Last year I spent several months working on what became Pigs at the Trough: Lessons from Australia’s Decade of Corporate Greed. The book covered various examples of corporate governance failings and executive greed…
March 18th, 2010 | Adam Schwab | 2 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "global financial crisis"
China’s Economy is the Greatest Bubble on Earth
But is there really going to be a round two? Well, if the first incorrect assumption was that Australia didn’t have a bad debt problem, the second assumption is probably even more dangerous. It’s more dangerous because it’s the single most unexamined assumption behind much of Australia’s economic prosperity. The assumption is that we’ll always have China.
March 18th, 2010 | Dan Denning | 30 comments | Continued
ABARE Explains How Much Australia Can Make from Selling Silver, Iron Ore and Coal
The main conclusion was that Australia would see rising export earnings on higher volumes but moderating commodity prices. In other words, the China boom will drive export volumes for the next five years. But you won’t see any more mammoth increases in commodity prices.
March 3rd, 2010 | Dan Denning | 2 comments | Continued
Your Garden Variety Global Financial Crisis or Something Wilder?
But first, why are companies hoarding cash? Bloomberg reports that companies in the S&P 500 have increased their cash holdings to an aggregate US$1.18 trillion dollars. The big blue chip multinationals have cut spending, frozen new hires (not literally), and generally kept cautious until more details emerge about the economic landscape.
February 12th, 2010 | Dan Denning | 121 comments | Continued
Mainstream Economists Congratulate Themselves
There must be some dark corner of Hell warming up for modern, mainstream economists. They helped bring on the worst bubble ever…with their theories of efficient markets and modern portfolio management.
January 11th, 2010 | Bill Bonner | 0 comments | Continued
$2,000 Gold Prediction
The weekend edition of the Australian Financial Review has gold on the cover, incidentally. You can see a picture of it a few paragraphs down. Underneath the giant golden letters it reads, “Why you shouldn’t laugh about gold hitting $US2000 an oz.” But if anyone’s laughing, it’s a nervous laughter.
November 16th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 8 comments | Continued
Interest Rates and Inflation
And that’s the point. It is all money in the bank. There is, according to the press, a difference of opinion between Treasury and the Reserve Bank over interest rates and their proper direction.
November 3rd, 2009 | Dr. Steven Kates | 79 comments | Continued
Aussie Gold Price Moves Up
For investors, it means gold is going to have a good solid run at US$1,000. It’s in the neighbourhood already. But in the lead up to the G-20 leader meeting in Pittsburgh later this month, we wouldn’t be surprised to see gold price in a lot more fiat money creation.
September 7th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 15 comments | Continued
Giant Costco Opens in Melbourne!
Mind you, we don’t have any problem with lower prices. There’s a bit of snobbery about American attitudes toward Wal-Mart and other giant retailers like Costco. After all, isn’t it a good thing when a large part of the population can reduce the amount of money it spends on basic food and necessities?
August 18th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 11 comments | Continued
American Family’s Share of Government Debt Now Over Half a Million Dollars
Last year’s spike is the biggest since the Medicare prescription drug benefit was added in 2003. According to the rag, the government garnered $6.8 trillion in “new obligations” in 2008, bringing the total US tab to $63.8 trillion.
June 2nd, 2009 | Bill Bonner | 2 comments | Continued
For the GSEs the Rest Has Been History
Even though the GSEs enjoyed lower borrowing costs than other corporate borrowers because of their implied U.S. government guarantee, he said, they would face higher borrowing costs if interest rates spiked. If that were to happen, the GSEs would likely be unable to grow their balance sheets or earnings.
May 14th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued
Stress Testing the Banks
Last week we repeated John Robb’s idea that while the regulators are stress testing the banks (something the market has already done, if you look at the price of bank stocks) the regulators themselves are being stress tested. Or, more to the point, if GM and Citibank and AIG are failing because they are too large, complex, and poorly managed, then what about even larger organisations with even poorer structural finances like, say, the United States government?
March 10th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 0 comments | Continued


