The Salvation Army indicated that it will need to feed 2.2 million Australians at Christmas … all in an environment of massive earnings from royalties for the sale of our diminishing resources by these same tow governments; and the solution according to ‘the Honourable’ Karen Struthers (Minister for Community Services, Housing and Women, in a December 21st 2011 press release) … Two local bunnies MPs Peter Lawlor and Peta Kaye Croft are all for the rights of caravan park dwellers.

As we see more and more people unable to pay their electricity bills or being kicked out of their homes, it begs the question, are we turning into a state of the USA and is this the start of Aussie Trailer Trash, displaced and marginalized people unable to sink roots and no possibility to become part of a community?

Ms Struthers claims caravan park dwellers and residential park home owners and the broader community have a say, but in her press release, you can tell it’s already a done deal, the government has given up not just on these people but the greater community. She visited manufactured home parks on the Gold Coast and encouraged participants to make submissions to the recently released discussion paper on growing the industry’s future, then puts some spin on it (sugars the bullshit) by pretending that ‘it’s important home owners and support agencies join discussion on how the government can ensure sector growth while also protecting the rights of manufactured home owners; that input from industry forums and the discussion paper are vital in determining future government policy when it comes to this type of home ownership and the parks that accommodate them’.

Of course her statement that ‘it will be a growth industry’ further confirms the complete and utter failure by the Labor government/s to make housing affordable; of course politicians, their families and relatives (many now employed in government) will all live in gated areas to separate the riff-raff and growing number of homeless and marginalized trailer-trash and the pensioners (now past their productive life) from their neighbourhoods.

Yet another example of the total failure of urban planning. ‘Let them eat cake …’

However, Australia has the highest household debt to disposable income ratio in the world; even higher than America; we have big homes, bigger waistlines and the biggest debts; Australia is in the middle of its own credit boom, complete with all the social consequences and financial repercussions.

The chart doesn’t have the most recent data and it appears to show a gentle decline in the household debt-to-disposable income ratio, but since then – due to higher debts and income growth that’s not quite kept up – the ratio has turned up again. It’s around 156% today, largely thanks to the mini-boom in mortgage lending spawned by the diabolical first home owner’s grants. The Fitch Ratings chimed in with a gloomy forecast for Australians overnight; it said that rising interest rates in 2010 would trigger more home loan and commercial mortgage defaults, leading to some “deterioration” in the quality of assets that underpin mortgage-backed bonds.

Does that sound familiar to the Americans …..?

The federal government’s First Home Owners Grant and state governments’ ‘free stamp’ duty helped bolster the housing market in Australia; news stories via the main stream media are warning of rent increases, but where do they get the information?

I suspect they just make it up or make some ‘economic forecaster’s newsletter’ a story of interest.

If you leave the various stimulus packages aside, Australia is still in recession.

The Federal Reserve Bank may be oblivious to unemployment and that the growth they seek to supress – by raising interest rates to help the banks – is a Claytons growth.

While the Canadians don’t have the FHOG and side step Stamp Duty, the Conservative political have played a similar game to Captain kRudd’s only they have told the CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) to take on pretty much every home loan application.

What this has done is make the CMHC the largest sub-prime mortgage lender in the world. Apparently in an effort to prop up the real estate market in 2008 (when affordability nosedived), the Harper Conservative government directed the CMHC to approve as many high-risk borrowers as possible and to keep credit flowing.

The approval rate for these risky loans went from 33% in 2007 to 42% in 2008. By mid-2007, average equity as a share of home value was down to 6% — from 48% in 2003.

At the peak of the U.S. housing bubble, just before it burst, house prices were five times the average American income; in Canada today that ratio is 7.4:1, almost 50% higher and in Australia, the prices are nearly 10 times the average Australian’s income.

The Americans have had their cash for clunkers (also pushed for here in OZ) and there is talk of ‘white goods’ and Australians have the opportunity to borrow $10,000 interest free for 4 years if they buy goods that reduce energy consumption on the grid.

Did Rudd create the situation … no, but he has extended it; Tony Abbot (now pretending to be pro-Aboriginal with respect to the Wild Rivers legislation in Qld) as opposition won’t expose the looming disaster becasue of the ripple effect (and shooting the messenger) as the banks will again put the hooks into the taxpayers for billions of dollars in defaulted mortgages.

