Roubini Global Economics - RGE Monitor -- Europe EconoMonitor

Roubini Global Economics - RGE Monitor -- Europe EconoMonitor

Some positive news from Easten Europe.

Term deposit investment strategies from RaboPlus Australia

Term deposit investment strategies from RaboPlus Australia

RaboPlus has a nice section on term deposits on their web site. If you are considering investing in term deposits, read the 'laddering' strategy description on the page linked above.

The interest rate rise in Australia is attracting more investors as of late but so are probably other asset classes.

Saturation Point? Google Furniture Index

Google Furniture Index - Google Finance

If you look at the link above, you may notice the downward trend in almost any area. Considering that the population continues to grow, one would expect a slow increase in demand from year to year. However, the trend from 2004 to 2010 is a downward one. That is a bit paradoxical and begs for the question - are we reaching the saturation point?

I would be glad if we were. That would mean we were to slowly get out of the consumerism age. Hopefully, what comes next is better for all of us.

Slow Economic Growth Likely for Region in 2010 :: BalkanInsight.com

Slow Economic Growth Likely for Region in 2010 :: BalkanInsight.com

Finally some positive signs in the economies of South-Eastern Europe. Fingers crossed.

Easy labels mask the complexity of growing up gen Y - Investment News

Easy labels mask the complexity of growing up gen Y - Investment News

After the Global Financial Crisis and the recession (well, some countries technically haven't experienced it) I find a few topics interesting enough to write about. The markets have rebounded but the long-term performance is still under a question mark. The income returns have been poor unless you were a risk taker and extremely lucky to buy at the right time and reap the rewards.

However, the world is changing and there are some signs and thoughts as to where it is going. The article above portrays an era of Generation Y in Australia. Those times may have gone for good and, as the article concludes, it may be exciting to learn how to live a different lifestyle.

Bailout Hearings

The bailout hearings have started in the US. About time and on topic! Thorough examination is more than welcome as the price of the bailouts is enormous and the question is whether the public should be paying for it.

These are hard moral questions and it is interesting to watch how they proceed.

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/3010b7e0-ffa1-11de-921f-00144feabdc0.htm?ftcamp=Late_headline2/NL/APJan2010/Vanilla_bns_ap/0/

No Good Options Left - John Mauldin

The current situation in the largest world economy can well be summarized in the way John Mauldin did his latest newsletter. The conclusion is that there are no good options left and whether the path from here is controlled (evolution) or left to market (revolution) is the only question. An excellent read.

Like teenagers, we as a US polity have made a number of bad choices over the past decade. We allowed banks to overleverage and, in the case of AIG (and others), sell what were essentially naked call options of credit default swaps, based on their firm balance sheets, far in excess of their net worth; and that put our entire financial system at risk. We gave mortgages to people who could not pay them, and did so in such large amounts that we again brought down the entire world financial system to the point that only with staggering amounts of taxpayer money was it brought back from the brink of Armageddon. We assumed that home prices were not in a bubble but were a permanent fixture of ever-rising value, and we borrowed against our homes to finance what seemed like the perfect lifestyle. We did not regulate the mortgage markets. We ran large and growing government deficits. We did not save enough. We allowed rating agencies to degrade their ratings to a point where they no longer meant anything. The list is much longer, but you get the idea.

Now, we are faced with a continuing crisis and the aftermath of multiple bubbles bursting. We are left with a massive government deficit and growing public debt, record unemployment, and consumers who are desperately trying to repair their balance sheets.

If present trends are left unchecked, we will need to find $15 trillion in the next ten years, just to pay for US government debt, let alone state, county, and city debt. And perhaps some loans for business will be needed? Where can all this money come from? The answer is that it can't be found. Long before we get to 2019 there will be an upheaval in the market, forcing what could be unpleasant changes.

RBA Lifts Rate to 3.5%

Today's RBA decision was for another base point (0.25%) raise. The official cash rate in Australia is now 3.5%.
RBA lifts cash rate by 25bps to 3.5% - News - Business Spectator

Double-dip recession unlikely: ECB's Weber

A member of the governing council of the European Central Bank said that it is unlikely that the Euro zone will fall back into recession soon after exiting it. He added that there are elements pointing that the double-dip recession is not likely to happen in other major economies, either.
So it seems not only the economy is out of the woods for now but there is no immediate danger of falling back into recession in the short to medium term.

Double-dip recession unlikely: ECB's Weber - News - Business Spectator

OneDirect High Interest Saver Discontinued

OneDirect has discontinued their High Interest Saver account. Any remaining funds in the account will be transferred to the linked transactional account.