hypnodoc

Same $10 POS so probably fordham

Hi Aron, do those fit an R Spec 4 pot Brembo front and do they come without the pads? I got to get rid of the DBA Gold drilled slotted the rattle is driving me nuts.

Todays latest re our Big 4 Banks Moody’s Cuts Australia’s Four Biggest Banks’ Ratings to Aa2 May 18, 2011, 4:05 AM EDT (Updates with banks’ comment from fifth paragraph.)By Jacob Greber May 18 (Bloomberg) -- Australia’s four largest banks’ credit ratings were cut one level to Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service on concern their reliance on wholesale debt markets makes them vulnerable to swings in investor confidence. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp., Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., and National Australia Bank Ltd. were cut from Aa1 to Moody’s third-highest grade, the New York-based ratings company said. The banks’ shares and the Australian dollar fell, while the cost of protecting against default on their debt was little changed. The so-called four pillar banks have “relatively high levels of wholesale funding, at about 40 percent of liabilities on average,” Patrick Winsbury, a senior vice president at Moody’s in Sydney, wrote in an e-mailed statement. “The global financial crisis has underlined the speed with which shifts in investor confidence can impact bank funding.” Australia’s biggest banks -- four of the 14 lenders in the world with a AA rating or better from Standard & Poor’s -- largely remained profitable through the financial crisis as the economy avoided recession and the government introduced guarantees to support debt sales. Moody’s move brings its rating on the lenders in line with S&P’s assessment. Commonwealth Bank Treasurer Lyn Cobley said in a statement that “we do not expect this to have any material impact on our funding plans or expected price of our new issuance.” National Australia remains committed to maintaining “strong capital, funding and liquidity positions,” the Melbourne-based bank said in an e-mailed statement. Funding Risk Westpac is still “one of a small number of banks worldwide within the ratings agency’s AA category,” the Sydney-based bank said. ANZ Bank said its rating is still one grade higher than it had before May 2007. “The arguments for this downgrade have been in place for three, four or five years,” Wim Steemers, a banking analyst at Macquarie Funds Group in Sydney, said in a phone interview today. “Is there a real risk that the Australian banks cannot fund themselves? Probably not.” Australia’s banks have reported a surge in deposits after the nation’s savings rate climbed. Savings as a share of disposable income increased to 9.7 percent from October through December, from 8 percent a year earlier, according to Bureau of Statistics data. Pension Drain Moody’s said it expects banks to continue reducing their wholesale funding requirements for the next 12 to 18 months. Banks sell bonds to raise money to lend to borrowers. “However, the fundamental funding structure of the major Australian banks remains in place,” today’s Moody’s report said. Australia’s compulsory pension system, which siphons 9 percent of workers pay into managed funds, means the nation’s banks have access to a smaller proportion of savings. Moody’s said the recent increase in domestic deposits has come mainly from large companies, which is likely to drop as the nation’s economy rebounds and they fund expansion. “Retail deposit growth will then likely be insufficient to fund the banks’ needs, driving them to increase wholesale funding once more,” Moody’s said today. ‘Confidence Shocks’ The lenders are also potentially subject to “confidence shocks” given the nation’s increasing “bias” toward mining, the surge in income from exports of raw materials and “high asset prices,” the report said. “The downgrade reflects Moody’s concern that -- in a less liquid and more volatile post-crisis world -- the banks’ sensitivity to market conditions is better reflected at the new rating level,” the company said. The Aa2 rating is two levels higher than the A1 grade held by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and one step above JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Aa3 rating. The lowest mortgage demand since at least 1977 has cut Australian banks’ need to raise cash in foreign debt markets. Borrowing for mortgages grew by 6.6 percent in March from the year-earlier period, the least since the central bank figures were first reported. Australian house prices fell in the first quarter by the most since the third quarter of 2008, according to a government report on May 2. Rising Rates Consumers are cutting back on spending and increasing savings after central bank Governor Glenn Stevens raised the benchmark lending rate by 175 basis points, or 1.75 percentage points, to 4.75 percent between October 2009 and November 2010. ANZ said this month that short-term wholesale funding accounted for 11 percent of total financing as of March 31, down from 14 percent a year earlier, helped by higher deposit growth. That will allow the bank to shoot for the “lower end” of its A$20 billion ($21.25 billion) to A$25 billion funding requirement for the fiscal full-year ending Sept. 30, it said. Westpac said May 4 that lending rose A$9.6 billion and customer deposits gained A$17.9 billion in the year to March 31, meaning the nation’s second-largest bank was able to fund its growth with deposits. Separately, Fitch Ratings today said Australian banks could have their credit ratings cut if they lower standards to boost mortgage sales as demand for home loans slumps. “If we do start to see signs of erosion in those lending standards, there may be some negative pressure on ratings coming through,” Tim Roche, director of Fitch’s financial institutions group in Sydney, told a credit forum today. Shares of Commonwealth Bank, the nation’s biggest lender, reversed a gain of as much as 0.6 percent today to close 0.2 percent lower in Sydney. Westpac slipped 0.1 percent, National Australia Bank added 0.1 percent, and ANZ Bank pared a gain of 1.6 percent to finish 0.9 percent higher. Credit-default swaps on the four banks were little changed at 107.5 basis points after the announcement, according to Westpac. The Australian dollar pared gains to trade at $1.0635 at 5:20 p.m. in Sydney. --With assistance from Angus Whitley and Sarah McDonald in Sydney. Editors: Malcolm Scott, Ed Johnson. To contact the reporter for this story: Jacob Greber in Sydney at jgreber@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chitra Somayaji at csomayaji@bloomberg.net

