Comments on: The Can gets heavier to kick

By: wirplit

wirplit — Fri, 27 May 2011 00:35:47 +0000

Everywhere else it seems but Australia and perhaps China has had its property bubble burst. So how long can Oz resist? It must be held up by the commodities boom as it has long been recognized as overvalued by all the usual yardsticks. Even before the bust in the US it was. So I wonder how the average Australian homebuyer views this… does he carry on like nothing is happening in the blithe belief it has not yet happened? Are people still happy to pay the high prices being asked?
Just wondering what it feels like there.

By: 46Martman

46Martman — Mon, 23 May 2011 19:12:02 +0000

I see greece hinted that a series of privatisations would be announced. Led by sales of the state's stakes in OTE telecoms company, Postbank, the ports of Thessaloniki and Athens and the Thessaloniki water company.
Elsewhere Greece to sell 5% of OTE shares to Deutsche Telecom
Its suggested the stake will be sold at 27.5 euros a share, above OTE’s closing price of 11.77 euros on Wednesday
Why would anyone pay 15.73 euros above share price in a buyers market?
It looks more like charity than business.

By: Prometheuswrites

Prometheuswrites — Mon, 23 May 2011 12:37:58 +0000

"Hopefully at least some of those who have been speculating will get skinned".

Inevitably someone will. The likelyhood is that it will be the smaller players. One of the recent developments in playing the financial and stock markets is the use of automated software programmes by the biggest players to make instantaneous purchases and disposals. (the 'human' factor is there to act as gatekeeper when anomalies appear).

The game is to recruit software developers who can write a better programme than your rivals.

However it's not the same as say writing a weather predicition & risk analysis programme where the risks assessed are natural events.

Because the risks include the actions of other investors we're in the realms of game theory.
And these players want the brunettes as well as the blond, in a winner takes all gameplan.

What did everyone think the players were going to do with all that Q.E.? - what they know best - the same thing that got us here in the first place - but faster.

By: Demon

Demon — Mon, 23 May 2011 12:11:12 +0000

The new political order in Spain will have to wait. A substantial part of the population still have (vain) hopes that the conservative party PP will put things right.
General elections are scheduled for 2012, although there's going to be huge pressure on president Zapatero's shoulders to call for early elections. Looking at yesterday's local elections' results, a complete victory for the conservatives is more than likely. However, it is also more than likely that conservatives will founder in the task of fixing Spain's economic and employment problems.
Therefore, unless major events tip the balance earlier, I think we'll have to wait until 2013 to see the Spanish population rock the boat any harder.