Blame the dollar? There has been lots of stories and the occasional stat supporting the idea that the high value of the Aussie dollar is encouraging Australians to travel more overseas. Profit upgrades from the likes of Virgin Blue, possibly Qantas, Webjet and Flight Centre support that idea. The Reserve Bank said in its first Monetary Policy Statement of the year last Friday that tourism in Australia would feel the pressure this year from the higher value of the Aussie dollar and positive impact of higher commodity prices. Yesterday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics produced figures that prove the boom in overseas travel is indeed a fact.  The ABS said that 2009 saw a record 24.7 million movements in and out of Australia, made up of 12.3 million departures and 12.4 million arrivals. Short-term movements — travellers who have an intended stay in, or absence from, Australia of less than one year — accounted for 96% of the total 24.7 million movements. A record 6.3 million residents made short-term departures from Australia in 2009, up from 5.8 million in 2008. New Zealand, the USA and Indonesia were the top three destinations.

How’s this for a TV audience. Yesterday’s Super Bowl, won at the death by New Orleans, was the most watched game in history and the most watched TV show ever. According to preliminary ratings from The Nielsen Company, CBS’ broadcast of the game attracted an average audience of 106 million people. The game was watched in 51 million households, making it the most watched television program of all time among households, beating the M*A*S*H finale, which was seen by an average of 50 million homes. But politics can also rate: President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address late last month attracted more than 48 million viewers, about 4 million less than his first speech to Congress in January, 2009.

Westfield news item I: Yesterday Westfield announced that US bank JP Morgan would be taking up a major tenancy in one of the developer’s flagship projects in Sydney, its new 25-storey 32,800 square metre office tower to be constructed at 85 Castlereagh Street as part of the Westfield Sydney City project, which is currently under development.

Westfield news item 2: “Westfield Group, the world’s largest owner of shopping malls by market value, rose the most in five months in Sydney trading after J.P.Morgan Securities Australia Ltd upgraded the stock to “overweight  … Westfield shares jumped 4.1% to close at A$12.71 on the Australian Stock Exchange, the biggest gain since September 7 … J.P.Morgan analyst Rob Stanton raised the Sydney-based company from ‘neutral,’ and lifted its 12-month price estimate to $14.35 from $12.72 …” — Bloomberg, January 28.

Letter of intent no guarantee for Palmer: Is Queensland mining entrepreneur and conservative party funder Clive Palmer back to his old tricks of gilding the lily after he got enormous publicity on Sunday and yesterday for his claimed mega deal with a Chinese company? Here’s one from the News Ltd media and here’s another from the Fairfax press. Even the Wall Street Journal got in on the act. But on the official Chinese Government news website late this morning, this story appeared and directly contradicted the Palmer claims of a $US60 billion deal. There is no money involved yet because all that has been signed is a letter of intent. And in the resources world, it’s not uncommon for letters of intent not to be turned into hard and fast contracts. Woodside and a Chinese oil company failed to convert a letter of intent signed back in September 2007, into an actual contract for LNG by the deadline of late last year.

Reach for the skies? Dubai triggered a global sell-off on financial markets last year by unexpectedly asking for a six-month standstill on the debts of some of its state-owned companies. It entrenched market thinking that Dubai was a basket case, a point of view supported a few weeks later when neighbouring Abu Dhabi bailed it out for the second time in 10 months, taking the size of the aid to $US20 billion, or a quarter of known debt. However, last month there was huge media coverage about how Dubai was coming back, thanks to the opening of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. It was a triumph, locals and the Government declared.  Well, not quite. This morning news from the sandy wastes of Dubai is that there has been an unexpected development — “The world’s tallest skyscraper has unexpectedly closed to the public a month after its lavish opening, disappointing tourists headed for the observation deck and casting doubt over plans to welcome its first permanent occupants in the coming weeks. Electrical problems are partly to blame for the closure of the viewing platform  …”

Shock: secret central bankers caught by broadsheet : On the assumption that the meetings of central bankers in Sydney this week to coincide with the Reserve Bank’s 50th birthday are some sort of secret, The Sydney Morning Herald marshalled a crack team of three reporters (with a fourth assisting) to cover the “secretive” gala dinner for the bankers at the NSW Art Gallery last night, which was also attended by former Prime Ministers, business people and present and past central bankers.  So “secretive” that the paper splashed photos of people attending on page one and published parts of Treasurer Wayne Swan’s speech in the same report this morning.  Maybe the conferences held around the birthday dinner are “secretive” because the media isn’t allowed in, even though economics writers around the country have had papers from today’s seminar since late yesterday on embargo. Secret or beat-up?

Doodling is good for you: According to an abstract of a paper published in Applied Cognitive Psychology last month (author, Jackie Andrade) doodling is good for you, performance-enhancing even. The author looked at whether doodling improved or hindered attention to the primary task at hand, such as answering questions on a telephone or taking notes during a lecture. “To answer this question, 40 participants monitored a monotonous mock telephone message for the names of people coming to a party. Half of the group was randomly assigned to a doodling condition where they shaded printed shapes while listening to the telephone call. The doodling group performed better on the monitoring task and recalled 29% more information on a surprise memory test. Unlike many dual task situations, doodling while working can be beneficial. Future research could test whether doodling aids cognitive performance by reducing daydreaming.”