While foreclosures are now ‘on hold’ (after a change in legalisation) to borrowers being allowed to stay in their home and rent rather it be placed on the market immediately; this is more for the lenders than any care factor for the home buyers.

Currently I am proceeding towards an Assessors certification under the federal government’s ‘greenloan’ scheme and recently I spoke with the assistant director of TAFE Skills with the view of teaching energy eficient house design.

Now I’m going to write a seperate story on how I am working towards having a house I have designed to be at the forefront of energy efficient house design and construction for the next ‘sustainable open house in Augast 2010; however, I am finding out some really disturbing stuff like a) although the Building Code of Australia sets a minimum 5 Star ‘energy rating’, nowhere is it taught how to achive this and b) if I do design and build and energy efficient house in Queensland, I can ‘earn 10 Stars’, but you guessed it, no real tips, just generalities like (would you believe) a covered and insulated roof outside the home with a ceiling fan will earn you half a star … incredible.

There is nothing in the QBSA – this is the body responsible for all residential construction in the State – about energy efficient house design and Certifiers – whose job it is to assess the houses complying – are not trained. But I’m getting ahead of myself; this is but another example of how Labor Government (led by Auctioneering Anna – sell the State off – Bligh) is trying to decieve the public.  The first is the press release by Stephen Robertson (previously the Dr Death of Qld Health and now trying his hand at pushing the spin pill of environment down our throats) …

………………………………………………………..

Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy and Minister for Trade – The Honourable Stephen Robertson

16/10/2009

Australia’s newest solar power farm makes Windorah clean and green Australia’s newest solar farm, which is making the outback Queensland town of Windorah one of the state’s cleanest and greenest, has been officially opened. Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy Stephen Robertson said the Bligh Government project has saved more than 100 tonnes of carbon being pumped into the atmosphere. “The Windorah Solar Farm is the first of its kind in Queensland, it is generating power that would otherwise have come from a diesel-powered generator,” he said.

“The Bligh Government is developing a clean energy future for Queensland and projects such as Windorah demonstrate we are delivering on this goal.  “The project is a trial of Australian-developed technology and the Windorah site is the first time it has been integrated with a diesel power station in this way. “The Bligh Government, through Ergon Energy, has invested more than $3.5 million to build the solar farm at Windorah, supported by a $1 million investment from the Commonwealth.

“Solar energy could revolutionise the way power is produced for remote communities that are not on the national electricity grid and rely on diesel power stations feeding into small local grids. “the Windorah Solar Farm will produce around 300,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually and reduce diesel consumption in the town by more than 100,000 litres a year.

“Significantly, this will reduce the town’s carbon footprint by an estimated 300 tonnes of greenhouse gas per year.”

Mr Robertson said the solar farm uses five 14-metre diameter mirrored dishes to capture sunlight.

“It has generated more than 100,000 kiloWatt hours of clean emissions-free energy to date to help power local homes and businesses,” he said. “The giant dishes follow the sun as it tracks across the sky from sunrise to sunset. “Different combinations of dishes are used at different times, with some being parked and not used while others are generating power, depending on the needs of the town.”

While the solar farm is producing power, the town’s diesel generators operate at reduced output. At night, or when there is too much cloud for the dishes to generate power, the generators are seamlessly brought back up to sufficient capacity to supply the town’s needs. The system also includes batteries to cope with brief cloud cover without having to increase the diesel generators’ output. Modern controls and communications equipment allow for remote monitoring and control of the entire facility.

Federal funding support for major projects under the Renewable Remote Power Generation Program totals more than $50 million and has stimulated a total investment of more than $107 million in renewable generation projects around Australia.

…………………………………………………………………………

The following is an exchange between Dave Kimble and Ergon and highlights the lack of comprehension of both the government and its subiduary Ergon on ‘payback’ and what something costs in embodied energy. On the Windorah Solar Farm, which was paid for by Queensland Government ($3.5 million) plus Federal governmetn($1 million), for a 14-metre diameter mirrored dishes and CPV cells.  The population in Windorah ? 80 people !

To: GABRIEL Bashir (FN)
Subject: Windorah Solar Farm

Do you have a life-cycle energy budget for the Windorah Solar Farm project ?
Even if it omitted figures for the solar cells it would be OK.

Dave Kimble
GABRIEL Bashir (FN) wrote:
HI Dave

Yes we have made a life-cycle analysis for the Windorah solar farm.
All information that is able to be shared is on the Ergon Energy’s website.  Please see link below.

