Bob's blog - the realm of threalm

What do bankers get paid for again? Yeah, I know there's an element of schadenfreude in commenting further on this parochial little cock up by the Commonwealth Bank in fumbling its $2 billion excluded-offer equity placement to institutions on Tuesday afternoon, but it truly shows again how "experts" can stuff up. What is it that all those thousands of spectacularly highly paid executives, lawyers, corporate governance consultants and compliance advisers at Merrill Lynch and the Commonwealth Bank do for a living when a mistake as fundamental as this can occur during a placement of this size in a market as skittish and as vulnerable as we have at present? As I understand it from the press : On Tuesday afternoon, with CBA stock still being traded on the ASX at around $29 a share, Merrill Lynch received acceptances to place $2 billion of CBA shares from institutions at $27 a share. This placement was apparently to top up CBA's tier one capital adequacy levels to

Just who is it that is denying climate change here? James Randerson in The Guardian tells us: " The relatively chilly temperatures compared with recent years are not evidence that global warming is slowing however, say climate scientists at the Met Office. “ Absolutely not ,” said Dr Peter Stott , the manager of understanding and attributing climate change at the Met Office’s Hadley Centre ." That "Absolutely not" is crying out for an exclamation mark, but it also lends the "Hadley Centre" an appropriately Alice in Wonderland feel. Let's just slip down a credulity hole into some playful Lewis Carroll universe if the going gets awkward. As the people at Climate Resistance point out, Dr. Stott is more than just over-egging the pudding a bit with this stentorious absolutism. In what universe does the experience of colder weather this year than last year, that most of us have just lived through, not constitute, like you know, actual evidence that globa

UK Government uses anti-terrorism police to arrest shadow minister of immigration over a leak of government information about immigration Even the leaders of the oldest democratic institution in the world no longer seem to have even the vaguest notion what freedoms the West is fighting for in resisting terrorism. In the same week that Pakistani Muslims invaded India on a carefully planned and executed suicide terrorist raid targeted at western tourists in Mumbai and killed and tortured over 180 people, the Speaker of the Parliament in Westminster allowed an anti-terrorism police unit to raid an Opposition parliamentarian's Westminster offices. This was apparently because he was getting access to public service information leaks on immigration data. Of the many things that really stick in my craw about this astonishing descent into totalitarianism by the UK Government, the one I'm having most difficlulty dislodging is that this police operation was presided over by the Assista

Humility, Hardwork, Honesty, Honour and Humour After reading in Jonathan Haidt's wonderful book, The Happiness Hypothesis , about Benjamin Franklin's daily self scoring regime to make himself better practised in behaving virtuously, I have been mulling over how an attention-span-challenged modern like myself might successfully implement a similar system, adapted for our times. Choosing which of the many possible virtues to measure oneself against is fraught with challenge and all the inherent perils of wanton list making , so my criteria, for the moment, has been reduced to ease of recall in a tight spot, hence a resort to onomatopoeia . I can just remember 5 things, sometimes, so here is my new ready reckoner to arm myself with as I prepare for my daily engagements with my fellow humans. Remind yourself, the 5 aiches : " humility, hardwork , honesty, honour & humour " As a boy I was subjected, through a school cadet corps, to the gross stupidities of mass

McCain loses when he shows the content of his characterisation It's an inspiring and historic thing that America can transcend race and elect a black man to be its president. My residual concern is that however storied this triumph of the great American experiment in democracy may be, they may not have got the right guy for the job. It is not enough that he is black. He really does need to be good enough too. If America is to live out the true meaning of Martin Luther King's words that a man should be judged, not by the colour of his skin, but by the content of his character, it seems quite possible that America has again chosen poorly. If McCain had won instead, we might also have had cause to have doubts on this too. I know that the conventional wisdom is that McCain's true mettle for this job was already tempered and battle tested as authentic by his experience as a POW and as a working Senator with a real resume of achievements. How can one not respect and admire this c

A story of O If you remain curious about this still opaque individual who seems imminently to become the leader of the free world, you might want to go to the link below (Hat tip: Eric Falkenstein ) to peruse and ponder a detailed third party account of his personality and proclivities. PDF Format It is a free 240 page self published online PDF written by a conservative US journalist named Steve Sailer . My initial browsing of it for about an hour found it a sympathetic if unfiltered telling of Obama the man, based mostly on O’s first autobiography: “ Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance ”. It seems refreshingly non PC and direct on racial issues. I am linking to this interesting tract now ahead of next week’s election because there seems to be some unfulfilled appetite for real attempts at discovering the character of this emerging potentate. It at least gives us an opportunity to focus on something other than the deluge of bilge from US news anchors and ecstatic or

