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Thanks Sotolo
It might be worth your while to have a deep dive into media ownership.
I exercise my right to chase informed opinions. If its science I need to be informed on I go the scientists most informed and credentitalled in that area. Such is the luxury we have today with the internet. We dont have to put up with an opinion piece from someone who is fed and/or orchestrated by some forces hide. One does have to their homework a bit more rather open the tabloid to page 3. BUt I assure you, it is worth it, as it is so easy to go drivelling down the wrong road.
The drivel and verbal diarreah that is daily emergent is deafening, but on the other hand there are some excellent things being done in the world, and many good people ... they just get buried by BS, as they are too normal, too polite, not titillating (etc)
the gnome
Mr T
I think the point Spoonington is trying to make, is that... the where, why, and what of the causation of climate change should be left to an unbiased set of relevant scientists who are very knowledgable about climate and climate change as a function of earth-time, and its main variables, and is NOT a celebrity blowing on the wind and blowing their bags. Prince Harry, Princess Greta, Time magazine, and a passing pre-eminent biologist's views are great, but do need some independent scientific rigour.
Politicians are dimsissed almost out of hand, economists likewise, the main stream hysteria machine without doubt dismissed (lost their social license a few decades ago), as are marching girls and prominent trombone players and a few others. Lets just deal with science instead of all the other passing well meaning lunatics, and those that are not so well meaning.
the gnome
The argument presented in main stream media is more of the same, as we have seend from them for decades. Littered with hyperbole and Hysteria, politics, the odd culture war, with a generous helping of wise celebrities and the odd loud 15 year old expert. Sales are sales.
The climate debate as presented in media is not balanced nor argued on best balanced science. Even a small helping of Geolgical Science, would show some points of interest.
- The Earth[‘s climate always changes, and will continue to do so, and the forces that causes those changes are such matters as the "wobbles of the earth" in its imperfect orbit
– Climate change is in fact normal, and in fact we are living in times of unsual stability. The odds suggested by the 4 billion years of geolgical changes, that we are overdue for a change
– Climate change occurred well before humans were on Earth, in fact we have only been on the earth for a very small part of the earthes life!
– The rate of climate change today is no different from thousands, millions or billions of years ago. There are various powerful forces , like (internal) Volcanoues, changing magnetic fields, (external) sun radiance, chaning distance from the sun, earth wobbles - some regular, some not, etc
– >80% [of the] time, Earth has been generally warmer and wetter than at present, or in the case of the Sahara desert cooler and wetter, in the Atacama desert (no rain for a few 100 years?: About 10,000 years ago, the Atacama was more humid and less hostile to human life than it is now. It attracted nomadic groups who came to hunt and collect food. Fast forward 4,000 years, the land dried up, gradually transforming into the landscape as we know it today
– Ice is ... rare except for the ice age when we had kilometers thick ice packs on the europoean content and UK, not to mention the hige glaciers that scraped and scoured Canada's landscape - leaving lovely tills, which we sample to find gold!
– Just because [climate] change occurs in our lifetime does not mean that we humans are driving the change, change has obviously happened without us, regularly and irregularly.
and so on ....
https://www.desmog.com/ian-plimer/
https://www.quora.com/Do-we-have-conclusive-evidence-that-humans-are-the-root-cause-of-climate-change
As advertised previously best to avoid the main stream hysteria machine for true news and just find the relevant scientists online, go with the times.
ASIDE: We used to have a a great newspaper in Victoria called "THE TRUTH", .... In 1987 one-time Liberal Party leader Sir Billy Snedden died in unusual circumstances. Snedden died of a heart attack in the Rushcutter Travelodge, possibly whilst having sexual communion of sorts with a mystery woman whose identity has never been revealed. Snedden was known for his 'extra-curricular' activities, and in the words of his son, Drew Sneddon, Billy Snedden "got around a lot."...read much more in the TRUTH!...LOL
all good fun, pardon the
Thanks Cowitchan
Tears to my eyes, so much so I accidentally put double malt on my porridge! I am alwys shocked when I go to Brussels. Where did the money come from, where does the money come from and who in their right mind would invent such a mind blowing mess of meticulous layer upon layer of "administration". Productivity is not in the picture and I have long suspected that any fair upstanding German, obsesssed with order and efficicencies, would feel ill at ease, and want to head for the door, before the system implodes? LOL.
