homo travelycus

we middle classes like to fly
our iPods close at hand
with Lonely Planet guiding us
the moment that we land

homo travelycus
of travel we're desirous
not only are we everywhere
we're like a ****ing virus

we flood the world with dollar bills
with roubles and with francs
Mc Donalds follows close behind
and so do all the yanks

homo travelycus
there is no species like us
the natives smile and be polite
but really want to strike us

we travel here we travel there
we click and post our pics
and all the while the locals, well
they think we're stupid hicks

homo travelycus
will part with a good buy kiss
and blog "the culture is so quaint
- they really really like us"

when future diggers find our bones
down deep deep in the ground
they'll scatch their heads and ponder
just what it is they found

"homo travelycus
prolific hungry Lycos
extinction caught them by suprise
but they were never like us"

*Lycos = Wolf

when the future comes a knockin'

we build a home to raise our kids
because that's what we do
but it'll be an empty shell
when the future comes a knockin'

when the future comes a knockin'
when tomorrow's at our door
what today is what we dream of
will tomorrow be no more

the gold and silver that we hord
because we fear what comes
we'll give away for a loaf of bread
when the future comes a knockin'

when the future comes a knockin'
when tomorrow's at our door
what today is worth a fortune
will tomorrow make us poor

the faith we have in government
well it is fading fast
we'll see them as the enemy
when the future comes a knockin'

when the future comes a knockin'
when tomorrow's at our door
what today we all believe in
will be what we all abhor

we walk the streets today in peace
we walk with little fear
but steets will be like battle grounds
when the future comes a knockin'

when the future comes a knockin'
when tomorrow's at our door
where today we greet our neighbour
will be where we're all at war

i write these words in disbelief
that i have come to this
that i look out with fear and grief
'cause i hear the future knockin'

'cause the future is a knockin'
and tomorrow's at our door
if we can not save ourselves from us
what worth is all our lore?


if you liked this you might also like "for our sons and daughters too"

for our sons and daughters too

when all of what we are today
is dim dim distant past
a racial memory mostly myth
known to the shaman caste

i wonder what they'll think of us
when sitting by the fire
and hearing of the things we did
like gods but so much higher

"the great great gods of long ago
they walked upon the moon
they drank the very blood of earth
from death they were immune"

"they did not walk upon the ground
but through the air they flew
and everything there is to know
the ancient gods they knew"

i guess the stories that they tell
the children will devour
they'll dream that they were just like us
and had enormous power

i doubt they could imagine though
the real truth to tell
of how we raped their planet
and we made our lives a hell

they'll never know the polar bear
the tiger or the crane
and countless other creatures
to which we were the bane

they'll also never know the stars
because we stole their chance
because we'd rather party on
and live upon advance

oh what a sad sad species
we "gods" of planet earth
we stupid kings of overshoot
what really are we worth?

just look around at what you see
and ask yourself "where now?"
and if you have an answer
it better tell you how

'cause i can't see a future
that is anything but grim
and even bare survival chances
often seem so slim

i hope that future stories
are told around the fire
that kids enjoy just living
and old folk just retire

i hope we're not the last of us
i really really do
i hope that there's a future
for our sons and daughters too

bad news about our oceans, polar bears are doomed, Polar bears feel the heat as frozen habitat shrinks


more on our future: "Party on Dudes!"




if you are looking for my Druid's Story see "The Keepers"

Fukushima baby

Fukushima baby
glowing in the night
please baby don't say maybe
'cause i love that you're so bright

and if our kids are mutants
well gee maybe that's great
six fingers or two heads might be
a good survival trait

i think that living in Japan
where radiation reigns
is better than to go and live
amidst financial pains

because i tell you baby
as bad is it might be
the rest of this poor planet soon
will see catastrophe

as every place that humans live
by sucking gas and oil
errupts in war and famine as
our planet we despoil

my guess is that they'll never think
to look towards Japan
they'll focus on the last of oil
in Iraq and Iran

and so it will continue 'til
we see the mushroom clouds
then everywhere will be the same
we'll all be wearing shrouds

so let me love you baby and
let's make Ōkuma home
we'll live with all the röntgens
and we never more shall roam

Bernanke Limerick and Rhyme

redacted from comments at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/mers-case-filed-with-supreme-court.html




There once was a world in deep shit
with us in the middle of it
as we sank in the poo
there was Ben Bernank too
but he was quite happy with it





Ben Bernanke
Lost his hankie
how does he blow his nose?
with dollar bills
he prints at will
that's how our predicament grows

