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, May 3, 2012

Koukie and Chrissy fall in love

Yes, the war of the leviathans has come to an anti-climactical end. Koukie and Chrissy made-up over a lovely lunch at Rock Pool mediated by a mutual mentor. In all honesty, Kouk was munificent in dishing out considerable praise for my February, March, April, ANZ by 5bps-7.5bps (in April), and one cut plus a 40% probability of two cuts May calls. To be sure, I was even more enthuastic commending Kouk for his prescience and sagity in sticking to his unpopular, three standard deviations plus, double May call. That was one for the ages. Many subsequently jumped on the bandwagon, including Terry McCrann, UBS and Citi. But Koukie beat them all to it, as I have previously acknowledged here. Koukie and I instinctively agree on a great deal. He is sympathetic to my long-standing, yet once unfashionable, views on asset-allocation, for instance. He and I are both great supporters of the RBA, when it is doing what we want it to do! And, as I have pointed out previously, Kouki was my first independent contributor to this blog (appropriately cloaked) during his time as a public servant. His powers were always put to good work, defending policy of the day. Most importantly, Koukie is entertaining company. And like me, he is a man's man. One attractive non-male was heard to remark that Kouk and I would not look out of place in a first grade front row.