I bought a set of DBA Gold drilled and slotteds with Mu pads for the F6 then went O/S seas, I only got the drilled to keep the standard look, I came home, had them fitted and nothing but rattle rattle rattle, whether they are applied or just driving normally not using the brakes, rattle stop and shims don't make any difference. I was worried about the sound as it was getting worse so I had ford completly rip the things off and make sure all was OK in case the workshop who initially fitted them had put something on backwards or inside out. Got the car back today, and the only answer is new discs, these ones have done 200 klms and have not had a hard time in any way. Brembo discs might cost more but at least if they rattle they will get replaced instead of running all over the countryside only to find the product is faulty. Its the 3rd set of DBAs I've bought and I've never had the problem before, but it will be the last. I don't give a toss how well the discs work because I don't drive that fast but I can't stand the rattle and I won't intentionally buy anything from a company that would release such a crap product in the first place. When profit takes precedence over quality then as far as I'm concerned

What a complete crock, this is just another fool in the seemingly endless line of academic idiots trying to justify their own existance . The cut 5 was the greatest farce ever foisted upon any driver anywhere and some dickheads were gullible enough to beleive it. Anything or any pack of trumped of lies to hand over a fine for any speed over the posted limit.

Time to piss off all the academics and do gooders and bring in the Birch, although its about 10 years too late. Just imagine how much of your tax money has also gone to support these scum bludgers in the form of DOLE payments. At least you're insured Worm.

Pain in the a$$. Mine has been doing it since I got new front hubs, discs and project Mu pads, does it pedal off or on at all speeds sounds like a stone in the tyre at 100kph bouncing off the walls in the Perth tunnel, bloody annoying. Might be time to get it looked at me thinks

Well now they have been on a week and had a chance to expand and contract under heat changes they have settled nicely. There is a bit more of a bark than the old single sider but no drone on crusing at any speed. As for performance increase .0000000000000000000000000000001%. Sure looks a hell of a lot better though

FG mate, they look a lot better IMHO. Got one for the steering wheel too which was a sod to fit but it got there by scraping off all the adhesive on the back of the badge and subtituting it with a couple drops of the old faithful Super Glue.

