Destroyed an economy recently? Have a bonus!

Despite the US Government handing out $125 Billion to struggling financial institutions across America, employees within these organizations are still being awarded hefty bonuses.

Companies such as the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers managed to shrewdly pocket millions of dollars ($20 million, in Lehman Brothers’ case) specifically to hand out as 2008 bonuses to their New York employees – keeping this money separate from bankruptcy filings in a perfectly legal way ensured the share holders and investors couldn’t get their destitute paws on any of it, and Lehman Brothers can still take a bite out of the Bail Out cash.

Now I’m sure it’s not just me, but something seems inherently wrong with this. Okay, so $20 million is a third less than Lehman Brothers’ bonus allocations last year.

But it really seems like a lot for a company that is totally bankrupt and desperately funneling state money into its system to prop the entire company up.

The excuse coming from both Lehman Brothers and the apparently floundering Goldman Sachs ($16 million in bonuses for those guys) is that dishing out bonuses of over $100,000 to each of their top employees will let the most brilliant minds in the business know how much they’re valued, and encourage them to stick around.

Given the state of the US economy, I’m not so sure keeping the guys largely responsible for the meltdown around is a great idea.

by Alex Caton

Injustice system for Terrorism

Terrorism has been a real life experience for many people around the world in recent years. And it is one of those things were justice is often never reached. Thousands of people lost their lives when the Twin Towers went down in September 2001, and then the Bali bombings a year and a month later hit Australia more closely.

With the Bali bombers’ execution scheduled next month, I wonder why it has taken so long for these horrendous people to be dealt their punishment?
The Bali bombings were in October 2002 – over six years ago, and we are still a few weeks away from Amrozi, Mukhlas and Samudra facing the firing squad.

I am aware that it takes time for cases to be constructed and brought against them, but six years is, in my opinion, excessive!

I’m not a believer in the death penalty and have held that opinion for some time, however, I do believe that there are exceptional circumstances when the death penalty is the only option. And when it comes to acts of global terrorism, when thousands of innocent people are killed, those responsible should die also.

Why is it that people who cause so much death and destruction in the world, like terrorists, are given an extra six years of life, when they didn’t give their victims a choice in the matter. A justice system is supposed to be give just that – justice.

And when you compare the sentence for an act of terrorism to that of drug smuggling, they are the same. Sure, drug smugglers can kill people as a result of their actions, but the deceased had a say in their fate: victims of terrorism don’t.

It took the Bali bomber’s trial three years longer to come up the same verdict as the Bali Nine – death. Surely an act of terrorism, where the perpetrators credit themselves for the act, is much easier to establish blame than for drug smugglers, who may actually be innocent?

By Lauren Weier

Is Brisbane a participant on Extreme Makeover?

Fortitude Valley's China Town mall is set for an $8 million redevelopment. China Town mall's most distinguishing figure, the pagodas, will probably be removed after being deemed a public safety risk. Authentic well-priced restaurants and teahouses line the mall, which also features prominently in Saturday markets.

As it stands, China Town is charming. It has this nostalgic, bohemian aesthetic only invigorated by its antique slightly out-of-date look. This is what will be squashed into the ground by an $8 million makeover.

The recent influx of fashionable incentives in the Valley are disconcerting. Town planners want to get rid of the area's bad image and create another TCB arcade, which was not a huge success.

Brisbane has become renowned for knocking down antique buildings in deference to sleek, modern architecture. Another current example of this is the CBD's Regent cinema, ear-marked for redevelopment.

Business owners have to close shop during the redevelopment, thought to take four weeks, and will be offered no compensation for lost revenue.

Written by Emma Carroll.

Passing the broken baton

Americans are just one week away from deciding who will inherit an economy in recession and a government with beetroot-red bank sheets of unparalelled proportions.

Since June, when Democrats chose Illinois Senator Barack Obama to wave the blue flag, it’s really been Obama all the way. The Republican camp scored a short ride of success when they plucked Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin from political obscurity and thrust her behind Arizona Senator John McCain as his running mate, but the country’s conservative party have faltered again in the polls. Now, it could be too late. Reports have surfaced of hockey-mum Palin’s rifts with the Republican camp and her family’s spender bender on the campaign trail.

While national security pushed the masses towards the incumbent Republicans in 2004, the biggest issue of this year’s election is an obvious one - Americans this will approach the polling booths on November 4 with their wallets a little lighter than they’d like. Bill Clinton was right. It’s the economy, stupid.

The tidal wave of economic turmoil has been visible since Bear Sterns collapsed in March, but its only now, at the meaty end of the campaign, that the debris is really starting to wash ashore. Home prices are shot, banks are prudent, growth is next to nothing and everyone is blaming everyone else.

So it’s obvious that what the world’s largest economy needs now is a hasty injection of common sense.

Barack Obama wants to cut taxes for 95% of the population. That other five per cent (you know, the ones who aren’t sure how many houses they own ), who have seen such massive gains over the past quarter-century compared to average wages, will face increased taxes. This is what Obama means when he talks about “redistributing the wealth”. Contrary to Republican rhetoric, this is not the return of socialism. It’s the return of common sense, something the US government lacked over the last eight years. It’s a tried and tested method. Robin Hood used to do it, remember?

