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, June 6, 2012

As predicted, "good economic news" buried by media (check out image)

Entirely predictable: a bad economic news story, such as a fall in house prices, will feature all day as the lead story on the SMH's online site. Yet arguably the most important domestic economic news in 2012--today's first quarter ABS GDP data--which more than doubled economist expectations of a 0.6% rise (printing 1.3%) is buried as the number three news item with the negative headline "More rate joy fades as economy revs up." Seriously, who is responsible for deciding this stuff? All the baloney we've been sold about Australia's economy being "sub-trend" over the last year, or in the first quarter of this year, was precisely that: wrong.