What a glorious hoot !
Thanks so much, you have made my day
The gnome
Norway’s $US1.3 trillion ($1.9 billion) sovereign wealth fund posted its steepest-ever first half loss as big bets on tech backfired.
The Oslo-based fund, the world’s biggest, lost $US174 billion of its value in the six months ended June 30, its biggest on record in currency terms. It lost 17 per cent on stocks, which comprise the largest share of its investments, and 9.3 per cent on fixed-income assets such as bonds.
There are hordes of zombie companies in Oz and US that have had their business models predicated on the availability of cheap money, which no longer exists.
Many of these borrowers relied on the high-yield or sub-investment grade bond markets for liquidity. As the cost of capital associated with sub-prime finance soars, many borrowers that could not get finance from the traditional banking system will face the spectre of default...so there will be some spring cleaning!!!
The big news in August is that the Brisbane and Gold Coast housing markets have given up the ghost after defying gravity for a few months. Adelaide is not far behind. In the first 18 days of August, the 0.74 per cent decline in Brisbane house prices has outpaced the 0.67 per cent loss suffered in Melbourne.
Sydney remains the epicentre of the housing crash, with dwelling values slumping another 1.24 per cent in the first 18 days of the month. Home values in Australia’s largest city have plunged 6.5 per cent in 2022. They have been falling at a 19 per cent annualised rate since the RBA’s first rate increase at the start of May.
Negative house equity on the menu again...
and in GOLD MandA, another sad story unfolding in an iconic gold minig company..St Barbara
Mr Cranfield said he had no confidence in the St Barbara board’s ability to handle mergers and acquisitions after the $780 million acquisition of Atlantic Gold in 2019, which was partly funded by a bungled equity raising and was impaired by $248 million within two years of purchase.
The impairment was taken because of permitting delays and the realisation that the cost of building Atlantic’s cluster of gold projects in Canada’s Nova Scotia province would be higher than originally expected.
“They have spent $780 million of shareholder money and didn’t do adequate due diligence. That is just mind-bogglingly reckless in my opinion,” Mr Cranfield
PLenty of Oz Mining Companies have run into Canada, trumpets blaring, to now having to sound strategic "re-thinks" Stupidty in the mining industry knows no bounds
best
the gnome
All does not appear well in Camelot.
Consider all those high-brow economic models, the amount of brainpower employed — not to mention the huge store of data and experience — we can draw upon.
But our success rates in anticipating problems seem to be on the decline. When it comes to solving them, the situation is even worse.
Perhaps the reason isn't quite so mysterious. Just like religion, the theories around economics can be interpreted in whatever way best suits you. And the mdoels they have , have got so many degrees of freedom they are massively illconditioned and can be used and abused by all manner of theories. And, in an era when rational debate and a desire for consensus have been displaced by a polarising dash for the extremes, economics has become a turbulent battleground.
Take the debate over wages right now.
If you believe most business and bank economists, we're on the edge of an abyss. Just like in the 1970s, they argue, we are in the early phase of a debilitating cycle of spiking wages and prices that threatens our future and without firm action to stamp it out pronto, we'll be doomed.
It's an argument thoroughly embraced by the Reserve Bank of Australia, along with every other central bank. In a rare display of unity, all of them are in a panic, pushing through interest rate hikes at lightning speed to plunge a knife into the heart of what they fear most, inflation.
There's just one minor detail they appear to have overlooked. Things have changed since the 1970s, a lot.
Wages aren't soaring. And they're unlikely to. They might be rising at the fastest clip in seven years. But they have come off the back of the slowest growth in history and, in real terms, they are plunging.
