Moomin Valley

So apparently the government department who provided my contact with a grant that was never used is willing to see a new proposal as to what...

I met with the guy who might have some research funding and was trying to hire my student who got the job in Perth. He'll look at whethe...

US markets fell below the 2002 lows today. I don't know whether that is the legendary " capitulation " or not, but I capitulat...

Our estimated net realised capital loss for the year so far is $A38k ($US24). At least I won't be paying any capital gains taxes for a w...

This chart shows in Australian Dollars my/our cumulative saving over the last twelve years. It doesn't include retirement saving and it ...

No, I'm not moving to Perth, but my former PhD student was just offered a lectureship job there on the last day of his interview process...

Today, Paulson said that he's changed his mind and they aren't going to buy up mortgages using the TARP funds. Now the name of the p...

As part of my new career direction I want to set up a professional website which is not linked to this blog. Snork Maiden found a cheap and ...

I'm beginning to make contacts and explore career options. In the short-term I want to stay here in Canberra, which somewhat limits opti...

Good series of photos on the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. Nothing like photos to illustrate the craziness of hyperinflation. My Dad remember...

Interesting article in Barrons this week on the performance of U.S. college endowments. In recent years endowments have increased exposure t...

After all the changes of the last couple of months, I'm posting my position level allocation as at the end of October. This is one the m...

Received the offer document for Platinum Capital's (PMC.AX) rights issue and Everest Babcock and Brown Investment Trust's (EBI.AX) w...

In percentage terms October's results are the worst on record but they were heavily influenced by the decline in the Australian Dollar t...

Added another $1,000 to Snork Maiden's Colonial First State account. Since the end of September we've added between 29% and 89% unit...

Allco went into administration i.e. bankruptcy today. Allco Equity Partners announced that they are terminating the management agreement wit...

I'm still waiting for one final piece of data for the October report, so in the meantime here is the much-delayed September report. This...

A couple of years ago, I stopped automatically reinvesting the distributions from my Colonial First State Managed Funds. It turns out it wa...

After yesterday's massive rally boosted the value of my account, today I had the buying power to buy back Berkshire Hathaway at a cheap...

An interesting paper on managed futures funds, otherwise known as "Commodity Trading Advisors": "Fooling Some of the People A...

They really like warning signs in Hong Kong. This one seemed kind of apt: They especially like warning signs inside taxis: We counted around...

Revanche asked for some food pictures from our trip to China, so here are some pictures of food and related things. These are freshwater cr...

That's all that is on my financial agenda at the moment. I just sold four stocks to meet another margin call. A couple at minor losses a...

We got back from China this morning. We left Australia on 1st October. Seems like much longer. We were in Tianjin, Beijing, and Hong Kong as...

As you can see, I removed all the goals from the sidebar. We are so far from them there is little point in tracking them. When I went into t...

During the U.S. Bailout debate Bernanke introduced the buzzphrase "hold to maturity value". The argument is that mortgage backed s...

As the U.S. seems to be reaching consensus on the next stage in addressing its financial crisis I thought about another financial crisis ten...

March of the Unemployed in Perth, Western Australia in 1931 The financial crisis and its possible solution have been very poorly explained t...

While no-one was paying attention the US Congress agreed to lend $25 billion to the three big US car manufacturers at 4% interest to help t...