Who's Counting?

I am! I am counting the efforts of Hilary Clinton in advancing the cause of women; and I have to say I am full of admiration. She has met with:• Women South Korean students• Talked with women chicken farmers in Kenya• Listened to excruciating stories of rape victims in Congo.• In South Africa visited a housing project built by poor women.• Met with women Israeli entrepreneurs • Met Iraqi war widows• Met Chinese Civic activists• Mentioned women at...

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Womenomics

Recently the executive director of Unifem, the United Nations Development Fund for Women visited Australia. The director, Ines Alberdi discussed with Australian women the inertia surrounding the deteriorating level of women in senior positions. She stated that there are broadly similar problems in developed countries but in nations such as Rwanda there is still a fight to get women into higher education. In her native Spain as here and in Australia,...

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Musings and Amusings

A branch of psychology – positive psychology has been researching happiness on our behalf. Happy people, they say, form stronger social bonds, are healthier, are more creative and effective at work and are better citizens. And no – winning lotto does not make us happier what seems to matter more than wealth is “psychosocial prosperity;” characterised by social support, public trust, safety and tolerance in a society combined with individual feelings...

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Why?

Why do apologists for the Islamic burka claim it relates to piety and religious faith. The wearing of the burka is a reflection of political and male power. It dehumanises the wearer by isolation her from normal human interaction. She cannot see clearly and her ability to hear is muffled. She inhabits her own personal cell.It saddens me that Muslim women don’t revisit their imprisonment at mans behest, part of the male quest to keep women ignorant...

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Finance and Investments

Is the recession over? Economists and pundits world-wide are pontificating – while I might add most of us are getting on with our lives.According to Warren Buffet, the world’s most successful investor the economy has “sort of plateaued at the bottom.” The Federal Reserve Chairmen Ben Bernanke has said the recession “was very likely over.” The recent surge in the S&P500 (the American Share Market Index) of 58% is certainly impressive as has been...

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Everyday Money

You and I both know that it is easy to make mistakes – we learn from them and some of them are expensive – toy boys for example! But, if you are planning on being financially secure there are some money mistakes you cannot afford to make.1.) Paying the minimum on credit card balances. I’ve calculated it would take 19 years to pay off a balance of $3,300.00 at 17% annual interest rate. Pay those cards monthly.2.) Not developing a budget. A budget...

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Who's Counting

We like odds of 50 per cent more than probabilities of 25 per cent or 75 per cent. This is why we buy lotto tickets.What are the odds of dying in a plane crash compared to dying on the roads? Twice as many people die on the roads during a year than the total of those who have died in air accidents. Yet we fear flying more than driving. Air fatalities evoke shock but road deaths are simply another standard news item. We are drawn to the most astonishing...

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Everyday Money

A paper presented at the Australian Social policy conference at the University of NSW found that divorce had a substantial impact on women’s incomes and almost none on men’s. But, it appears that men are not happy! Could it be that they are used to having someone doing the cooking, cleaning and organising their social life? Or could it be that they don’t want to pay child support?The study found that divorced men’s average income after they had paid...

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Why?

Why is it still acceptable to subordinate women to men? Well, the religions of the world respond, because religious tenets tell us so.In Northern Nigeria a pregnant 13 year old girl, Bariya, received 180 lashes of the cane after being pimped by her father. The State’s Attorney General who, one presumes, has a smattering of education, said “It is the law of Allah”. In Jerusalem “modesty police” terrorise women who talk to men or show ordinary parts...

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Musings and Amusings

The Tao of Pooh suggests that ideas float around the universe and pop into the nearest head on a random basis – the latest findings in neuroscience validates this theory. It appears that our brains operate on the edge of chaos. Most of the time our brains operate in an orderly fashion, according to the New Scientist article, “Disorderly Genius: How chaos drives the brain, but every now and then lurches into a blizzard of noise.” The technical term...

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Finance and Investments

So what is the key to financial success? To make wise decisions you must have the right information, and combine and weigh its various components correctly. You must not ignore valid information in favour of thinking and judgemental tendencies that are dangerous in the investment world; for example, weighting the most vivid and recent information more strongly than heeding the lessons of history. Investors must develop a mindset that helps them understand...

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Womenomics

There have been many articles and even some discussion at the Economic Summit in Davos, over whether the financial meltdown would have been so severe, or would have occurred, if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters. It’s certainly pretty clear that business culture is overwhelmingly male and fuelled by testosterone. In Iceland, officially a bankrupt country, women are cleaning up the mess. Iceland with a population of just over 300,000, has had...

