Why is the Australian sharemarket down 29% from its 1 November 2007 high point when the United States S&P 500 index is only down 26%? Is the United States economy doing better over that time period than that of Australia? Looked at another way, why is Australia’s market up only 56% from its 10th March…
Pidgin Economics
A look at world economics, from the point of view of an investor. The aim of this area is to interpret the continuous barrage of data, sales pitches and propoganda and bring it into a form that is actually useful to investors.
Is this as good as it gets for cash?
Australian banks have traditionally offered cash rates of return that are well below the official Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) ‘cash rate’. This has made it even less attractive for people with savings to keep those savings in a bank account. Even term deposits have struggled to offer much more than the cash rate. The…
Bank Interest Rate Rises
There has been much discussion in media about the Australian banks’ reactions to the Reserve Bank’s increase in the official cash rate to 3.75% on the 2nd December. The broad thrust of comment is that Westpac is being ‘unfair’ in raising their interest rates further than the level of the official rate rise. The other…
Protected: Michael’s Musings – Short Term Recovery Strategy
Power, Money and Money and Power
As a bemused bystander to the current global financial turmoil (“GFT”, being a close cousin to the more familiar “GFC” or Global Financial Crisis), have you ever paused to consider just what the very big picture may be telling us about the times we live in? Given that this is a very broad musing, it…
Yin and Yang and Federal Budgets
Sometimes it seems that the Federal Budget could be improved through a strong dose of Taoist thinking. Here is my logic… The budget is supposedly one of those things that involves balance. That is, Government receipts are balanced with Government expenditure. The Budget updates in May are a time where past income/expenses are published and proposed…
Pidgin Economics
“pidgin strives to be a simple and effective form of communication” and i like simple… With the massive stimulatory efforts of Governments and central banks throughout the world, mainstream media is starting to use once-fantasy-world terms with a flippancy that does little to portray the intensity of what it being done. For example, if the…
