Time to cut that credit card in half as banks raise rates

News.com.au reports today that bank interest rates are still rising.

 

"AUSTRALIAN households are about to be swept up in the global credit crunch, with the major banks raising interest rates across the board in an effort to protect their profit margins.

Lending rates for almost all loans - particularly fixed home loans, investment loans and some credit cards - have risen in recent weeks by more than the Reserve Bank's 25 basis-point increase in November.
Most at risk are credit card holders, who owe the banks a record $31 billion and face interest rates of up to 19.9 per cent as the Christmas bills fall due in coming months.-----------------------------------

CommSec equities economist Martin Arnold said despite record employment levels, some families would have been forced to borrow to survive over Christmas."

News.com.au article today:

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,23636,22993714-462,00.html?from=mostpop

 

Cutting the credit card in half may be the only way many NSW North Coast residents will survive increased debt this year.

The high interest rates on these cards are an added burden for low-income and pensioner families, who frequently use such credit lines as an emergency fallback measure in the face of an ever increasing cost of living.

Scarcity due to drought and high transport costs now see everything in the butcher's window 

(except sausages, mince and offal) at prices in the $13-$25 a kg range. Bread and dairy prices have also risen along with many other staples.

Bulk-billing GPs and other non-public hospital medical services that do not insist on upfront payment are often hard to find, and the cost of transport to North Coast medical specialists is becoming prohibitive.

Service fees and charges on basic utilities have been creeping up in recent years, so that these costs can sometimes exceed the total cost of actual electricity, water or telephone use for single or two person households.

That significant bloc of North Coast residents living in comparative poverty is likely to find that 2008 will be a rather grim year.

Increased credit card debt due to high interest rates will only make it harder to cope.

The phrase "Advance Australia Fair" sounds rather hollow right now.

Amateur pyrotechnicians = dangerous nuisances

Many New Year celebrations featured FIREWORKS, but most of the fireworks were unauthorised and illegal.

Responsible individuals and organisations respect lawful directions associated with fireworks displays. In NSW this involves making application to WorkCover to conduct public displays of fireworks.

WorkCover's website provides a search facility that shows listings of notified displays. The listings enable authorities and members of the public to take appropriate action in preparation for the displays. The website is http//www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/fireworks_search.htm

In addition to the nuisance factor associated with illegal fireworks, the far more important factor of PUBLIC SAFETY need addressing.

Unauthorised and illegal fireworks should not be tolerated. Contact POLICE, LOCAL COUNCIL and WORKCOVER to report incidents of such activities.
Authorised fireworks displays between 01-Nov-2007 and 31-Jan-2008 were registered with WorkCover. The list isn't very long, so obviously most fireworks are unauthorised and illegal.

Heavy seas, wind and rain bring in New Year on the NSW North Coast

The Courier Mail photo of the bar at Tweed Heads on the NSW North Coast

Wild weather in south-east Queensland flowed somewhat weakly through to northern New South Wales, resulting in heavy seas, strong winds and sporadic rain as we saw the New Year in.
Although the rain was welcome on the coastal strip it was not excessive and has not resulted in any significant run-off into local rivers so far.

Climate change predicted to dominate Australian economic outlook in 2008

Business Spectator predicts that "Climate change is expected to be the big issue for 2008, dominating public consciousness, affecting company strategies and influencing other issues such as development of alternative energy sources."

 

According to Craig James, chief equities economist at CommSec, other big economic issues are thought to be:

* Inflation/unemployment trade-off

* Agflation

* Aginvestment

* Industry consolidation

* Nuclear energy

* Global labour shortages

* La Nina

* Hilary Clinton

* Recession

 

Business Spectator full article yesterday:
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Economic-outlook-2008--climate-change-will-dominat-A9VFT?OpenDocument

It's the year 2008: one European city-state and one Antipodean nation are regressing

According to The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, the Vatican announced this week that it will be training hundreds of new exorcists world-wide, because the young are being exposed to Satanism through the media, rock music and the internet.
And I thought all those devil vibes were coming out of the Bush Administration and the Pentagon!
It seems that Cardinal Ratzinger now Pope Benedict XVl cannot decide which century he is actually residing in.
Perhaps it's time for a few good, level-headed Aussie members of his flock to remind His Holiness that it is now 2008.

