Making a small fortune

into a smaller one....

 The Shanghai stock market has turned into a shock market.The bears are running amok.Real Estate gurus are hinting that this will have a flow on effect on the Sydney property market. Why? God knows. More than likely it's the Chinese Mr and Mrs Cheungs who have taken a mega hit; the tabloids identify them as the Mum and Dad investors. These have been gambling like billy-oh , shovelling housekeeping yuan into brokers' pockets like there's no tomorrow. 
The big investors, the multi rich ,some of  whom make Murdoch look like a pauper, will have been  cleaning up. It's called shorting.
There are a few universal truths that prevail in global stock exchanges. Firstly only invest what you can afford to lose, secondly do your homework and last but not least, don't panic.
Simples. Innit?

Money,money,money

It's a rich man's/woman's world

They have an armed bicycle unit, knives, milk chocolate, cow bells, mountains, cheese fondu and cuckoo clocks. They are also very wealthy. It's one of the few places where I have seen a used Rolls Royce Silver Cloud for sale in a used car lot. 

Both admired and criticized for their long held position of neutrality in world affairs , the Swiss however, have been unable to avoid being dragged into the wild and whacky world of international finance.

This week, the Board of the Swiss Central Bank effectively muttered a collective "Bugger it!" and unpegged the Euro from it's Swiss Franc 1.20 counter value where it had been since 2011.

Briefly, investors have been looking for security and have been buying U.S.Government Bonds and Swiss Francs. The incoming tidal surge  of Euros put the country in an intolerable position according to economists, Switzerland's currency reserves accumulating to 70% of its GDP.

Panic set in and as well as banks being unable to handle the demand for Euro as the Swiss went on a buying spree (the value dropped to parity eg 1 on 1 a twenty percent appreciation against the Euro ) a number of hedge funds went belly up. In Freiburg , just across the border from Basle, locals vented their spleen on talkback radio at the hundreds of Swiss citizens whose cars filled all available parking spaces while they frolicked through department stores buying, buying, buying.

Long criticised by many, amongst them the Pope himself, for its inertia and sluggish approach to their economies, the Eurozone is beginning to see the light and talk of stimuli is rife in thousands of classy Michelin star restaurants ( over bottle of red  ) not just any old plonk but Chateau stuff .

With the Greek elections and much marking time as the reforms are considered, it would seem the Euro is in for another rough trot.

Home,sweet home

Bank on it?

Real estate agents have a strange sense of the value of money but to be fair many people suffer the same conception of those printed bis of paper or digital numbers . For agents phrases like "It's only $30,000,00 more"  or "for $100,000.00 you can build a nice little extension ( as one views a scene not unlike a bombed garbage site) and you'll be set for life" . Set back, more like it.
Then there are the sellers and buyers who will refuse the budge over an issue of $500,00 and  both losing out on a sale. Now there, word "only" has some merit.

House prices in Australia, particularly in the metro areas are somewhere up there in orbit with communication satellites. The bogey man or woman is currently "investors" a faceless army of well heeled individuals whose sole intent in life is to spread misery and wonderment through their own wish to own a slice of the action..Home ownership in  Terra Australis is still a right, a prerequisite for many more than . say, in Europe where renting is par for the course. So there might well be four driving forces that put pressure on home costs. The third of course would be a general shortage of land and properties while the fourth is the fact that interest rates are currently at record lows. .

Midsomer county village conditions, as they exist in the U.K. and elsewhere on the Continent are not an option for Oz unless you are at ease with the sight of Utes transporting three legged blind dogs called "Lucky" stumbling in the tray. There both sexes are named Bruce.

Country life in Oz has its merits but folk have be calm and adaptable in the face of drought, bush fires and rogue kangaroos;salt of the earth stuff.