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."

Friday, August 19, 2011

As predicted US core inflation (excl. food and energy) surges past 3% over last 3 months

Check out this chart of core monthly CPI in the US. This is bad news for the RBA. The US is running 3% core inflation already with 9.1% unemployment and a commitment to keep interest rates at zero until 2013. This is one of the problems when economists driven by financial markets do not look past their own nose. Year-on-year core CPI in the US is now 1.8%, almost smack on the Fed's maximum comfort rate of 2%. It is not impossible that we will see double-digit inflation in the US at some point.


at 8:37 AM