Via Big Picture the
Financial Times has an interactive map which charts the winners and losers of the
subprime credit crunch. The three red dots on the Australian continent are Macquarie Bank, Absolute Capital and Basis Capital (Hedge fund).
It is not really surprising that there are issues around subprime lending as it is a high risk area by definition. Subprime are borrowers that do not qualify for market interest rates or have bad credit history.
The lenders try to make this up by having higher interest rates and increased fees for default and late payment. This is a similar use of economic technology as insurance; if the risks are higher to the company providing the service then the costs to the consumer are higher to cover the extra financial risk.
If subprime lenders are having meltdowns on the global market at the moment, it is their own fault and they should go the way of the dodo. They obviously do not have a sustainable business model. Isn't this exactly what the market is supposed to do?
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Barry Ritholtz has a run down of the amounts the world's reserve banks spent to keep liquidity up and overnight interest rates down. The Australian Reserve Bank injected 4.95 Billion AUD on friday.
To put that in perspective Australia spends 17 Billion a year on its defence budget.
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Gary Sauer-Thompson asks why there is Reserve Bank intervention, shouldn't the market be left to deal with liquidity issues itself under classic liberalism. He writes, "On that scale? Give me a break. This global market turmoil is more than a liquidity crisis. It looks as if classical liberalism is going to be mugged by economic reality."
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Peter Martin analyses the issue from the Australian political perspective. He quotes Peter Costello, "So the Australian exposure to non-conforming or sub-prime loans is about one-fifteenth what it is in the United States. In the US the delinquency rate is about 2.5 per cent. In Australia it is about 0.4 per cent, one-sixth."
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
