Tuesday, 11 June 2013

MARKETS, REAL ESTATE & SME

Hello dear readers and welcome to our usual Tuesday edition of Markets, Real Estate & SME, the news-filter that gives you access to the things that affect your wealth! Let's get straight into why we are here with an interesting read by Kris Sayce from Money Morning Australia.

MARKETS

Three Technology Breakthroughs You May Have Missed… (Original article here...)


An old pal cornered your editor over the weekend. He asked:
‘Don’t you feel annoyed that all this news has come out about tech firms letting government spies in through the back door, just as you launch your new technology service?‘
We had a simple answer, ‘No‘. Why? Governments spy all the time.

They’ve done it for thousands of years. You could argue that one of the most famous examples of government spying and treacherous behaviour appears in the Bible. You’ve heard of Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot and the Romans, right?

We agree that it’s annoying from a liberty perspective. But not from a technology investingperspective.
From that point of view, regardless of what immoral and maniacal governments and politicians get up to, one thing is clear – you’re living at a time that could deliver one of the biggest technological advances in history.
That’s something to embrace, not fear…

You’ve doubtless heard of codes and ciphers. These go hand in hand with spying and have existed almost since humans began to write.
So, while we may abhor governments spying on people, we have to just acknowledge it and move on.
After all, if our ancestors had given up on technology advancements due to spying by the Pharaoh’s, the French Kings, or European Emperors, we would still be rolling around in our own filth.
But fortunately, our ancestors didn’t give up. They pushed on and got on with trying to improve their lives – despite the best efforts of governments to hold them back.
And getting on with things is exactly what the world’s top scientists, researchers, innovators and inventers have done over the past week…

While You Weren’t Watching – a Cure for MS?

While everyone else seemed to focus on the US government and its corporate patsies, or the latest feuding in the Aussie federal government, you probably didn’t notice three key scientific breakthroughs:

5 June, The Independent – ‘Scientists are claiming a breakthrough in the treatment of multiple sclerosis after an experimental therapy given to a small group of patients had dramatic results.
‘The therapy involved extracting white blood cells from the patients which were mixed with proteins and re-infused producing a 50-75 per cent reduction in the body’s immune response.
‘In multiple sclerosis the immune system attacks the myelin sheath that surrounds the nerve fibres causing symptoms ranging from numbness to paralysis.‘

5 June, Science Daily, – ‘Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, the University of Oxford, NIMR Tanzania and Retrogenix LTD, have identified how malaria parasites growing inside red blood cells stick to the sides of blood vessels in severe cases of malaria. The discovery may advance the development of vaccines or drugs to combat severe malaria by stopping the parasites attaching to blood vessels.‘

7 June, Latinos Post – ‘Humanity may not be able to beam someone to and from a planet’s surface like in Star Trek, but according to a new report in Nature Physics, we’ve just found out how to perform quantum teleportation reliably – which is something that, dramatically, the crew of the Enterprise never seems to be capable of.

‘Researchers working at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have successfully teleported information between two clouds of gas atoms using a laser. ‘
We noticed them. That’s the type of thing your editor and our technology analyst (Sam Volkering) look out for every day. And just as importantly, finding ways to profit from them.
Those are just three breakthroughs. There are many tens, hundreds if not thousands of revolutionary breakthroughs happening every day.

Most of them stay within the confines of the science world because the mainstream press is too busy focusing on things that most people knew anyway – that the government is spying on you.
That’s a shame, because there is so much opportunity out there…

Twenty Thousand Years of Progress in One Century

As we say, you could just give up on the future and assume things will get worse. We’ve no intention of doing that. Or you could take a positive outlook and believe that things will get better.
That’s how our ancestors dealt with adversity. You can look at the folks who used new technology to flee persecution in Europe and build a life in the New World.

Or you can look at the Pamphleteers in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries who used the printing presses to get their message out. Not to mention the scientists and innovators who heralded the Industrial Revolution.
And now the human race is at another inflection point. One that could result in more technological advances and more wealth than all previous advancements combined. As futurist Ray Kurzweil notes:
‘Because of the explosive nature of exponential growth, the 21st Century will be equivalent to twenty thousand years of progress at today’s rate of progress; about one thousand times greater than the 20th Century.‘

In other words, if you thought the rate of technological change over the past 40 years was impressive, it’s nothing compared to the rate of change you, your children and your grandchildren will experience over the next 87 years.
It will be truly revolutionary.

This is why we believe it’s so important for you to not stick your head in the sand and keep all your money in cash. Because if you want any chance to profit from this new revolution, you can only do so by taking part in it.

Cheers,
Kris


REAL ESTATE

Sydney ranked in top five most expensive cities for construction, as auction clearance rates fall

The Australian construction market is the most adversarial in the world, with high costs placing Sydney as one of the five most expensive cities in the world to build commercial, multi-unit high rises and hotels.
In global firm AECOM's annual collection of data from more than 10,000 construction projects around the world, Sydney ranked in the top five most expensive cities for each category of development because of market conditions, including ...continue reading

Tax Issues For Foreign Investors

Australia’s real estate market is attracting a large number of foreign investors looking to get into this lucrative sector. Eddie Chung explains the tax considerations foreign investors need to take into account when investing in Australia
The Australian property market has remained a relatively stable and attractive option for investors, particularly when compared with ...continue reading

Investors keen on property

Investors appetite for investment property is on the rise with confidence high due to low interest rates, according to a new Mortgage Choice survey.
Mortgage Choice found one quarter of Australian homeowners were considering buying an investment property, with over half keen to get the ball rolling in the next ...continue reading



SME

Launching start-ups not enough to make them fly

It was a big week for start-ups in Sydney – and by extension Australia. SYDStart was a sold-out success with great presentations, interesting life stories of successful entrepreneurs, company exhibits, pitches and lots of energy. And CeBIT StartUp, one of several CEBit conferences at the Sydney Convention Centre, was packed with its own set of exhibitions, programs for entrepreneurs and pitches.
There's no doubt that start-ups are a hot topic in Australia. It seems we are in the middle of a start-up revolution. And what's not to like about start-ups? Nothing – but ...continue reading

Coalition backing the competition watchdog against Woolies is a sign of things to come

If the Coalition wins government in September's election it's clear Australia's competition laws are going to get a major revamp in a move which could boost small business.
The Coalition has already promised it will conduct a "root and branch" review of competition policy if it is elected.
It's a policy the Coalition says will ensure small businesses are given a fair go and it's promised the review within the first 100 days of Tony Abbott being in office. Continue reading

Women-run start-ups missing crucial opportunities for capital

Y Combinator is arguably the best-known start-up incubator in the world. It's basically a fusion between The Apprentice and a 'live-in camp'.
The organisation holds two three-month sessions every year during which time those ideas that made it through the rigorous 'camp' selection criteria get mentored on everything from technical aspects of their particular model, through to the crucial art of the pitch.
In the most recent period, January to March, Y Combinator received 2633 applications for its bootcamp intake.
Among the eight start-ups that graduated from the San Francisco-based incubator's first class in the summer of 2005 was the social-news site Reddit, recently valued at $400 million. Today the average value of a Y-Combinator-financed start-up is ...continue reading


Until the next time dear readers...

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