Australia: No residency for boy with Down syndrome PhysOrg. Based on my experience with the Australian immigration service, I am not the slightest bit surprised.
Politics Before and After a Crash, Depression Ben Bitroff
If we only had a financial system… Steve Waldman
US businesses ask Congress for relief on pensions Reuters (hat tip The Nattering Naybob). I somehow missed this story, which isn’t getting the attention it deserves.
Lehman Europe and Prime Brokerage Counterparty Risk Felix Salmon
Terrorism Financing Meets Judicial Review David Zaring
Two two-trillionaires Brad Setser
Venture capital trusts could struggle to survive, says study Independent
Trapped in the New ‘You’re on Your Own’ World Robert Solow, New York Review of Books
Antidote du jour:
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Aside from the tone and a little too much bathwater some interesting numbers in here…
http://seekingalpha.com/article/103202-the-shallowest-generation?source=front_page_editors_picks
Yves,
a bit socialist in tone but sobering as well.
http://www.kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=aud1.kpfa.org&port=80&file=dummy.m3u&mount=/data/20081015-Wed1300.mp3
Just posted on Drudge – this will be a market mover Monday
Obama Tells SF Chronicle He Will Bankrupt Coal Industry
Here is the link to the audio of the above interview with Obama:
Audio of Obama Comment – Will Bankrupt Coal Industry
Yves,
What experiences did you have with Australian immigration?
One Salient Oversight,
First, my application was rejected twice even though I clearly satisfied the requirements for my category. My visa consultant had to get someone from Canberra to call the immigration officer (in the embassy in Washington DC) to tell him he was misapplying the standards. In theory, the fellow in Canberra had no authority over the officer in DC, but it did seem to do the trick.
Second, even though standards had been made more restrictive post 9/11, they were again tightened (apparently to everyone’s surprise) again in 2003. This made the odds of my getting permanent residence lower.
Third, since I returned to the US, the category under which I applied (entrepreneurial) has been completely eliminated. Australia, at least when I lived there, was the ONLY OECD nation to have a declining number of small businesses. The entrepreneurial category required that immigrants reach a certain level of revenues and generate a certain level of employment (three full-time equivalents beyond their self employment) to get permanent residence. Why would anyone decide that was a bad idea and get rid of that sort of visa?
Separately, it is simply nuts that a low savings country like Australia does not have a proper retirement visa (the one they have is so silly you can only stay 6 years max, that barely anyone avails themselves of it, and even then I have heard of completely reasonable-sounding people being rejected). Make the net worth standards high, do extensive criminal background checks, and require a high payment to the government to protect against Canberra’s perennial fear, that the only reason people really want to move to Oz is to become parasites and live off the social safety nets.
the only reason people really want to move to Oz is to become parasites and live off the social safety nets.
True. Sad but true. I’m lucky to be born here in Oz. I have lived in areas where migrants have moved to and though there are a few idiots, the majority of them are nice and get on well with one another.
An activist friend of mine wants immigration cut because of environmental reasons but I’m reasonably certain we can make room for more people here in Oz while repairing our environmental damage.
One of the more disturbing news stories last week was of an Afghan refugee who, after making to Australia illegally in 2002, was denied entry on the basis of fear of being killed when going back to Afghanistan. Of course we found out last week that the guy had recently been murdered by Taliban.
Unfortunately the Howard government was completely fucked in pretty much every respect as to immigration policy.. Not that we’ve seen any significant changes yet under Labor.
That said, I’d always assumed someone like yourself would get in under one of the various skilled categories. Says a lot about *us* that you had trouble. Very sad.
–Q
One Salient Oversight,
The environmental issues, particularly water, are serious and I would understand uniformly-applied restrictions along those lines. But that does not appear to have any bearing on immigration right now, as far as I can tell.
Quarrel,
I was told by my visa consultant that I did not have a chance in the skilled migrant category. They very much want particular types of skills. and perhaps more important, the scoring is very much biased towards people under 30. If you are older, pretty much the only way to get in reliably is spousal or sponsored.