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Just a quick further note about Australia’s property boom and China’s role in it. I think events in China are going to cause a year or so of super-property inflation in Australia. Greed and stupidity will combine as they always do, everywhere, to convince those making the most money that it will never end. And […]

Several months ago on the Guardian and more recently here, I argued that the much discussed ‘stimulus exit strategies’ would just not appear. The central banks, I argued, could not withdraw any part of their stimulus because without that cash , there simply has not been and will not be any recovery. There has been

Do you what the last resort of the debtor is? It is his assurance that he has a sure fire winner in the 3.30 this afternoon. So don’t worry, he’s good for it! That is essentially what Darling said to the country today. Don’t worry about my debts. I have looked into the future and

A week ago I was commenting on the Guardian about how China’s exports AND its imports had declined massively in February – 25.7% and 24% respectively. I thought this might indicate China was focusing on building an internal market to rebalance it over-reliance on exports. Now news comes that China may be about to post

“Repo” – repurchase and resale agreement. Lehman did it. Lloyds still does do it. So what is it? Repo is agreeing with another party that you will ‘sell’ them something they agree to sell back to you at an agreed price on an agreed date. It’s not complicated, only, on the face of it, seemingly

Only the players on the pitch really have any idea of what they are thinking and how this will play out. But here is what I think. Merkel and Germany have made it clear that they have their eyes on the longer game. After Greece comes Spain, Italy and Portugal. Spain particularly is headed, I

Many months ago I suggested that bank reform would not happen and neither would the stimulus withdrawal/exit strategy. I don’t see any reason to alter my views. FED rates are held at 0% – 0.25% . In japan the rate is held at 0.1%. The BoJ will also double its stimulus spending/printing. BoE has kept

Two, countries that are hovering on the sidelines of a property and bank crash are Australia and Canada. It is an under-reported fact that the Canadian banks already got $75 Billion (canadian dollars) bail out over a year ago. That $75 Billion was given to Canada’s commercial banks in exchange for mortgages. To be specific

According to a Wall Street Journal article the largest 4, Too-big-to-fail US banks, that is Citi, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America have between them $2.8 TRILLION in HELOC loans. For those of you who don’t know, HELOC stands for Home Equity Loan. These are loans taken out on top of your mortgage,

If there is one thing we all ought to have learnt about bank debts by now, it’s that there are a million ways of hiding them. Off-balance Sheet, Off-shore, out of sight (of the public ) or just out of your mind ( the AIG model) take your pick. There is an financial wizard ready