Summer Reading: Best Dressed of 2011

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During the Christmas and New Years break, MacroBusiness will be opening the vault to discover the best dressed, most popular and interesting posts of 2011.

Today’s “Best Dressed of 2011” list includes our favourite post titles and featured images and maybe considered whimsy, but our only excuse is that there is a little bit of Reynard the trickster in all of us..

In no particular order: well, actually the last one is the greatest post title in media history.

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Gordon Gekko is driving the Death Star

Rotten Apple‘s post in February was an portend of things to come, exposing the ridiculous debate around the US sovereign debt position, bringing the electronic reality of the situation to bear.

The title was a doozy – putting together the two most evil characters in cinematic history, Gordon Gekko and George Lucas. Just leave the original Star Wars alone!

Spiralling into the Moussaka

Delusional Economics take in early March on the ongoing Greece crisis was brought home by a great title.

Greek unemployment and the lack of understanding of the spiralling nature of a debt deflation is still as high as ever, although haircuts on Greek debt have begun, the birthplace of democracy is seeing anything but.

Politico-Housing complex goes on tour

It took little to no imagination after this title and featured image to imagine Ric “Boom Boom” Battelino on vocals and the big four bankers as back up singers ala Spinal Tap – all the way to 11!

Houses and Holes coverage of the recent tour of the USA by the politico-housing complex, singing their smash hit “This time it’s different”, from the triple platinum album “Appetite for moral hazard”.

I am beneficent

Houses and Holes did it again, examining the political fluffery around Wayne Swan’s disappointing “roadmap” for tax reform in July, opining there might be a page missing in the press release.

Imagining himself the Chinese overlord of the sourthern province of Gweilo (i.e Straya), Houses and Holes put forward his own ideas for reform and beneficially allowed the commenters to do the same.

When a Donkey meets a Thoroughbred

Our share and bond analyst Q Continuum had not changed careers into animal husbandry, but examined the merits – beyond the spruiking – of the merger of West Australian Newspapers and Channel 7.

Highlighting the shortcomings of the merger of one of the nation’s biggest media companies resulted in some controversy and his first public interview on ABC’s Lateline Business (Youtube)

The Pascometer red-lines on China

Fairfax’s Michael Pascoe features prominently on MacroBusiness as our favourite contrarian indicator, be it on houses, gold, mining, banks, or anything, the opposite position is usually profitable.

Houses and Holes illustrative title raised our radar even more as the Pascometer spun wildly about the never-ending story that is China. And our readers saw right through the tyre spinning and smoke.

Madonna grows a third…

We began to worry about how House and Holes chose his post titles with this one, but it doesn’t take a ski instructor to work out what he was up to here….

Clearly, the US stock market has been in a secular bear market for over 10 years, each “peak” requiring the use of “milky wilkies” or monetary easing, making the mountains not quite real.

The Agony of the Bullhawks

Not the first display of the “bullhawks” – a MacroBusiness term for an inflation hawk and housing bull, but House and Holes report on the August RBA statement brought out the eloquence!

The reality of modifying your view and the inflation band based on risks, dangers both abroad and internally is a lesson the bullhawks continue to fail, although some are leaving the “flerd”.

Steering Godzilla’s seesaw with a mallet

The most vivid and strange title of the year goes to Delusional Economics for his explanation of the imbalances in the Australian economy.

Mixing metaphors, with the RBA “whacking Godzilla (private sector debt) with its mallet (interest rates)” on a four seat seesaw, the post sticks in our memory for more than just its title.