Two stories in The Australian Financial Review and other papers this morning illustrate just how out of touch both the paper and the Australian trade union movement are with the economy.
Business / Economy
Black hole sun not shining on housing, US recovery
The black hole that is the US housing crisis continues to widen, sucking in more and more American homeowners and making a mockery of the confident assertions of politicians, policymakers and the stockmarket that the worst is over.
Banking competition: the great Australian oxymoron
Australia’s Big Four banks are at the core of our entire economy, says Evan Jones, and the idea that they’re “in competition” with each other is a farce. Together, these institutions wield enormous power.
Cut up your credit card
Megan McArdle recently interviewed finance guru Dave Ramsey, who advocates one simple message: ditch your credit cards and live debt-free. Would the world really be a better place without the plastic fantastic?
The next meltdown is coming in 2012
It may not be the global Apocalypse predicted by certain Hollywood action films, but there will be an epic disaster in 2012, says Paul Farrell: the next big Wall St crash.
If we are what we drive, we’re changing gear
Australians are rapidly embracing motorbikes (especially scooters) and diesel-powered cars, according to the latest Motor Vehicle Census from the ABC.
US public debt ticks over to $12 trillion
While America was having last weekend off, the country’s public debt ticked over the impossible to comprehend figure of $US12 trillion — over 80% of the country’s annual GDP.
How Australia’s economy is kicking America’s arse
Australia’s natural resources, healthy banking sector and equity culture has seen the country virtually skip out on recession while the US struggles to keep its head above water. Elliot Gue casts a jealous eye over Australia’s recent economic performance.
Get ready for an RBA rates ramp up
The Reserve Bank will continue to lift its key cash rate as long as “economic conditions evolved as expected”, the minutes for the last board meeting reveal.
Forty-nine million Americans go hungry
For all the talk of a recovery in the US economy, a grim reality has been outlined in Washington for all the world to see: America can’t feed all its 303 million people, with one in seven going short at some stage in a week.
US finance sector’s sick reality
In the past month, 24 US banks have failed, two big finance companies have gone into bankruptcy, followed by a small credit card provider. But American investors don’t care; they know if the banks are small enough, the regulators will clean up.
China’s dirty Yuan devaluation
China’s dirty devaluation of its currency to allow it to move in value with the fall in value as the US dollar is hurting its rivals in recovering Asia, such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Wall St conspiracy theories: a field guide
Is Goldman Sachs really a Giant Vampire Squid? Did naked short-selling kill Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros? The Big Money ranks some of the paranoid theorising going on atop the financial world’s grassy knoll.
The Ayn Rand revival of 2009
With bailouts, salary caps and health care reform, 2009 has been a year of Big Government in the US — sparking a renewed interest amongst the country’s Right in the libertarian, free-market philosophies of Ayn Rand.
Wal-Mart’s failure is the US writ large
However Wal-Mart’s sales grow, so grows the US economy — and in the past two quarters it’s been a miserable story from the retailer: some store sales have sunk, as overall retail sales have drifted lower.
Kohler: Why China won’t save the world
China’s economic growth will not be a panacea to the world’s financial woes so long as it remains a largely undemocratic state, says Alan Kohler: it isn’t a consumer society, and the export dollars just aren’t there.
Inflation: a dummy’s guide
It’s the threat that keeps on giving: Mike Shedlock puts inflation under the microscope: what is it, and how do we measure it?
graph pr0n Crunching the unemployment data
Possum Comitatus charts the latest ABS Labour Force Survey, with a state-by-state, gender and age breakdown of the data.
graph pr0n 
Charting Nouriel Roubini’s horrible stockmarket calls
Nouriel Roubini is usually credited with predicting the Global Financial Crisis. However, the rest of his prognostications have been all over the place, as this handy graph shows.
Forget the pundits, this jobless data is positive, rates will rise
Forget the media reports; the Australian economy has created over 65,000 jobs in the last two months: pencil in a December 1 rate rise from the RBA.
US Fed bosses: record-low rates to stay for a while
In the US, four Federal Reserve board members have tried to explain to Americans that while the economy is definitely recovering, it’s not really doing so in the conventional sense.
There’s good news and also good news on jobs
There’s mixed — but mostly good — news in today’s unemployment data. Unemployment remained steady in trend terms, but underemployment is up across most age groups, and there was a small fall in hours worked.
China signals change on monetary policy
A few hours after the monthly flood of figures showed China’s strong economic growth remained on track, the country’s central bank seems to have signalled that a change in monetary policy might be on the card.
