This note looks at the recent ramping up of the policy response to the global financial crisis, notably the shift to quantitative easing by several central banks and the US plan to remove bad debts from US banks’ balance sheets and the securities markets. The key points are as follows: – The move to ‘quantitative [...]

This note looks at company profits and dividends during past recessions and what that might tell us about long term trend levels for earnings and what earnings and dividends may do through the current recession. The key points are as follows: – While company earnings likely have more downside ahead of them, the trend level [...]

This note looks at the latest GDP data released in Australia. The key points are as follows: – The Australian economy finally succumbed to the global downturn in the December quarter with GDP falling 0.5%. We are now effectively in recession. In the absence of Government stimulus the fall would have been even steeper. – [...]