I was reading a financial commentary on what would happen if China started selling US treasuries en masse and the effect on world bond markets. There was concerns that the US dollar would depreciate, interest rates would skyrocket and shares would plunge – so far, this hasn’t happened.

Firstly, the bond market is exactly that – a market. So for a market to operate there must be a buyer and a seller and if China was selling large parcels of bonds on the open market then there must be a buyer. The principles of supply and demand would tend to indicate that a downward pressure occurs when supply is increased; however, the doomsday predictions are not yet eventuating as the sales are being absorbed by a number of buyers.

Chinese foreign exchange holdings are falling due to the exodus of cash overseas, by selling US treasuries, foreign exchange reserves are being replenished. The US bond market is easily the most liquid in the world. The post GFC environment requires banks and financial institutions to hold Tier 1 capital as required under the Basel III Accord. Most expected the majority of US treasuries to be purchased by central banks, this may not be the case.

With the end of quantitative easing where central banks were purchasing bonds instead of selling, there appears to be plenty of capacity in the market to absorb these bond purchases. The low interest rate environment has aided bond markets; however, in the longer-term, rates are expected to rise making longer dated bonds less attractive. The US sharemarkets have had a pretty good seven year run.

A number of commentators believe this trend to continue for another two years based on the change of government and proposed infrastructure investment – I am getting nervous. The US sharemarkets have recovered from the GFC era unlike the Australian sharemarket that has not yet reached the highs of late 2007. Chinese nationals appear to be moving money out of China and into international real estate with countries such as the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom among others as leading real estate markets.

In Australia, Chinese real estate investment (especially in the apartment market) is showing no signs of abating as prices in the Sydney and Melbourne apartment markets skyrocket. The depreciating Australian dollar makes such international purchases more cost attractive. No doubt, a depreciating US dollar would also make relative US residential property investments more affordable, but I don’t think this is the intention of the Chinese authorities.

But why do Chinese investors want to invest in international real estate after the Chinese government invested heavily in the domestic Chinese real estate market in the last decade? A bubble has appeared in Chinese domestic real estate, researching Chinese residential property price graphs indicate a high degree of volatility over that time period.

I am reading plenty of contradicting analysis though, some economists believe the Chinese domestic residential property market is on the brink of collapse with dire consequences predicted for not only the domestic Chinese property market but worldwide growth as well. I have asked a number of Chinese nationals involved in business if these ghost cities really exist as reported in the international media and I have been informed that this is indeed the case.

Asians in general are typically good savers, a more affluent Chinese population generally saves well and seeks real estate as an investment. The risk attached to Chinese residential property is high and investors are seeking to purchase international residential property to reduce exposure to the domestic residential property market. The Chinese sharemarket is pretty volatile with plenty of restrictions imposed on investors. So, an outflow of cash is occurring in China despite the authorities clamping down on capital outflows.

The Chinese central bank is selling US treasuries to rebuild foreign currency reserves and the US bond market is liquid enough even after the quantitative easing period to absorb such sales. Chinese money is pouring into international residential property markets pushing prices to unsustainable levels but you can’t blame the Chinese, they are getting worried about domestic policies and seeking the relative safety of overseas property.

So this is what Bali has become. The world famous Kuta Beach is a cesspit of rubbish and over-exploitation with no businesses or indeed local government involvement involved in maintaining this natural resource. This is not the hidden Bali, this is the premier beach on Indonesia’s island of Bali; Kuta Beach is a shell of its former self.

This gross misrepresentation and over-commercialisation is an absolute disgrace. The Bali of Julia Roberts’ Eat, Pray, Love is unfortunately just a fallacy. It is not only the rubbish in the water at Kuta Beach; the waters, rivers and beaches are all badly polluted. The plastic in the water is incredible, Indonesia is one of the largest polluters of the oceans and nobody in the government is willing to undertake substantive change to rectify this. So where to from now? I have heard stories of the army being involved in clean-ups but I am yet to see any evidence of this. If Indonesia and more specifically the Island of Bali wants to attract foreign tourists, then they really need to clean up their beaches.