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Finance and Investments

I am amazed at the number of investors who are pouring money into two of the worst investments in the last 50 years; cash and bonds. If you are thinking of pulling out of the share market I beg you, reconsider.Sure we don’t know about the markets future but this last period, and currently, is the best buying opportunity I have seen in the last 25 years. The media headlines, as usual, do not reflect this reality.So don’t stick your money in a sock...

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Everyday Money

You may think that in these straitened times philanthropy is the first thing we should reduce or cut out as we attempt to make ends meet. But, in an article featured in Portfolio, it was demonstrated that “... people grow wealthier when they give more.” The study from the Social Capital Benchmark Survey examined philanthropic behaviours and household income plus other factors such as age, religion education and more. It found that higher income related...

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Why?

Why don’t we spare a thought for those collectors of contemporary art who are now inhabiting a classic investment bubble. Forget about the share market, the sub prime crisis, the tottering financial system and the world economy.A recent article by Ben Lewis claims the bubble is about to pop. He cites the example of British house prices which took six years to double at the start of this century, contemporary art managed it in one, 2006-2007. Over...

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Musings and Amusings

Following in the footsteps of Grecian courtesans that notorious woman Catherine d’Medici introduced Italian style by wearing high heels (she was rather short). Since then women have been crippling themselves in the search for the advantage kick-arse shoes give the wearer.Latterly nine inch heels with four inch platforms have been gracing the feet of the ultra thin models we are supposed to emulate. What is it about our shoe fetish? Many of the most...

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Womenomics

There have been many studies demonstrating the earnings gap between men and women; however a recent study by the Department of Sociology at Queens College in New York showed that full time female employees in their 20s were earning more than males same age, in large cities like Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and New York. In Dallas 20% more than men, in New York 17% more.But, and you knew there was a but, after age 30 women were no longer ahead.The...

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Who's Counting

I am pretty sure it was Winston Churchill who, when confronted with statistical proof growled; “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.” His assertion is still pretty valid many decades later. Statistics are supposed to define what is true, false or merely anecdotal but; statistics can fool us. In fact as Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan points out, it is probably fooling governments right now.When he talks about the limits of statistics...

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Womenomics

As the French say everything changes, everything remains the same. A recent headline in the Sunday Star Times caught my eye “DIVORCE LAW: MOTHER’S DON’T GET A FAIR DEAL.” Law Professor Mark Henaghan says that stay at home mothers left with little earning power when their marriages break up are not getting a fair deal from the courts.As one English judge famously put it: “The cock bird can feather his nest precisely because he does not have to spend...

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Musings and Amusings

I am certainly amused. It appears that the myriad of studies advising women not to drink for fear of increasing the risk of getting cancer, especially breast cancer, are based on questionable research.The leading study was one created by one Naomi Allen of Oxford University. There are, it appears, several flaws in her results.Firstly, her study is an observational one; that is it is based on self reports about the drinking habits of women. Thus it...

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Why?

Why when talented successful women flourish are there those who are ready, to pull them down. Are they a perceived as a threat? Or is it simply envy which motivates the detractors. The term "successful woman," it seems to me embody a conundrum; success may lead to exclusion by peers; and if success is eschewed ones own personal and professional fulfilment is put at ri...

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Finance and Investments

The fund promised high and unwavering annual returns, but you had to know someone to get in on it. And that was really all it took to attract credulous investments, that and the sterling reputation of the banker behind it, a financier revered in privileged circles.“I’ve looked into it” is how one investor reassured a friend who wondered what would happened if the fund should fail. “Name up everywhere, immense resources, high connections, government...

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Who’s Counting?

I am counting – but only to five. Here are five simple rules for asset allocation (The jargon for not putting all your eggs/investments in one basket).Rule 1: If you need money in the next 12 months keep it on term deposit or in a savings account.Rule 2: If you need money in the next 5 years put it in a safe investment like government stock or corporate bonds. If you can’t do this directly use a managed fund.Rule 3: Any money you don’t need for the...

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Everyday Money

According to economists we are all supposed to be rational about money; to see it as “fungible” a medium which we can use to exchange for any commodity we desire. Each of us has a different relationship with money, the ways we describe money are incredibly varied. We say “money talks,” but it is the way we talk about money which is most revealing.When we talk about money we usually refer to it as dirty stuff, the root of all evil. Women don’t discuss...

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Who's Counting

1 mother + 2 kids + 0 husband = Family. In the US in 1960, unmarried mothers accounted for about 5 percent of births, now they are almost 40%; about half are women on their own, the rest with partners. More and more women are choosing to bring up their families along or to have a child without a partner. Single parent families now make up about 40% of households. This makes the emphasis society places on the traditional nuclear family.1 mother +...