Ode to Paul Krugman

this story is about a bloke
who thought he'd save us all
an economic genius
with vision and with gall

he set about to craft a plan
'twas Keynesian and good
we'd all be given ray-guns
and a power-pack and hood

then all of us could roam the land
our faces hid from view
we'd zap each other's businesses
and zap the houses too

we'd zap the cars and aeroplanes,
the buildings short and tall
in fact when we had finished
we'd have found and zapped it all

and then when everything was dust
we'd start again from scratch
we'd build the world all over
a new one without match

and can you just imagine
how big the GDP?
the growth would be enormous
and such prosperity!

the folks in dear old London
well they just could not wait
they've started off already
and i think wow that's great

we really don't need ray-guns
we don't need much at all
so let's all go break windows
(the man? his name was Paul)

'cause our brand name is "Australia"

if you need a tune try this

we've kangaroos and wallabies and emus too in plenty

but they don't greet your flight to Sydney when you make your entry

and why you come to be with us is not for pets i tell ya

the simple reason is because our brand name is "Australia"

chorus:

    our brand name is Australia mate we're proud of that i tell ya
    and if you had an image like ours it would never fail ya
    and everybody everywhere wants everything we've got
    we're flamin' great i tell ya mate in fact we're bloody hot!

refrain:

    prawns on the barbie and sauce on ya pie
    prawns on the barbie and sauce on ya pie

our coastline is a million miles of paradise and beaches

and everywhere the girls in skimpy cossies bare their peaches

but it's not girls i tell ya mate or beer kegs in the trailer

the reason that we're famous is our brand name is "Australia"

(chorus and refrain)

we've immigrants from everywhere who've brought their ways of cooking

and any place that's great to eat at never needs a booking

and every stupid foreign critic soon becomes a failure

and that's because i tell ya mate our brand name is "Australia"

(chorus and refrain)

the Opera House and Harbour Bridge are just two of our treasures
and every where you go to visit showers you with pleasures
but you will have to check it out 'cause we're not gonna mail ya
but that's OK, because of course our brand name is "Australia"

(chorus and refrain)

while all the world is suffering with falling housing prices

and everywhere the people fear political devices

right here within the Lucky Country nothing's gonna fail ya

and that's because as we all know our brand name is "Australia"

(chorus and refrain)

if you liked this you might also like "The Great Australian Poem"

The Great Australian Poem

'twas in a pub on Oxford Street
one torrid summer night
a gathering of poets ended
in a fearful fight

as eloquent and timbered voices
lilted out their verse
a drunken long-haired patron stood
and threw curse after curse

our learned poets persevered
pretending not to hear
and all the while the drunken lout
did curse and swill his beer

"you call your rubbish poetry
you pissy pointless slime
your stupid wanky poems, well
they do not even rhyme"

then as the reading faltered
(and the poets "piqued their ire")
a member of the audience
stood up and did inquire:

"so if you think their verse is bad
why don't you just get out?
We really don't enjoy the way
you curse and sneer and shout"

"You're just a drunken so-and-so
and these are learned folk
so please oh please get up and go
you loud and boring soak"

"Inebriated? i'll be damned!"
the drunkard waved his glass
"i'll challenge all you brainless yobs
i'll teach you all some class"

the poets grinned behind their hands
and snickered to the crowd
they knew full well this no-name fool
would fail if just allowed

the dais was vacated then
the poets stood near-by
the boozer ordered "fill 'er up
'cause versin' makes me dry"

he teetered as he passed the bar
to grab his cold VB
and then he stood before the group
and dusted off his knee

and so it was he started
with poems quite well known
by great Australian poets that
we love and call our own

but he had quite a talent
for speaking Aussie verse
his words were crisp his vowels thick
his humour quite perverse

and do you know those poets there
were taken by surprise?
they'd never guessed such eloquence
from one you might despise

and as he finished off each poem
they commented and cheered
they talked of who the author was
and why he was revered

they had some pride in history
and more in what they knew
until the final poem left them
all in quite a stew

they'd never heard it - not one word
they all of them were stumped
the boozer spoke the final line
and then his chest he thumped

"so all you cleva fellahs
never heard that one before?"
and then he finished off his beer
and headed for the door

he left them there all arguing
each claiming that they knew
and soon it came to fighting
as their agitation grew

the conflict soon became too much
- the bouncers pushed them out
then out there on the footpath
one erupted with a shout:

