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."

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

AFR and Charlie Aitken go to war

The AFR reports today:

Stockbroker Bell Potter’s managing director of institutional equities, Charlie Aitken, went on a Twitter rampage yesterday, scolding The Australian Financial Review for what he perceived as unnecessarily bearish coverage. “AFR front page tomorrow: ASX up, but was up more” he posted. And then: “AFR headline tomorrow: Fairfax shares close 91 per cent below all-time high”. Presumably Aitken was having a bad day trying to move stock. The market’s lack of turnover must be confidence-related, which of course must be attributable to the not-sanguine-enough coverage in the pages of this newspaper. Go figure.
at 7:00 AM