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Everyday Money

Many people are feeling intense anxiety over jobs and money during this period of uncertainty. If you are one of these and are struggling to cope here are some ideas to help your state of mind:• Firstly establish what money is: it is simply a medium of exchange, it does not reflect self worth. If you cannot live in the way you have in the past, or have to downsize, it does not measure your value as a person.• Money does not define success. If you...

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Musings and Amusings

In my last Womenomics blog I wrote about women in Zimbabwe protesting. As a cosseted woman in the Western world I can only watch the women who take action against seemingly insurmountable odds with admiration and amazement. A documentary called ‘Pray the Devil Back to Hell’ recounts the story of a woman in Liberia who was inspired to organise the women of her church to pray for peace during the regime of Charles Taylor; the rebels opposing him created...

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Womenomics

The Davos Forum (see Finance and Investments) had 81 business leaders attending; of the 81 four were women. This disparity is not new in fact women created their own forum, Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society held in France each year. Seperate but equal, I don’t think so!“The big theme at this year’s World Economic Forum was Shaping the Post-Crisis World,” wrote Ruth Sunderland in Britain’s The Observer. “The idea that that can be achieved...

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Finance and Investments

Gender balance requirements and usefulness are frequently seen as part of the bra burning feminist culture and treated with disdain. Nicholas D Kristoff writes in an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times that banks around the world ‘desperately want bailouts of billions of dollars, but they also have another need they’re unaware of; women, women and women.”This comment follows on from discussions which took place at the recent World Economic Forum in...

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Why?

Why in 2008 are women still underrepresented in politics? In the USA the land of equality and opportunity we have seen the inauguration of Obama after an incredibly gender focused campaign. Obama’s cabinet does not reflect his rhetoric; less than 25%of his cabinet are women. No doubt the naysayers will claim that there are not enough women with the appropriate skills to take their place alongside the male cabinet members.But, consider this – the...

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Musings and Amusings

Neuroscience, still a relatively new science is examining “the benefits of enhancement” through drugs. They theorise that cognitive enhancement is already practised by most of us. We drink coffee, eat nutritious foods, train our brains and get a good night’s sleep. Taking drugs they say is simply a little further on in the continuum. Wouldn’t you want the surgeon whose mind is extra sharp, a pilot who’s extra alert or the medical researcher whose...

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Everyday Money

If you are struggling with finances, particularly paying your mortgage, here are some ideas to help ease the burden.• Sell luxury items or household goods that you don’t need, if you are a two car household reduce to one. Any money you save or make should go to reduce your mortgage.• Look at ways to reduce your outgoings - is there anything in your budget you can do without.• Look at how you might increase your income – part time work, take in a...

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Who’s counting

A conversation overheard in a bar;Gentleman 1: “I believe in what you are saying 110%. Howard.”Gentleman 2: “Ugh.”Gentleman 1: “What?”Gentleman 2: “Why not 120%, or 130%, or more?”Gentleman 1: “Okay, I believe in you 140%.”Gentleman 2: “Anything beyond 100% is meaningless.”Gentleman 1: “Okay, now I’m down to 90%.”Gentleman 2:”That’s better.”You can’t give more than 100% in anythi...

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Finance and Investments

You have survived 2008 and are feeling shell shocked. Here are some tips to help you through 2009 and beyond – you should of course have a financial plan.Tip 1 - The share market is still cyclicalIt is not different this time, all asset classes have cycles. You just forget about it after five years of positive growth with few corrections.Tip 2 - Volatility will continueYou cannot call the highs and the lows. Dollar cost average, that is buy every...

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Womenomics

I have been wondering who or what will bring Mugabe down. An article towards the end of last year made me wonder if it would be women.The rare demonstration of resistance was fuelled by some 200 women hoisting placards and demanding an end to the cholera epidemic. The women only marched a couple of hundred yards before dispersing, foiling the security services who only found flyers blowing along the Harare footpath.The contrast between the concerns...

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Why?

Why do we always feel so guilty when we eat fat? Fat is one of the most joyous things to eat; think butter on Vogel’s (how could you eat popcorn without butter?), crunchy crackling on pork, bacon (said to be the one food which tempts vegetarians).Then there are butter based sauces, think French beurre blanc on a whole sole. If you are still with me I can recommend Jennifer McLagan’s cookbook entitled “Fat.” The book is split into four sections: butter,...

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