Rokjok777

Australia: What Recession?

Excellent comments about the 4 pillars policy and how it kept Australian banks from the suicidal policies in the US and UK. Regulation of banks is kind of like a sailboat race. You win a sailboat race by not losing. Avoiding as many errors as possible. In the long run, that wins the race.


On Nov 17 01:14 PM Go Lakers wrote:

> Well written articile. I'm an Australian who lives in the US and
> next to no one here knows this story. For what is supposedly the
> most savvy investing nation in the world, it's quite amazing that
> Americans are, for the most part, oblivious to an investing success
> story right under their noses.
>
> The 4 Pillars bank policy was a saviour for the Australian economy.
> Without it, and the essential ban on those 4 banks being taken over
> by a foreign bank (thank you the FIRB), our banks would have almost
> certainly been players in the sub-prime asset debacle, they would
> have chased higher returns, they would have been bigger players in
> the US and European markets, they would have fed Australian households
> the cheap and, more importantly, easy money that the Poms, the Spanish
> and the Yanks got.
>
> For all its faults, the 4 Pillars policy works in times of stress
> and granted that isn't anywhere near the majority of the time, so
> it arguably contraints growth and innovation. But isn't a time of
> stress exactly when you need it to work the most?

Thursday Outlook: Commodities, Global Markets

To see Da Boyz move this thing around like it's their little toy is disgusting.
These markets are supposed to be about millions of people considering millions of pieces of information about companies and arriving at a view of their prospects for earning money. That's what price discovery is supposed to reflect. They're NOT supposed to be about 6 insiders using inside information and public money to turn it into some kind of big rigged game.
I'm actively looking for ways to earn returns without having to be a part of this casino. Sad, sad state of affairs.

Australian Dollar Preparing to Break Out

I moved from the US to Australia 3 years ago and am very bullish on this place. So far the media talks alot about recession but everyone I know (tradespeople, retailers, execs, bankers, IT) are running as fast as they can to keep up with demand. They have some of the top-rated banks in the world here, the gov't never let them bet the farm so a few execs could make millions, duh. Their biggest trading partner now is China, not the US, and they have tons of business ties to the rest of Asia. There is lots of money coming here as the UK gets more and more miserable and the quality of life in places like Canada and the US declines. We are so glad to be here and will probably drop our US citizenship so Uncle Sam no longer taxes us! The US is the only country in the world that taxes based on citizenship, not residency. Explain that one for me....

Australia ETFs' Troubles at Odds with Country's Economic Optimism

Another comment. The stock market and the currency have been hit hard for a few reasons. First on the currency, when interest rates started falling here, Japanese investors started selling uradaishi (Aussie-denominated short-term fixed income). That trade is now almost completely unwound. And on stocks, global risk appetite declined so non-Aussie investors sold their shares, which also repatriated home country currency, forcing the AUD down. Those two factors are almost completed now.
May I suggest coming for a visit and judging for yourself. This is one of the most beautiful countries on Earth and the people love Americans.

Australia ETFs' Troubles at Odds with Country's Economic Optimism

I moved to Australia from the US in 2005 and have a few comments. Firstly, they have a government chartered banking business with much better regulatory oversight structure and transparency. Their central bank is widely viewed as one of the best in the world. The government has no external debt, having paid it off several years ago. They moved swiftly to unlock part of their surplus to spend on infrastructure because of any slowdown in the rest of the world. Their major trading partner is no longer the US but instead now is China. They sit on a mountain of iron ore and another mountain of coal. The government requires businesses to pay 11% of a worker's income into a fund that the worker controls and can invest however they like (unlike SocSec, which has shown a crappy return). In all, I am so glad I came here with my family, in another two years I can apply for citizenship so I no longer have to send my tax dollar to Uncle Sam so he can give it to bankers by the wheelbarrow-full...or blow it up in the sands of Iraq.