This year’s Nobel laureate for Economics, New York Times columnist (and my pick personal pick for President of the World) Paul Krugman pointed out in his 2007 book Conscience of a Liberal that America’s Gilded Age of the 1920s has come hurtling back – once again greed is king, big corporate pay-packets fashionable and social and wealth disparity in America are at levels not seen since before the Great Depression. It’s been a new golden era for the supply-siders among us – those that believe a 'rising tide lifts all boats'. But it’s important to be weary of such claims. As Krugman points out, when Bill Gates walks into a bar, the average salary in the room goes through the roof. But nobody actually gets any richer.

The flailing economy has been a gift for Obama in this election, because I think Americans are starting to realise what this startling disparity of wealth is doing to them personally. They see their weekly expenditures rising while their wages stay stagnant. They see their debt rising, their home values depreciating, the price of fuel soaring and they know it’s going to be a bleak Christmas if something doesn’t change soon.

I think common sense will prevail. Common sense will put the best man in charge. And it has to, because America: The ship is sinking. We can all see the holes. You need to give the steering wheel to the one with best plan to steady ship, otherwise you’re going down. And you’re going to bring us all down with you.

by Paul Donoughue

Memo to Rudd: Gen Y misses out

Your generation of greedy, big spenders missed out in last week’s $10 billion economic Rescue Package. Gen Y, coined as the most materialistic yet, didn’t receive a cent to stimulate the economy. It’s ironic that those most likely to spend up big in the eyes of society weren’t considered in Rudd’s nationwide shopping spree.

Three quarters of Australian families will receive a once-off, tax-free payment of $1,000 for each child in care, and pensioners will receive $1400. While families with children who receive the Youth Allowance or Abstudy will share in $3.9 billion allocated, it seems independent students, those just graduating and entering the workforce on starting salaries, and young professionals working their way up wont benefit at all.

Either choosing to ignore the youth of Australia was a huge mistake in his attempt to boost the economy, or Kevin Rudd knows something the rest of society doesn’t. Maybe Gen Y isn’t the selfish, consumerist youth predicted but genuinely living it tough.

When university students camped out overnight in the streets of Brisbane to protest exorbitant rental and living costs, it became apparent that many young people have more important concerns than the latest fashion trends.

How about abolishing that HECS debt (no wait, now a HELP debt), that will total $40,000 by graduation. Eliminating payments of $100 out of each week’s pay check for a decade would certainly provide an opportunity for frivolous spending among those apparently most likely to do so.

But it seems Rudd intuitively knew that the youth do have the ability to manage their money properly. Australia’s generation of spenders would have made sensible choices if given a handout in last week’s package, and this is probably why they missed out.

The true motivation behind Rescue Package is for families to spend on toys and pensioners to spend on pokies. Whichever, it’s not fair to group all young Australians as part of the selfish, insatiable Gen Y.

By Freya Longhurst

Is Diving cheating Australia out of soccer acceptance?

In a recent article on www.foxsports.com.au discussing the widespread issue of diving or simulation in Australia’s National soccer league, the Hyundai A-league, some issues came to light regarding the fact that in the fight for legitimacy of football (soccer) in the eyes of the Australian public, diving has to be stamped out even if it means post match reviews and penalties.

Anyone who watched Australia’s efforts at the last world cup remembers the controversial penalty issued against Australia to Italy in the dying moments of the crucial game. The end result of that was Australia being kicked out of the cup after Italy won 1-0 and went on to claim the world cup title that year. Diving in soccer has always been a contentious issue, as often the referee cannot see the exact goings on, on the field, compared to television viewers who get numerous playbacks from pretty much every angle possible.

The A-league’s top referee Mark Shields, who has refereed at two world cups retired last week and voiced his own opinion on the matter. He said that if Football (soccer) in Australia was ever to gain the credibility that it deserved, simulation would have to be dealt with. In comparison to other prominent Australian sports that are perceived to be rough and tumble with big bulky men of men, football players cannot be seen falling over at the slightest touch and appealing for penalties.

The Football Federation of Australia has already showed an incline to include powers of review in cases of other actions, so why not simulation?

Is McDonalds the new Marlborough?

This week (which is coincidently National Children’s Week) the QLD government is calling for people to comment about their proposal to restrict junk food ads on television - and particularly to ban them during the hours kids are most likely to be watching.

With childhood obesity a very real and growing problem in our country (we are now the fattest per capita nation in the world!) the proposed ban is timely, if not a little overdue.

This type of restriction on advertising a certain product draws parallels to the 1992 Tobacco Advertising Prohibition which banned all forms of advertising tobacco in Australia.

Which therefore leads me to think about the similarities between McDonalds and Marlborough cigarettes.

-Both have the capacity to kill you
- both are addictive
-both give an immediate positive feeling followed soon after by feeling terrible
-people often lie about how frequent they use both
-people can have both out of habit rather than actual enjoyment

We are already well aware of the health problems related to smoking such as cancer, heart disease and emphysema but is it common knowledge that around 100,000 Australians a year are diagnosed with diabetes and if the current rate of obesity continues, by 2010, 70% of Australians will be clinically obese?

So if we wouldn’t give children cigarettes..?

By Kay Picton