Fox Bat Central

You stand on Central platform at the end of yet another 110 call day. Looking over to the skyline to where the mountains lie.

The creatures flap in the twilight that's shot through with deep, dark blue and silver as dusk hits the tracks.

As you wait for the train.

They fly so high. They endlessly wheel and dive.

You believe they are roosting birds.

Huh!

They are giant Fox Bats, alive in Sydney's evening darkening sky.

They show the way it was, little knowing that it would soon be over and their Garden Island home would be no more.

The Happiness Index: Top and Bottom's Rule!

The Economist's widely quotes index, at least in the Australian press, shows a curious fact: the happiest countries are all either at the top of the world or the bottom of the world.

At the Top:       Canada and Sweden
At the Bottom:  Australia and New Zealand

What does that mean?

Being further away from the centre means you get less spin, perhaps?

And yes I know Chile is down there with the 'Bottom's'. But hey, that's the exception the proves the rule, right?

Bubblology and the Australian Housing Market.

Under the wonderful heading

Our bubble's bigger than their bubble (free sign up required to view).

Steve Keen writes in the (Australian) Business Spectator

"The Australian housing bubble is categorically larger than the USA's, though in standard bubblology talk, the main reason that it is – that it was driven by far more than pure speculation on prices – is touted as one of the reasons that "Australia is different" and a crash won't happen here.

It’s the sort of youthful hope that keeps many investors sleeping soundly underneath the Southern Cross. But this ‘logic’ is a better fit for astrologers – those other chartists – than property market forecasters."

Brisbane Floods; Before and After Pictures

ABC News Australia has a series of 'before and after' pictures.

"High-resolution aerial photos taken over Brisbane last week have revealed the scale of devastation across dozens of suburbs and tens of thousands of homes and businesses.The aerial photos of the Brisbane floods were taken in flyovers on January 13 and January 14. Hover over each photo to view the devastation caused by flooding."

Brisbane floods: before and after

(part one of a two part photo series)

via ScribeFire

The Contrasting Opinion on the Economic Impact of the Queensland Floods

A view hot from the horses mouth, or rather from the flood plains gives rise to this type of qoute:

"Several factors suggest some of the key economic impacts may be limited."

and

"The impact is set to be greater than the floods of 2008 and will have an impact on economic activity and create a marginal risk to risk to first quarter CPI"

Quotes from an article in the Business Spectator that in term reproduces a report by the Westpac/St George Bank team of Matthew Hassan, senior economist at Westpac and Justin Smirk chief economist at St George Bank. Report is entitiled "The Big Wet"

See

A deluge of economic uncertainty (a free sign up is usually required to view)

 

However a view from the cold and in any case wet Northern Hemisphere gives rise to this contrasting quote:

"The floods’ economic impact will be harsh. Some economists reckon they could cut Australia’s growth this year by up to 1%."

"With Western Australia, Queensland has counted as one of Australia’s two commodity-rich boom states, driving a so-called “two-speed economy”. Last year, Queensland accounted for 62% of Australia’s exports of black coal."

From The Economist blog Asian View

Breaking the riverbanks

 

It's going to be intersting to see who will be right.

 

 

via ScribeFire

Reserve Bank of Australia Commodity Index - Long Way Down

The RBA - The Reserve Bank of Australia -  released Index of Commodity Prices for December 2010.

From it's statement "Preliminary estimates for December indicate that the index rose by 3.2 per cent (on a monthly average basis) in SDR terms, after rising by 1.2 per cent in November"

SDR's are "Special Drawing Rights" essentially a basket of major currencies - see SDR Valuation from the IMF