John Howard, defender against bears

This one absolutely beggars belief:

John Howard and Peter Costello yesterday seized on the global financial market turmoil to bolster their economic credentials and warn voters of the risks of changing government.

The Prime Minister moved to reassure voters that the economy remained sound despite the market shake-up, but said the financial instability highlighted the need to keep economic management in safe hands.

Mr Costello said there was a risk that a slowdown in the US would affect Australia’s growth, something which the Labor Party would not have the experience to handle if it won the election.

It gets better!

As local share prices were falling sharply yesterday morning, Mr Howard insisted that Australia did not have the kind of problems with defaults on housing loans that were bedevilling the US.

Someone really ought to tell him about that companies like RAMS are Australian:

The non-bank lender RAMS Home Loans Group fuelled market panic yesterday when it announced it had been unable to secure refinancing for $6.2 billion in short-term loans in the US, sending the newly listed stock plunging another 36 per cent.

RAMS now faces a six-month deadline to refinance the loans at favourable rates, or face a sharp cut in profitability.

Investors who bought into the stock at its listing price of $2.50 on July 31 were savaged again yesterday. The stock fell from $1.35 to as low as 56c before closing at 87c.

I can’t wait to hear how the Prime Minister fancies himself capable of working this out. Does he have AUD6bn in the bank to bail out RAMS? What about the next one to go? And the next? John Howard, ladies and gentlemen, the safest hands in which to place your country during a global credit crunch. Jesus Junk-bond Chrirst.

CARE Turns Down U.S. Food Aid

My wife sent me this story, which related to a previous conversation we had had about US food aid being such a pain in the ass for the people receiving it.

Now the charity group CARE has become what I say will be the first of many to declare the having of had enough.

A major international charity has decided to turn down millions of dollars worth of grain from the U.S. government to feed the world’s hungry because it believes America’s method of delivering vital food supplies does more harm than good.

…

While the U.S. is responsible for almost half of all food donations to the developing world, it has become increasingly isolated because of its method for doing so. It is the only country to utilize “monetized food aid,” a method by which grain is shipped from America to charities in the developing world, who then sell the grain in the local market and invest the proceeds for its own programs.

…

“If we are trying to limit people’s vulnerability to food insecurity, we just couldn’t see how we could continue [monetized food aid] in good faith,” David Kauck, Senior Advisor at Care told TIME.

That’s a couple of well-put-together articles now, from Time. Although I doubt they care what I think. The International Herald Tribune has written it up very well, also.

The US approach to food aid is terrible – it is as much, or more, welfare for US farmers than for The Poor Bastards Of The World. US food takes months to arrive, rather than the mere days that locally-purchased food would take, is limited (because it may spoil) and, when it arrives, depresses local prices – precisely something “aid” should not do.

Can you imagine your government coming up with a form of welfare payments that drive down the incomes of America’s (for example) poor people, while giving them their benefits? It’s that obviously counter-productive. For the poor countries, at least – it’s still money in the pockets of US farmers, owners of at least one of the top 10 lobbies in Congress. Or rather, at Congress, though I was probably more correct the first time.

Travelling

! Currently killing time at the ever-disappointing JFK airport (the Duty-Free store does not even have electronics, meaning I gambled and lost with regards to the external battery pack I hoped to find for my ipod).

According to my taxi-ride-internet-browsing, there’s nothing much going on with the news anyway. While I’m sitting here I might post something. Or watch some episodes of One Piece.