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."

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Polarities: Aussie consumer confidence back above average while housing finance recovers (pre RBA cut)

Economists will try and spin the +6.3% jump to above-average levels of confidence as nothing to change the world. For mine, the +2.2% increase in the number of home loans for September, and +1% increase (ex refis) confirms the market is basing, and this will be reinforced by the all-important November cut. Maybe the RBA goes again in December--not my base case, but interesting to think about. First chart is monthly consumer confidence--second is monthly housing finance.


at 7:16 AM