Get Palin . Get the Plumber. Just get Obama the Presidency. An understanding of what constitutes fair play had, within tolerable limits, quite wide common ground in the communities I grew up in. That includes the books, newspapers, magazines, television programs and radio broadcasts that have shaped my perceptions, as well as my homes, schools, teams and workplaces. I'm certainly not the first to say this, as a parent of teenagers or as an ageing adult, but I am still genuinely surprised I have to say it. This is no longer the case. "Fairness" has been captured by post-modernism to such an extent that it has become a casualty of the culture conflicts of contemporary society, the same way that "truth" has. Just look at the media reporting of the Obama and Palin phenomena. Reporters and commentators (they are now the same thing) no longer feel the need to even be seen dealing fairly with the subjects of their news reports about unfolding political processes. Chec

And I am an expert at criticism ... Eric Falkenstein has again given us some gristle to chew on : " The sad fact is that experts are often more wrong on facts in their field than the average person. They are able to create a highly scientific rationale for their belief, and deflect criticism from 'conventional wisdom' because most people with mere common sense do not follow the academic protocol of the field that sets the standard for accepted expert opinion ." After what we have all been through recently; with economists and market analysts being made fools of by financial markets and with scientists and environmentalists looking sillier by the year when the planet openly defies their decrees to heat up; this is a very appealing observation. The items of evidence that Falkenstein offers for this proposition are illuminating ... . And I will store them up here, for my own future reference: Anthropologist , Elizabeth Thomas, acclaimed author on prehistoric cultures (

The economic modellers and the climate modellers were wrong. We were told by Glenn Stevens, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia ( RBA ), in August 2007 (during a Federal election campaign): "...developments to date do not appear to have changed significantly the broader global outlook. Even with the US slowing down, forecasts of global growth have recently been revised upward. " We were told by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) in its Summary for Policy Makers in 2007 that: "[Most] of the observed increase in global temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likley due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concertrations." So how have these statements of such august and responsible public institutions in economics and climate respectively, stood up in the light of the implacable gaze of history? The RBA's Glenn Stevens told us yesterday that: "The recent deterioration in prospects

We wait on feckless populists & reckless opportunists in Congress Now that the Democrat controlled US House of Representatives has voted down Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's "$700 billion bailout package", there is a palpable sense of fear in world securities and credit markets. The US Senate reconvenes on Wednesday to try to pass an amended package, which is to be resubmitted to the House on Thursday in the US. In the meantime the world just watches and waits, paralysed. If the new package is voted down again, then the market could crap out again and, worse, credit could dry up to business. This is as bleak as it gets. If the axe falls then we know we are in the abyss and can adjust our expectations. If we get a reprieve then, we muddle through as before. But at present there is only the powerlessness of waiting on others to determine our fate. Some plan Bs and plan Cs are emerging as the world faces the unthinkable, financial meltdown. The US Federal Deposits Insu

The long and the short of it It has been a curly week for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission . ASIC has made a right hash of a decision about what to do about short selling of securities quoted on Australian securities markets. Setting aside the content free dialogue that has been going on for over 6 months in the media; prompted by throw away remarks from our Federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan, about the Government's forever imminent legislative crack down on "short selling"; now that the Government and ASIC have had their hand forced by international attempts to act in a co-ordinated way to stabilise markets and reduce panic, ASIC stuffed it up. A brief chronology: Thursday, 18 September US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announces an $800 billion liquidity injection into the for the US financial system, in an attempt to restore confidence in the US banking system after the failure of Lehman Brothers, (amongst other stuff). Friday, 19 September, ASIC

Patrick Snowden , a dear friend, died of a brain tumour at the age of 47 on 5 September 2008. Jack Snowden, Pat's 16 year old son, Jeb Carroll and Pat's brother, Peter, each gave magnificent eulogies for Pat at his funeral service on the morning of 12 September 2008. This is the text of the brief remembrance I gave later that day at his wake, along with others, at the Longueville Pub in Sydney. PATRICK JOHN SNOWDEN Patrick was the truest of friends. Like many here today, Pat and Tracey have been an indelible part of the fabric of our family's life for decades. My wife, Susie, met the inseparable pair at Macquarie Uni Law School. Pat gave us the most valuable wedding gift conceivable: he passed up the opportunity to play for the 1988 Club Championship at Oatlands to attend our wedding; an act of self sacrifice in the interests of friendship that was typical of him, and for which we revere him. We have been on family holidays with the Snowdens , staying in the same apartm

