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 | 9 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "australian economy"
The First Casualty of the Currency Wars
Can Australia’s currency continue its rampage while exporters burn? The currency wars have been going on quietly here at home for some time now. And going by the state of our exporters, we’re losing.
February 4th, 2012 | Nickolai Hubble | 3 comments | Continued
Currency Wars
The currency wars are heating up. On Wednesday, Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke promised speculators he would keep interest rates low until 2014.
January 27th, 2012 | Greg Canavan | 1 comment | Continued
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
The China Effect on the Australian Economy
Note to the market: The Eurozone crisis hasn’t gone anywhere. The US and Iran are facing off in the Straits of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil supply route. And China’s economic slowdown has only just got underway.
January 5th, 2012 | Greg Canavan | 2 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
Why Invest in Energy Resources?
The Raw Materials of Civilisation…
Before we get stuck into the glaring omission in the government’s assessment of Australia’s energy resources – energy could be the single-best investment sector of 2012 – a reminder: today is Wednesday. You know what that means!
December 14th, 2011 | Dan Denning | 4 comments | Continued
Energy, Resources and Real Asset Investing
Basic economics of scarcity, supply and demand, and investment demand won’t be less important in supporting commodities. But in a world of collapsing financial asset values, tangible assets are about to become the hotly contested objects of a great global strategic game.
December 9th, 2011 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
Why the Stock Market Disagrees with the Economy
In the past few days we’ve seen Brazil’s economy contracting…Australia’s economy expanding…the RBA slashing interest rates…and China’s currency under pressure.
December 8th, 2011 | Greg Canavan | 3 comments | Continued
Is Australia’s Economy Decoupled From the Rest of the World?
The world’s best economy, with the world’s best banks, run by the world’s best treasurer, just posted a world-beating economic growth rate of 1 per cent for the three months to September. The Australian economy is, apparently, on fire, growing at an annual rate of nearly 5 per cent over the past six months.
This raises a few questions…
December 8th, 2011 | Greg Canavan | 2 comments | Continued
Australia’s Allowance For Corporate Tax Stupidity
Apparently, a nine-person working group set up by Treasurer Wayne Swan after the recent tax summit, has come up with this corporate tax gem – the “Allowance for Corporate Equity”.
December 7th, 2011 | Dan Denning | 3 comments | Continued
A Real Asset Call Option
The Aussie market is still tightly correlated to the US market. This, we suspect, is because global asset prices are keyed off of the global supply of credit. If we’re in a credit depression, US stocks will stagnate. Aussie stocks will track that stagnation.
December 6th, 2011 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
How Reinvested Dividends Can Double Your Return in Stocks
With the big four banks – traditionally high dividend players – being downgraded by Standard and Poor’s overnight, we thought it was a great time to revisit why dividends are important and how to safely buy the companies that issue them.
December 5th, 2011 | Dan Denning | 2 comments | Continued
Why Reinvested Dividends Are Crucial Investments in the Next Ten Years
It’s the sort of boring fact that the investment industry doesn’t generally alert you to. And to be fair, it’s not very exciting. At all. But it does appear to be true, at least up to about 2003, that reinvested dividends massively increase your total return in common stocks over time.
November 30th, 2011 | The Daily Reckoning | 1 comment | Continued
S&P Puts Culture of Greed on Death Watch
Well you can forget about today’s modest little overnight rally in the US and Europe. Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s rained on everyone’s parade after the market closed. S&P downgraded 37 global banks. It upgraded two.
You’d think banking would be a low-profit, low-growth business to be in during a Credit Depression. At least we’d think so.
November 30th, 2011 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued
