Comments on: Australia’s Trade Deficit Funding Housing Boom That’s About to Bust

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:25:39 +0000

Those of us in the Australian manufacturing industry have know this for a very long time.

It's interesting all the comments so far have been of a political nature. Nobody has said we should revitalize our manufacturing industry which is the solution.

It just goes to show the general public and the government are living in a dream world.

As usual no one knows or cares about manufacturing. It is the only way of creating true wealth.
It's also a lot more creative than digging stuff out of the ground.

By: novosonic

novosonic — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:46:38 +0000

i finally broke down and ordered the mob&messiahs book, but, i don't understand why people are so concerned about the connection between business and politics. political arguements might be more social than discussing GUNS, and, there aren't many people that read by the genre instead of the bestseller list. so that limits intellectual conversation.

viva l'anarchie

By: Coffee Addict

Coffee Addict — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:27:41 +0000

They are already blaming Hillary in the US.

I made one interesting observation today. The correlation between the market index and some industry superfund performance is weakening. This means they are cashing up.

So if the fund managers are (belatedly) getting a bit bearish, who are the remaining bulls?

By: Jono

Jono — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:55:00 +0000

The near future may be rocky but we shall see whether Kevin Rudd is blamed for the downturn.

We may begin to see the first signs of a downturn whilst Howard is still in office !

By: Frank Grimes

Frank Grimes — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:56:41 +0000

Perhaps this was the election that Howard didn't want to win. I'm sure he's a crafty old goat and he would have put up much more of a fight in usual circumstances. I got the distinct impression through the whole campaign that he just rolled over and took a dive.

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:10:11 +0000

In a recent interview John Edwards of HSBC corrected the questioner who asked about the sustainability of Australia's export commodities boom,correctly pointing out that what has happened is actually predominantly an exploration boom.He seemed to believe that this will translate into a more tangible result as we move forward,overcome bottlenecks etc.I hope he's right.

By: Commenter

Commenter — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 06:34:34 +0000

Interest rates are going up. Just watch the trend in the short term bond and bill yields, relative to the headline rate. http://www.rba.gov.au/Statistics/interest_rates_yields.html You'll need to plot it yourself in Excel. Odd why RBA don't provide charts - perhaps too politically risky?

Mortgage stress....you aint seen nothing yet. People squeal about a measly 1/4% rise! Know someone with a fat mortgage and want to make em sick? Show them the wild rates ride from 77 to 92, back when 1.0% rises were a regular occurrence. Those years make the last 15 very stable years (several of them under Labour too) look flatter than a Wall St Spin doctor flung from his 56th floor window.

By: Coffee Addict

Coffee Addict — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 05:51:45 +0000

Labor will be blamed by the electorate both for what the new Government has inherited and for what no Government can control.