Sydney Rises In The Economist's Global Liveability Essay.

Sydney still remains behind Melbourne, but the Victorian capital was knocked off the number one spot it has held for seven years running.

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https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/sydney-rises-in-the-economist-s-global-liveability-rankings-20180814-p4zxb5.html

Sydney rises in the Economist's global liveability rankings

By Rachel Clun

14 August 2018 — 9:48am

Sydney has risen in the liveability rankings, breaking into the top five in the global list.

Rising from 11 last year to number five, Sydney still remains behind Melbourne, but the Victorian capital was knocked off the number one spot it has held for seven years running. Melbourne fell to number two in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Ranking.

Sydney has risen to number five in global rankings of the world's most liveable cities.

Sydney’s overall ranking was 97.4, sandwiching it between the Canadian cities of Calgary (number four, with a score of 97.5) and Vancouver (sixth, with 97.3). The Canadian city of Toronto also ranked in the top 10.

While Sydney, like Melbourne, achieved a perfect 100 for healthcare, education and infrastructure, it scored 95 for stability and 94.4 for culture and environment.

Sydney did even better in the ranking of Asian-Pacific cities, coming third behind Melbourne and Osaka.

Adelaide also scored highly, ranking number 10 out of 140 cities globally and number five out of the Asian Pacific cities.

The other cities in the top 10 were Osaka, at number three, Tokyo and Copenhagen.

The liveability score is a combination of the scores of five different categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

The report found the cities that tended to score best were mid-sized cities in wealthier countries. It also found that while Australians think the crime rate is rising, the region alongside Europe boasts a lower violent and petty crime rate than the rest of the world.

Last year Sydney ranked outside the top 10 due to terrorism fears, but this year's report says a period of relative stability has helped a number of cities improve their score.

"Upwards movement in the top ranked cities is a reflection of improvements seen in stability and safety across most regions in the past year," the report said.

"The prolonged period of relative stability has resulted in the stabilisation of terrorism threat scores in several cities, especially in Western Europe."

While Sydney and Adelaide rose in the rankings, Melbourne was knocked off the number one spot by the Austrian capital, Vienna.

People who have lived in both Melbourne and Vienna told Fairfax Media there were pros and cons to both cities.

Stephen Cooper said Melbourne’s weather “kicks Vienna’s arse”, while professional opera singer Anna-Louise Cole said Vienna’s public transport and cycling culture “puts Melbourne to shame”.

Sydney did even better in the ranking of Asian-Pacific cities, coming third behind Melbourne and Osaka.

The Economist's Global Liveability Index found the world's least liveable city was Damascus in Syria, with a liveability rating of just 30.7.

The report said cities at the bottom of the list, including Tripoli, Karachi, Dakar and Harare suggest conflict is responsible for many of the lower scores.

"Conflict will not just cause disruption in its own right, it will also damage infrastructure, overburden hospitals and undermine the availability of goods, services and recreational activities," the report said.

"The Middle East, Africa and Asia account for the ten lowest-scoring cities in the survey where violence, whether through crime, civil insurgency, terrorism or war, has played a strong role."

CommBank customers’ fury over massive outage.

COMMONWEALTH Bank customers are reeling after a five-hour outage caused trouble with logins, transfers, and some cards not being accepted.

Customers of COMMONWEALTH Bank clients are reeling following a five-hour blackout caused trouble with logins, transfers, and some cards not being accepted.

FURIOUS Commonwealth Bank customers are now having trouble logging into online banking services after a five hour outage saw transfers and some cards not being accepted by businesses.

The bank issued a statement at 12.30pm saying that services for non-CommBank Visa cards were being restored along with transfers and payments through the online system.

“We’re starting to see services restore for issues affecting non-CommBank Visa card transactions at CommBank merchant terminals,” it said.

But while transfers and payments were working in NetBank and the CommBank app people could have issues logging in.