Meanwhile, according to ABC News on the same day, the new Federal Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy told Australia that all internet connections will soon be subject to mandatory ISP filtering in order to shield the young from violence and pornography.
Leaving us all to wonder exactly how much online news and current affairs will make it past this enthusiastic censor, if such 'filtering' causes regional download speed to decrease even more than the current snailpace or if the mooted opt-out function does not reliably work.
Has Senator Conroy been speaking with his Pope?

Rudd's deeds speak volumes

Mungo McCallum writing in The Byron Echo (January 1, 2008) has a telling yarn about the character of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

 

McCallum wrote, in part: 

"The most interesting political story of the holiday break came not from the news pages, where the election and its aftermath had finally succumbed to the demands of sport, but from the letters column of the Sydney Morning Herald. 

Last week a social worker from St Johns Church in Canberra revealed that on the morning of Boxing Day the Prime Minister, unannounced and accompanied only by a security guard, had arrived to help serve breakfast to the homeless of the national capital, of whom there are rather more than is generally supposed. Kevin Rudd talked to both workers and clients at some length, and then announced as the most serious of his new year resolutions his intention to do something about the plight of the homeless. 

A cynic commented that this would all have been more convincing if he had been engaged in similar activities before becoming Prime Minister – but he had. During the hectic campaign, after the exhausted media retired for the weekend, Rudd regularly visited homeless centres in whichever city he found himself. 

As with St Johns the visits took place without any kind of publicity, and the fact that they had taken place only came out after polling day. They were acts of private charity and compassion which some observers have clearly found surprising and disconcerting in a man who has been seen as a ruthlessly efficient and single minded politician." 

To read more about this go to http://www.echo.net.au/archives/22_29/pdf/p10.pdf

Comment: Former PM Howard had neither the guts nor the common decency to do anything such as this during his 11+ years in the post. What more needs to be said, other than good riddance to bad rubbish.

Want a New Year's resolution that you can keep?

Here's one New Year's resolution that will be relatively easy to keep - reduce the amount of palm oil which comes into the house in products you buy.
Palm oil plantations are expanding to Australia's north and causing rapid deforestation with loss of habitiat for the endangered Orangutan.

According to the Palm Oil Action Group at http://www.palmoilaction.org.au/

"Only 3 vegetable oils must be labelled in food products in Australia and New Zealand. Those are peanut oil, sesame oil and soy bean oil. The reason for this is that a percentage of the population suffers allergies to these oils.
All other vegetable oils can be labelled as vegetable oil. However the label must declare the amount of saturated fat in the product. So if the label states vegetable oil and then goes on to state the amount of saturated fat you can count on that vegetable oil being either palm kernel oil, palm oil or coconut oil. This is a way of potentially identifying if a product has palm oil in it as other vegetable oils are not saturated. This is for Australia and New Zealand only. Labelling may be different in other countries.
Also if palm oil is used in cosmetics it must be labelled. No exceptions. However it is usually not labelled as Palm oil. It is labelled as Elaeis guineensis This is the name given to palm oil by the International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredients. (INCI). Misleading labels on cosmetics can lead to action by the Australian Competition and Consumer Association.
So if you want to avoid buying palm oil, when buying food look for the label stating it is vegetable oil. Then look for saturated fat. If only vegetable oil (no animal fat listed) is used and there is saturated fat in the product - you are buying palm kernel oil, palm oil or coconut oil, most probably palm.
"above information provided by primates4primates quoting Australian Government sources"

The image above shows some products this site identifies as containing palm oil. Not forgetting takeaway foods like KFC fried chicken and most soaps.