Is anyone employed any more?

The official unemployment stats cant possibly tell the whole truth about employment. Look around the streets at the number of offices and shops for lease, and the (daily) anecdotal evidence on retrenchments, and it may explain why shops and cafes are emptying. People cant afford it. For those of  us lucky enough to live and work in the inner city we tend to be insulated from the hardships in the 'burbs and some of the regions. There are recent reports which indicate that real unemployment is a multiple of the reported figures from the Federal Government. They will say go to the mines. But they are not big employers. That is the land of small and medium businesses - the ones that are hurting and now laying off staff. Wait for the official unemployment figures to rise later this year. Hopefully burglaries wont!

David Millhouse
www.millhouse.co

Financial services reform

It is interesting to note that the requirement for a financial adviser to act in a fiduciary capacity for their client is only now being written into the law. Surely, there was always a presumption that this was the case. Not so apparently. No wonder some financial planning &wealth management firms became little more than product sellers earning a commission or other incentive. I have had this done to me from well known organisations in Australia. Needless to say, i didnt usually buy and the one time i did, lost everything in that investment - almost as million dollars.

David Millhouse
www.millhouse.co

I am an international entrepreneur with over 30 years in venture capital and private equity internationally. A specialist in venture financing and capitalisation, and the management of high growth companies, many of which proceed to IPO.  I have 30 years of publications and media on my professional activities and have had a stellar career at CEO level since 1983

Rome Burns 2

David Millhouse reporting that there was comment in the weekend press about the lack of a venture capital market in Australia. This is true in part. Most of the unlisted investment is leveraged buy-out private equity capital. Except that its mostly debt. There is a huge pool of venture capital. Problem is, its in government hands and is used to porkbarrel the electorate to win elections. Go to Federal websites and see how much taxpayer venture capital is (mis-) allocated to car manufacturing, "green"technologies etc. Most of this taxpayer venture capital will be wasted. Down the drain. Gone. Kaputt. At MillhouseIAG we were ranked very highly by the independent Private Equity Performance Monitor on a world scale for venture and private equity investing. If these returns were matched by the returns on this Federal Governments' profligacy, then tax rates could be lower for everyone.

David Millhouse
www.millhouse.co

Developing Brisbane

I took a City Cat from the City to Hamilton on the weekend. It was interesting to reflect on the development of Brisbane from 1983 when i became the Foundation Chief Executive of UniQuest at UQ, to now. In 1983 UQ was a very good regional teaching University with some research capacity. Now, it is a major world renowned research University ranking in the top 3 in Australia and with signficant research endowment from non-government sources. There are many articles written by or on David Millhouse which illustrate how this process occurred and what the benefits to Brisbane have been.

David Millhouse
www.millhouse.co

CAPITAL FOR COMPANIES

Raising capital for small to medium sized companies has never been easy. It is even more difficult now with limited sources of finance and then usually requiring real estate and personal securities. Very dangerous for the owners. David Millhouse says the new Australian credit laws make it even harder and people who would previously had access to credit will no longer have that access. This particularly affects small and medium sized businesses, many of which are family owned. Banks treat so called self employed people differently to PAYG earners.

This was a huge problem post the 1991 recession in Australia and MillhouseIAG established Corporation Builders to address it. Corporation Builders developed the Queensland Leaders project in 2007, which still continues in Brisbane.

David Millhouse also says that, presently, business owners and managers also face declining exit values for their assets. There is little in the way of true venture capital available and very limited opportunities for IPO's on the Australian Securities Exchange.

David Millhouse
www.millhouse.co

BERLIN BOOMS

David Millhouse has been visiting Berlin since 1986. David has had an office there since 2000 and operated for ten years as Millhouse AG, a wholly owned subsidiary of MillhouseIAG Limited. The economic and monetary developments are more readily understandable when viewed through a German prism rather than an Australian one.

David Millhouse
www.millhouse.co

Rome Burns

While Canberra fiddles, much of the Australian economy burns. David Millhouse has spend 30 years building small and medium sized enterprises. David says conditions are tougher in that sector now than in 1991. The Federal Government looks at the aggregate economic data, not at what is happening at street level.

An Old Video - David Millhouse to be on a visit to Condat AG in Berlin Germany