Once upon a time the young men headed off to trade school and the young women headed off to business school to learn administration and clerical skills. There were exceptions, hairdressing was a well represented trade for women and training to become chefs was also a popular vocation. There was always nursing, child care and the aged care sectors that were predominately women too.

We live in a new age of opportunity where women are now able to enter the male dominated areas of engineering and automotive training to compete directly with the guys. I say fantastic, these occupations must attract intelligent and motivated people as the industries are dominated by technology and the brightest young minds are required to effectively maintain such systems.

With women in trades, no salary disparity exists; well, not in my experience anyway as jobs are costed, and timeframes are tight – if you have an employee performing under pressure then the salary is highly negotiable. With technology increasingly linked to technical trades, the individuals who best adapt to technological change are the most valuable and deserve to the highest remuneration and best conditions – women meet these criteria and opportunities are opening up now.

The quarter deck of the USS Missouri was where the dignitaries of Japanese empire signed the terms of their unconditional surrender bringing an end to the second world war. Known affectionately as “The Mighty Mo” the USS Missouri was an Iowa class fast battleship commissioned in mid-1944 to help bring a decisive end to hostilities of the Pacific theatre of WWII.

I very much liked this photograph and used this picture as a metaphor for what I thought would be my own victory over the elements of evil that had descended on my working life. On discovering I had won my legal case against my employer by default; my employer had failed to respond to the court order – total incompetence on their behalf. I searched for a picture of the Japanese surrender on the deck of the Mighty Mo pinning it above my desk – now this became a talking point. Yeah, I was beginning to enjoy this victory.

I went into work on the Monday and served them with the papers to appear in court on Thursday; not a lot of time to prepare but they didn’t need time to prepare as this was merely a verdict. They just had to be in attendance to hear the magistrate’s verdict – that’s all. They relinquished the opportunity to argue their case in front of the magistrate when they treated the court with contempt by failing to comply with the court order by ignoring the order to respond – ironically, they still haven’t responded to the court.

Naturally I produced evidence where I had contacted my former manager a week before the deadline urging them to not forget to respond to the court. At a subsequent meeting with three directors, I found my former manager had forwarded the email to the divisional director but had not responded to me. Once again I had been ignored but I had evidence that the correspondence had been forwarded to the respective personnel. I also had email correspondence with the HR director sending him a copy of the response form, he claimed the forms were not included in my mail. This was untrue but I provided them with the forms to comply with the court order.

Regardless, I supplied them with an electronic copy of the response form and an affidavit so they had no excuses. I had even given them extra time as I had requested the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission allow them longer to respond. As they had 21 calendar days to respond and I had sent the mail on a Friday evening, I asked the first weekend to not be counted and I granted them an additional five working days for any postage delays and internal mail issues. I was being more than generous but I wanted no excuses.

When I contacted the court by phone after eleven days after the deadline had passed, I wanted to know my if employer had accepted some of the points of the claim as my submission had seven differing points, I wanted to know if they wholly denied the claim, accepted part of the claim or wholly admitted to the claim and consented to the court making orders sought in the claim. I was astounded to be informed that my employer had not replied to the court order and I now could apply for a default verdict. Naturally, I said yes and I was sent the forms necessary application forms.

I took the laminated photograph of the unconditional surrender to the Industrial Magistrate\’s Court for the verdict explaining to the representatives from my employer “this is what an unconditional surrender looks like”. Ok, so I was gloating and being less than respectful to the losers. As these people had attempted to damage my career to benefit themselves – I cared little. Ironically, this court appearance was my final day of work in 2016 so I decided to head back to the office after the case to savour my victory with my colleagues. Some were happy for me – others not.

We now had a workplace where a government establishment was being run like a private company that benefited the few and was to the detriment of the many. Obviously the ones that were not happy about my victory formed the membership of the crony club and their immediate future as teflon coated elites is now uncertain. The individuals that had reaped the rewards of everybody\’s hard work are noticeably concerned – their free ride is over. Well, so I thought, the State Solicitor was contacted the day before and sought an injunction in court, whilst they tried to get the matter dismissed, that wasn’t allowed but my default judgement was also thrown into disarray.