Who's Judy Garland now ? Barack or Sarah ? Phew! And I thought the Democratic primary race was a blast. Following the hopeful innocent along the winding road with scruffy dogs, straw men and the heartless, whilst battling a wicked witch, to his ultimate nomination, became an almost undreamed of adventure for us rubes in the 'sphere. But now, incredibly, another Dorothy with ruby slippers has dropped out of the sky in a hurricane and rudely intruded on our dream. And it looks like she may have finally killed off that wicked witch too. You couldn't script this, even in Oz. But it is becoming a tad confusing. Who is the real Judy Garland now? This whole identity thing has become very messy, but what a spectacle to behold. It seems improbable now that the world could just go on supporting kindly grey haired old white guys hiding behind curtains. But who can predict anything anymore in populist politics. This US presidential election could just be the best Olympics ever! Roll on

If only I knew some I'm tempted to say I wholeheartedly agree with this alluring new heuristic, from Sathnan Sangera of the Times , except I don't know any celebrities, so how would I know? It would probably be truer for me to say that I adhere to the smugly self satisfying belief that people who believe in the importance of celebrity are intellectually impoverished fashion victims. If I knew any celebrities who thought their celebrity was important to our relationship other than as an irritant, then I would find it hard to be their mate. And for the very reason that Mr Sangera speculates: they would be over sensitive to having the piss taken out of them for having feet of clay. But what of his other suggested life lessons: Never brush your teeth if you're dressed in black. Don't trust a man whose eyebrows meet in the middle. Always put the shower curtain inside the bath . Only the last one of these holds water for me. I obviously don't get out much, because I al

Stephen Potter redux ALDaily pointed me recently to a type of article I haven't seen for yonks: a self-mocking parody on the latest fads in pseudo intellectual one-upmanship. And here was me prematurely grieving at the apparent passing of this eternal game. David Brooks in the New York Times writes : " Dear Dr. Kierkegaard, A ll my life I’ ve been a successful pseudo-intellectual, sprinkling quotations from Kafka, Epictetus and Derrida into my conversations, impressing dates and making my friends feel mentally inferior. But over the last few years, it’s stopped working. People just look at me blankly. My artificially inflated self-esteem is on the wane. What happened? Existential in Exeter Dear Existential, It pains me to see so many people being pseudo-intellectual in the wrong way. It desecrates the memory of the great poseurs of the past. And it is all the more frustrating because your error is so simple and yet so fundamental. You have failed to keep pace with the curre

08.08.08 The world will shortly simultaneously sit down to watch the same circus act together and feel the inner glow of connectedness. I can hardly wait. What am I to do between now and 10 pm here when the global telecast is scheduled to kick off? I already feel a breathless anticipation for my pointless despair at the intergalactic disconnection between the hyperbole of the commentary and what the ceremony will actually be communicating. At least with the Eurovision Song Contest or America's Next SuperModel or the World Darts Tournament there is some refuge in unintended irony and self parody that permiates the execrable excess or frivolity of these events. Not the Olympics. We are exhorted to take this mush completely seriously and are hushed if we demur. Ughh ! I will watch some of it though. Initially mainly to see if any of the teams or athletes are brave and clever enough to outsmart statist officialdom and make an effective protest against China's repression. And l

Solzhenitsyn's passing James Lileks struck a chord with me when I first read his blog 4 or so years ago. Along with his narrative skills, I think it is the way his startlingly familiar suburban world is conveyed with such unapologetic dignity and humanity, that makes him read so true. He is such a contrast to the over intellectualised strivings of most of us baby boomers towards urban sophistication and academic hauteur. You feel refreshed and uplifted at his ease in aptly capturing significance in minor insights gleaned from the ordinariness of his days. Alexander Solzhenitsyn died yesterday. The extraordinariness of this once ordinary maths teacher, lies in his survival through an ordeal of suffering at the hands of implacable oppressive cruelty that might otherwise have defied words, were it not for his great courage and literary genius. A greater contrast with the glossy material mid-western prosperity of Lilek's existence and Solzhenitsyn's tortured spiritual an

The above header is probably not going to sell many page views. But it is newsworthy, in the sense that it would be a novel observation for a news organisation to publish. It's a species of what I recall Dr Don Stammer aptly describing in the 1980s as the most likely outcome of any problem: the "muddle through". It has been prompted by another delightful piece that the Insta Prof has nudged my way by John Tierney in the New York Times' Science section on 29 July. After the deluge of disaster that the media tips on us every day, I reckon this piece should have been given lead item status by every media organisation on the planet (and now even Memeorandum 's algorithm and ALDaily has picked up this piece , so it's sure resonating with someone other than me and the Prof). The header the NY Times uses is: " FINDINGS : 10 Things to Scratch From Your Worry List " And, along with confining it to the deep innards of the journal by placing it in the mostly