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, August 14, 2012

RBA: The great household spending sham

We've been told so many times that consumer confidence is piss-weak, that retail is in recession, and had that many retailers and vested interests tell us interest rates need to be lower to stoke household spending. From the RBA:

Growth in household consumption is estimated as having been well above trend over the first half of 2012, driven in part by heavy discounting by retailers earlier in the year and supported more recently by various government payments to households in the June quarter.
at 7:15 AM