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."

Monday, July 23, 2012

Aussie house prices surging back in June and July--latest data

This chart shows RP Data-Rismark's daily hedonic index for Sydney, Melbourne, and Australia's eight capital cities in raw terms through to 22 July. If we seasonally-adjusted the June and July data, the rebound would look even stronger. Quite a remarkable response to the RBA's rate cuts in May and June. The joys of have an index that reprices 4-5 million homes every single day! These data also make talk of an RBA rate cut in August--with or without a 0.5% or less core inflation print--that much harder to get over the line. It's a "possibility", but the RBA is anxious about the impact of unnecessarily low mortgage (and savings!) rates...And we have already seen in the PPI data the immediate impact of currency depreciation (or non-appreciation) on the June quarter import prices. They rose strongly.


at 7:59 PM