Regards

Bashir Gabriel B.E.(Mech), M.Eng.Sc.(Research), MIEAust, CPEng, NPER, RPEQ
Generation Alternative Technology Engineer      Ergon Energy
To: GABRIEL Bashir (FN)
Subject: Re: Windorah Solar Farm

Bashir,
That is not a reasonable answer.
A life-cycle analysis of an energy generating system involves drawing up an energy budget for the project, including ALL the energy inputs to the project as well as all the energy outputs over the lifetime of the project.
The energy inputs would include all the embedded energy in the materials used, and all the labour and transport used in construction at all levels.
I attach a spreadsheet published by Sydney University’s ISA team comparing various fossil and renewable technologies.
You should be able to produce something similar for your technology. If you cannot provide data for the embedded energy in the PV cells, the supplier and their surface area would be sufficient. Without this information it is not possible to compare and contrast the different technologies, and without being able to do that, your technology will never be even looked at.
So, given that you are in charge of promoting the technology, you really need to be more forthcoming.
Dave Kimble
To: Dave.Kimble
Nov 4th
Subject: RE: Windorah Solar Farm
Dave

Thanks for sharing the spreadsheet with us.  Ergon Energy do similar life-cycle analysis though not identical.

As per our webpage Ergon Energy does not sell nor market this technology.  Ergon Energy purchased the dishes from the manufacturer and as such we are an end-user.

Regards,
Bashir
……………………………………………………………………………………

And soon – if Anna Bligh gets her way – we will sell off State assets to build more infrastructure that does little more then put money in the pockets of the financial supporters of Labor, only to be sold off at some later date, like the Traverston Dam.

With about as much good judgement as (the USA’s) Alan Greenspan, he is apparently not happy with interest rates at 3% and feels they should be much higher.

Why? Because of ‘stronger-than-expected economic data and the general improvement in sentiment both in Australia and abroad’

… what a crock !
As you read this,  a consortium of loosely aligned players with a vested interest in the outcome is engineering a massive scam to rip even more money out of any already over exploited economy. So who are the players you ask (half expecting me not to out them) and is this scam being perpetrated on us deserved ?

In the Saturday Courier Mail, Irwin Stelzer erroneously suggests that economists ‘discovered problems in the housing and mortgage markets had spread to the financial sector’ [It’s like going to the toilet and discovering something in the bowl when you stand up].

The reality is the economists of the financial market – not happy with billions of dollars from gouging consumers – created the mortgage and housing problem.

The suggestion that the USA’s equivalent to Glenn Stevens (USA Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke) was doing the right thing priming the American economy with the publics money to cover the banks bad decisions, greed and poor investments is just as wrong as Glenn Stevens talking of outing up rates to put more money into the banks’ pockets here.

I don’t want to waste too much time on what Stelzer said, but he claims ‘of 47 economists responding to a survey (sic) say the recession has ended and will grow by nearly 3% by the years end’; I just cant believe how this bloke writes for the Courier Mail.

Let’s talk some facts about America, not fiction, before dropping Irwin Stelzer from the ‘something worthwhile to read’ list and his comment that ‘the housing market is showing signs of life’.

The state of California is/was the 8th largest economy in the world and one would imagine a fairly good indicator of things in the USA, yet foreclosures set a record in July 2008 that has not been eclipsed, yet in July 2009 represent a 93.3% increase; that’s right nearly double and despite fiddling with the figures and postponing sales etc, the average California foreclosure has a total loan balance of $425,134 on a home now worth $236,739.

That’s like having your feet cut off but the good news is, someone is prepared to buy your shoes.

The federal government and opposition claim the economy is too fragile to pay to save the climate or the environment, so Captain kRudd injects over $50 billion into the economy – the stimulus package – plus another $17 billion into schools etc and some $4 billion into the ‘pull the wool over our eyes’ insulation rebate.

You know our greatest strength is our ‘she’ll be right’ attitude, however, it’s also our Achilles heel, apathy here in Australia sees us with the lowest non-major political party voters. Every year we ‘forget’ what every ‘leader’ did to us and vote them in again (maybe it’s the devil you know mentality), even though genuine – non-religious – independents have been doing what the *Claytons Australian Democrats never did, keep the bastards honest.

