A slightly salted view of society

Sourced from the conversation Australia’s cost of living is among the highest in the world, despite our low inflation rate. In this series we explore what consumers can expect from the big ticket items - petrol, power and groceries - in the year ahead. Fuel price spikes in January make the news every year, but in reality the past few years have seen fairly stable petrol prices in Australia. This is unlikely to continue in 2014. Long-term trends suggest energy prices will keep hitting the “hip pocket nerve” over the next few years, but what goes into the price of a litre of petrol and how will these contributors change in 2014? The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission provides a breakdown in its annual monitoring report . First, there is the cost of the refined petrol. Australia is a petrol importer and it is the international price of refined petrol from Singapore that sets the Australian price. The international price makes up about 53% of the pump price. ...

Sourced from macrobusiness.com.au &nbsp Global Macro / Markets: BNP Derivatives Boss Says Few Banks Making Money in Equities – Bloomberg How the U.S. oil boom is changing the world, in six charts – Washington Post Coming ’oil glut’ may push global economy into deflation – The Telegraph Bernanke: QE worked – The AFR North America: More Americans Worse Off Financially Than a Year Ago – Gallup Americans’ Satisfaction With Economy Sours Most Since 2001 – Gallup Dallas Beige Book – Dallas Fed Federal Contracts Plunge, Squeezing Private Companies – New York Times Unemployment Claims, CPI, Philly Fed Mfg Survey, Homebuilder Confidence – Calculated Risk The Long-Awaited Housing Recovery – Dallas Fed Europe: Ford’s pull-out threat on Brexit greatly inflates relevance of dying EU – The Telegraph German Bond Yields Approach Six-Week Low After Inflation Slows – Bloomberg Asia: ’Airpocalypse’ Smog Hits Beijing at Dangerous Levels – New York Times World’s Biggest Annua...

Oligopoly in the Australian Banking Sector By Adiktd Introduction The Australian banking sector is dominated by four institutions who together account for over 85% of the domestic home loan value. These firms; National Australia Bank (NAB), Commonwealth Bank (CBA), Westpac (WBC) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), have a collective market cap of over 400 billion dollars  (Tradingroom 2013) , five times the total assets of the remaining banks, mutual funds and various other financial institutions combined  (KPMG 2011) . Although the market is said to be highly competitive (Wikipedia 2013) the high concentration of market power by a small number of firms can be likened to a form of oligopolistic behaviour. As the market leaders are able to manipulate the market, forcing smaller firms and consumers to comply. The four pillars policy adopted in 1990 can be attributed to this as it restricted any merger or acquisition of the “Big Four Banks” by each other or ...

Sourced from macrobusiness.com.au Global Macro / Markets: Interest rates don’t matter? Federal Reserve paper says so – CNBC The one thing commodity experts agree on – The AFR The age of imbalances has ended – The AFR North America: US retail Sales increased 0.2% in December – Calculated Risk One in four Obamacare enrollees are young adults. That’s below the target – Washington Post Seven Nobel Laureates Endorse Increase in U.S. Minimum Wage – Bloomberg Canada’s Housing Bubble Threatens Economy – Wall Street Journal $1.1 trillion spending bill unveiled – Politico The winners and losers of the new spending bill – Washington Post Europe: Scandinavian Debt Crisis Waiting to Happen Puzzles Krugman – Bloomberg Danish Banks Face Tougher Credit Rules to Tackle Record Debt – Bloomberg Russia expels US journalist David Satter without explanation – The Guardian Has Europe left the debt crisis behind as growth returns – You Tube Why Britain shouldn’t pin its energy hopes on ...

Sourced from macrobusiness.com.au Global Macro / Markets: Federal Reserve Said to Probe Banks Over Forex Fixing – Bloomberg Basel Regulators Ease Leverage-Ratio Rule for Banks – Bloomberg Is Gold About To Move Higher? – jerrykhachoyan.com North America: Banks Seek to Limit Volcker With Challenge to Meaning of ‘Own’ – Bloomberg Yield-hungry investors snap up US homeless bond – Financial Times Businesses have new reasons to accelerate spending this year – Wall Street Journal The behavioral economics behind Americans’ paltry nest eggs – Quartz Weak US jobs data challenge the Fed – Financial Times Europe: Euro-Zone Tensions Flare at U.S. Economics Gathering – Wall Street Journal Investors are turning back to euro-zone bonds, leading countries’ borrowing costs to fall – Wall Street Journal Treasury gives debt pledge on Scotland – Financial Times IMF adds four European countries to financial risk list – The AFR Asia: Rising rates will help cure China’s credit addicti...

sourced from macrobusiness.com.au Global Macro / Markets: 10 Reasons the Gold Bugs Lost Their Shirts – Bloomberg 10 Reasons Barry Ritholtz Is Wrong About Gold – Reuters What Alan Greenspan Has Learned Since 2008 – HBR Bravo for Bernanke and the QE Era – Wall Street Journal Baltic Dry Index Collapses 35% – Worst Start To Year In 30 Years – Zero Hedge See? Even Warren Buffett’s Favorite Stock Market Measure Says Stocks Are Wildly Overvalued… – Business Insider A Group Of Miners Has Exposed One Of Bitcoin’s Fatal Flaws – Business Insider The Americas: US jobs growth weakest in three years – The AFR Janet Yellen: The Sixteen Trillion Dollar Woman – Time Study Suggests Recovery in U.S. Is Relatively Vital – New York Times FOMC Minutes, December 17-18, 2013 – Federal Reserve The BLS Jobs Report Covering December 2013: A Bad Report – Correntwire.com Hilsenrath Analysis: Job Report Alone Unlikely to Alter Fed’s Course – Wall Street Journal December Employment Report: 74,0...