Oz is in for another interest rate hike, which if not coupled with a wage increase will mean lower disposable incomes, and economic slowdown, to be polite. Busineses can give wage increases as there are no productivity increases, in fact there are massive productivity declines, due to covid induced work absences, government induced slowness in supply lines, and people being happy to work from home when they want... etc.
interesting times ahead, when the spin can't spin anymore BS
the gnome
Answer: “Due to the impact of increasing cost pressures, tightening terms of creditor payments, the impact of COVID-19 on staff availability, project ramp up issues and worldwide shipping constraints there is insufficient working capital to bridge the project to complete the development of the reset mine plan.”
Voluntary administrators claimed their client pursued different options to resolve the “cash flow shortfall”. However, they failed to secure financial accommodation from creditors and shareholders.
Cost structures in West Oz are influenced by those of the mighty Iron Ore Mines, which have so much margin that even wokist BHP and Riotinto cannot stuff them up
the gnome
1947 : "FREEDOM of speech and its democratic corollary, a free press, have
tacitly expanded our Bill of Rights to
include the right of persuasion. This
development was an inevitable result
of the expansion of the media of free
speech and persuasion, denned in other
articles in this volume. All these media
provide open doors to the public mind.
Any one of us through these media may
influence the attitudes and actions of
our fellow citizens.
The tremendous expansion of communications in the United States has
given this Nation the world's most penetrating and effective apparatus for the
transmission of ideas. Every resident
is constantly exposed to the impact of
our vast network of communications
which reach every corner of the country, no matter how remote or isolated.
Words hammer continually at the eyes
and ears of America. The United States
has become a small room in which a
single whisper is magnified thousands
of times.
Knowledge of how to use this enormous amplifying system becomes a
matter of primary concern to those who
are interested in socially constructive
action."
comprehend? game, set and match....
I forgot to mention Bernays was an Austrian who was very close to Germany,
Long before 1984, there was 1947, and worth a read over the breakfast table
http://www.fraw.org.uk/data/politics/bernays_1947.pdf
best
the gnome
Yes, well said, and of course we know what happened to Goebbels. But it did not happen that way in the USA for there is another game to play, and they neatly rebadged it as ...MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS and made a mocha or a trillion. LOL, and polluted the world with tobacco, sugar, coffee etc etc ...
The fabulous "theoreticist" Edward Bernays reigned supreme, and got women to buy slim ciagrettes which made them look slim and get slimmer, and apart from that they died decades younger thean they would have...with a smile on their faces...LOL
Edward Louis Bernays (/b??r'ne?z/ bur-NAYZ, German: [b??'na?s]; November 22, 1891 - March 9, 1995) was an American theorist, considered a pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, and referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
Profoundly stupid (especially for an intellient race), but then one nust keep the lemmings happy ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_propaganda
the gnome
One of the "events" in the last few years that has caught my attention has been the absolute hysteria and hyperbole about the covid virus, and it has been at such pandemic levels that a person well grounded and driven by science and logic would be driven to despair.
In Australia (and elsewhere) our democratically elected pollies have delegated running the health of the country to the health bureaucrats who are not uptodate health scienstists, but one might think of them as well meaning bottom coverers.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/07/dont-blame-the-unvaccinated/
Prof Ramesh Thakur is a health scientist, with an enviable record in health science, and is one of many scientists who are calling to case, the "management" of the covid health pandemic. In Oz, the power elites have forgot we are an island at the bus stop at the end of the world, and proclaimed THEIR profund skills at managment is nothing short of divine.
In short "...the number who died with Covid after we hit 50% vaccination is 2.3 times higher than the number before that point" What happened and why?
Deborah Birx was the White House Covid response coordinator under President Donald Trump. Jeffrey Tucker recently wrote a brutal takedown of her woeful interpretation of science and data designed to manipulate Trump into going along with her preferred but misguided policy interventions to deal with the Covid outbreak.
In an ABC podcast on December 15, 2020, she said:
‘I understand the safety of the vaccine … I understand the depth of the efficacy of this vaccine. This is one of the most highly-effective vaccines we have in our infectious disease arsenal’.
Appearing on Fox News on July 22, however, she claimed:
‘I knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection. And I think we overplayed the vaccines. And it made people then worry that it’s not going to protect against severe disease and hospitalisation’.