And The Latest - NOT FORM ALEX JONES, although they reported this 10 days ago. Fukushima Reactor 1 Fuel Rods Fully Exposed, Reactor 4 In Danger Of Collapsing Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/12/2011 10:40 -0400 Gross Domestic Product Japan Nuclear Power Remember Fukushima? The exploded nuclear power plant that everyone was talking about two months ago and now the media has imposed a complete blackout on, because out of print/page views, means out of radioactive spewage, right? Wrong. According to the latest update from a now government funded TEPCO, "fuel rods are fully exposed in the No. 1 reactor at its stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, setting back the utility’s plan to resolve the crisis. The water level is 1 meter (3.3 feet) below the base of the fuel assembly, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility known as Tepco, told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo. Melted fuel has dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel and is still being cooled, Matsumoto said. The company doesn’t know how long the rods have been exposed, he said." And apparently even more skeptics are emerging: "“I’ve been saying from the beginning the water tomb plan won’t work,” said Tadashi Narabayashi, a professor of nuclear engineering at Hokkaido University. “Tepco must work on a water circulation cooling system as soon as possible. They’ve been going round and round in circles and now realize this is what they need to do.” And the kicker: "It’s unlikely the situation has worsened with the discovery the rods are exposed because they’ve probably been out of the water since shortly after the crisis started, Narabayashi said." Which means that the situtation has indeed been dire from the very beginning, that TEPCO and the government have been lying, that radiation has been spewing, and that prevalent radiation is likely far higher than most have conceived. Pretty much as was predicted on Zero Hedge long ago. And indicating that things are even worse, is the following report from Russia Today (courtesy of The Intel Hub) that Reactor 4 may be on the verge of collapse: Nuclear experts on Russia Today reported Tuesday that their is a real danger of a complete collapse of Fukushima nuclear reactor 4. Japan has announced that the building is leaning and that they are taking measures to reinforce the structure in order to prevent a collapse that would scatter nuclear rods from the spent fuel pool on the ground around the plant. The flyover video analysis and images captured from the TBS live HD cam show little remains of the building except a burnt out skeleton.

Yeah, he's become very rich being an obsessive loonie but a lot of his interviews are only lin ks to other news outlets. If you look at the theft of rights by Governments he's right at least 75% of the time. Both of the Fukijima articles were links to other news oulets not Jone's opinion.

And Now This Reported Today A Bit Late Tepco MARK COLVIN: The company that owns the Fukushima nuclear plant, Tepco, has finally admitted what many have long suspected, that one of their reactors underwent a full meltdown after the tsunami that hit Japan's east Coast. They say the fuel rods in the number one reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are exposed. We begin with our Tokyo correspondent Mark Willacy. Mark this has, as I say, been long suspected, but what are they saying today? MARK WILLACY: Well what they're saying Mark is that these fuel rods, which are about four metres long each, have been exposed, in other words, the water has not been covering them and keeping them cool. The exposed area of the rods is about 1.5 to 1.7 metres long and that a large part of this fuel has now melted and that it's probably dripped down to the bottom of the containment vessel. Now the Tepco operator had estimated earlier that about 55 per cent of the reactor core at number one had been damaged. We assume this will make them obviously have a re-evaluation; this could really push things up a notch or two because this is talking about meltdowns. Now, the one thing the company is saying is that the temperature inside that reactor, the number one reactor is stable and it is cool, so that is one piece of good news coming from Tepco at least. MARK COLVIN: I think it was just last week I read a piece saying that the radiation levels in the number one reactor had dropped enough for them to be able to get people in there for the first time in some time. Now, is it just because of that, that they've been able to get in there, that they've discovered this? MARK WILLACY: We believe so. We were told that the reactors one, two and three as you mentioned were stabilising. We've now been told that in reactor one at least these fuel rods have been exposed, that some of them have melted and that they are potentially at the bottom of the containment vessel, which is a major issue. And we've had a statement just in the last little while from Greenpeace saying, look this situation is clearly far more serious than previously reported and could escalate rapidly if "the lava melts through the reactor vessel". So that's the worst case scenario but what we're hearing from Tepco at least is that everything is cool inside the reactor there's no overheating at this stage, although there has been some meltdown. MARK COLVIN: So we know that it is still inside the metal vessel. MARK WILLACY: That's right, that's what we understand. We understand there's been no breach of that metal containment vessel. MARK COLVIN: See I asked the nuclear regulator in that first week about what was under that vessel in reactor number one because I had been told that there wasn't necessarily anything; there wasn't a proper containment vessel, a concrete containment vessel under the metal containment vessel. He didn't know and I've never seen a satisfactory answer to that; do we know what's underneath? MARK WILLACY: I think you're not the only one who hasn't seen a satisfactory answer; the Japanese people certainly haven't been told. Obviously Tepco has now squashed it's obviously three or four press conferences a day into one. The Japanese media get all the questions and I don't believe that that question, either it hasn't been asked or it hasn't been answered. So it's a very good question and it's one that Tepco hasn't provided an answer on at least at this stage. MARK COLVIN: Because the significance is whether this meltdown just drops down into a concrete vessel underneath as I say, or whether it drops down into the earth below, with the possibility of contaminating the water table and basically drilling down a lot further. MARK WILLACY: That's right and the assumption is and obviously assumption's a very dangerous thing when you're dealing with nuclear power plants, like ones that crippled at Fukushima, that there is some sort of concrete containment vessel under the main metal vessel that holds the fuel rods in. Because if that, as you say, escapes out of the initial vessel, nothing's going to stop it if there's no concrete containment there. And we're getting more worrying news from the Government here as well I have to say we've had the chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano today again apologise and this time again it's over reactor number three, which we obviously have heard is leaking more radioactive water into the sea. He said this is a very "deplorable issue". So the news, after not getting much news for a while, we've heard that the three nuclear reactors have stabilised; now that people are going back in to have a look around, the bad news seems to be leaching out. MARK COLVIN: Well we'll see what happens in number two and number three. Mark Willacy is our Tokyo correspondent. Thanks Mark.

