Rates to be 2.5%, cost of living falls

A massive fall in petrol prices has pushed the cost of living down for the first time in two years and opened the way for interest rates to fall to as low as 2.5 percent.Petrol prices fell by more than 18 percent in the December quarter as unleaded petrol fell from around $1.50 per litre in September to close to $1.00 per litre in December, mirroring falling oil prices.According to official figures released today, the consumer price index – which tracks the cost of living in Australia – fell by 0.3 percent in the December quarter. Over the 12 months to December, the CPI rose by 3.7 percent, well below its previous reading of 5 percent.The fall in the cost of living - which is the fastest decline logged in 10 years - is expected to open the way for further rate cuts from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), starting with its first meeting of the year, to be held next week.Economists expect the RBA to trim the cash rate by 75 basis points, a move that would take the cash rate to 3.5 percent.“There’s nothing of concern in these figures for the Reserve Bank that will stop it aggressively cutting interest rates next week,” Riki Polygenis, economist at ANZ Bank told ninemsn.She believes rates will fall by 75 basis points next week and will ventually fall to 2.5 percent this year.While the fall in prices and interest rates may be good news for consumers, other economic figures released today showed a sharp slowdown in economic activity.The Westpac/Melbourne Institute index of economic activity - which tracks the likely pace of economic growth in the future - contracted by 2.2 percent in November, and analysts said it showed that the odds of Australia entering a recession this year are shortening.“With the –2.2 percent growth rate for November we are now reporting the first negative reads for growth since May 2001,” said Bill Evans, Westpac’s chief economist. “In the past this has been a useful signal ofthe likelihood of Australia experiencing a recession.

28/01/2009 By Stuart Fagg, ninemsn Money

3 day work week

British workers could have their working week cut to three days under plans being considered by the government to help companies cope with recession.The government is understood to be considering paying firms to cut the working hours of thousands of staff instead of retrenching them in an attempt to stop unemployment soaring past two million.Now business secretary Peter Mandelson is facing calls to offer compensation for workers who have their hours cut.Unnamed ministerial sources told The Observer newspaper that a compensation scheme for workers was an option being discussed but was "not imminent"."Government sources said there were issues about whether to restrict compensation to the car industry or apply it to all firms," the newspaper said.The Department for Business is already advising employers on its website to consider cutting staff hours as a way to save money, saying it might be better than making staff redundant.Similar measures were after a series of crippling strikes by mine workers in the 1970s which had dramatic knock-on effects through the rest of the nation's economy.Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher introduced a short-time working directive in the 1980s to cover earnings lost through shorter hours.

Aus economy

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says he won't speculate on whether Australia will go into a recession, despite a new report saying Australia's budget is "buggered".The Access Economics report, to be released on Monday, warns Australia will go into recession this year as the economic boom unwinds.A blow out in the account deficit and a loss of 300,000 jobs is likely to be a result of the downturn, it says.The report demonstrates the difficult global conditions that Australia confronts, topped off with a shrinking economy in the US and slowing in economic growth in China, Treasurer Wayne Swan told ABC Radio on Monday.But when asked whether Australia would go into a deficit, he replied: "I certainly don't speculate about that."I mean every day will bring a new set of private sector forecasts and I don't intend to... respond to them on a daily basis."But I guess what this report does do is point to the impact of a global recession, and what it will mean for world growth."The government would respond "if necessary in a timely way", with a further stimulus package if it was needed, Mr Swan said.

More on this subject from an ABC report....
A key economic forecast says Australia will definitely fall into recession this year and has described the Federal Budget as being "buggered".The latest business outlook from Access Economics says that Australia's prosperity will unwind quickly because of the slowing Chinese economy and unemployment will be up to 7 per cent by next year.The report says global growth is slowing at a scary speed, and Australia's growth prospects are expected to follow the lead in similarly swift fashion.Chris Richardson from Access Economics says the implications for this year's Federal Budget are tough, and the Government faces some ugly policy choices."It doesn't however mean that the Government should stop doing what it's doing," Mr Richardson said.Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan told ABC Radio's AM program that budget revenues will be more seriously affected than first thought.He says the report confirms the very difficult global conditions faced by the Australian economy, but he would not speculate on a recession."Revenues will take a heavier hit than was thought at the end of last year, but we'll account for that in good time," he said"We face the prospect of the United States economy shrinking, and of course the prospect of China not growing anything like [what] was expected only a few months ago.
"There's no doubt that a slowing China will have a very substantial impact on countries in this region, and most particularly Australia."Both those events are deeply concerning for growth in this country and the impact in terms of revenue for the Budget and also the impact on employment."

A Path Less Travelled

A friend of mine was saying how much they are enjoying a book called "A Path Less Travelled" by Scott Peck and it reminded me that it was this book that I first read many, many years ago that started me on my quest for personal fulfillment. With this I would like to recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in self development and achieving the maximum achievement, wealth, abundance, freedom and everything their heart desires to read this book.