The notification Commonwealth Bank customers get when they log in.Source:Supplied

“As we restore services some users may experience log-on taking a little longer than normal. We’re sorry — we realise this isn’t the best start to a Monday and we appreciate your patience,” the Twitter statement said.

Customers who had earlier tried to login to online banking system received a message warning them to try again later.

“You may not be able to make payments or access all features while logged on this morning. Please try again later,” it said.

But despite some services being restored many people were still unable to access the bank’s systems.

CommBank

• Aug 20, 2018

Update #2 at 12:23 - Transfers and payments are now working in NetBank and the CommBank app. As we restore services some users may experience log-on taking a little longer than normal. We’re sorry – we realise this isn’t the best start to a Monday and we appreciate your patience

Adelaide also scored highly, ranking number 10 out of 140 cities globally and number five out of the Asian Pacific cities.

Dan Mcfarlane@rdmcfarlane

In April, customers with the bank had credit card balances disappear from the smartphone app and the online system.

The digital problems in April also temporarily wiped out the balances of home and personal loans, travel money card accounts and affected bill payments that used BPAY.

Shops were also unable to accept debit and credit card transactions from Commonwealth customers.

It is not clear when the current outage is going to be rectified.

We’re starting to see services restore for issues affecting non-CommBank Visa card transactions at CommBank merchant terminals. If you’re still experiencing issues, you can also try inserting the credit card and using the PIN to process transactions.

Former poker player jailed for ‘breathtaking’ $58 million fraud

A FORMER professional poker player has been jailed after defrauding the Commonwealth Bank out of nearly $58 million.

A FORMER professional poker player will spend at least nine years in a Victorian jail after scamming the Commonwealth Bank of nearly $58 million in a fraud of “breathtaking proportions”.

William Jordanou, 60, was slammed by County Court of Victoria Judge Paul Lacava on Thursday for causing delay in the proceedings with a “frankly embarrassing” cross-examination, leading to “a complete waste of the court’s time”.

Jordanou finally pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy to defraud in February this year after fraudulently obtaining $58 million from the Commonwealth Bank in loans using false documents between 2010 and 2014.

He also scammed $18 million out of Westpac, Bank of Queensland, La Trobe Financial Services, Rhino Money and Mercedes-Benz Financial Services using the same “modus operandi”.

The court was told Jordanou, along with accountants Robert Zaia and Scott Arthur, falsified documents to the Commonwealth Bank “for the purpose of obtaining 23 separate loans on behalf of clients”, with plans to share in the profits.

“By this means, you fraudulently obtained nearly $58 million from the CBA, making this one of the largest frauds to come before a court in this state,” Judge Lacava said.

“The actual loss to the CBA is said to be approximately $21.8 million … the prosecution has been unable to calculate the amount of gain that you received from this offending.”

Zaia and Arthur have pleaded guilty to similar charges, with Arthur sentenced to at least four years in jail, and Zaia yet to be sentenced.

“The CBA conspiracy was a prolonged fraud of breathtaking proportions,” Judge Lacava said.

The liveability score is a combination of the scores of five different categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

“The level of falsifications and some of the documentation supplied to the CBA was high and the action of giving it to the bank audacious.”

Judge Lacava said the bank did not exercise due diligence and placed a high level of trust in a mobile lender named Epps, who had since died.

“It was a true conspiracy, a meeting of minds.”

He said Jordanou finally pleaded guilty to conspiracy four years after he was charged, just before the matter was to proceed to trial.

“This is an extremely strong prosecution case, and you refused to face the reality you would eventually go to jail until confronted with the fact of the trial proceeding.”

Jordanou was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of nine years.

He has already served 198 days in pre-sentence detention.

Elon Musk and Tesla sued over 'fraudulent scheme' to go private

Lawsuits say ‘funding secured’ tweet broke securities laws and aimed to punish short-sellers

Reuters

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One lawuit accuses Elon Musk and Tesla of carrying out a ‘nuclear attack’ on short-sellers. Photograph: Toru Hanai/Reuters

Tesla and Elon Musk were sued twice on Friday by investors who say they fraudulently engineered a scheme to squeeze short-sellers, including through Musk’s proposal to take the electric car company private.