This might help to explain why there has been such a concerning collapse of public confidence in leading health institutions and ‘authorities’.
The collapse in public confidence is more than just in health. It is in politics, it is in banks and currencies and so and so forth. Thank goodness for the stability of GOLD !!!
I would suggest we could do a lot better, and of course, in Gold we trust...
the gnome.
I am interested in China and their development and it has been very rapid over the last 25 years, where as the reigning emperors (US) has been a little “up and down”, and is heading towards self destruction. Russian invasion? Lets ort out Latin America ..again ... One could say ..slightly flawed.
Why does China love gold?
1. China graduates 1.5 million engineers per year, which is a bit more than Australia’s 10,000 per year. They value education, science, engineering and rigour. Oz values football, meat pies, beer and rum? Goodness knows what the US values apart from a good shoot out at the OK Corral? And the UK??? Sadly LOL
2. China has had a long love affair with gold as a store of wealth, ad China has a memory longer than the Gold Fish, and many people today on Tick Tok, Facebook and alike.
3. The outstanding candidate for a true international currency, is through the block chain technology (DeFi or decentralised finance), which overcomes many (not all) of the inefficiencies and opaqueness and controls on the USD. The trouble with DeFi is their asset backing, and guess what pops up. Gold!!!! The US$ has well and truly lost its social license to operate.
4. Banks have similarly lost their social license to operate, and there are many more law cases to come to the fore!!! Market manipulation, compliance failure etc etc … not to mention paying their CEO’s outrageous salaries and remuneration when they are not in a fully competitive market.
So (to walk the plank) I am looking for Chinese led DeFi International currency, backed by gold, to replace the immaculate privilege of the US$, and a better world to boot! And my guess is the world will be a better place,
and THE GOLD PRICE WILL RISE ...
have a great weekend, not too much double malt (despite the taxes going up)
the gold gnome
China stepped up its gold imports from Switzerland in July, purchasing the most bullion in more than five years, according to the Swiss Federal Customs Administration.
CHINA IS THE BIGGEST GOLD PRODUCER AND IT DOES NOT SELL ITS GOLD...BUT IT DOES AHAVE A GOOD APETITE FOR MORE, A LOT MORE ...
Demand from China is starting to pick up over the summer months, with Switzerland shipping 80.1 tonnes of gold to China, worth $4.6 billion.
This is a monthly increase of 146% and the biggest cargo since December 2016, Swiss customs data showed Thursday
Hi Sotolo
When you say gold is going down in price, you imply the value of the USD (or other fiats) is going up. Lets look at the reason for this expectation, epecially when the history of the USD is ... it goes consistently down over time. And in more recent times you have seen rather startling phenomena
1. More Money has been created out of less thin air than every before
2. More debt has been piled on than ever before
3. Interest rates have been the lowest for longer than ever before, creating a bubble bath, but still the interest rates were kept lowest for longest.
4. The trust in the Fed Reserve and Central Bankers is near its lowest: so low in Australia that we have a government review LOL https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/jim-chalmers-2022/media-releases/review-reserve-bank
5. Trust in governments is at close to a all time low. We have the Trump bumping along, Biden biding his time: Geoffrey Robertson remarked in his show last night in Oz, that it was good week in UK politics as Boris had not got anyone pregnant in the last week at a staff function, and the Australian past PM had not remembered anymore portfolios he had given himself ministerial powers in (not to mention the extraordinary secrecy surrounding the whole exercise) (the count is 5 at the moment LOL)?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-18/scott-morrison-secret-ministerial-roles-lack-trust-extraordinary/101343202
6. Leadership in the police force seems to be grinding down to new lows, with more guns blazing in the USA and shots tot he feet in Oz. The Queensland Deputy Commissioner referred to a friend of his as a "vagina whisperer" during a speech to 100 staff members at a conference in Brisbane in April, now been outed and has resigned.
So be interested in your reasoning.