What to do to acquire a multi million dollar net worth

what does an individual need to do in order to acquire a million dollar

net worth?

There are several things that you can do to propel yourself to this

enviable position, each comes with diligence and perseverance.

When you are working in a job you need to invest extra time.

Arrive an hour earlier than you have to and put that time in working

on upgrading your skill and understanding of your job.

The other end of the spectrum is that you leave an hour later than

others and capitulate the day's work and information processed.

Learn from your job and also by following these steps you are bound

to impress your superiors that you are keen to learn and expand

your horizons. Remember you do this for yourself but there are

other benefits along the way.

This is just a beginning to getting a person started on the road

to vastly expanding their net financial worth.

Stay tuned for more tips over the coming weeks.©    

"Bailout" won't stop the ship from sinking

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt yesterday. The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months ago. The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $3.18 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment dwarfs the plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis. When Congress approved the Treasury Department's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) on Oct. 3, the need for transparency was acknowledged.Now, as regulators commit far more money while refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return, some Congress members are calling for the Fed to be reined in, as well they should. Better late than never but limitations need to be placedon the Fed so that authority returns to elected officials as opposed to appointed ones. Bloomberg News tabulated data from the Fed, Treasury and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and interviewed regulatory officials, economists and academic researchers to gauge the full extent of the government's rescue effort. The bailout includes a Fed program to buy as much as $2.4 trillion in short-term notes, called commercial paper, that companies use to pay bills, begun Oct. 27, and $1.4 trillion from the FDIC to guarantee bank-to-bank loans, started Oct. 14. Citigroup received $306 billion of government guarantees for troubled mortgages and toxic assets. The Treasury Department also will inject $20 billion into the bank after its stock fell 60 percent last week.There's no transparency to it so who's to say they're right in doing this.The worst financial crisis in two generations has erased $23 trillion, or 38 percent, of the value of the world's companies and brought down three of the biggest Wall Street firms.Regulators hope the rescue will contain the damage and keep banks providing the credit that is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Most of the spending programs are run out of the New York Fed, whose president,Timothy Geithner, is said to be President- elect Barack Obama’s choice to be Treasury Secretary.

The money that's been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It's nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It could pay off more than half the country's mortgages.There's a lot of supposedly smart people who look to be totally incompetent and it's all going to fall on the taxpayer."

President Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s, when almost 10,000 banks failed and there was no mechanism to bolster them with cash, is the only rival to the government's current response. The savings and loan bailout of the 1990s cost $209.5 billion in inflation-adjusted numbers, of which $173 billion came from taxpayers, according to a July 1996 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office, now called the Government Accountability Office.

And still they play and manipulate and have no cognisance of the fact that all the problems in the first place were produced by the behind the scene manipulators playing a game of chess with the worlds population as the pawns. It looks like this game will not end untill the whole American economy completely colapses and the human spirit rises to the rescue when there is a realisation that pieces of paper with little pictures on them can not save or help anyone or anything.

Future world economic events

Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is renowned for his accuracy in predicting future world and economic events. His track record includes predicting the Crash of '87 and the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. He successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar. He predicted in a November, 2007 UPI article that 2008 would be known as the "Panic of 2008" in which he specifically warned that "giants would tumble to their deaths." Celente's predictions aren't the result of either Divine revelation from Heaven or demons working a Ouija board. It's more along the lines of 'prophesying' that a dog left in the house for three days will poop on the floor. That's why we spent as much time as we did examining how the economy got into this predicament. So you could see for yourself that Celente is simply analyzing the trends -- putting two and two together and coming up with four. That, plus his track record, which demonstrates that he's been paying attention to those trends. Let's compare what Celente sees for the next four years, based on current trends, to what the Bible predicted would befall a single generation, somewhere in time.

"There will be a revolution in this country," he said in a recent interview. "It’s not going to come yet, but it’s going to come down the line and we’re going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen." This is what Celente predicts as well -- he says that the country is going to suddenly realize that they've been had. "The first thing to do is organize with tax revolts. That’s going to be the big one because people can’t afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You’re going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop." "We’re going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It’s going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It’s going to come as a shock and with it, there’s going to be a lot of crime.' "It’s going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we’re going to see many more." "And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people’s minds weren’t wrecked on all these modern drugs – over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be. So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody’s comprehension."

I checked Celente out. He's the real deal. He has been hailed as some kind of predictive genius by CNN, USAToday, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist . . . the point is he is neither a crackpot nor is he regarded as a crackpot by the mainstream. So, what does this mean to us? Well, lots -- and not much. It depends on your own perspective. It doesn't mean that much in the sense you probably already know all this. Maybe not Gerald Celente or the Trends Research Institute. Or his track record. But by and large, the narrative is familiar. Is Celente right on every detail? I don't know -- the details haven't all unfolded. Gerald Celente is forecasting four years into the future based on his analysis of current global trends.