The lawsuits were filed three days after Musk stunned investors by announcing on Twitter that he might take Tesla private in a record $72bn transaction that valued the company at $420 per share, and that “funding” had been “secured”.

In one of the lawsuits, the plaintiff Kalman Isaacs said Musk’s tweets were false and misleading, and together with Tesla’s failure to correct them amounted to a “nuclear attack” designed to “completely decimate” short-sellers.

Tesla to be examined by SEC over Elon Musk's 'funding secured' tweet – report

Read more

The lawsuits filed by Isaacs and William Chamberlain said Musk’s and Tesla’s conduct artificially inflated Tesla’s stock price and violated federal securities laws.

Short-sellers borrow shares they believe are overpriced, sell them, and then repurchase shares later at what they hope will be a lower price to make a profit.

Such investors have long been an irritant for Musk, who has sometimes used Twitter to criticize them.

Musk’s tweets on 7 August helped push Tesla’s stock price more than 13% above the prior day’s close.

The stock has since given back more than two-thirds of that gain, in part following reports that the US Securities and Exchange Commission had begun inquiring about Musk’s activity.

The report found the cities that tended to score best were mid-sized cities in wealthier countries.

Musk has not offered evidence that he has lined up the necessary funding to take Tesla private, and the complaints did not offer proof to the contrary.

But Isaacs said Tesla’s and Musk’s conduct caused the volatility that cost short-sellers hundreds of millions of dollars from having to cover their short positions, and caused all Tesla securities purchasers to pay inflated prices.

Tesla’s market value exceeds $60bn and its shares closed on Friday up $3.04 at $355.49.

According to his complaint, Isaacs bought 3,000 Tesla shares on 8 August to cover his short position.

McGrath flags $35 million cash impairment

Written on the 31 July 2018 by David Simmons

Listed real estate group McGrath (ASX: MEA) has flagged it will be hit by a $35 million impairment charge following a "very challenging" FY18.

The company, which has been struggling with lower sales volumes this past financial year, has also confirmed it expects reported earnings for FY18 to be around $1 million.

McGrath says the impairment charge relates primarily to assets brought onto the balance sheet as part of acquisitions during 2015.

McGrath CEO Geoff Lucas says the year was tough for the struggling real estate business.

"The past 12 months have been very challenging for McGrath," says Lucas.

"While reduced sales volumes during FY18 impacted the performance of the business, I am pleased with the recent initiatives and the positive rebuilding of the business we have seen."

Additionally, the company held an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on Tuesday, to decide whether the company would peruse a $10.7 million investment from property giants Aqualand.

Shareholders have since approved the investment and the placement of 11,568,042 shares to Aqualand at today's shareholder meeting.

As previously reported, the investment by Aqualand will be a welcome cash boost for the ailing real estate business, considering the company recently halved its anticipated full year earnings guidance.

As part of the deal Aqualand will be entitled to a director on the board of McGrath and give McGrath the first right to discuss being an agent to its new projects. Aqualand retains discretion as to whether or not to appoint McGrath.

The agreement has an initial term of five years and can be renewed for two further terms of three years each by agreement between the parties.

Aqualand was established in Australia in 2014 and has since generated a portfolio of 18 sites, with a collective gross development value of approximately $5 billion.

The $10.7 million in proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including business development and potential growth opportunities.

Aqualand has advised that CEO of AL Capital, Wayne Mo, is their nominee to the board of directors of McGrath.

McGrath intends to release its FY18 audited financial results on 20 August 2018.

Shares in McGrath have picked up following the announcement, and are now trading up 1.32 per cent to $0.38 per share at 2.45pm AEST.

Sydney still remains behind Melbourne, but the Victorian capital was knocked off the number one spot it has held for seven years running.

