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, February 1, 2012

Boom! Aussie PMI bursts back into expansionary territory; so much for manufacturing recession

From UBS:

* The manufacturing PMI bounced further in January to 51.6 - the highest level since June - from 50.2 in December, and recovering sharply from a very weak 42.3 in September (which was the lowest level since June-2009). The PMI is now in the 'expansion zone' and around the long-run average (of 51.3 since 1992).

* The key employment component rebounded to the 2nd highest level since mid-2010 (51.0 after 46.0), suggests a much stronger picture of the labour market than jobs growth (which is a similar story of a relationship breakdown as yesterday's NAB business survey).
at 10:03 AM