Friends and neighbours

The recent trade deals with both Japan and China and the visit to Australia by the Japanese PM Shinzo Abe which included an address to the Federal Parliament have people concerned that we might be stepping on some rather large toes, notably China.
There are a number of disputes, mostly territorial , in between China and Japan and it is also probable that China has been flexing its muscle in the Northern Pacific and South East Asa.
Too much can't  be read into concerns raised that we are upsetting one or the other of the two countries involved but it does highlight our dependency on trade and international relations.
Who was it who said "Man cannot serve two masters..."?

Crimea river

Peace in our time? Probably not...

Since the annexation of Crimea earlier this year the situation in Ukraine is tense. In 2014 the estimated population in Ukraine was 44 million of which 17% were of Russian ethnicity.It is the largest country in Europe hence its importance politically and geographically ,
Putin denied the claims by Ukraine and the West that Russian special forces were fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine.
In June Gazprom, the Russian oil company, shut of gas supplies to Ukraine , an action which may threaten European supplies .
The stand off continues and while it bis reported  Ukraine has sufficient supplies to last until December of this year it's highly likely that the situation will again reach crisis point before the end of the year. 
With the new Ukrainian government taking a harder line towards the Russian separatists and Russia with its finger very much on the pulse and supporting the separatists if not morally,  the tension continues .

Business as usual

"No surprises , then.." 

The interim report by David Murray, ex head of The Commonwealth Bank, has found, surprise, surprise no concern for the dominance,  of the big four banks but confirms there is a healthy level of competition in the backing sector. 

Sixty years ago, or thereabouts, Fred Schwed published a crazy look at Wall Street and investment banking entitled "Where are all the customer's yachts?" Unbelievably,  is still in print and worth a read should you find a dose of humour would help you unwind. In the book Schwed describes how investment bankers charge commissions basically stating that the clients money was thrown in the air and what stuck to the ceiling was returned to them, the rest going to the institution. 

After the GFC the banks have emerged stronger and more profitable than ever . Having brought about the disaster with wacky lending practices they were heavily subsidised and bailed out. Not so in Australia but the implicit guarantee of the Australian Government helped. a

A few years back when interest rates were coming down most of the big four refused to pass on the total cut to their clients. The cost of funds was too high and they claimed gross shareholder disappointment if their margins were to shrink. 

It's little wonder that the interim report/study is a balanced staid and stodgy summary of the current state of the banking industry. The outcome could have been different but it's  steady as she goes

with some minor rumblings about possible crashes. But that is to be expected. Crashes and Wall Street collapses are the tycoon's nightly thrills, Oh! Shudder!

The Sydney Morning Herald  Thursday July 10th 2014

A judge has compared incest and paedophilia to homosexuality, saying the community may no longer see sexual contact between siblings and between adults and children as “unnatural” or “taboo”.

  

District Court judge Garry Neilson said just as gay sex was socially unacceptable and criminal in the 1950s and 1960s but is now widely accepted, “a jury might find nothing untoward in the advance of a brother towards his sister once she had sexually matured, had sexual relationships with other men and was now ‘available’, not having [a] sexual partner”.

 He said the “only reason” that incest is still a crime is because of the high risk of genetic abnormalities in any resulting children “but even that falls away to an extent [because] there is such ease of contraception and ready access to abortion”.

The above has been swiftly denounced by a;ll and sundry. Little wonder. 

Yesterday,the NSW Bar has forbidden Judge Neilson from presiding over criminal cases. It takes an act of Parliament to stand down or remove a judge.

It's a wacky world and we are entitled to out own opinions but too often people in positions of power or influence come to believe they are untouchable ; they have been chosen to lead the world into an er of enlightenment..provided of course this reflects their views.

Nuts!How would George Brandis (our Attorney General who champions the rights of bigots  ) treat this?

FIFA FINALS

Fairly evenly matched