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."

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Housing starts running at circa 160k annualised rate (chart)...

According to UBS:

"Housing starts rose 3.1% in Q1, much better than we expected (UBS: -4.0%), to a 158k annualised pace (from 154k). This comes after a 4.0% fall in Q4 (though revised up from -5.3%). (We had expected some weakness given natural disasters.) Meanwhile, total housing starts in 2010 was revised up slightly to 169.9k from 169.4k previously."

at 12:47 PM