Tag Archives: recession

Saxo Bank’s “Outrageous Prediction”: Australia In Recession In 2012

19 Dec

h/t ZeroHedge.

Little old Australia gets guernsey #4 in Saxo Bank’s annual list of “Outrageous Predictions” (6.5Mb pdf download):

4 – AUSTRALIA GOES INTO RECESSION

The Chinese locomotive has been losing steam throughout 2011 as investment and real estate led growth becomes harder and harder to come by due to diminishing marginal returns. The effects of the slowing of the up-and-coming Asian giant ripple through Asia Pacific and push other countries into recession. If there ever was a country dependent on the well-being of China it is Australia with its heavy dependence on mining and natural resources. And as China’s demand for these goods weakens Australia is pushed into a recession, which is then exacerbated as the housing sector finally experiences its long overdue crash – a half decade after the rest of the developed world.

Given all the data and info we have seen here at barnabyisright.com over the past 12 months, I’d not call this prediction “outrageous” at all.

But then, we don’t ascribe to the popular groupthink here, do we.

For context, here is the preface to the 10 point “Outrageous Predictions” given by Saxo Bank chief economist, Steen Jakobsen (my emphasis added):

2012: The Perfect Storm

Generating this year’s Outrageous Predictions has been even more of a pleasure than usual, as it seems that never before have there been so many path uncertainties for the future, so we have had an infinite variety of scenarios to draw on. As usual, we try to keep at least a measure of consistency across the predictions by using a unifying theme. For this year, we settled on the theme for 2012: The Perfect Storm.

Saxo Bank’s yearly Outrageous Predictions report has always been one of our more popular publications, and understandably so, as it frees us and our readers from the constraints of the high probability events in the middle of the supposed bell curve of possibilities. But there are a few key points I need to underline about this publication:

The first is that we always focus on “fat tail” predictions, i.e. events that are unlikely to happen, but are perhaps far more likely than the market appreciates. Saxo Bank first launched this publication 10 years ago as an exercise in looking at events which, should they happen, would change the outlook and performance of markets. This was before the concept of Black Swans was popularised. Our publication was rather inspired by option theory and looking at the tail-risk – an event which based on odds or logic has a very small chance of happening, but somehow still happens far more often than any model is able to predict.

Consider volatility during the 2008 Financial Crisis which no model could even imagine. Or think about a natural disaster like the earthquake/tsunami that hit Fukushima. Disaster planning could supposedly handle a very substantial earthquake and Fukushima was supposedly located in a low risk zone. But instead, Japan suffered an earthquake of severity which seemed impossible in Japan’s geology, and the resultant tsunami wiped out back-up power. The unimaginable happened once again.

Saxo Bank’s yearly Outrageous Predictions are not intended as real predictions and certainly not as “forecasts” in any way. Rather, the Outrageous Predictions are 10 important events with under-recognised probabilities in our view. Should any of them come to pass, they would change the way we need to analyse, trade and report the markets.

It is also important to note that our Outrageous Predictions nearly always have a negative bias, which is in fact a natural antidote to how the market normally operates. Human beings have a tendency to think positively, which is a natural part of our motivation to get up and go to work every day and a vital part of our survival instinct. Day in and day out we think about building a better future based on a continuation of the present.

This is good for morale but does a poor job of preparing us for reality.

In that light, please do not let our Outrageous Predictions get you down. They have been prepared in the spirit of encouraging you to think outside the box and prepare for world-altering events. Thinking outside the box is rarely a comfortable exercise, but neither is dealing with an unpleasant surprise for which one has failed to prepare in any meaningful way.

Should one, two or three of our Outrageous Predictions come to pass, it would make 2012 a year of tremendous change. This may not necessarily be a negative thing either – and given the structure and uncertainties in the marketplace here at the end of 2011, we would suggest that even if none of our predictions come to pass, equally important and totally unanticipated events will. Sometimes we need to get to a new starting point before we can gain the right perspective. We hope 2012 will be the year  where we start on the long march towards re-establishing jobs, growth and confidence.

Maybe, just maybe, our Outrageous Predictions can at least lead to a discussion on how we can prevent some of them from happening. We would like nothing more than to be proven wrong on negative views, but only if they are replaced with something better than the current central bank and government-manipulated paradigm.