I think we all hope you are not prooved wrong Dags, but they have had people in their and the levels are extreme, plus Tepco and the Govt are admitting they have had people in their trying to stabalise the Buliding for 2 days now so something must be up. If they get another even mild quake it might fark things up a bit.

This is worth a laugh. I followed this advice 5 years ago and I'm laughing now, even after a 30% drop last week the crooked bankers couldn't hold it back cane straight back up 18% and is 350% above what I paid, still a long way to go yet, same as Gold http://thesilvergoldhedge.blogspot.com/2011/05/join-sla-to-get-even-and-regain-your.html

Thanks fordfreak1. No intentional decision for the perforation, I just walked into the exhaust shop and bought what they had in stock they wanted to do a royal command performance on cutting the bumper, $500 and 2 days at a panel beater so instead of making a panel beater richer for what can be done in 20 minutes with a template and a little care I took them elsewhere for bumper cutting and fitting

I got bored looking at the RH side 2.5 twins, so I got some XForce Quads fitted last week, barks a bit more but it balances the bum a lot more nicely.

Made in Japan may literally soon become a thing of the past. If that No 4 reactor falls over it means GAME OVER for the entire country

Hey XR09. Its going to get a lot worse before it gets any better, especially if we in Aus get the flu when America sneezes. They have run out of the ability to print any more money, they are broke. Instead of following the constitution the head of the Fed Tim Geithner is just going to print more toilet paper and nobody ever dares metion the uncountable trillions coming in the form of the Derivatives bubble. All the optimism in the world cannot over ride mathematical reality. Banks have been creating paper money (debt) for so long now that its close to end game. I found this today. We have a quick question for the Treasury Secretary: according to today's DTS, as of close yesterday, the Treasury had $14.274 trillion in debt subject to the ceiling of $14.294 trillion, or a $20 billion "buffer." To the best of our knowledge there were no redemptions today, and certainly none in the non-Bill pipeline this week. So, uh, how exactly did Tim Geithner auction off $32 billion today? (and plans to auction off another $40 billion tomorrow and Thursday)

Well news about the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been noticable by its absense lately, this is an interesting link http://www.infowars.com/nuclear-collapse-looms-fukushima-no-4-reactor-leaning/ Maybe the Camry will finally see its last days

