dow jones

ANZ Bank CEO Mike Smith is apparently quite popular with local analysts and the press.

They like his straight-talking tell-it-like-it-is analysis of the Australian economy.

And just as importantly, they like his deadpan humour. He can, we are told, belt out a joke keeping the straightest of straight faces.

So we’re sure the following comment he made in a speech to the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce brought the house down:

“The Australian dollar is going to get stronger and it’s going to be tough on the economy. I don’t think enough people do worry about it – and putting interest rates up will exacerbate it. I do think we have to be careful about that. It may well be that the next bubble is in the commodity market.”

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Your editor has abandoned plans for a property theme in Money Morning this week.

The response on the online blogs and to the Money Morning mailbag has been too much for our walnut-sized brain to cope with.

You can view the articles online at www.moneymorning.com.au and www.dailyreckoning.com.au and of course you should feel free to post your own comments.

However, despite today’s respite from property, we will be back challenging the housing shortage fibbery either tomorrow or Friday. It all depends whether something else pops up to grab our attention.

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Another busy schedule for your editor today as we try to put together the August issue of Australian Small Cap Investigator.

Given our focus on natural gas and LNG over the past twelve months, we’re concentrating this month’s issue on the LNG industry.

We’ll scan our eye over our three ‘Thin Air’ stocks that have massively outperformed the market plus take a look at how small cap investors can start to plan for even bigger returns in 2010.

Today’s news about the Future Fund selling one-third of its stake in Telstra interests us a great deal, but we’ll leave that for either Money Weekend or for next week.

Because today I thought it was time to delve into the Money Morning mailbag. [click to continue...]

Today your editor is preparing for the ‘Australia in the Red‘ debt summit. If you haven’t reserved a ticket and paid your dues, don’t worry, I’ll give you a brief summary of the action on Monday.

Panel members include our slipstreaming, swarm trading technical analyst Gabriel Andre, Associate Professor Steve Keen from the University of Western Sydney, and Phillip Anderson – managing director of Economic Indicator Services.

I’m expecting it to be a lively debate. Maybe all the panelists will agree with each other – maybe they won’t. Who knows? But that’s all part of it.

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