Jakobsen’s full list of “Outrageous Predictions” as follows”:

1 – THE STOCK OF APPLE INC PLUMMETS 50 PERCENT FROM 2011 HIGH

No sovereign or corporate empire has ever maintained its superior position for long because attacks mount and loyalty fades. Going into 2012 Apple will find itself faced with multiple competitors such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft/Nokia, and Samsung across its most innovative products, the iPhone and iPad. Apple will be unable to maintain its market share of 55 percent (three times as much as Android) and 66 percent on the iOS and iPad as Android will gain further momentum and Amazon’s low priced Kindle Fire will cut deeply into Apple’s tablet reign. In relation to current earnings Apple is not expensive but expectations about future profit growth will come down hard as competition reaches insane levels and crushes Apple’s profit margins.

2 – EU DECLARES EXTENDED BANK HOLIDAY DURING 2012

The December EU Treaty changes prove insufficient to solve EU funding needs – particularly those in Italy – and the EU debt crisis returns with a vengeance by mid-year. In response, the stock market finally caves in and drops 25 percent in short order, prompting EU politicians to call an extended bank holiday – closing all European exchanges and banks for a week or more. EU leaders gather like Vatican cardinals at a conclave to hammer out a “New Europe”. This could result in EU officials overstepping their mandate once again with new burdensome command and control measures that further violate the principles of the EU and free markets. Regardless, this “final” attempt leads straight to a popular overthrow of the old order and beginning of destruction of the sovereign debt time bomb. A period of pain is inevitable, but this will quickly allow a “new EU” to regroup with new membership and a new base from which its economies and markets can start planning for the future, rather than dealing with the mistakes of the past.

3 – A YET UNANNOUNCED CANDIDATE TAKES THE WHITE HOUSE

In 1992, a savvy, yet highly erratic Texas billionaire named Ross Perot managed to take advantage of a recessionary economy and popular disgust with US politics and reap 18.9 percent of the popular vote. Step forward to 2008, and Obama promises “real change” from eight years of Republican rule as the economy is nose-diving. Now, three years of Obama has brought too little change and only additional widespread disillusionment with the entire US political system. Going into the election in 2012, the incumbent Democrats are in ideological disarray and will get the blame for continued economic malaise and the favour-the-rich Republicans will never win the popular vote with the US rich/poor gap at a record width and social tension rising. In short, conditions for a third party candidate have never been riper. Someone smart enough to sense this and with a strong programme for real change throws his hat in the ring early in 2012 and snatches the presidency in November in one of the most pivotal elections in US history, taking 38 percent of the popular vote. A new political order is born.

4 – AUSTRALIA GOES INTO RECESSION

The Chinese locomotive has been losing steam throughout 2011 as investment and real estate led growth becomes harder and harder to come by due to diminishing marginal returns. The effects of the slowing of the up-and-coming Asian giant ripple through Asia Pacific and push other countries into recession. If there ever was a country dependent on the well-being of China it is Australia with its heavy dependence on mining and natural resources. And as China’s demand for these goods weakens Australia is pushed into a recession, which is then exacerbated as the housing sector finally experiences its long overdue crash – a half decade after the rest of the developed world.

5 – BASEL III AND REGULATION FORCE 50 BANK NATIONALISATIONS IN EUROPE

As 2012 begins, pressure will mount on the European banking system as new capital requirements and regulatory pressure force banks to deleverage in a great hurry. This creates a fire sale on financial assets as there are few takers in the market. Troubled sovereigns, structural funding gaps and massive trading books set the scene for the largest bank rescue operation in Europe’s history. Politicians, eager to score points with the public, create a regulatory mob enforcing value destruction in the banking system “in the name of greater good”. A total freeze of the European interbank market forces nervous savers to make bank-runs, as depositors distrust deposit guarantees from insolvent sovereigns. More than 50 banks end up on government balance sheets and several known commercial bank brands cease to exist.

6 – SWEDEN AND NORWAY REPLACE SWITZERLAND AS SAFE HAVENS

Sweden and Norway are at risk of replacing Switzerland as the new safe havens – “risk” because, as we saw with Switzerland, becoming a safe haven in a world of devaluing central banks presents a number of risks to a country’s economy. The capital markets of both countries are far smaller than Switzerland, (the combined FX volume in Sweden and Norway being a mere fraction of Switzerland’s), but the Swiss are aggressively devaluing their currency and money managers are looking for new safe havens for capital. At the same time, Germany and its balance sheet are embroiled in the EU debt debacle and the classic safe haven appeal of 10-year Bunds is fading fast. Sweden and Norway sport excellent current account fundamentals, prudent social policies and skilled and flexible labour forces. Flows into the two countries’ government bonds on safe haven appeal becomes popular enough to drive 10-year rates there to more than 100 basis points below the classic safe haven German Bunds.