Sydney rises in the Economist's global liveability rankings

By Rachel Clun

14 August 2018 — 9:48am

Sydney has risen in the liveability rankings, breaking into the top five in the global list.

Rising from 11 last year to number five, Sydney still remains behind Melbourne, but the Victorian capital was knocked off the number one spot it has held for seven years running. Melbourne fell to number two in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Ranking.

Sydney has risen to number five in global rankings of the world's most liveable cities.

Sydney’s overall ranking was 97.4, sandwiching it between the Canadian cities of Calgary (number four, with a score of 97.5) and Vancouver (sixth, with 97.3). The Canadian city of Toronto also ranked in the top 10.

While Sydney, like Melbourne, achieved a perfect 100 for healthcare, education and infrastructure, it scored 95 for stability and 94.4 for culture and environment.

Sydney did even better in the ranking of Asian-Pacific cities, coming third behind Melbourne and Osaka.

Adelaide also scored highly, ranking number 10 out of 140 cities globally and number five out of the Asian Pacific cities.

The other cities in the top 10 were Osaka, at number three, Tokyo and Copenhagen.

The liveability score is a combination of the scores of five different categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

The report found the cities that tended to score best were mid-sized cities in wealthier countries. It also found that while Australians think the crime rate is rising, the region alongside Europe boasts a lower violent and petty crime rate than the rest of the world.

Last year Sydney ranked outside the top 10 due to terrorism fears, but this year's report says a period of relative stability has helped a number of cities improve their score.

"Upwards movement in the top ranked cities is a reflection of improvements seen in stability and safety across most regions in the past year," the report said.

"The prolonged period of relative stability has resulted in the stabilisation of terrorism threat scores in several cities, especially in Western Europe."

While Sydney and Adelaide rose in the rankings, Melbourne was knocked off the number one spot by the Austrian capital, Vienna.

People who have lived in both Melbourne and Vienna told Fairfax Media there were pros and cons to both cities.

Stephen Cooper said Melbourne’s weather “kicks Vienna’s arse”, while professional opera singer Anna-Louise Cole said Vienna’s public transport and cycling culture “puts Melbourne to shame”.

Sydney did even better in the ranking of Asian-Pacific cities, coming third behind Melbourne and Osaka.

The Economist's Global Liveability Index found the world's least liveable city was Damascus in Syria, with a liveability rating of just 30.7.

The report said cities at the bottom of the list, including Tripoli, Karachi, Dakar and Harare suggest conflict is responsible for many of the lower scores.

"Conflict will not just cause disruption in its own right, it will also damage infrastructure, overburden hospitals and undermine the availability of goods, services and recreational activities," the report said.

"The Middle East, Africa and Asia account for the ten lowest-scoring cities in the survey where violence, whether through crime, civil insurgency, terrorism or war, has played a strong role."

CommBank customers’ fury over massive outage

by Caroline Schelle

20th Aug 2018 1:10 PM | Updated: 3:31 PM

2 

UPDATE: FURIOUS Commonwealth Bank customers are now having trouble logging into online banking services after a five hour outage saw transfers and some cards not being accepted by businesses.

The bank issued a statement at 12.30pm saying that services for non-CommBank Visa cards were being restored along with transfers and payments through the online system.

"We're starting to see services restore for issues affecting non-CommBank Visa card transactions at CommBank merchant terminals," it said.

But while transfers and payments were working in NetBank and the CommBank app people could have issues logging in.

"As we restore services some users may experience log-on taking a little longer than normal. We're sorry - we realise this isn't the best start to a Monday and we appreciate your patience," the Twitter statement said.

Customers who had earlier tried to login to online banking system received a message warning them to try again later.

"You may not be able to make payments or access all features while logged on this morning. Please try again later," it said.

But despite some services being restored many people were still unable to access the bank's systems.

In April, customers with the bank had credit card balances disappear from the smartphone app and the online system.

The digital problems in April also temporarily wiped out the balances of home and personal loans, travel money card accounts and affected bill payments that used BPAY.

