explain or predict the untimely end of hundreds fish washed up on the ninety mile beach a few weeks ago. According to Bolt the whole science needs to be washed up. Applying Bolt’s argument of inaccuracy to all sciences first year uni students might as well drop out now.
From Physicists to Economists and everything between unless it’s cheap drop it. Believers in these inexact sciences are bowing to false gods. Luddite springs to mind. An inquiring mind is the devil’s playground. For Bolt the costs of the research and the associated courses of action suggested by it are unwarranted because what we have now isn’t broken. Imagine the lack of progress this past century had everybody taken this dropkicks advice.
Sciences aren’t about getting everything right because they don’t even Newton’s Laws have their limitations. Science is a process of inquiry to better understand the world around us. It makes mistakes and moves foward it’s not the activity of one man but a whole global community and 97% of scientists support Global Warming Theory and with it the shift to renewable energy sources and the reduction of CO2. The false god is the the stock market price of coal. The effort Bolt is putting in for Abbott is simply about not letting the price of coal drop.
Bucketing the science is akin to the church bucketing Gallileo it prevented him publishing for 100 years on the threat of excommunication. His study of weaponry was supported though. Well Abbott wants to close down the research and anything connected with it. Bolt & Jones are assigned to calling them heretics and Abbot is forcing them into change or exile to pursue their careers.
23% of our energy is now coming from sources other than coal. The wholesale price of electricity has come down. Where has the money gone? Not to us the consumers but to the retailers. Isn’t that the intelligent question. If renewables are a cleaner cheaper form of power surely it’s the way of the future. If other countries are moving away from coal as their primary energy source it won’t be worth digging out of the ground. Australian coal now costs more now than the wholesale price of electricity in India today so why would they want to buy it. Modi the new PM of India supports a move to solar solutions because he as some of the worlds most polluted cities in India. China and the US are taking similar measures. I wouldn’t advise any body to invest in it. Gina sold out of it. Glencore our biggest coal miner paid zip in tax on a $15 bill profit and was heavily subsidized. How much of the $15bill was our $$$. We have paid them to build a mine and are collecting rent they don’t need to sell product. Investors like BHP have dropped their investment in the train line to Abbott’s point Abbott’s coal selling trip to the US was an energy wasted farce. So what’s the false god COAL
Corman our Finance Minister has every faith in the science of free market economics and in particular financial service industry. A topic that Bolt doesn’t often address but supports.. Deregulation is a guarantee of success and trust the pillars holding it together. Freeing up the finance sector is Corman’s agenda . It’s making way for the secret international TPP agreement about to be signed that will make it easier for multinational companies to operate here. It’s going to safe guard their intelectual property and I assume deregulate pricing by competion. Firstly our access to generic medicines won’t be allowed pushing the price of medication up. Secondly Multinationals will be able to sue us for any loss of profit if enticed to Australia and they can’t make a proft on agreed terms. We the citizens of this Democracy aren’t allowed to know those term before signing. We know the reputation of our politicians Corman says trust us.
Deregulation of obstacles in the way of financial planners will make things grow or it might putting the chickens back in the hen house with the fox. His response to the cowboys at the CBA pillaging 4000+++ accounts was ” an old story” history and we need “to move foward and put it behind us”. Deregulation of and industry that only shuffles paper and lends money for commissions one that doesn’t produce anything other than more and more ways to shuffle money even faster for more commissions was the industry that caused the GFC. The regulations that saved us from the crash are now being removed. Corman says there are sufficient laws in place that cover the issues of corrupt managers should they arise “trust us”
The law doesn’t seem to be very helpful for the CBA clients out of pocket. Corman is telling them to “get over it, suck it up and move on”. Why are the regulations needing planners to operate in the best interests of their clients irrelevant or for them to reveal their commissions too much to ask in the name of tranparancy? Does he believe ponzi schemes or another crisis is not waiting in the wings? that planners won’t drive money where commissions are the highest. Why remove the pillars of trust? Regulation is not only there for the 10% of society but for all of us to build trust.
If the law was an equal playing field and really available ASIC may have had teeth. If legal aid was available to assist the less wealthy maybe planners wouldn’t be so cavalier. However it’s not. The “buyer beware” the caveat remains. The banks lend money, employ planners sell product and have the best & most expensive legal firms to protect them from their clients? They are an entire system of trust and non transparancy the whistle blower their biggest fear. Why has it taken the banks so long to fess up to this scandal and so slow to do anything? Macquarie bank seems uncofortable at the moment as well. Corman remains fixed on deregulation to assist the flow of money out of our accounts and into the the accounts of the top 10%. Trust is what we are told will make this work. However trust is being eroded by this false god of profit for everyone. Bolt is the maitre’d of Abbots TEA PARTY.