I Couldn't Resist this one. Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper. What you do with this article now that you have read it… is up to you. This might be funny if it weren’t so true. Be sure to read all the way to the end: Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table, At which he’s fed. Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes Are the rule. Tax his work, Tax his pay, He works for peanuts anyway! Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat. Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt. Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he Tries to think. Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries Tax his tears. Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways To tax his ass. Tax all he has Then let him know That you won’t be done Till he has no dough. When he screams and hollers; Then tax him some more, Tax him till He’s good and sore. Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in Which he’s laid… Put these words Upon his tomb, ‘Taxes drove me to my doom…’ When he’s gone, Do not relax, Its time to apply The inheritance tax. Accounts Receivable Tax Building Permit Tax CDL license Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax Excise Taxes Federal Income Tax Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) Fishing License Tax Food License Tax Fuel Permit Tax Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon) Gross Receipts Tax Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax Inventory Tax IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) Liquor Tax Luxury Taxes Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax Personal Property Tax Property Tax Real Estate Tax Service Charge Tax Social Security Tax Road Usage Tax Recreational Vehicle Tax Sales Tax School Tax State Income Tax State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone Federal Excise Tax Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax Telephone State and Local Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax Utility Taxes Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft Registration Tax Well Permit Tax Workers Compensation Tax STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids

It was a little more than an R Spec badge and mats, but they were still hurredly belted together with hammers and had ordinary build quality, water leaks in the boot, bad panel alignment, a crappy speaker and amp setup, numerous rattles and to top it off the rear brakes lost the Brembo calipers which was a stupid effort at cost cutting. They became a respectable performance when the suspension was binned and replaced, the crap bushes were replaced, a real intercooler was fitted and 2 or 3 warranty visits to Ford were completed especially regarding noisy diffs. Having said that once they are tarted up and flash tuned they are a fairly decent car but theres a lot that have been very abused 4 years down the track, mines still got real low klm's and is as good as new to look at because I don't think ford will keep making turbos for much longer (don't flame me its just common sense in light of fuel prices that bother the multitudes) so mine will go on blocks very soon and I will start all over again with a 335. I bought the first BA Phoon in WA 013 a 6 speed and it was a better car than the BF IMHO except for the clutch dramas. Simon was starting Xtreme and we used it for the first experiments for flash tuners and it got the ba jesus hammered out of it after it had done 1000klm and it never broke or missed a beat.

All part of it becoming the boring load of crap that it is now, the real days are gone.

