Here’s a list of things Reynard read over night.
Global Macro/Markets:
- Fed’s Financial Stress Index falls to pre-recession 2007 level – aei-ideas.org
- Time to Revive the Financial Transaction Tax - New York Times
North America:
- British Columbia (Vancouver) home sales plunge – Ben Rabidoux
- Shadows creep over Canadian house prices – Financial Times
- Canadian consumer debt on track to follow housing’s decline – The Globe and Mail
- Echo Boomers Will Save The US Economy – Business Insider
- Great US oil boom risks going bust – Financial Times
- Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey – mbaa.org
Europe:
- Government plans to liquidate Anglo in bid to cut debt - The Irish Times
- Italian polls suggest Berlusconi just 4% behind Bersani - The Big Picture
- RBS fined £87.5 million for significant failings in relation to LIBOR - gov.uk
- The RBS Libor fixing files – FT Alphaville (here and here)
- Parties in Poland Battle Over Whether to Introduce Euro – Der Spiegel
- EU plans lost generation fund to fight youth unemployment – Reuters
Asia:
- A gesture, at least, towards Chinese redistribution and rebalancing – FT Alphaville
- China flags peak in coal usage – The SMH (discussed yesterday on MB)
- But Aussies have their doubts – The Age
- China’s challenges, explained in three easy charts – FT Alphaville
- Will China’s demographic shift force a fall in investment share? – FT Alphaville
Local:
- Australia’s economic outlook: the Nauru option – Satyajit Das
- Managing the demographic megatrend mayhem – Bernard Salt
- Affordable housing lifts economic growth for all – AHURI Evidence Review
- Solving the housing crisis – South Sydney Herald
- Abbott aims for population decentralisation – Nine News
- No super tax for over 60s: Gillard – The AFR
- Swan still has his sights set on tax breaks – The Australian
- Maybe higher tax for super earnings? – The Age
- Non-mining sector weak – The AFR
- Australians should brace for an economic shock – The Australian
Other:
- Unemployment and inflation – Bill Mitchell
- Baby Boomers Are Fatter And Lazier Than Their Parents’ Generation – Business Insider
- Why the Ratings Agencies Deserve the Death Penalty – The Big Picture
Coal may become ‘extinct’ much earlier than we might have previously thought!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/9784044/China-blazes-trail-for-clean-nuclear-power-from-thorium.html
Princeling Jiang Mianheng, son of former leader Jiang Zemin, is spearheading a project for China’s National Academy of Sciences with a start-up budget of $350m.
He has already recruited 140 PhD scientists, working full-time on thorium power at the Shanghai Institute of Nuclear and Applied Physics. He will have 750 staff by 2015.
Would that some of our resources had been directed towards Thorium research many years ago. It’s not exactly new! Thorium, and its potential, came to my attention some 15 years ago. Surely there must have been some knowledgeable people in Australia thinking about it. What happened?
How much of the Carbon Tax is being directed towards Thorium research? $350M to start things rollicking along is peanuts compared to what we waste.
Ahh, but how many SUVs can you buy for #350M?
# was meant to be $.
Thorium has a host of problems. because thorium is not a fissile material, you actually need either plutonium or enriched uranium to start a thorium reactor, so proliferation problems are there. It doesn’t solve the proliferation problem. It doesn’t solve the waste problem, either.
I have a favorite molten salt reactor. My reactor is free. It’s in the sky, 93 million miles away. You can store its energy in molten salt. It is being done today. You can generate electricity for 24 hours a day.
Read Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy
Too many idealistic greenies and NIMBYs in this country for nuclear to get much traction without a serious, serious calamity.
Liquidator speaks on Wickham ponzi scheme
http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/wickham-securities-failure-likened-to-ponzi-scheme/story-fnefl294-1226572166528
uhoh
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21361339
uhoh
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21349593
Token funny news story at the end to distract you from the previous stories:
http://www.businessinsider.com/bct-drill-sergeant-us-army-lord-of-the-rings-letter-really-private-2013-2
Ok, Austaland reports
http://www.smh.com.au/business/earnings-season/australand-builds-itself-up-by-28-20130207-2dztv.html
What does this tell us?
Really bad report by Australand
Profit is overstated and Cashflow is no where near match profit stated.
Proceeds from sale of investment properties:
2012: 72,395,000
2011: 133,250,000
ouch!
Stockland’s not doing so well either.
http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/land/stockland-exposed-as-gold-coast-house-and-land-activity-falls-to-worst-level-in-30-year-low-prodap/2013020659196
The Gold Coast house-and-land market has sunk to its lowest level in over 30 years.
Residential land and house-and-land packages sales totalled just 980 for the full calendar 2012 year, compared with a long-term average sales of 4,200 per year since 1995, according to the latest quarterly Prodap Report.
This is particularly bad news for developer Stockland, which is selling residential lots and house-and-land packages in six residential communities on the Gold Coast and has 35% of the market.
According to the Prodap Report, the three biggest residential development projects on the Gold Coast are all Stockland projects.
Wow, some amazing numbers there.
4 developers alone currently have more than years worth of total supply currently for sale plus another 3 yrs worth of supply about to hit the market!
Somethins gotta give.
can’t wait for the future annual reports (1-3 years time) of these companies which will finally show a big fat impairment charge on their profit/loss statement!
Why wait?
http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/news/mirvac-to-ditch-under-performing-development-projects/2013020759210?utm_source=po&utm_medium=aida&utm_campaign=news
Mirvac flees QLD & WA..
http://www.theage.com.au/business/mirvac-issues-massive-wa-queensland-writedown-20130207-2e0as.html
Pity HRH Triguboff’s Meriton isn’t a listed company.
DC, any chance you will do a review of the listed developer reports?
Why wait?http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/news/mirvac-to-ditch-under-performing-development-projects/2013020759210?utm_source=po&utm_medium=aida&utm_campaig
lol that was a wafer thin impairment.
I’m waiting for the big fat ones!
$273m not fat enough for you?
$500mill – $1bill.
any tips on who?
list can be found here
http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2012/12/englobo-the-shady-world-of-land-banking/
The books for Lend Lease indicate that it is the most capable in surviving the onslaught.
A different spin on Australand
http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/industry-news/australand-profits-up-5-in-interesting-times-with-strong-demand-for-melbourne-apartments/2013020659199
Melbourne apartments going gangbusters!
haha they can spin all they want. The average fund manager already knows they’re doing bad.
shares down 2.29% on a bullish day!