A dangerous game at Woolies and Coles. Slashing the price of pre-mixed spirits might appeal to marketing managers at the retail liquor giants but it is the kind of silly move that they will end up regretting.
It is deliberately provocative to governments concerned as the impact these products have on excessive alcohol consumption. It is just asking for governments to re-regulate the liquor industry. Retailers, like manufacturers, should realise that while they might be legal drug pushers, they are still drug pushers.
I hate the weeks leading up to budgets. The worst political season of the year is upon us 00 the weeks leading up to the annual budget when the media is full of real and totally imagined stories about what may or may not be done to us all. It is a field day for the fair dinkum spinners and the out and out rumour mongers. Better to block your ears and avert your eyes at any mention of what the budget will contain.
And prepare yourself to ignore, after the budget is delivered, all the predictions about what future growth rates will be and the impact they will have on eventual budget deficits or surpluses.
Taking no notice of S&P. If you wondered what the professional money managers think of ratings agencies then have a look at this little graph of what happened overnight our time to the interest rate on 10 year US Treasury notes:
Down went the rate (or, if you prefer, up went the price) after Standard & Poors put the United States on what it called “negative outlook” and said the chances are rising that the country will lose its prized AAA status.
Comments Paul Krugman on his blog:
I think the financial press is being even denser than usual on this one. If S&P warns that US bonds might not be safe, and the price of those bonds rises, you really have to wonder how anyone can write with a straight face that this warning caused other market movements. And it’s much worse to have this implausible theory reported as a settled fact.
Something to really worry about. If trying to interpret the signals given by markets is your go then something real for you to worry about is what is happening to Greek interest rates. There are the rate is going up at an alarming pace:
While the yield on 10 year bonds is now up to 14.55%, the two year yield is now up to 20.3%. The experts explain that the curve is inverted because investors expect to wake up one morning and own longer maturity debt at lower rates. This possibility hits the price of the 2 year bond more than the 10 year. (See Extend and Pretend Greek Style at Calculated Risk.)
This budget will reveal how bad our finances are and how poor a job the Government has done of wisely spending taxpayers dollars. The reckless spending and waste are coming home to roost on one of the poorest Treasurers we have had in decades.
Oh please, compared with most industralised nations our finances are in tip-top shape. Has every dollar been spent wisely? Of course not. That’s what happens when you have to spend money quickly to stimulate the economy and keep the country out of recession.
That S&P mob, what a bunch of arseclowns. They’d be the very same bunch of aforementioned who thought rating derivatives on sub-prime loans was OK as long as the banks paid them a bit more to hold their noses whilst handling the piles of ordure, and then ultimately collapsing the financial sector and requiring the US government to go into even more debt.
I wonder if any of them can spell irony?
It was amusing to watch the market take S&P’s blatant bit of political grandstanding with a pinch of salt and bid up treasuries.
“Climate Change”…this isn’t Murdoch world, we actually need evidence. So one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios on the planet (after mega financial meltdown), highest employment rate in years, and you trot out that claptrap?
Really.
@ CDunne,
This government has blown cash around like there is no tomorrow. Cash handouts to dead people and people overseas, overseas aid we cant afford, insulation bungles, BER disasters, the list is long.
Wayne Swan is incompetent and can only answer questions with a solid script.
Wake Up Boy