"i say it's Henry Lawson!
unpublished but his best!"
another poet yelled "not so!"
and punched him in the chest

"it's Paterson i tell you!"
he raised a hairy fist
a smaller poet intervened
and grabbed him by the wrist

and as he screamed "it's Ogilvie!"
and clawed his larger foe
a crowd had gathered in the street
who stood and watched the show

and standing there among them with
a smile from ear to ear
unpublished and unknown at all
a Poet without peer

he'd saved a great tradition
passed down from days of old
The Great Australian Poem now
has finally been told

if you liked this you might also like "silly little Julia"


(what IS the Greatest Australian Poem? - check here Yahoo Answers)

feel free to comment - i'll not take offence

p

i surely do love silver

i surely do love silver
i surely do love gold
they'll be as they are trusted now
and since the days of old

they way they feel good in your hand
they way they gleam and shine
there's nothing quite so lovely
there's nothing that's so fine

and trust, that's something few have felt
in printed paper bills,
is what you can't help feeling when
your secret stash gold fills

when all is falling 'round our ears
and markets crash and burn
it's saftey that you cherish most
it's not a "sound return"

and so i'll love my metals
so precious and so fine
i'll hold them 'til i need them
in the coming long decline

'cause these are the true money
that always hold their worth
and if they are a "relic"
well, then so to is the earth


if you liked this you might also like "Flations"

Things are different here

For Mish Shedlock (here and here and here  and here and others)


when things turn to shit in Australia
the Government always steps in
the easiest thing and always the first
is to let lots more migrants come in

you'll know when this starts to happen
'cause there'll be claims "we don't have the skills"
then quota's go up and criteria down
and the media mob are all shills

and on top of that repeating pattern
will be First Home Grants tax free and huge
and all sellers will then up their prices
'cause they know that the buyer's a stooge

if you look out your window in Sydney
no "house for sale" signs will you see
'cause people hold on to illusions
and forever that's likely to be

so Mish though i note that you're clever
and live in a land full of woe
i do doubt the future you posit
(and now i must work so i'll go)



see also - in order of publication - ie oldest first:

      Waging  a Property Price War - an interesting counter to Mish's arguments which he takes largely from Steve Keen
      Updated Credit Accelerators - as good an entry point into Steve Keen's work as any

      Keen's House Price Hit Won't Happen - another attack on Steve Keen's projection

      The US vs Australian Bubble - excellent analysis by macrobusiness.com.au - very quickly becoming the premier Australian financial blog

      Melbourne housing supply goes ballistic - another  macrobusiness.com.au post

      Buyers exit market amid housing squeeze - from the ABC

      Houses looking Good - Macrobusiness.com.au

      Move Up Buyer Fenzy! - ditto

      New home sales rise from the floor - again

      R P Data report

      Melbourne bubble bursts

      more bear, more bull and more bear

      SMH chips in with a bear headline

      SMH: New home sales buoyed by rate cut

      ABC: Construction on shaky ground as slump persists

      MB: HIA says house sales up, unit sales down

      MB: Approvals bounce in number, fall in value

      ABC: Home building approvals soar

      MB: Melbourne rental vacancies skyrocket

      Business Spectator: Housing Bubble Denier Trouble, House price slump unlikely: Hirst

      These two on the same day from same data:

            MB: House prices resume falls

            SMH: House prices may have hit bottom

      Steve Keen surfaces after a long break: House Prices outlook for 2012

      SMH: Record slump in house prices in 2011

      MB: (all on same day)

            ABS: House prices continue to fall

            Hope springs eternal in NAB housing survey

            New home sales slump again

            Kochie and Louis

      SMH: A property crash? Don't bet on it

      MB:
            Comparing the big three house price indexes

            Building disapprovals

      MB: REIWA’s desperate plea to boomers

      MB: Housing stock on market falls
   
      MB: Two speed Rents

      MB: Welcome back Kohler

      MB: A housing bull slows up

      MB: Auction clearance rates

      MB: Home sales rout

      MB: RP Data

      MB: Australian vs Canadian Property

      Mish Shedlock spoofing again: Bloodbath coming up and again Recession hits Aus

      Business Speculator: Housing boom returns but...

      MB: First home buyers retreat...

      MB: House prices rise in Feb...

This article gives you an idea of how i see it: from the immigrants side


      "Our brand name is Australia" a poem written at the same time and with reference to Aussie home prices

note also that my poem is just a poem - my opinion is not that of an economist but rather is representing a common meme in Australia - right or wrong


p