7 – SWISS NATIONAL BANK WINS AND CATAPULTS EURCHF TO 1.50

Switzerland’s persistency in fighting the appreciation of its currency will continue to pay off in 2012. After the dramatic failure of direct FX intervention in the market in 2009 and 2010 and after EURCHF threatened to destroy the Swiss economy with its death spiral towards parity in mid-2011, the Swiss National Bank and Swiss government finally joined forces to engineer an aggressive expansion of money supply and established a floor in EURCHF at 1.20. With Swiss fundamentals – particularly export related – continuing to suffer mightily in 2012 from past CHF strength, the SNB and government bear down further to prevent more collateral damage and introduce extensions to existing programmes and even negative interest rates to trigger sufficient capital flight from the traditional safe haven of Switzerland to engineer a move in EURCHF as high as 1.50 during the year, much to the chagrin of those who believe central banks can’t intervene successfully.

8 – USDCNY RISES 10 PERCENT TO 7.00

The impressive growth rates in the world’s second-largest economy, China, since the end of the Great Recession have been predicated on investment and exports. As marginal returns from building million-inhabitant ghost towns diminish and exporters struggle with razor-thin margins due to the advancing CNY China gets to the brink of a “recession”, meaning 5-6 per cent GDP growth. Chinese policymakers come to the rescue of exporters by allowing the CNY to decline against a US Dollar – buoyed by its safe-haven status amid slowing global growth and an on-going Eurozone sovereign debt crisis – and send the pair up to 7.00 for a 10 percent increase.

9 – BALTIC DRY INDEX RISES 100 PERCENT

Despite the dry bulk fleet being expected to outgrow demand in 2012, leading to further over capacity, several factors could surprise resulting in a price spike in the Baltic Dry Index. Lower oil prices in 2012 could lead to an increase in the Baltic Dry Index as operating expenses go down. Brazil and Australia are expected to expand iron ore supply, further leading to lower prices and therefore higher import demand from China to satisfy its insatiable industrial production. In combination with monetary easing this leads to a massive spike in iron ore demand. The last shock that could impact the dry bulk market is exceptional dry weather, due to El Nino, leading to a plunge in hydropower electricity generation and thereby fuelling demand for coal imports.

10 – WHEAT PRICES TO DOUBLE IN 2012

The price of CBOT wheat will double during 2012 after having been the worst performing crop in 2011. The drop was brought about due to a combination of farmers responding to high prices in 2010/11 and normalised weather in the Former Soviet Union. However with 7 billion people on the earth and money printing machines at full throttle bad weather across the world will unfortunately return and make it a tricky year for agricultural products. Wheat especially will rally strongly as speculative investors, who had built up one of the biggest short positions on record, will help drive the price back towards the record high last seen in 2008.

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Eastern Australia “In Deep Recession”, NSW & VIC Manufacturing “Stuffed”

14 Jun

What everyone with boots planted firmly on the ground already knows.

Which is exactly why our policians and mainstream media (seemingly) do not.

From Business Spectator:

Eastern Australia is in “deep recession” and the NSW and Victorian manufacturing industries are “stuffed”, the head of Linfox Logistics says.

Fresh from making a $68 million property acquisition in the mining boom state of Western Australia, Linfox Logistics chief executive Michael Byrne has dismissed suggestions the nation is dealing with a two-speed economy.

“It’s a parallel universe that bears no relation to anything else on this planet,” he told an American Chamber of Commerce event in Sydney on Friday.

“If you look at the world, eastern Australia is in deep recession, in my view, as is New Zealand.”

WA was driving the national economy and Asia was a “different place again,” Mr Byrne said.

“If we didn’t have mining, Australia would be like Portugal, Spain, maybe Greece and Ireland,” he said, referring to European debt problems.

Mr Byrne is right.

Referring to our near-total dependence on selling “red and black rocks”, Barnaby has warned the spendthrift Green-Labor Alliance … “God help you when the prices go down”.

God help us all.

Barnaby is right.

