Simple and Sustainable Forums: Bernard L. Madoff - Viewing Profile - Simple and Sustainable Forums

The RBA said yesterday assets have fallen by $40,000 per household in the last year.

No wonder everyone is now saving over ten percent of their incomes and slashing mortgage balances with grim determination.

The economy, which usually steers like an oil tanker, has turned on a dime.

We were spending about 103 per cent of incomes, pinching off some of the strong rises in home prices and balancing this with borrowings.

What happened? Falling land prices.

Two more signs surfaced today that suggest Australia is headed for if not in recession.

Australia Service Index Components

Index sank to 46.7 from 51.9
Selling prices fell to 44.2 from 46.9
Employment measure slid to 47.5 from 51.2
Sales declined to 47.5 from 49.4
New orders plunged to 45.6 from 54.1
Wages indicator dipped to 57.7 from 57.8


This is nothing short of an absolute disaster. That wages have held up is not good news either. Think retailers or any other service industries will be hiring? If so, think again.

Bleakest of Views From Retail Shops

Retail and Housing Bloodbath Coming Up

There is so much misguided drivel in the article that I hardly know where to start.

Here is some nonsense about a shopper's sweet spot: "For shoppers, it's something of a sweet spot. They've never had it so good. The $100 you spend in a supermarket buys you about 5 per cent more in goods than it did a year ago."

Retail prices in Australia are absurd (indeed, think wildebeeste crossed with an ostrich). A 5% reduction in prices is hardly a bargain. As for the notion mining will carry the economy, forget about it. Commodity prices are going to plunge, and besides, commodities are not a big driver of jobs anyway (indeed, but the ostbeeste believes the Coal industry in Moronbah is making him rich in North Melbourne, he'll realise too late and scream why didn't resources save me on ACA/TT).

There is no "floor" under retail. The bottom is going to fall out, and unemployment is going to soar. In turn, rising unemployment will clobber Australia's already deep-in-trouble housing sector.(you can smell it now)

As for small shops, they are completely doomed. Store owners with little leeway on wages will not get the income they need to pay taxes, interest, utilities, and rent.(yep)

Expect an across the board retail and housing bloodbath because one is coming.(tick tock tick tock)

A 55-bedroom hotel overlooking Donegal Bay, which was once on the market for €4.5 million, has sold at an auction of distressed property for €650,000.

The Sandhouse Hotel in the popular seaside resort of Rossnowlagh had been billed as the star lot in today’s Allsop/Space auction in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel.

However, the hotel, which was put on the market by direction of its liquidator KPMG, attracted considerably less interest than expected.

After a short bidding race, the property sold for its reserve price of €650,000, a fraction of what its former owners thought it was worth at the height of the boom.

The picturesque property was bought by the hotel’s current manager Paul Diver, who has managed the hotel for the last 20 years. “I just can’t believe it. It’s a total adrenaline rush. It’s been a long, long road but we’ve made it.”

When asked if he was surprised by the lack of interest, Mr Diver quipped: “No, I was delighted”