So who are the main players using our superannuation funds, our family homes and our children’s environmental future ? Does Glenn Stevens (as head of the Reserve Bank) work at the behest of the four major banks (ANZ, CBA, NAB & Westpac), or is he doing the biding of the politicians and senior public servants or is it the corporations … is it as simple as corporations telling politicians (they funded) to enact government policy … have banks eased or tightened access to money (for us to buy now and pay off later) or is the government’s spending money they borrowed just part of the scam ?

Although Australia recorded just one negative growth quarter during the recent downturn, the previous quarter to that period was less than 0.3 growth, so if you pump $70 billion into the economy, can you honestly claim its growing and needs to be curbed ? it will be interesting to see what happens to the housing market when the First Home Owners Grant come to an end …

Politicians can pay immigrants the equivalent to the dole or whatever, as long as immigrants have money to be consumers; profitability and margins are important when it comes tho them doing business, but the public monies bucket is ‘bottomless’

The HIA are exponents in double standards and rhetoric, on one hand charging hundreds of dollars to builders to do an ineffective course in energy efficient house design and on the other, talking of the waste of money in attempting to make housing energy efficient.

It has largely escaped them that energy efficiency (using less energy) comes about entirely by houses designed and built to be comfortable; hot in summer and cold in winter homes have a high demand for energy to cool down or warm, its hardly rocket science. But it should come as no surprise that corporate sponsorship / membership to the HIA by companies that specialize in making building materials that exasperate homes less comfortable is the main motivation of this and similar groups.

Economist (long recognized as related to Sybil Fawlty, for stating the bleeding obvious)  industry groups disagree on future house prices

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/22/2522881.htm?section=justin

Well of course they’ll disagree with Steve Keen – their livelihoods are at stake. The point they fail to grasp/make is that it doesn’t matter how big the shortfall in housing or how large the population, without jobs, income and money no-one can’t buy a house.

Shantytowns around the world bear witness to this sad fact. But, The Housing Industry Association says there is currently a shortage of about 70,000 properties in Australia and it is expected to worsen by 2020.

The association’s chief executive, Chris Lamont, says the housing shortage will act to stabilise the market and could even push prices up; “That’s going to put some stickiness in respect to house prices and certainly a floor under house prices; certainly the housing market is like any other market where you have a shortage of supply but very strong demand – that acts to stabilise prices of even push prices up; and certainly what we’ve seen is a shrinking in respect to market activity but certainly no wholesale fire sales across the country.”

The New South Wales Real Estate Institute also disagrees with Professor Keen’s predictions. The institute’s president, Steve Martin, says a massive slide in the market is unlikely to happen. “It’s important to note that not only is our market underpinned by first home owners, but investors are coming back into the market and of course people in Australia want to own their own property so we have plenty of demand,” he said.

Since Rudd got in, some 40,000 first home buyers entered the market, its debatable as to what proportion of these person could have otherwise bought a home and what effect that has had with respect to pumping the prices up; however, if the FHOG ceases on July 1st in 2009, then I believe we will see a dramatic effect in the reduction of building within 12 months and rather than property prices going up – because there are less house than ‘required’, they’ll drop due to worsening affordability from the economic downturn.

People will start reversing the trend of less people per home as more people in the home equates to cost savings through sharing.

Less than 6 weeks ago – on SBS – Gerry Harvey (Harvey Norman) indicated that his personal fortune had dropped by $2 billion (no misprint, $2,000.000,000); he remarked that he saw Harvey Norman shares dropping in value and thought they were good buying, so he bought some, several weeks later he saw them even lower and bought some more; now his $3 billion was worth $1 billion.

Now I’m sure that most people would agree that Gerry Harvey would be considered an astute business man, yet, unlike the average Australian, his wealth dropped 66%.

What constituted wealth for Gerry Harvey in the context of his personal context was shares, whereas most Australians would most likely have personal property primarily and one or more investment properties. Now people who buy property as a business (land to develop and or building) aside, most people have used equity in their primary place of residence to buy, but what now that property values are starting to go down. If it weren’t for the First Home Owners Grant, the property market generally would be in the doldrums and the building industry would be working at a small percentage compared to the growth years.

On April 28th 2008, the All Ordinaries index was 5664, today (April 16th 2009) the stock market has gone up by 28 points to 3,722, a drop of 33%, so who is manipulating figures and for what purpose ?  Unemployment – in my opinion – will hit 10% by the end of 2009 (that equates to about 21% real unemployment if you remove the government smoke-screens shrouding the figures).