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McCrann: America Is Now Turning Darker, China Can Crash The Whole Economy

13 Jun

From the Daily Telegraph’s National Finance Writer, economist Terry McCrann:

The good news is that the Reserve Bank didn’t lift its official interest rate at its meeting on Tuesday and there’s now no prospect of a rise at its next meeting in July.

The bad news is that the RBA may – and I stress, may – have to turn to contemplating a rate CUT.

How’s that bad news? Just remember the circumstances when the RBA was last cutting – actually, slashing – rates in 2008. Your super was being shredded and we wondered whether we faced Great Depression Mark II.

How also does that square with my comments last week that Australia was in the middle of a boom? Albeit, a weird one, with many feeling it was more like a recession?

That’s the critical, connecting part. If we thought we were hostage to China for our future prosperity, we are now even more hostage to China to fend off chilling winds coming out of America and another potential meltdown.

We got a taste of that downside in the March quarter when the Queensland floods temporarily cut off coal exports and sent our economy diving at an annual rate of nearly 5 per cent. It is springing back now, right? Right?

Yes, of course. But what if it became a case of China not wanting to buy, rather than we not being able to ship the stuff out?

… America is now turning darker. The visible evidence of that is Wall St. It has now fallen for six weeks in a row – something it didn’t do even through the global financial meltdown.

While, the overall fall isn’t anywhere near as big, the problem is that the US Government and the US Fed have fired off all their anti-recession ammunition.

Worse, all the problems caused by, or just revealed by, the GFC are still festering.

The US is running a budget deficit of close to $US1.5 trillion. That would be the equivalent of about $100 billion down here – and we think $50 billion is huge. They have a zero official rate, ours is 4.75 per cent. And the Fed has just finished printing $US600 billion of paper money.

The one thing all that seemed to achieve was to put the stock market up and now it’s going down. And all Fed head Ben Bernanke can say is that economic recovery has been “frustratingly slow”.

That brings us back to China and Martin Place in Sydney. That’s where the RBA resides and your home loan rates are set.

Right now the RBA believes the China boom is the biggest thing in our future. On that basis it believes it’s going to be fighting an inflation problem through 2012 as the money pours in and demand for skilled labour threatens a wages-price breakout.

On that basis it believes it will have to raise rates by at least 50-100 points over the next year and a half. Even if that’s brutal to large parts of the economy.

The initial key will be the June quarter inflation date at the end of July.

A bad number would see it raise at its August meeting.

…

It will watch events out of the US – and Europe and Japan – very closely. If the US turned seriously dark, if Greece imploded, all rate bets would be off.

It will also be watching China very closely. The US can send our market down as it did in 2008.

China can do it to the whole economy.

We’re toast.

Terry McCrann is right to point to the USA … as Barnaby did nearly 18 months ago … and voice concern that an implosion in America may well mean that China stops buying raw materials from us.

But I fear Mr McCrann is missing the wider dangers in focussing on the USA. Because China may well fold up like a playing card pyramid, all on its own. Without any “help” from America at all.

As we saw yesterday, Nouriel Roubini, the economist who gained the most fame for having predicted the GFC – predictions that RBA Governor Glenn Stevens claims not to have known anything about – has now sounded the alarm bell on China.  On the weekend he predicted a “hard landing” for the Chinese economy in 2013, just two years away. For reasons unrelated to America’s woes.

Moreover, we have our own internal risks to consider.

One could almost be forgiven for thinking that Mr McCrann’s fellow Finance Writer for the same paper, Nick Gardner, has been reading barnabyisright.com, in light of the following article published right above Mr McCrann’s column in The Sunday Telegraph yesterday (sorry, no link):

A bubble market

According to new data from RP-Data Rismark, the housing analysts, property prices have been declining in “real” terms since 2004 – in other words, they have been failing to keep up with inflation.

In terms of capital growth, you’d have been better off stashing your money in the bank than buying a home.

As The Sunday Telegraph reported last February, a quarter of people who bought and sold their properties within the past five years lost money.

The average shortfall was $54,000, but in some areas the losses reached almost $300,000, according to Residex, another property analyst.

Such statistics stand in sharp contrast to the broader public view that house prices have been consistently shooting up, and reveal signs of market weakness that, if continued, could undermine the entire economy.

Although experts are split about the outlook for property, it is clear the Reserve Bank needs to tread carefully.

… it is a delicate balancing act; a hike too far could cause the housing market to crash as it has in the USA and UK.

Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital, says the housing market is Australia’s “Achilles heel”.

“House prices here are overvalued by about 30 per cent, and it would not take too much to tip them over the edge.” Oliver says.

Overseas, many big institutional investors such as pension funds and hedge funds – which our banks rely on to borrow money which they lend out on mortgages – share Oliver’s concerns.

That’s one reason why the Big Four were downgraded by credit-ratings agency Moody’s from AA1 to AA2 last month.

Trevor Greetham, asset allocation director at Fidelity International in the UK, which has $3.4 Trillion under management, said: “If the global economy recovers strongly, that could push interest rates up a lot. That’s a real risk for Australia, because house prices are becoming an issue.”

The London-based Russell Investments fixed-income portfolio manager Gerard Fitzpatrick said he was more cautious about lending to Australian banks, citing the recent catastrophe in Ireland, where the house-price bubble effectively broke the banking system.

“I’m not saying Australia is the same as Ireland but there are definitely similarities.”

With such powerful voices becoming so worried, a credit crunch in which mortgages are rationed and buyers must put down much bigger deposits remains a possibility. The consequences could be disastrous.

That’s exactly what this blog has been arguing.

Basically, we’re screwed no matter what happens.

“Good” news or “bad” news, is all bad news for us.

If the global economy recovers, then we’re screwed because rising interest rates will crash the housing market (if it hasn’t already), and wipe out our banks. Meaning, the government will come after our super to prop them up.

If the global economy stalls, then we’re screwed because China will suffer the “chilling winds coming out of America”, and crash our economy. Meaning, the government will come after our super to prop up the economy through more ‘stimulus’.

Both sides of politics know they will do that. Both sides of politics are already implementing policies for it.

Barnaby has often warned that we cannot rely on a never-ending China boom to pay down Labor’s never-ending debt. Former Treasury secretary Ken Henry pompously disagreed. Labor and the mainstream media all climbed aboard the “Barnaby is wrong” train.  And Barnaby lost his job as Shadow Finance spokesman

Once again … as always … Time tells.

Barnaby warned of a bigger GFC almost 18 months ago. He said that Australia needed to stop borrowing and wasting billions, and make a “contingency plan” against the very real risk of more trouble hitting our shores from abroad.

Barnaby was right.

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Australia “Almost Certainly” In Recession In 2011, Economists Warn

13 Jun

From the Sunday Telegraph (sorry, no link), Finance Writer Nick Gardner dares to say the unspeakable:

Rates To Trigger Recession

Australia is on the verge of a recession.

Economists warn the economy will almost certainly be in recession later in the year as the Reserve Bank raises rates to avoid excessive inflation.

The forecast comes as most of the domestic economy continues to shrink in the face of weak consumer spending and a record-breaking strong dollar.

The economy contracted by 1.2 per cent in the March quarter, exaggerated by damage to our iron ore and coal exports because of natural disasters. And last week the ABS released jobs data showing the economy has lost 80,000 full-time jobs in the past two months. However, we are likely to skirt a recession this month.

“Miners are now having to work double time to fill not only the orders they would normally be catering for this quarter but also the coal they did not deliver in the previous three months because of the weather disruption,” said Steve Keen, professor of economics at the University of Western Sydney.

“That is likely to produce a pronounced bounce in the volumes this quarter, so we’ll probably have mildly positive growth by the end of June.

“However, after those orders have been filled, we’ll be back to our normal levels of exports and that’s when I think we will hit the skids and our growth will turn negative again for the last six months of the year.”

Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital, agrees.

“It’s later in the year we have to worry, especially if the RBA raises rates. It risks bringing the entire economy outside of resources to a standstill.”

The Australian Industry Group said the manufacturing, construction, and services sectors all shrank in May. Its indices, where 50 indicates an expanding sector and below 50 a contracting sector, showed manufacturing reached 47.7, services hit 49.9, and construction hit 39.6 – its 12th straight month of contraction.

In the lead up to the recent May budget, Treasurer Wayne “Goose” Swan was loudly propagandising that the coming budget would be all about “jobs jobs jobs”.  Indeed, he claimed that Labor has “created 750,000 jobs” since coming to power. No proof, of course. And noone in the lamestream media asked for any either.  Or bothered to try and check if Wayne’s claim was true.

We debunked that claim here … using his own budget documents.

