The World Market

Image via Wikipedia“This created this huge bubble of debt and we’re seeing the consequences today,” Mr Tagliaferro said.

Absolutely. This hasn’t happened overnight. G7 doesn’t seem to have helped much, but then they are politicians. G20 might be better since we actually have the finance ministers together and far more countries involved, so there is some chance there will be some useful decision making. Hot air is not helping. Panic is not helping. We need a plan to help us help the world. In crisis you need a crisis management plan and you need your strategies. You need to be stemming the flow, applying the first aid and then gathering data so that you can treat the problem effectively. This article is the closest I have found to help. What we seem to be lacking is advice and suggestions to all the citizens of affected countries so that each day we can be helping the situation. Watching the stock go down, watching Wall Street, Iceland and Europe flounder is all very well. We need to be more practical. We are all jumping for joy the petrol prices have come down but that may well create some problems and in any case that hasn’t registered at the pumps. Why not? It did when the barrel price went up. So , the financial gurus have probably been consumed with the intricacies of last week. We need some of them to stand back and advise us.

Panic

Image via Wikipedia“The current situation calls for urgent and exceptional action,” finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of Seven major industrialized nations said following their meeting in Washington.

Really? So where is it then? If this is the best G7 can come up with then we need more effective leadership, don’t you think? With leadership like that we are in for a tough run and the truth is, we shall have to look after ourselves. We have done it before and we shall do it again. We have been the G7 the world needs. There are a lot of people out there who know so much and these are the people who will help stabilise the market. They won’t be talking about it, they will be doing it. And that’s the point of this exercise, isn’t it? Haven’t we leaned now that we actually need to co operate as a world to fix the damage of leaders who have taken us from one mess to another? The domino effect is starting to take place already. Doesn’t take long. Iceland is in trouble and that in turn is having an impact on things like properties in other countries. Iceland was doing really well but now it isn’t. A lot of people are going to get hurt by this because a deregulated market has some big black holes which just suck up money. Free enterprise is going to cost a lot of people dearly. Democracy is going to look rank and people will have a long hard look at human nature. The soul searching and reflection will happen but we actually need some good crisis management in place. We need to know what to do that will help. When we talk about democracy we generally mean freedom of speech, fair trade and reasonable business practices. We are finding out that deregulation and free market enterprise can wreak havoc. G7 needs to sound as though it means business and it needs to sound as though it can lead us. If not, we’ll talk to each other and sort it out. This is why it is so important to have leaders who can communicate honestly, openly and intelligently with each other.

Qantas Quandary

Image via WikipediaThe Qantas flight which dipped 200 metres in 20 seconds injured 46 passengers, 20 of them badly. From an airline which had an impeccable safety record Qantas has suddenly become a flying lemon. We didn’t want the maintenance to go offshore, but it did. It is our signature airline with a good track record, but not any more and the near misses are worrying and will obviously lose this airline business. It now makes people very concerned. You could always trust Qantas and now , with a great string of aerial mishaps too close for comfort, the image of the airline will be tainted and that’s such a sad thing. As a country we need a reliable and trusted airline and Qantas has always been it. We were proud of it as our airline. I know airlines change hands like everything these days, but Tim Tams, Vegemite , rubber thongs (for your feet!) and Qantas are all part of Australia. I hope they inspect the data from this flight very carefully. The company will have to pay dearly for this but it is not good how the Qantas flights are experiencing so many problems. This one is the most serious and I hope the investigations are meticulous and that we constantly gather data about Qantas conditions and flights. I should like to think we can get to the bottom of this properly and allow Qantas to re instate itself as our national airline.

Australian Emigration

Image via WikipediaOver 75,000 people left Australia last year, with the biggest numbers going to NZ and UK and then US, Hong Kong and Singapore. It’s hard to know why but the comments on the article tend to suggest it is work and study opportunities, housing and lifestyle which are taking people out of the country. It is bound to be complex and you cannot just take these figures on face value.Fortunately there is some pretty pertinent and broad ranging discussion on this issue and that is important. Australians have always gone overseas to work and live because it’s the way to broaden their horizons and knowledge.A lot of them come back and are currently coming back because it is better here, so they say. leaving and living elsewhere makes them realise what possibilities there are. It would be interesting to know if the percentage leaving is the same because we have a bigger population now. I don’t think they can do it to escape the HECS debt form their tertiary studies. I believe that has been stopped. Some students don’t’ actually realise what the HECS debt means and so it would come as a shock to be in that much debt at the end of a course of study.The job market is hard because a well credentialled graduate is put into the same bowl as someone who has had part time casual work and those who have a lot of industry experience trying to get the same position. Work experience is considered to be more important than learning and knowledge so graduates are not encouraged and mentored into the job market as they were before and trying to get an interview from a selection of 60 or more applicants at a mass interview is not very productive or encouraging …so yes, I can well see why the brains would be leaving us to get a better go elsewhere.