So what will the dead cat bounce depression do for the value of housing in Australia ? Well, I’m suggesting that if we are lucky, the average Australian wealth will be around what it was 10 years ago – about $112,00 – within 2 years. It won’t matter what Captain kRudd and Swansong do and how much money they borrow to throw at the bogey-man Depression, like the grim-reaper, he will not be sated with a diminishing value AUS$ and we will all suffer.

So if you’re after an idea of what is to come, the news article below (from America) gives an insight; I think we can work on about 7% of their figures.  The Australian Federal Government is suggesting to the banks that they assist, however, the UCCC – which was set up to protect people from home loss – will not be helpful at all in the long run, and by this I mean in the next 24 months; as you will read in the article below, President’s Obama’s Making Home Affordable Plan isn’t helping much; the main reason is that unemployed cant afford the repayments and interest on the principle and then compounding interest will snuff out any equity in a short period.

Foreclosures Soar in March, Up 44 Percent Over February’s High – Lenders End Moratoria, Opening Flood of Foreclosures; Re-Defaults and Job Losses Also Take Their Toll.  Sacramento, Calif.(BUSINESS WIRE).

Completed foreclosures hit another monthly record in March as 175,199 homes were lost to foreclosure, up 44 percent from February’s record high, according to the latest U.S. Foreclosure Index released today by ForeclosureS.com, a leading real estate information provider. The number of foreclosed properties was up dramatically from 121,756 in February. Nearly 370,000 properties have been repossessed by lenders so far this year – 18.3 of every 1,000 households – up more than 38 percent from 266,986 in the fourth quarter of 2008, the U.S. Foreclosure Index shows, and up 76 percent from 210,280 in the first quarter of 2008.

The first-quarter 2009 total is the highest quarterly total of completed foreclosures since the foreclosure crisis began. Pre-foreclosure filings – filings that could lead up to a completed foreclosure – also reached their highest quarterly level, topping 600,000 for the first time since the foreclosure crisis began. While February and March headlines boasted of government efforts to stop foreclosures, in fact March was the first month when major government-backed lenders – including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – lifted moratoria on many properties in the first week of March. Only properties eligible for modification under the Obama administration’s plan were covered by continuing foreclosure moratoria, according to statements by the two agencies.

“The floodgates of foreclosure opened with the expiration of these foreclosure freezes,” says Alexis McGee, foreclosure expert, educator, and author. “With rising unemployment, a backlog of delayed foreclosures and increasing abandonment of properties, foreclosures soared in March to levels we have not seen in this crisis.” “Hopefully, this is a short-term surge caused by months of delayed foreclosures. This is a very troubling turn after seeing some bright spots earlier this year. However, with Obama’s new Making Homes Affordable Plan now in effect we are hoping that in the near future we will see a reduction in new pre-foreclosure filings, which will help stabilize the housing markets,” McGee said.

“March’s high numbers may also be caused by defaults on previously modified loans. Earlier this month the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision reported higher and rising re-default rates on modified mortgages as part of their fourth-quarter 2008 report,” McGee added. “The report points to the fact that not all previously modified loans result in lower monthly payments, and when combined with today’s economics, the result can be catastrophic for already strapped homeowners.”  The Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable Plan is intended to help promote loan modifications by bringing debt-to-gross income ratios down to 31 percent. In short, that would allow homeowners to only spend 31 percent of their income on the mortgage, including taxes. With such low payment levels – compared to 50 percent payments as the recent norm of banks – people who get their loans modified under the new plan will be far more likely to remain in their home.

In a recent article, I wrote of the UCCC (Uniform Consumer Credit Code) that was implemented by the then Labor government to assist home-buyers and prevent the banks from arbitrarily taking possession of the family home and associated trauma of uprooting a family.

With the world economy going in an irreversible slide (it’s no good deluding ourselves), and the Great Depression (which is coming and in comparison make the one in the 30’s just a minor hiccup), we will see these statistics pale into insignificance; its small wonder that the banks are lending less – even after having their funds government guaranteed – as mortgage insurers see the writing on the wall. Would you – as a mortgage insurer knowing that property values were falling – guarantee the profitability of any bank in preference to your survival and profitability ?