Shops were also unable to accept debit and credit card transactions from Commonwealth customers.

It is not clear when the current outage is going to be rectified.

We're starting to see services restore for issues affecting non-CommBank Visa card transactions at CommBank merchant terminals. If you're still experiencing issues, you can also try inserting the credit card and using the PIN to process transactions.

Adelaide also scored highly, ranking number 10 out of 140 cities globally and number five out of the Asian Pacific cities.

EARLIER: CUSTOMERS with Commonwealth Bank haven't been able to transfer money for hours because of issues with NetBank and the CommBank app while businesses can't accept Visa cards.

The bank issued a statement just before 7.30am after being inundated with people unable to use their accounts.

"We're aware of an issue affecting non-CBA Visa card transactions at CBA merchant terminals and some payments in NetBank and CommBank app," a Commonwealth spokeswoman said.

Those with MasterCard and CBA cards are not impacted by the outage.

"We're working to fix this as a priority and we apologise for any inconvenience," she said.

Customers who logged in to online banking system received a message warning them to try again later.

"You may not be able to make payments or access all features while logged on this morning. Please try again later," it said.

In April, customers with the bank had credit card balances disappear from the smartphone app and the online system.

The digital problems in April also temporarily wiped out the balances of home and personal loans, travel money card accounts and affected bill payments that used BPAY.

Shops were also unable to accept debit and credit card transactions from Commonwealth customers.

It is not clear when the current outage is going to be rectified.

Former poker player jailed for ‘breathtaking’ $58 million fraud

A FORMER professional poker player has been jailed after defrauding the Commonwealth Bank out of nearly $58 million.

A FORMER professional poker player will spend at least nine years in a Victorian jail after scamming the Commonwealth Bank of nearly $58 million in a fraud of “breathtaking proportions”.

William Jordanou, 60, was slammed by County Court of Victoria Judge Paul Lacava on Thursday for causing delay in the proceedings with a “frankly embarrassing” cross-examination, leading to “a complete waste of the court’s time”.

Jordanou finally pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy to defraud in February this year after fraudulently obtaining $58 million from the Commonwealth Bank in loans using false documents between 2010 and 2014.

He also scammed $18 million out of Westpac, Bank of Queensland, La Trobe Financial Services, Rhino Money and Mercedes-Benz Financial Services using the same “modus operandi”.

The court was told Jordanou, along with accountants Robert Zaia and Scott Arthur, falsified documents to the Commonwealth Bank “for the purpose of obtaining 23 separate loans on behalf of clients”, with plans to share in the profits.

The liveability score is a combination of the scores of five different categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

“By this means, you fraudulently obtained nearly $58 million from the CBA, making this one of the largest frauds to come before a court in this state,” Judge Lacava said.

“The actual loss to the CBA is said to be approximately $21.8 million … the prosecution has been unable to calculate the amount of gain that you received from this offending.”

Zaia and Arthur have pleaded guilty to similar charges, with Arthur sentenced to at least four years in jail, and Zaia yet to be sentenced.

“The CBA conspiracy was a prolonged fraud of breathtaking proportions,” Judge Lacava said.

“The level of falsifications and some of the documentation supplied to the CBA was high and the action of giving it to the bank audacious.”

Judge Lacava said the bank did not exercise due diligence and placed a high level of trust in a mobile lender named Epps, who had since died.

“It was a true conspiracy, a meeting of minds.”

He said Jordanou finally pleaded guilty to conspiracy four years after he was charged, just before the matter was to proceed to trial.

“This is an extremely strong prosecution case, and you refused to face the reality you would eventually go to jail until confronted with the fact of the trial proceeding.”

Jordanou was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of nine years.

He has already served 198 days in pre-sentence detention.

