Let us tell you about three banking and retirement scams the Australian government is getting ready to inflict on you. Two are already in operation and a third is in the works.

We believe CBA shares are now ‘priced for perfection’. Which is why we offer caution to investors in the Commonwealth Bank.

For the final edition of Money Weekend we’ve brought you a taste of this year’s most popular articles (and more).

You might remember the Australian government ‘lent’ its AAA rating to the Australian banks during the global financial crisis so they weren’t shut out of foreign money markets. So any threat to the Australian government’s AAA ranking is a direct threat to the Australian banking system.

If the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is lowering interest rates due to deterioration in the underlying economy, is that really a signal to buy the stock market?

Australian banks would have you think they are amongst the most secure banks in the world, but ‘they’re just houses of cards built on quicksand.’

With all the evidence showing the overseas banking system is on the edge of collapse, Australia’s banking regulator (APRA) insists on spinning the yarn that Australian banks are just fine, so don’t worry about anything. Today’s Australian reports: ‘Australia’s biggest banks would survive a global economic disaster that included a disorderly resolution in Europe, a [...]

‘The American public feels like there was no Old Testament justice. What they saw, banks bailed out and all these people make all that money, and including the banks that failed, people made a lot of money, and there’s some truth to that. There is some truth to that. I can’t make up for what [...]

If you’ve read Money Weekend over the past three weeks, you’ll know that soon we’ll launch a new free eletter. The eletter will cover some of the topics we’d like to write to you about in Money Morning, but can’t. The reason is that this is supposed to be a mainly financially based newsletter. So [...]

You’ll soon think back longingly to the times when Australian banks were stupidly profitable: ‘Remember the good old days when The Age reported, ‘the combined yearly profits of the big four banks now total more than $1000 for every person in Australia.’ Back then, people thought profits were bad. Ha, little did they know…’

Finally, mainstream bankers and economists admit the market has beaten them. No, we’re not talking about multitrillion dollar banking bailouts. And we’re not talking about the unending European debt crisis. So what is it that has Australian banking and economic minds stumped? It is…wait for it…$2. That’s right, $2. Not $2 billion, or $2 trillion, [...]

Years ago I read The Great Depression by Lionel Robbins. He was an eminent British economist who took over the chair of the London School of Economics in 1929. A young Friedrich A. Hayek was one of his first appointments. Having experienced the Great Depression, he wrote about it without the benefit of hindsight or [...]

Credit and money lending have gained bad reputations recently. Yet, without them the economy would grind to a halt. Innovation would cease, and living standards would drop. As long as it’s well managed, credit is a virtue. But as we all know, sometimes it isn’t well managed. And that’s where things don’t always go to [...]

Kris is at home today. He claims to be taking care of a ‘sick nipper’, but we all know that he’s actually busy framing the front page of the weekend edition of the Financial Review. That’s because it features a chart of Australia’s falling house prices. Remember that such an event was once considered a [...]

“Buffett’s chosen low-cost S&P 500 fund gained 2.08 per cent in 2011 to beat the five portfolios of hedge funds Protégé chose, which were down 1.86 per cent. Through four years, the hedge funds are down 5.89 per cent. Buffett’s index fund is down 6.27 per cent.” – Associated Press “German Chancellor Angela Merkel told [...]

While travelling through Turkey recently, I read The Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean. I find that it always helps the travelling vibe to read something about the region you’re in. Apart from Italy, Turkey’s contribution (in a geographical sense) to the history of the Mediterranean was profound. Apart from some fantastic historical anecdotes [...]

I think we’re now approaching the final act of the four-year-old Global Financial Crisis. How it will play out is anyone’s guess. But one thing’s for sure: there’s still a lot of uncertainty in this market. And not only in shares. The Aussie dollar is trading near all-time highs against the US dollar and the [...]

Now that we’ve had the worst year on record for house prices, a drop of almost 5% according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, what is the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) going to do about it? How is it going to stop property prices haemorrhaging wealth in 2012?

One of the supposed benefits of the Aussie market is that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) can move interest rates and the retail banks will follow suit. We’re sure you’ve heard mainstream commentators say, “Our economy will be fine because the RBA has plenty of room to move.” So, when the RBA cuts interest [...]

There are three reasons to look at a stock’s dividend yield. The first is to see how much money you’ll make by holding it. The higher the yield, the more money you’ll earn. The second reason is to use it as a guide for how risky the stock is. The higher the yield, the riskier [...]

Since 29 June 2001 (when they first began to measure it), the ASX financials index (ASX: XFJ) has lost 6.47%. Some bank stocks in the financials index, like Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA) for instance, are up. CBA is up around 64.22%. But to even it out, other stocks in the index have gone down [...]

The downturn in the Chinese economy could lead Australia into its first recession in 21 years. Which means now is the time to seriously consider how much exposure you have to banks and the Australian banking sector. Let me show you why…

Ratings agency, Standard & Poor’s this week downgraded the big four Aussie banks. How did the markets react? Was there massive selling? More ‘short sells’ than normal? No. By lunch time yesterday, all four big banks were higher. It was as if traders shook off S&P’s bank ratings cut. And saw it as a reason [...]