[Mortgage Insurer – one who charges a premium / fee to underwrite the borrower to protect the bank from suffering a loss]

It’s well known that New Zealanders lean towards the British and we Aussies lean towards the Americans in most of our dealings in the world; they sold their workers jobs off-shore to Asian nations, so did we; they encouraged immigration (under direction of their corporate masters),  so did we, so most of the pain that the Septics are and will soon suffer, we will also.

The following article is a condensed version from [ http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22009.htm ] by Chris Hedges and separated by a line is a condensed article by Fernanda Santos [ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/nyregion/18foreclose.html?hp] titled ‘Resisting Home Evictions Becomes a Group Effort’  for a full and unabridged version, please view the full articles at the above addresses.

February 16, 2009 “Truthdig” – We – Americans – have a remarkable ability to create our own monsters from decades of meddling in the Middle East and ‘growing’ the Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaida, the Iraqi resistance movement and a resurgent Taliban and now we have trashed the world economy and destroyed the ecosystem. Washington’s new director of national intelligence, retired Admiral Dennis Blair, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee and warned that the ‘deepening economic crisis posed perhaps our gravest threat to stability and national security and could trigger a return to the violent extremism of the 1920s and 1930s.  It turns out that Wall Street, rather than Islamic jihad, has produced our most dangerous terrorists.

The Obama administration seems hell-bent on draining the blood out of the body politic and transfusing it into the corpse of our financial system; but by the time Barack Obama is done all we will be left with is a corpse and no blood and then what ? Accelerated plant and retail closures, inflation, an epidemic of bankruptcies, new rounds of foreclosures, bread lines, unemployment surpassing the levels of the Great Depression and, as Admiral Blair fears, social upheaval.

The United Nations’ International Labor Organization estimates that some 50 million workers will lose their jobs worldwide this year; the collapse has already seen 3.6 million lost jobs in the United States. The International Monetary Fund’s prediction for global economic growth in 2009 is 0.5 percent (which is more wishful thinking than anything else), the worst since World War II.  2.3 million properties in the United States received a default notice or were repossessed last year (2008) and the number is set to rise in 2009, especially as vacant commercial real estate begins to be foreclosed. About 20,000 major global banks collapsed, were sold or were nationalized in 2008 and an estimated 62,000 U.S. companies expected to shut down this year and unemployment (when you add people no longer looking for jobs and part-time workers who cannot find full-time employment) is close to 14% not 7% as quoted by government figures.

Trying to spend one’s way out of debts just won’t work; the manufacturing sector in the United States has been destroyed by globalization; consumers, thanks to credit card companies and easy lines of credit, are $14 trillion in debt in the USA and some Aus$8 billion in Australia. Both the American and Australian governments are pledging trillion$ toward the crisis, most of it borrowed or printed in the form of new money in ‘stimulus packages’ and the big bucket with a gigantic hole that bankrupted the USSR. And no one states the obvious; we will never be able to pay these loans back; let our kids worry about it. There is no coherent and realistic plan, one built around our severe limitations, to stanch the bleeding or ameliorate the mounting deprivations we will suffer as citizens.

Then contrast this with the ‘national security’ strategies to crush potential civil unrest and you get a glimpse of the future; it doesn’t look good.  Retired Admiral Blair said ‘the primary near-term security concern of the United States is the global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications; the crisis has been ongoing for over a year, and economists are divided over whether and when we could hit bottom; some even fear that the recession could further deepen and reach the level of the Great Depression and of course, all of us recall the dramatic political consequences wrought by the economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe, the instability, and high levels of violent extremism and ensuing wars’.

The spectre of social unrest was raised at the U.S. Army War College in November in a report titled The military must be prepared, the document warned, for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,” which could be provoked by unforeseen economic collapse, purposeful domestic resistance, pervasive public health emergencies or loss of functioning political and legal order; and widespread civil violence, would force the defence establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security’. Translated; the government will use its troops (some battle hardened) to contain the civilian population.

Adm. Blair went on to warn the Senate that ‘roughly a quarter of the countries in the world have already experienced low-level instability such as government changes because of the current slowdown; of “bulk of anti-state demonstrations” internationally in Europe and even the former Soviet Union, but this did not mean they could not spread to the United States; much of Latin America, the former Soviet Union states and sub-Saharan African nations lacked sufficient cash reserves, access to international aid or credit, or other coping mechanisms’. He went on to say that as the economic unravelling accelerates, we will be told it is not the bearded Islamic extremists (although those in power will drag them out of the Halloween closet when they need to give us an exotic shock), but instead the domestic riffraff, environmentalists, anarchists, unions and enraged members of our dispossessed working class who threaten us. Crime, as it always does in times of turmoil, will grow. Those who oppose the iron fist of the state security apparatus will be lumped together in slick, corporate news reports with the growing criminal underclass.

