In The Interests Of Fairness 001

 Political Economy  No Responses »
Aug 252008
 

Current mood: contemplative

BEIJING OLYMPICS
‘One World One Dream’

Some Facts:

1. of 304 participating countries, just 87 won at least one medal of any colour;

2. countries which didn’t win at least one medal of any colour did not rate a mention from the point of view of a country profile/information or in result reporting on the official olympic internet site;

3. countries were ranked by the number of gold, then silver, then bronze medals won, and alternatively in terms of total medals won, so the biggest and richest naturally featured toward the top … a fairer ‘one world one dream’ ranking would weight the medals – first gold, then silver, then bronze – per head of population then per capita annual income;

4. michael phelps did not attend the closing ceremony due to being in london fulfilling a ‘contractual’ obligation … whatever happened to the ‘amateur & friendship spirit’ in olympic sport? … i wonder how his usa team mates felt, particularly those who participated in his ‘relay’ golds?

5. this was the last time softball was contested at an olympics as it has been dropped as an olympic sport/event by the ioc in their wisdom effective from the next games (to be held in london in 2012) while boxing and martial arts continue to be retained!??! … er … what was that? … something about friendly games??

Mmmm…

The World In Ratios 004

 Political Economy  No Responses »
Aug 052008
 

Current mood: aggravated

CHINA
China: Beijing Olympics: Reneged on Agreements and/or made Secret ‘Accommodating’ Agreements with the IOC (International Olympic Committee)
China: Oppression: Media Control
China: Oppression: Internet Control
China: Arms Trading: Undermining Democracy (e.g. Zimbabwe)
China: Expansionism: Sinocization (e.g.Tibet)
China: Pollution: Global Warming

ITALY
Italy: 62 Governments in 63 Years: Mussolini Ressurecting

INTERNET
George Orwell: Big Brother: Google Streetscape

AUSTRALIA
Australian Liberal (Conservative) Party: Nero (while Rome burns): George (W) Bush Jnr’s ‘Climate Change’: Really ‘Global Warming’!

ROOM FOR THOUGHT
|^| ‘During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.’ ~ George Orwell, English essayist, novelist & satirist (1903-1950) |^|

Australian Budget (2008/9) In A Nutshell

 Political Economy  No Responses »
May 162008
 

Current mood: voluminous
Australian Budget (2008/9) In A Nutshell
(Sorry about the parochialism…)

Exports-led Revenue windfall (no mention of ‘Chinese Human Rights’ trade-off, pardon the pun)
– cost of well-overdue infrastructure investment
– cost of well-overdue investment in pre-skilling the needed workforce
+ convenient youth alcohol bingeing tax windfall
+/- paper-tiger petrol price controls
+/- laborious & excessive use of the word ‘family’ to satisfy a minority party Senator involved in the balance-of-power in the so-called ‘Upper’ House of Parliament
+/- tokenism to ‘stall’ the other one-issue balance-of-power Senator, ‘Mr Pokies!’
+/- Second Term ‘steady-as-she-goes’ ground work

… Oh well …

Here’s some suggestions …
. abolish State & Territory Governments altogether
. abolish the Senate
. abolish the offices of Governor-General and State Governors
. amalgamate and rationalize Local Governments into Regional Administrations
. amalgamate and extensively rationalize all public services/servants across the previous Local, State & Federal boundaries
. comprehensively crackdown on Business tax evasion of any flavour, and especially on the use of expert legal and professional accounting to counter tax
. make Business Managers and Directors liable for business failures

Several things will happen as a consequence of the above …
. We’ll save Trillions, which can be used, in part, to pay Australia’s almost ‘Third-World-Country-Proportionate’ Debt in full
. With vigilance we can reap great rewards of economies of scale
. We can buy back our assets and control over the use and distribution of our resources from foreign control
. Business, both domestic & foreign based, will no longer be able to play the various State & Territory Governments off against each other
. We can set up national energy, especially Solar, and water re-distribution grids across Australia
. We can invest in accommodating Australians with adequate Housing options and long-term planning and provision, as well as effective decentralization across Australia

Martin Eden
Friday, 16 May 2008

? Martin Eden

Business Tax Evasion

 Political Economy  No Responses »
May 062008
 

Current mood: vexed

Business Tax Evasion

3 forms of Business Tax Evasion …

1. Hide the income altogether (Owner pulls a shonky!)

2. Hide the income in accounts (Owner hires/instructs then blames Accountant!)

3. Hire Lawyers & Accountants to hide the income (The Pontius Pilate method: Owner purpose hires/instructs then denies all knowledge and/or asserts his/her right to minimize tax!)

The penalties, if any, are different for each category, why??

? Martin Eden

Takeovers

 Political Economy  No Responses »
Apr 182008
 

Takeovers

Well here’s a doozy!? So much of this goes on!? Why?

I think it’s part of that race to be the most powerful in terms of beating up the rest, in other words – elimination of competition in a laissez-faire capitalist system supposedly thriving on competition.

My beef is this.? Too much of this takeover-ing is done with borrowed money, and the associated debt servicing comes with costs passed on to the consumer.? An interesting feature of this process is the seemingly inevitable need for debt refinancing by the takeover-er to stall the inevitable passing on of costs to the consumer when they get a bit rebellious by dropping away manifesting in reduced demand.? Debt refinancing becomes necessary when the ability to service debt is compromised by a low or lowering profit margin.? Banks get restless in their usury!

The bottom line is that when the company defaults on its debt-servicing it goes under along with its shareholders, but often not the Directors or Top-Managers.? Interesting isn’t it.

Now I think that any Takeover is a cynical exercise in getting to a position where you have to deal less with the limitations of competition and therefore get to dictate to the market and make more profits.? Doing this with debt is amazingly cheeky to say the least!

So I strongly believe that company law should be made stricter and prevent any Takeover using debt altogether.? Moreover Directors and Top-Managers should be made liable in the event of? a Company failing.? Sorry the Maseratis have to be coughed up to help pay for the fuck-ups!!

? Martin Eden

 Older Entries  Newer Entries