May 9th links: Golden austerity

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Stuff Reynard the Fox found interesting today.

Global macro: 

United States:

Europe:

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  • Credit risk surges. Zero Hedge
  • Spain to spend billions on rescue. FT
  • Strong numbers but German risks remain. Sober Look

Budgetmania

Coverage is fascinating. Reflecting their different audiences, the Fairfax dailies basically like the Budget. The AFR offers a hate campaign, perhaps owing to the orientations of its new editor, Michael Stutchbury. It’s not clear to me why being pro-business requires being anti everything else. Meanwhile, Stutch’s old paper, The Australian, has offered the best coverage, striking a reasonable balance between national and sectional interests. Business Spectator has its usual mix of good snapshots and hysteria. I have bolded those articles that are worth reading.

My own view is that this looks like Swan’s best Budget for three reasons:

  • first, it has not overdone austerity, raising the hope that its forecasts might be reached
  • it’s projections are more realistic, even if still too optimistic
  • who can blame Labor for a Labor Budget? It is good to see some old fashioned class warfare. I may not be on the right side of it but I can respect an enemy that has the cojonies to deliver on its values
On with the show.

Fairfax dailies:

AFR:
Business Spectator:
The Australian
About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.