Dear Mogul, whoops sorry,
I mean examinator,

Yes, one of the explanations for "Mogul,"
does mean 1)one of the Mongol conquerors of
India who established an empire that lasted from
1526 to 1857 (but held only nomial power after
1803). However, it also has other meanings,
2) One of their descendants.

3) An important, powerful, or influential person...

It does have other meanings, but I think Oly
was referring to the third explanation
given above.

Oh, and Thanks,
your explanation about the Industry Super Fund
was most helpful, I will check it out.

*Should more us manage our own funds and endeavour to protect our wealth, personally? *

Oliver, that really depends on how much interest that individuals
have in the financial world. Most have none, apart from checking
their super fund statement, which in the past, normally showed a
healthy increase, year after year.

Most super funds actually have quite a spread of investments.
Some in cash deposits, some in bonds, some in Australian shares,
some in overseas shares etc. Spreading the risk is the idea and
that makes perfect sense, as nobody can really predict the future.

The present calamity all kind of makes some kind of sense,when
examinded a bit deeper. China, Japan, oil producers etc, have
all been pouring their huge surpluses back into Western money
markets, so cheap and easy credit has caused a huge asset bubble.

That has now popped, (as was predicted, only it was a question of
when), so its going to take a bit of time to sort out the mess.

First we had the margin lenders forced to liquidate their portfolios,
which drove the markets down. Now we have people withrdrawing money
from hedge funds. For every dollar that they held, they borrowed
another 5 or 6, so there are about 1 trillion$ of hedge funds assets
being dumped onto markets at any price. Net result is mums and dads
are panicking too, which leads to further value reductions in terms
of asset pricing.

Watching Bloomberg right now is quite interesting! Half of all
hedge funds are expected to go bust, so you have people jumping
out of windows etc. Meantime you have a whole pile of value
investors, with huge amounts of cash on hand, waiting on the
sidelines, waiting for signs that the bottom has been reached.

I'm not sure when, but at some point some people will be able to
buy absolute bargains for a song,if they have the cash. That
could well be cashed up super funds, who called the market correctly.

My industry super fund lost 4.5% for the year ending June 2008.
Others lost more, few less.
This year it has been far worse, some lost on paper 4 times that.
However it is just on paper until we want to cash out.
Yabby is quite right if I had funds I would be looking at long term share investments now.
Yes they may, probably will, fall further but who can pick the bottom?
You would need to be extremely careful, only the most solid would be worth buying.
I do not have the money or the time we do not live forever and banking on ten years may be a long shot.
A light may exist at the end of our tunnel.
The Asian meeting called for a new international set of rules , in my view it must come.
The soon to be held meeting in America must vote that way too.
Do not look for an easy way out of this it does not exist we will bottom out one day but the climb back is no short trip.
I would advise homes are not a good investment unless you only want to live in it.

Yabby and Belly,

Intersting posts, both.

At times, in the GD, the Banks did hold the sustantial of importers awaiting better exchange rates, while advance policy was tight.

If the world recession does go deeper, being an importer-reexporter, Singapore, I guest, is glad of its reserves. Overwise, it would be very exposed. And it assets everywhere held by Tamarsek Holdings. If starts liquidity we could feel some it, likewise, Optus in Australia, for example.

Protectionism is the big threat, if the markets don't turn in the few months: Protecting one's own domestic situation with trade barriers, begs others to not buy one's own exports. Hope the powers, whom run countries know that one, from the GD

examinator,

Enjoyed your post. A good read.

p.s. It is interesting that Switzerland was left out of WWII.

Oliver, protectionism is what we need. Not just tariffs applied willy - nilly but a totally different system. Warren Buffett has proposed for the US what we also need here. Exporters get a Foreign Export Certificate for each $ value of export they earn. The certificate can then be sold at a market rate to an importer. Imports can only be made to the value of certificates provided.
We would then be able to restart industry. Import costs would rise but exports would be effectively subsidised by the value of the certificate, giving industry a good bunk up.
Our balance of payments would then be all squared up. The Australian dollar would stand tall and proud and not be at the mercy of traders.
If this system were in use now, we would be largely immune from the world financial mess. Don't worry, they would still buy our resources.