We caught up with an old friend from the United States last night. He was last in Australia in 2001. He couldn’t believe how expensive things in Australia had become. Even taking the massive swing in exchange rates into account, on a one-for-one basis the price difference is huge.
February 10th, 2012 | Greg Canavan | 7 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "australia"
Tales from the Southern Hemisphere
The Southern Hemisphere is not a bad place to be in the wintertime. That is, when it is wintertime in the Northern Hemisphere. By the time the chilly winds from Baltimore reach the southern tip of Africa they have been warmed by the South Atlantic. Flowers bloom. The sun shines. Gentle breezes glide over the fields and parking lots.
January 24th, 2012 | Bill Bonner | 5 comments | Continued
Australia Forgets the Little People
How about that? Contrary to our gloomy disposition yesterday, the stock market has taken off like a rocket this morning. The material sector is up 2.9% today alone. It was the worst performing sector in Australia on the ASX in 2011, down 25% thanks to lower commodity prices.
January 4th, 2012 | Dan Denning | 7 comments | Continued
US President Obama Battles China for Australia Relations
Big Dog in the Pac
US President Obama is in da house! And he’s received a pretty warm welcome since stepping through the door. Now while China isn’t over the moon about his trip to Australia, it’s a nice change for the president. He’s not too popular at home.
November 17th, 2011 | Greg Canavan | 5 comments | Continued
Why I Would Have Raised the Interest Rates
Am I privy to the discussions of the RBA Board? No again. But I do know this. I do know why I would have raised rates, and would keep on raising them until the Government gets the message.
October 9th, 2009 | Dr. Steven Kates | 16 comments | Continued
China and its Perplexing Investment Strategy
But let’s start with sovereign wealth fund of China, the China Investment Corporation (CIC). CIC was set up in 2007 with US$200 billion of China’s nearly $2 trillion foreign exchange reserves. It’s been shopping ever since, with mixed results. Last year, for example, CIC stood pat and only invested US$4.8 billion outside China.
September 3rd, 2009 | Dan Denning | 2 comments | Continued
How Did Australia Get Caught Up Losing Money in Commercial U.S. Real Estate?
In yesterday’s Age, Bwembya Chikolwa, a lecturer in the School of Urban Development at Queensland University of Technology, says Aussie super funds had money to burn…
September 1st, 2009 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
When Fears of Inflation Are More Pronounced
But let us not be accused of being pessimists. Take a look at the chart below. It’s from a 2002 book called Triumph of the Optimists by Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh and Mike Stanton of Princeton University. It shows that over the last one hundred years-and importantly, prior to the blow-off phase of the credit bubble in 2000-dividends accounted for half of your total return in U.S. and U.K. common stocks.
July 7th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
Australia to Borrow as Much as $300 billion
In February the government raised its borrowing ceiling from $75 billion to $200 billion. Last week, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said the bleak IMF report highlighted the big revenue gap in Australia’s budget. He said Australia might have to raise its debt ceiling to $300 billion. This is the nice thing about being a sovereign government. A household cannot arbitrarily vote itself the power to go deeper into debt…
April 27th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 9 comments | Continued
The Permanent Portfolio
Today’s Daily Reckoning begins with an outsider’s look at the Australian banking sector. Then we’ll take a Prime Ministerial look. And finally, a Gallic technical trader’s look. All three perspectives suggest that Australia’s banking sector is a lot less insulated from the global crisis than its advocates have suggested. But don’t take our word for it…
January 21st, 2009 | Dan Denning | 17 comments | Continued
Keynesian Economists Bluff in Global Economic Gamble
One step forward, three steps back. That’s what the trading action looks like in the markets now. For every big one day advance of 1% to 5% or more, you’re going to get a corresponding sell off equal or greater to that. It’s not normal to see these kinds of one-day moves. But these aren’t normal times. We’re back on the edge of a credit abyss. Just when investors were convinced that the Gordon Brownification of the world’s banking sector had put the credit crisis behind us, we have more bad news.
October 16th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 3 comments | Continued
Lehman CDS Auction Hammers Australian Resource Stocks
Finally, Australia gets its own $700 billion plan. Kevin Rudd’s government moved yesterday to slap a Federal guarantee on all deposits with banks, credit unions, and building societies. The $700 billion guarantee includes Australian subsidiaries of foreign owned banks. The government wants people to understand their money is safe in the banks. That’s why that last bit is in there. It’s designed to keep foreign holders of Aussie dollars from engaging in a run on the dollar and bringing their money home.
October 13th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
Australian Resource Shares, What’s Next?
IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to kick-start stalled G7 negotiations in Washington this weekend by reminding everyone what was at stake. “Intensifying solvency concerns about a number of the largest U.S.-based and European financial institutions have pushed the global financial system to the brink of systemic meltdown,” he said. It doesn’t get much more direct than that. The truth is, governments are trying to do the impossible. They are trying to make bad loans turn good.
October 12th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
Nationalised Banking System Will Come from Global Market Rout
The situation in the financial markets has not improved over night. In fact, the crisis seems to be accelerating. But toward what? In the share market, we had a look back on the 2003 low on the ASX. On March 12, 2003 the index closed at 2,673. If the rally that began the next day and ended in October of last year was really just a multi-year rally in the midst of a secular bear market, you have to ask whether the 2003 low will be tested.
October 10th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 7 comments | Continued
CRB Commodities Index Has Largest Decline in 50 Years
While the RBA rate cut is good news for the Aussie share market, the utter collapse in global commodity prices is not. This week the CRB commodities index fell the most in over 50 years—the most ever in such a short period. What is going on and where will commodity prices go from here? Three factors have contributed to the huge reversal in resource prices. First is the global rush to cash. Investors have voluntarily liquidated positions they’ve held for years in order to be in cash.
October 8th, 2008 | Dan Denning | 3 comments | Continued