Wayne also claimed that the Green-Labor government will create “half a million more” “in the next two years”.

We debunked that claim here … using his own budget documents.

Now, according to the ABS, we learn that “the economy lost 80,000 full-time jobs“ in the very same two month period that he was loudly parrotting his BS, unchecked by the media and “expert” commentators.

Off to another brilliant start on that “half a million more” jobs pledge, aren’t you Wayne.

"Goose" talking jobs jobs jobs

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Is Mr Stutchbury Waking Up?

16 Mar

On February 28th I firmly criticised The Australian’s economics editor Michael Stutchbury’s column, “Chinese Can Fund Our Boom” (see my article here).

Well, it seems Mr Stutchbury may be (reluctantly) waking up to reality, if his column today is anything to go by. Though he cannot yet bring himself to let go of the fantasy entirely:

China Won’t Boom Forever

The big risk now is that, having escaped the global crisis, the Lucky Country thinks it’s bulletproof and the rebound in our iron ore and coal export prices means there is no penalty for bad policy.

The airbag of a US50c-US60c dollar cushioned the economy from the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2000 Wall Street tech-wreck. Our new China fortune pulled us out of last year’s global recession.

As a result, Australia is about to enter its 19th straight year of economic expansion, possibly the longest unbroken growth in our history. We appear to be heading into a bountiful decade or two of high commodity export prices driven by the rise of China and India.

But now, no doubt in reaction to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s warning yesterday of a global double-dip recession, Stutchbury hedges just a little on his previous blind confidence:

But this new growth phase is bound to be volatile. And there is a smaller probability but higher impact risk that the mega China boom – like the 1980s Japanese bubble, the 90s Asian boom, the technology boom or the US housing bubble – could burst. We can’t count on being able to avoid a fair dinkum recession during the next decade.

Indeed. The fact is, many authorities around the world are predicting the China bubble may burst by 2012. Including some, like former chief economist for the IMF Ken Rogoff, who did predict the GFC in the first place.

I wonder how long it will take for Mr Stutchbury – and many others in the Australian mainstream economic media – to stop publishing reactions to the latest proclamation by an “authority”, and start researching widely in order to  think for themselves?

Perhaps he might take a lead from the Sydney Morning Herald’s Paul Sheehan, and his excellent and insightful article yesterday.

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Batten The Hatches

16 Mar

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

The ominous word ”boom” appeared last week, in large type, on the front page of the local newspaper. Given the nature of this paper, the word could only refer to one thing: property. While the signals from the property market are mixed, it appears we are springing back to normalcy without absorbing the reality: the global financial crisis is far from over. All the elements are in place for a second crash.

The world has become an economically unstable place, with enormous unresolved issues. Australia’s economy is fundamentally sound, but the global economy is fundamentally unsound. Even a good boat can be swamped by a bad sea and Australia, as a middling economy, will be buffeted by forces beyond its control unfolding in the United States, the European Community and Asia.

The Bank for International Settlements, the central bank for central banks, is warning of ”unstable dynamics”. Ominous language. The International Monetary Fund estimates the world’s 20 largest economies, the G20, will have a combined debt equal to 118 per cent of their combined gross domestic product by 2014, meaning debt will have exploded by 50 per cent in just seven years. To fund what? In Australia, debt is being used for expansion of the mining sector, which is good, but also for the ill-disciplined spending of the Rudd government and the chronically overpriced housing sector. As a result, Australia’s economy is more vulnerable to economic stress from abroad…

While the obvious and prudent response of government in a financial crisis is to provide social and economic shock absorbers by increased spending and borrowing, it is also important not to overreact. If you believe the global financial crisis is still unfolding, the key is not to overshoot, but to conserve resources and policy options.

The Rudd government, as it has proved in every area of major policy, overspent. It threw money around with undisciplined panic when faced with the global economic crisis.

A must read article.

Perhaps Mr Sheehan might like to point all this out to the overpaid, short-sighted, know-it-all idiots in the Treasury department, and at the Reserve Bank of Australia.

They all failed to see and forewarn of the GFC.  So, thanks to their incompetence, millions of Australian citizens lost literally billions in retirement savings and investments during late 2007 through to early 2009.

Now they are saying that the GFC is “over”, and that we are set for a multi-decade China-fueled mining boom that will provide a “period of unprecedented prosperity”.

Sack Ken Henry. Sack Glenn Stevens.

And abolish the RBA.

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