A joke is what is the definition of gross ignorance (gross being an imperial measurement) answer 144 Americans and to prove this ignorance, the committee’s Republican vice chairman, Sen. Christopher Bond of Missouri (not quite knowing what to make of Blair’s testimony), said he was concerned that Blair was making the ‘conditions in the country and the global economic crisis the primary focus of the intelligence community’.

The economic collapse has exposed the stupidity of our collective faith in a free market and the absurdity of an economy based on the goals of endless growth, consumption, borrowing and expansion. The ideology of unlimited growth failed to take into account the massive depletion of the world’s resources, from fossil fuels to clean water to fish stocks to erosion, as well as overpopulation, global warming and climate change. The huge international flows of unregulated capital have wrecked the global financial system. An overvalued dollar (which will soon deflate), wild tech, stock and housing financial bubbles, unchecked greed, the decimation of our manufacturing sector, the empowerment of an oligarchic class, the corruption of our political elite, the impoverishment of workers, a bloated military and defence budget and unrestrained credit binges have conspired to bring us down. The financial crisis will soon become a currency crisis. This second shock will threaten our financial viability. We let the market rule. Now we are paying for it.  The corporate thieves, those who insisted they be paid tens of millions of dollars because they were the best and the brightest, have been exposed as con artists. Our elected officials, along with the press, have been exposed as corrupt and spineless corporate lackeys. Our business schools and intellectual elite have been exposed as frauds. The age of the West has ended. Look to China. Laissez-faire capitalism has destroyed itself. It is time to dust off your copies of Marx.

We Australians have donated some $80 million to the fire victims (with the Red Cross promising ‘every $ will go to the victims’ after their appalling record of misappropriating funds donated for various causes); the Salvation Army wants cash as well, however, people receiving clothing and furniture and food are far more happy, as media stories show; also – at the risk of offending sensibilities – its difficult for the administration of these various businesses err … charities … to walk out the door with clothes, boots and foodstuffs tucked under their arms and stuffed in pockets or bonuses paid, so if they refuse clothing, food and furniture etc, it must mean something.

And in spite of the stimulus package – which the poor do not receive and dropping interest rates will not assist if you lose your job – home loan arrears are growing; and as forced sales in ‘second had’ luxury items, cars and plasma TV’s etc grow – competing with retailers – the economy is slowing down.  Gerry Harvey (Harvey Norman) said he ‘lost’ about $1.9 billion buying his own shares as their value continued to plunge; its really interesting to see these ‘business people and economic guru’s’ struggle to comprehend what we (the masses) already know …you cant spend money you don’t have !

We will not be able to depend on any political parties to support us, we will need to rally similar support to home owners losing their homes as they are starting to in the USA …

As resistance to foreclosure evictions grows among homeowners, community leaders and some law enforcement officials, a broad civil disobedience campaign is starting in New York and other cities to support families who refuse orders to vacate their homes.  The community organizing group Acorn unveiled the campaign with a spirited rally on Friday at a Brooklyn church and will roll it out in at least 22 other cities in the coming weeks. Through phone trees, Web pages and text-messaging networks, the effort will connect families facing eviction with volunteers who will stand at their side as
officers arrive, even if it means risking arrest.

“You want to haul us out to jail? Fine. Let the world see how government has been ineffective,” Bertha Lewis, Acorn’s chief organizer, said in an interview. “Politicians have helped banks, but they haven’t helped families in the way that it’s needed, and these families are now saying, enough is enough.”  At the onset of the foreclosure crisis, the problem was regarded by some as one of a homeowner’s own making, the result of irresponsible
decisions made by families who chose to live beyond their means. But as foreclosures spread across the country, devastating even solidly middle-class communities, the blame has slowly shifted to the financial companies that made questionable loans and have received billions of dollars in federal aid to stave off collapse.

In recent months, a budding resistance movement has grown among Americans who believe they have been left to face their predicament on their own and the Acorn campaign is an organized expression of that frustration, Ms. Lewis said ‘Instead of quietly packing up and turning their homes over to banks, homeowners are now fighting back’.