Feb 24
Unfortunately whilst the yield on Greek 1 year bonds is high at 730% (yes there’s no decimal point), it can hardly be described as good. When you have a 730% interest rate on your 1 year loan, its pretty safe to say that your chances of paying it back are zero. I understand why Greece …
Feb 03
Can’t believe I missed this…one of the finest finance thinkers around, Satyajit Das, has a blog entry on Economonitor discussing the current risks of the Australian economy…please click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2. So these are the must read, not Fureyous… 🙂 In these articles Das eloquently articulates the major influences on …
Nov 03
Source: RBA In just 3 business days the yield curve has dropped down to where it was at the end of September where markets had experienced eight weeks of gloom and doom. Mind you, a lot happened in the three days to the end of yesterday…including the Greek’s putting significant doubt in the Euro rescue …
Aug 19
Obviously a pretty difficult investment environment at the moment. Markets tanking again overnight and following on in Australia this morning. Watching Billabong drop around 25% this morning demonstrates the benefits of diversification…I’d hate to be an adviser with an overweight Billabong position in my client’s portfolio. Anyway I digress. Volatility in the sharemarkets will continue for many …
Aug 08
So the US has just had its first trading day since S&P downgraded US debt to AA. A downgrade in anyone’s debt would normally result in an increase in yields as the debt is viewed as riskier so investors expect a higher yield to be compensated for that risk. What happened in the US overnight …
Aug 05
Source: Bloomberg This is the morning’s action on the bond market today. 3 year bond yields are close to 3.80% and I’d say Bill Evans (Westpac) will come out looking like a genius (perhaps I should too but unfortunately I doubt it) after predicting the next rate move will be down. With markets around the world …
Jul 28
The above chart has been copied from www.rba.gov.au and  shows annual CPI change over the last 16 quarters and guess what? The latest quarter’s figure, excluding volatile items is 2.5%! Right in the middle of the RBA’s inflation target of 2% to 3%. When the Reserve Bank looks at inflation they do not, or should not, consider …
Jun 06
In today’s Australian Financial Review, David Bassenese wrote that the Reserve Bank needs to “put up rates or shut up”. Whilst we all know that the Reserve Bank uses the interest rate lever to adjust our level of economic activity, the other method they have up their sleeve is what they say. If the Reserve …
Apr 30
Just got onto these courtesy of Felix Salmon. Both of these are so clever with outstanding production. I’v never learnt so much or gained so much clarity about macroeconomics in such a short time…and they’re rap songs! My favourite is probably Round Two but the first is still a must. Brilliant! Send article as …