Super Power
Listen to Nicholas Taylor discuss how the simplest, most powerful thing any activist can do is – have their super invested ethically. Dwell on the stats that reveal how many billions are being sequestered by the landed elite. Arm yourself for change – subscribe to the podcast now!
Show Notes – Wed Feb 4th
A Climate warning was sounded on Black Monday, August 11 2003 when a heatwave saw 3000 people die in France, more than on any single day of WW2 bombings
Clive Hamilton:Hamilton: climate emergency or a crisis of democracy? (www.crikey.com)
As in the European heatwave of August 2003, when 35,000 people died, the elderly are most vulnerable as the heat overwhelms the body’s natural cooling mechanism and organs fail. Swamped by the disaster, undertakers in France were obliged to take over a refrigerated warehouse on the outskirts of Paris.
Forty is the new thirty. One night in Adelaide the minimum temperature was 34°C, perhaps the first time the city has experienced a nocturnal scorcher.
The 4% cut in interest rates since the GFC
How has the fed through as a windfall to investor Landlords?
Standard principal + interest loan
$300K Loan
$590 saving p/m (5.19 – 9.19%)
Interest only
$300K – $750 p/m
8m dwellings in Oz. 2/3 are owned. 33% rented = 2.64m homes
$9000 p.a saving per investor on interest rate cuts.
$3600 p.a in extra rent since 20% rental increases last year.
$12,600 in land bounty per dwelling = over $33bn in land bounty to the landed elite
Sandwich shop in the centre of Melbourne’s CBD
$2700 p/week rent
$6 sandwiches
need to sell 90 sandwiches per day to cover just the rent
150 sangas for wages
300 for profits
over a 90minute lunch, need to sell 1 per minute just to cover rent
Indirect & direct taxes take up 30% of all takings. Paperwork adds to the frustration.
Why is life so hard for the productive business owner compared to the speculator? What we’re talking about is condensing the majority of that rent and all that tax into one cost.
Taxpayers should not be bailing out the bunglers
Paul Krugman
“lemon socialism”: taxpayers bear the cost if things go wrong, but stockholders and executives get the benefits if things go right.
The Washington Post, “the Administration is likely to refrain from imposing tougher restrictions on executive compensation at most firms receiving government aid” because “harsh limits could discourage some firms from asking for aid”. This suggests that Obama’s tough talk is just for show.
Exxon – largest profit in US history
By JAD MOUAWAD and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Exxon earned $45.2 billion in 2008, beating the record it set in 2007 for most profitable corporation, at $40.6 billion.
– despite a fourth quarter in which income fell 33 percent, owing to the steepest drop ever in oil prices, as the economy went into a tailspin.
The company started eight major projects last year, including Thunder Horse, a huge offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
UK publishes 18th annual R&D scoreboard
Oil and gas production was the fastest growing sector in 2007, increasing spending by 36 per cent,
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Resolution and a Plan of Action
By Alejandro Kirk
The 21 thematic assemblies thus broke the apparent WSF taboo on taking common political stands under pressure from thousands of civil society groups anxious to seize the opportunity opened by the global economic crisis to progressive change.
A week of demonstrations and awareness raising – Mar. 28 and Apr. 4 to press for drastic change in the world’s political balance and urgent measures to stop climate change.
Under a light rain on a soaked lawn at Belém’s vast Federal Amazonian Rural University campus, a spokesman of the WSF’s Assembly of Social Movements itemised some of the wider programmatic contents of the mobilization:
– Nationalisation of banks;
– No reduction of salaries at enterprises hit by the crisis;
– Energy and food sovereignty for the poor;
– Withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan;
– Sovereignty and autonomy for indigenous peoples;
– Right to land, decent work, education and health for all;
– Democratisation of media and knowledge
Superannuation:
This weeks interviewee, Nicholas Taylor of Outcrop was published in the Age two days after we spoke to him on A Super Idea to Fund the Fight Against Climate Change.
Super Activist – Wilderness Society
Every year a minimum 9% of your income is contributed to your superannuation.
Today, around $1 trillion is invested by Australians in superannuation funds. Many of these investments may directly contradict your personal values. For instance, approximately 40% of Tasmanian logging giant Gunns Ltd’s shareholders are superannuation funds.
Foreign investors see gold in Austrian resorts
By Catherine Moye
SALZBURG: In recent years several of Austria’s provinces have relaxed the rules that historically prevented foreigners from owning property, while other areas, including the Tyrol, still make it all but impossible for a foreign buyer to acquire a holiday home.
But it was those restrictions, real estate industry officials say, that kept prices low in the country’s second-home market. Those prices are now attracting buyers.
For example, sale prices in the province of Salzburg Land, which includes the well-known city of Salzburg, range from €2,000 to €3,000 a square meter, or $241 to $362 per square foot, with higher-end properties selling for around €4,000.
In comparison, homes in popular French Alpine resorts are selling for €8,000 to €12,000 a square meter, according to Savills Research.
Mozart was born there = land speculators dream advertising slogan
Police Seize UK Indymedia Server (Again)
On 22 January 2009 an Indymedia server was seized by the Police in Manchester. This was related to postings about the recent Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) trial.
Music
Jonas Reinhatt – Modern By Nature’s Reward
The Free Pop Electronic Concept – Chewing Gum Delirium
Cheers to dublab.com for alerting us to the talent of musicians who have been lucky enough to find a place on this earth where they can use their own 2 hands to create something valuable.