In August 2005, The Times ran the headline, “US heading for house price crash, Greenspan tells buyers.“ His warning came just a few months before his retirement. After years of propping up bubbles and keeping interest rates at dangerously low levels, Greenspan was obviously thinking about his legacy… making sure in years to come he could say, “I told you there was a bubble.” The Times wrote: “In a pre-retirement speech to fellow central bankers at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Mr Greenspan said that people were investing in houses as if they were a one-way bet, not allowing for the risk of price falls. He said ‘history had not dealt kindly’ with investors who kept ignoring risks.” No bubble here, move along “Thankfully” for the US housing industry, but not for those thinking about taking a plunge into the housing market, future Federal Reserve chairman, Dr. Ben S. Bernanke was on hand. Two months after Greenspan’s comments, Bernanke downplayed fears of a house price collapse. In a testimony to the US Congress, Dr. Bernanke said: “House prices are unlikely to continue rising at current rates… a moderate cooling in the housing market, should one occur, would not be inconsistent with the economy continuing to grow at or near its potential next year.” In other words, in October 2005, Dr. Bernanke thought the US housing market would [cough] plateeeeeeeeau. Sound familiar? One year later, The Washington Post headlined, “Housing Slump Slows Economy“. It wrote: “The cooling housing market sent a chill through the economy in the third quarter, helping to slow growth to its weakest pace in more than three years.” Interestingly, the Post also wrote: “Heading into the final campaign stretch, President Bush [Ed note: remember him?] and other Republicans have emphasized the good economic news, such as the low 4.6 percent unemployment rate…” [Needle scratches off record] What’s that? The unemployment rate in the US was just 4.6% in October 2006. More on that in a minute… Then by the end of May 2007, MarketWatch reported that “U.S. home prices fall for first time since 1991“. It noted: “U.S. home prices dropped 1.4% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, the first year-over-year decline in national home prices since 1991, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index… “A year ago, home prices were rising at an 11.5% pace. Prices have been falling for the past three quarters.” MarketWatch even included a chart showing the price growth and price decay: Source: MarketWatch Unemployment lags house price falls Before I go on, back to that US unemployment number. Take a look at it on the chart below [Ed note: click on the image to view annotations]: Source: Google In a nutshell, this timeline disproves one of the key arguments made by spruikers – an idea we’ve never believed anyway – that Australian house prices can only fall if there’s a major shock to the economy. The chart above proves that isn’t the case. The S&P/Case-Shiller index revealed house price growth was in a steep decline from early 2006… and went negative in the first quarter of 2007. During that period, what was the US unemployment rate? That’s right, it was around 4.5%. That’s lower than the current Australian unemployment rate. It also tells you the US unemployment rate is just as rigged as the Australian unemployment rate. At that time there was no major shock to the economy. In fact, the first of the big financial firms to collapse – Bear Stearns – didn’t collapse until March 2008. A full year after house prices had started to fall. And even if you take the first signs of trouble at Bear Stearns – the USD$3.2 billion “self” bailout of two of its hedge funds – that was only in June 2007… months after house prices started to sink. And still long before the market received a genuine shock to the system. As I wrote in yesterday’s Money Morning, in response to Jessica Irvine’s terrible Sydney Morning Herald article: “All that’s required for house prices to fall is for people to think that house prices will fall. Just in the same way that share prices can fall when they reach a peak. Sellers look to get out first before everyone else gets the same idea.” This is what’s playing out in Australia right now. Housing discounted by half! Each day we’re getting letters into the Money Morning mailbag with examples of falling property prices. Money Morning reader Rick sent us a flyer showing a Port Adelaide development having slashed up to 59% off the original listing price of some properties. Or this one with a 51% discount to the original price: Source: Brock Harcourts And if that wasn’t a sign of desperation, check out what the vendor is prepared to do in order to shift a dog of a commercial property: “A single waterfront commercial property – offered at a price representing extraordinary value discount by 59%. All State Government ‘Stamp Duty Conveyance’ to be paid by the vendor saving thousands of dollars.” Wow! Desperate? You bet it is. Today, Money Morning reader Katie sent us an article from The Advertiser in Adelaide, “Glut gives homebuyers an edge“: “The number of homes for sale is at levels comparable to peak spring season, forcing greater competition, industry experts say.” You know what more competition means don’t you? That’s right, it causes prices to fall. Money Morning reader Phil, sent us this from Smartcompany.com.au, “Expert tips property prices on Sunshine and Gold coasts to fall 7% as region becomes a ‘basket case’”. And the rest. Only 7%? We don’t think so. Try 40% in both those areas. Few people are even thinking about buying investment properties or holiday homes at the moment. And we’ll guess the Sunshine and Gold coasts rely on these buyers for a big share of the annual property turnover. Gold Coast prices to fall by 70%? In fact, the article quotes Louis Christopher – the only property guru we’ve come across who seems to make any sense: “For the Sunshine and Gold Coasts especially we’re going to see a decline, but it could potentially be worse [than 7%]. We’re seeing similarities to the Florida markets here, and they corrected by 70%. “We’re not saying it’s going to be the same as that… But could we end up with a cumulative decline? Absolutely, we’re heading that way.” Zoiks! Mr. Christopher doesn’t think Queensland properties