Australia

Welcome to Credit Writedowns Pro. This is the first post in a series here. Let me start this Byron Wien-style and make a predictions list. Wien defines his surprises as events to which investors assign 1-in-3 odds of happening but which he…

The end of year is usually a good time for markets. There was a lot of angst about the European situation a few weeks ago, but there is less of that now because we're hitting year-end (tape painting). Does that mean the credit crisis…

We are in a second synchronised global growth slowdown. Moreover, the policy response must be more muted this go round as the public sector is more indebted and has less policy space than in 2008 or 2009. Expect policy inaction followed by…

Below is the press release issued by Moody's in conjunction with the down grade of Australia's mortgage insurers.

The dollar is trading slightly firmer ahead of today’s ECB rate decision and tomorrow’s summit. We expect the ECB to cut by 25bps, with a possibility of a 50bps cut; look to fade knee-jerk reaction. Australia’s employment much weaker than…

News links from 2 December 2011 include links on the European sovereign debt crisis, the UK economy, the latest on mortgages and technology as well as other stories.

Famous shortseller Jim Chanos was in Hong Kong and Australia and reported back on what he saw to Bloomberg Television. Copy provided below including a link to the video.

The Ministry of Finance is pumping money like mad into the weakened Chinese financial sector, over 1 trillion yuan, in order to shore it up from the souring of loans from all of the malinvestment over the past few years. If the Chinese…

The last two days have seen the latest monthly data on credit growth in Australia from the RBA, and the latest quarterly data on house prices from the ABS. Together they confirm trends that I’ve identified on numerous occasions between the…

Risk appetites returned in a big way in October, as equities, emerging markets, commodities and currencies all generally advanced and smartly so, recouping much of the ground lost in September. The events in the week ahead will likely set…