Elon Musk and Tesla sued over 'fraudulent scheme' to go private

Lawsuits say ‘funding secured’ tweet broke securities laws and aimed to punish short-sellers

Reuters

Shares

675

One lawuit accuses Elon Musk and Tesla of carrying out a ‘nuclear attack’ on short-sellers. Photograph: Toru Hanai/Reuters

Tesla and Elon Musk were sued twice on Friday by investors who say they fraudulently engineered a scheme to squeeze short-sellers, including through Musk’s proposal to take the electric car company private.

The lawsuits were filed three days after Musk stunned investors by announcing on Twitter that he might take Tesla private in a record $72bn transaction that valued the company at $420 per share, and that “funding” had been “secured”.

In one of the lawsuits, the plaintiff Kalman Isaacs said Musk’s tweets were false and misleading, and together with Tesla’s failure to correct them amounted to a “nuclear attack” designed to “completely decimate” short-sellers.

Tesla to be examined by SEC over Elon Musk's 'funding secured' tweet – report

The lawsuits filed by Isaacs and William Chamberlain said Musk’s and Tesla’s conduct artificially inflated Tesla’s stock price and violated federal securities laws.

The report found the cities that tended to score best were mid-sized cities in wealthier countries.

Short-sellers borrow shares they believe are overpriced, sell them, and then repurchase shares later at what they hope will be a lower price to make a profit.

Such investors have long been an irritant for Musk, who has sometimes used Twitter to criticize them.

Musk’s tweets on 7 August helped push Tesla’s stock price more than 13% above the prior day’s close.

The stock has since given back more than two-thirds of that gain, in part following reports that the US Securities and Exchange Commission had begun inquiring about Musk’s activity.

Musk has not offered evidence that he has lined up the necessary funding to take Tesla private, and the complaints did not offer proof to the contrary.

But Isaacs said Tesla’s and Musk’s conduct caused the volatility that cost short-sellers hundreds of millions of dollars from having to cover their short positions, and caused all Tesla securities purchasers to pay inflated prices.

Tesla’s market value exceeds $60bn and its shares closed on Friday up $3.04 at $355.49.

According to his complaint, Isaacs bought 3,000 Tesla shares on 8 August to cover his short position

McGrath flags $35 million cash impairment

Written on the 31 July 2018 by David Simmons

Listed real estate group McGrath (ASX: MEA) has flagged it will be hit by a $35 million impairment charge following a "very challenging" FY18.

The company, which has been struggling with lower sales volumes this past financial year, has also confirmed it expects reported earnings for FY18 to be around $1 million.

McGrath says the impairment charge relates primarily to assets brought onto the balance sheet as part of acquisitions during 2015.

McGrath CEO Geoff Lucas says the year was tough for the struggling real estate business.

"The past 12 months have been very challenging for McGrath," says Lucas.

"While reduced sales volumes during FY18 impacted the performance of the business, I am pleased with the recent initiatives and the positive rebuilding of the business we have seen."

Additionally, the company held an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on Tuesday, to decide whether the company would peruse a $10.7 million investment from property giants Aqualand.

Shareholders have since approved the investment and the placement of 11,568,042 shares to Aqualand at today's shareholder meeting.

As previously reported, the investment by Aqualand will be a welcome cash boost for the ailing real estate business, considering the company recently halved its anticipated full year earnings guidance.

As part of the deal Aqualand will be entitled to a director on the board of McGrath and give McGrath the first right to discuss being an agent to its new projects. Aqualand retains discretion as to whether or not to appoint McGrath.

The agreement has an initial term of five years and can be renewed for two further terms of three years each by agreement between the parties.

Aqualand was established in Australia in 2014 and has since generated a portfolio of 18 sites, with a collective gross development value of approximately $5 billion.

The $10.7 million in proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including business development and potential growth opportunities.

Aqualand has advised that CEO of AL Capital, Wayne Mo, is their nominee to the board of directors of McGrath.

McGrath intends to release its FY18 audited financial results on 20 August 2018.

Shares in McGrath have picked up following the announcement, and are now trading up 1.32 per cent to $0.38 per share at 2.45pm AEST.