will fall by 70%. But why not? Why shouldn’t they? There’s no reason they shouldn’t. Still holding that Queensland property? I’d do the numbers if I were you. If you’re mortgaged up to the eyeballs, you might want to offload it while you can. So much for the – what Jessica Irvine calls – “some large external shock”. Can you see any large external shocks where you are? No, me neither. What I can see, is an economy and a consumer that’s fast running out of money… borrowed money that is. The mainstream press and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) can put any spin on it they like, the facts are facts, house prices are plummeting and over-leveraged homeowners are already copping it in the eye. Not that the RBA will admit that. In its recently released Financial Stability Review, it states: “Between August 2008 and April 2009, the average standard variable mortgage interest rate fell by almost 4 percentage points. There is evidence to suggest that some households used this period as an opportunity to pay down their mortgage ahead of schedule, for example by maintaining the size of their regular repayments despite required repayments falling. Around 58 per cent of the households with mortgage debt reported being ahead of schedule on their mortgage payments as at the 2009 survey…” When extra repayments aren’t extra repayments This is a good one. The only problem is that it omits an important fact. Notice this is a survey of households, not of banks. Ask banks the same question and they’ll quote a much, much lower number. Why? Because as Money Morning reader Andrew points out: “To the point on “people being ahead on their payments” providing a buffer to tough times in housing, people should recheck to see if that buffer can be accessed if they lose their job, or if the value of the property falls. I’m fairly certain the former is explicitly written to most bank contracts (it was in my NAB one), and that the latter could fall into the ‘terms subject to change’ clause.” The fact is, people only think they’re ahead on their mortgage. With most banks, even though interest rates had fallen, unless you contacted the bank to ask for the monthly required payment to be recalculated, the “extra” repayments don’t actually count as extra to be withdrawn. The “extra” just went towards repaying more of the principal. In other words, it’s not available for re-draw, and if you did want access to it, you’d have to withdraw it from your so-called equity… which as we know, equity is just a smart banking trick of making you think a debt is an asset. So forget this nonsense about home owners being ahead, because most aren’t… it’s just that they think they are. But even more than that, the mainstream have fallen into the trap of thinking the large external shock must come first. Wrong. What comes first is the slowing and then contraction of credit. It is the slowing and the contraction of credit that causes the shock, not vice versa. Simply because – as we’ve written before – any economy built on Ponzi finance will ultimately become a victim of Ponzi finance. That is, as less credit is created and less credit is demanded due to borrowers being maxed out, there is less air being pumped into asset bubbles. Ponzi schemes must always have an ever greater net inflow of new money. As soon as that inflow slows, credit slows, price growth slows, and the consumer begins to see reality. House prices can’t grow when credit is slowing and then contracting. If you want to call that a large external shock, then you can. The evidence is already around you that this is already happening. If you’ve been looking at unemployment numbers as a sign of a future shock, I’m afraid – as experience in the US shows – you’ve been looking in the wrong direction. Unemployment will rise, but only after house prices have already fallen. But don’t panic, because our old pal, Peter Switzer writes: “The judgement is in on the housing bubble in Australia and the decision is that there is no bubble but we are “uniquely positioned” with house prices 25 per cent to 35 per cent overvalued. But the question is when will this be reversed?” He’s referring to a report from Goldman Sachs – you know Goldman Sachs, the firm that needed emergency cash flows from Warren Buffett and the US government to bail it out of bets it had made on the US housing market. As always, I encourage you to make up your own mind. Which sounds more credible? The evidence I’ve give you above and in previous editions of Money Morning, or the idea that Australian house prices are overvalued by 25-35%, but there’s no bubble because Australia is “uniquely positioned”. Which is just another way of saying, “Australia is different.” Er, no it’s not. The bubble-deniers really do need to lift their game… it’s getting quite embarrassing now.

There is indeed, it will be intercooled and have better suspension, but that won't make it a GTHO. It will still be the same plastic interior with the same crappy apparently "premium" sound. If it has enough mumbo and torque to break parts, then FPV wouldn't release it as it would be a reliability and warranty nightmare. But the development and testing costs to create it will make it one VERY EXPENSIVE car, as opposed to the usual stickered up anniversary model created from leftover parts. Even so fiscally there is a big difference between paying 5k for a Phase 3 in 1971 and 120 to 140k for a super high performance FG Supercharged GT or whatever they decide to call it in late 2011/2012. Although I am a die hard Ford nut and regardless of the money they have burned doing it, HSV have the volume high performance sewn up lock stock and barrel. FPV know this and so they will release a beast in numbers that will hopefully sell and make some profit. If the numbers don't stack up the car won't see the light of day. We are performance car lovers and nuts, they are a business trying to make a profit in an over crowded market full of competition.

A little birdy told me that Charlie is heading into Sydney for six days next week. Maybe he's going to crack some 7 grammers at the Rocks . In typical fashion you can bet the Aus garbage press will have a field day with this when it gets out. At least he will have the balls to tell them all to "Go *beep* Themselves" . I wonder if he's bringing the goddess's