We were on the cusp on entering an era where a self-elected bunch of people were allowed to run roughshod over the whole strategic portfolio had come to an end. An uprising had taken place and they were now the vanquished, this cronyism was to be dismantled. Among the list of claims was workplace bullying,

I could now not only remove the knives from my back; but we could inspect those very knives for fingerprints and DNA during the formal bullying investigation. The following day I headed over to Bali for my end of year break so this was the final chance I would have in 2016 to enjoy my victory. Yes, I thought 2017 was going to be a totally different year for everyone at my workplace – that I can now no longer guarantee.

I have known of pre-paid mobile phones for some time now; the market for the pre-paid credit card is a new phenomenon. Well known companies like Coles, ING, Fujitsu, Mitre 10, Dulux or Hewlett Packard offer pre-paid credit cards for their customers – this appears to be a growth industry.

I initially wondered why such a product would be introduced when a charge card such as an American Express or Diners Club International is available. Firstly, Amex and Diners Club aren’t cheap, they charge a premium to issue a card. They are not accepted everywhere and vendors don’t like them due to the fees involved. Ok, so that rules them out as they are chasing the premium market.

The modern cashless society relies on online financial transactions and plenty of people have maxed out their credit cards as the banks are intent on raising limits at any opportunity. Now you can engage in online shopping as you have a credit card to purchase goods and services. Unfortunately, modern society requires immediate access to credit and many people have multiple credit cards with high credit limits – this is their financial downfall.

A pre-paid credit card is a brilliant idea, you have access to financial services like Mastercard and Visa without the ongoing costs of credit card debt. To me, this sounds like a debit card and not a credit card. Looking at the Coles pre-paid cards, I see it cost $5 to purchase the online and gift cards and is able to be loaded with $1000 of credit.

The re-loadable Coles Platinum Mastercard costs $10 to purchase and earns 1 Flybuy point (their rewards program) for every $2 spent; the card may be loaded with $1000 credit or on application be increased to $10,000 credit so you just lost your advantage of a pre-paid credit card and now have a standard credit card with a pretty high limit.

Hailing from a trade background, I believe in the apprenticeship system so I absolutely support internships in diving. Unlike an apprenticeship where the apprentice is paid to undertake on-the-job training; albeit paid proportionally to their output, an internship requires the commitment of paying the course fee yourself to gain on-the-job experience or alternately working for free. 

However, the longer the dive supervisor, dive controller or divemaster gains exposure to actual diving operations and the more diverse diving surroundings, the more an individual learns in a working diving environment. Working as a divemaster on a large charter boat, we had a number of instructors working with their class. It doesn’t take long to work out who has actual on-the-job working experience and who has just moved from one course to the next. 

The bulk of their diving experience is taken under the guise of dive courses with the occasional fun dive thrown in every now and again. This experience really shows when planning, leading and executing dive courses; even though students change on a regular basis, experienced instructors make the class run smoothly whilst instructors with little on-the-job experience struggle to lead structured outcomes.

I asked my father for his old broken Omega watch as he had previously taken it in for repairs and was informed it wasn’t worth the cost. A local Swiss watch repair shop had done some work for me before and came highly recommended and I was very happy with their service and prices.

I had mistakenly thought this was an old style Seamaster, the staff at All About Time informed me this was a vintage Chronostop and he described it as a real watch. For me, this is a mechanical watch that needs to be wound daily as opposed to the battery powered quartz watches or the automatic self winding timepieces. The serial numbers aligned to a 1967 – 1969 series watch; the Chronostop was manufactured between the years of 1966 to 1974 so I have an early model.