I am staying the course with gold and a few gold miners. There are a few gold miners that are definitely on my avoid list though, and CEY is not one of them
best
the gnome
Brokers are one of the key interefaces between investors and the company. If they are doing their job right (and the company is doing their job right), then they should add value to the share price and volume to the amount of trades per day. To get the volume they need to have many brokers/offices and people who are opinion makers, thought leaders, well respected( by performance on their recomendations). How much do they cost? Depends on the fee structure negotiated. There is generally an upfront or engagement fee, which is a nominal charge to get to know the company, and then some monthly charge based on sales performance, share performance (%SP gain, volatitility, volume)...devil in the detail here, and I dont know what they have negotiated. Be stupid if it was not heavily weighted to SP performance.
The best corporate defense to MandA is a strong share price, and the best outcome for investors is a strong share price. Lets hope the contract is reflected in the SP; then its a great move !
best
the gnome
Thanks Mr T,
Thats a great interview, on youtube, and some fabulous idea,s some of which have been abused, and will continue to be, c'est la vie!
My take is that the web does more good than bad, but is capable of infinitely more good than bad, and could even stop the lemmings jumping off of the cliff?
best
the gold gnome
Interesting to see the steady acquisition of gold by the Central Banks.https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/gold-reserves-by-country
About 77.6 tonnes bought by the C Banks and about 4.43 tonnes sold....
Interesting talk on deFi, which is going to come in regardless of the stupidity shown by the Pollies and the Bankers, Just makes far too much sense, and far more advantages than disadvantages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiNHpD0rRn8
Yes, well the big move inthe US is the privitisation of water! an amazing feat of nonsense. The next move will be the privatisation of the air we breath LOL.
Our govt in Australia is so ridiculous, it beggars belief. The previous Prime Minister has just been outed as having helped himself to being a "shadow" minister of several portfolios during the pandemic, without telling the Minister holding the portfolios!?! Really making Yes Minister seem a bit pale.
"An apologetic Scott Morrison (previous PM) has conceded his secret acquisition of five ministerial portfolios was “unnecessary” (?!!) as he faced calls from colleagues for his resignation, and the Albanese government threatened an inquiry to hold to account all who knew of the scandal.
Former treasurer 9THE TREASURER LOL?!!)Josh Frydenberg was understood to be livid after only learning on Tuesday (last week!!??) that his portfolio was one of the five that Mr Morrison secretly assumed."
Q: WHATEVER WAS THE PRIME MINISTER THINKING OF?
A: HE WAS INCAPABLE OF THINKING?
We dont need comedy on the tube, as we have an overdose in our Parliaments ... and when they exhaust themselves, they go into the sunset on a pension and get a job working for the corporates as lobbyists.
the gnome
MAJOR REVELATION: Oil Prices Drop on Worries About China Demand. And China demand is down as the savants have predcited, say what. LOL
NEXT: The FTC, under Chairwoman Lina Khan, is questioning mergers that were likely to have gone unchallenged in years past, drawing complaints from dealmakers who say the agency’s scrutiny is excessive. SCRUTINY. when? LOL
Really the US model is corrupt and bankrupt. Don't get caught when the music stops. And it will. Only so uch hot air one can blow.
the Gnome.
Mr. Smith was a rapid-fire trader who used his mouse to manually enter and cancel orders so fast that colleagues joked he needed to put ice on his fingers to cool them down, according to trial testimony. Mr. Smith spoofed “all the time,” according to Christian Trunz, a former junior trader who pleaded guilty in 2019 and testified that he learned the tactic by looking over Mr. Smith’s shoulder...and so on and so forth LOL
The DOJ’s fraud section, which tried the case, won convictions in two prior spoofing trials in Chicago, where the futures exchange operated by CME Group Inc. is based. Former gold and silver traders at Deutsche Bank AG and Bank of America Corp. were convicted of spoofing-related crimes in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
In the Deutsche Bank case, the defendants were sentenced to serve one year and a day in prison. The former Bank of America traders haven’t been sentenced. Messrs. Smith and Nowak will be sentenced at a future date.
Would you trust a financial and legal structure that allowed such behaviour...or at best, gave them a little smack....
Fine : Profits +losses +50%
Jail Term: 5 x period of bad beahviour
completely riiculous, and yet it happens again and again..and why is it "allowed" Who benefits ?
the gnome