The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Monday, May 17, 2010

Comparing the 1987 and 2007 stockmarket crashes

Regular readers will know that we have been saying this for a long time now...So here it goes again: 2007 is looking eerily similar to 1987, at least judging by the equities market performance thus far. In the chart below I have superimposed the post-crash 1987 and 2007 ASX All Ordinaries Index performance. Three years after the 2007 crash, and the Australian equities market is sitting almost exactly where it was three years following the '87 implosion. The bad news for equities investors is that it took until almost 1997 for the market to consistently recover its post-crash peak. Here's to hoping it does not take 10 years for the ASX to breach 6,800pts. (Note the 'dead-cat-bounce' in 1994.)

at 4:54 PM