There were a number of variations with the original model being the Omega Seamaster Pilot Chronostop, the second version the Omega Chronostop Regatta added yacht timers with the third variation named the Seamaster Chronostop Jumbo Diver. A driving version was available to be worn on the inside of the wrist with the watch aligned with the wrist held vertical for quick glances whilst driving at speed. The later versions were introduced as the Speedmaster became unofficially named the moon watch in 1969.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin wore versions to the lunar surface. Thus, with the Speedmaster driving version somewhat compromised, the Chronostop slotted into the driver’s minds as the watch of choice. The Chronostop has two movements, the 865 and 920, both are manual wind and the 920 movement has a date function with both movements featuring 17 jewels.

The Chronostop has a single button to operate the stopwatch but there is no minute sub-dial so any stopwatch movements over a minute have to be counted manually. As with most luxury brands, there is an entry-level model and the Chronostop was the third line to the Seamaster and Speedmaster. I’m looking forward to getting this vintage watch repaired and giving it back to the old man as he is retired and we all know retirees have to be more frugal with money than working sons.

When traveling overseas and domestically, the majority of tourists prefer to book online these days. Once upon a time, this was the domain of the travel agent, those days are numbered with the humble travel agent in decline.

A number of decent online booking sites exist, my preference is Booking.com as I prefer to deal with only one business and this site has been excellent. I prefer to not book too far ahead and instead wait for the last minute hotels to advertise on the site. You can pick up an excellent hotel deal on the day as hotels would rather offer rooms for highly discounted rates as opposed to a vacancy where no revenue is generated. 

On many occasions, patrons spend money in the hotel on services so this is an excellent business deal for all involved and I will continue to support this site. I receive no benefits from Booking.com, I am a paying customer and I don’t mind naming businesses that have treated me well – these guys have always provided flawless service. 

Is strategy dead? The curriculum currently taught at business schools revolves around an internal and external analysis seeking to identify a sustainable competitive advantage – so far so good. Whilst many of the strategy textbooks are similar in nature, the underlying principles of strategy formulation revolve around vision, mission and values leading to external and internal assessments leading to Porter’s five generic strategies, strategy analysis, implementation and evaluation.

It may be argued traditional strategy is dead, it may also be argued that strategy evolved from military origins of setting objectives, collecting intelligence and making decisions based on the achievement of the stated objectives. Adaptive strategy revolves around a rapidly changing business environment requiring a less static approach to business based on fluid interpretation and rapid implementation. The downside is that this may be too reactive relying more on seat of the pants type business management that generally leads to failure. So no, strategy is definitely not dead.

I was at a bar in East Perth overlooking the waterfront development with the new sports stadium in the background on a warm summer afternoon after finishing work. I came straight from work so I was still in my cotton drill work clothes and steel capped work books but they were not worried as I was neat and tidy as i get out in the workshop but don’t actually do anything.

My friend who I was meeting wanted an SSB, that is a semillon sauvignon blanc blend and I mistakenly ordered an SBS, a sauvignon blanc semillon before quickly correcting myself to the barmaid ensuring I got her order right. The barmaid replied “they are both the same anyway” and I thought I had misheard what she had said.

The grape variety listed first is the predominant variety in this blended and highly popular wine, then you can be assured that this is the larger percentage and after a little searching I found that there is no real standard with some blends being as close as 55% – 45% right up to 70% – 30% blends. I enjoy a semillon as the variety is fairly dry as this is more to my preferred drinking style.

For many, a semillon is a little waxy as the variety has a reputation of being a little drab. A pure sauvignon blanc on the hand is a little too sickly for my tastes, but a splash of SB in a semillon can bring the drink to life offering a fuller taste for most palettes. I’m normally happy with an SSB on a warm summer’s evening if I am unable to find a semillon I like as long as the semillon is the dominant variety.

I do ask myself, did the barmaid think I didn’t know the difference or did she not know the difference? Regardless, a bar is an establishment serving alcohol and their staff should be conversant in what they serve to the public. I defiantly prefer a SSB over a SBS, these days a SB comes out of a tap, it is awful and only want a SB from a bottle.

Plenty of us know the difference in what we want, many people have discerning tastes, my friend certainly has and we shouldn’t be taken for fools. Then I thought, I was sitting at one of the best bars in Perth overlooking the waterfront development on a warm summer afternoon with a longtime friend – really, what’s the problem?