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Showing 621 - 630 of 3072 results for "Benjamin"

Chief economist update: Another year over, a new one begins

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 7 JAN 2019
Happy New Year! I wish you one, although undoubtedly you've all been wished the same thing many times over from the lead up to Christmas and some are still coming in seven days into 2019... better late than never. You, I and Irene certainly need ...

Chief economist update: Fed fail

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 20 DEC 2018
We might just be heading to witness once again the truth about the old adage on Wall Street that "a bull market doesn't die of old age, the Fed murders it." As expected, the US Federal Reserve raised the fed funds rate by 25 basis points to 2.25%-2.5% ...

Chief economist update: The clown in the White House

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 18 DEC 2018
It's hard not to agree with US President Donald Trump's latest tweet: "It is incredible that with a very strong dollar and virtually no inflation, the outside world blowing up around us, Paris is burning and China way down, the Fed is even considering ...

Chief economist update: Is there a bear in there?

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 17 DEC 2018
It may not be Play School - yes, I was watching this Australian TV kiddie show when the kids were growing up - but the Australian Financial Review (AFR) and Bloomberg's now talking about the grizzly. "The S&P 600 small cap index fell into a bear ...

Chief economist update: ECB bids farewell to QE

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 14 DEC 2018
The European Central Bank (ECB) delivered on its promise. While it kept interest rates unchanged - repo rate at 0%; deposit facility rate at -0.4%; marginal lending facility rate at 0.25% - at its December 13 Governing Council meeting, it also confirmed ...

Chief economist update: Does the Fed lift or cut interest rates just for the heck of it?

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 13 DEC 2018
The British Parliament has put a full stop to months of speculation over PM Theresa May's leadership when she emerged victorious - 200 to 117 - over her own party's (the Conservative Party) no confidence motion lodged against her. The Party's ...

Chief economist update: So much Brexit uncertainty, so little time

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 12 DEC 2018
When UK prime minister Theresa May declared that "Brexit is Brexit" and "no Brexit deal is better than a bad Brexit deal" when she addressed EU ambassadors in London on the 17 January 2017, she laid out 12 objectives for Brexit negotiations: 1. Clarity ...

Chief economist update: Aussie property market drop becoming self-fulfilling

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 11 DEC 2018
We got chills, they're multiplying... How could something so good turn out to be so bad? It was all very good just as 2017 was turning into 2018... so good, that financial markets were pencilling in exit strategies from the world's major economies ...

And so this is Christmas, another year (almost) over

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 10 DEC 2018
The "mother of all eco stats" - the US employment report - has been released. But it was neither here nor there and by the looks of it, it didn't make an iota of a difference that the Fed will raise the fed funds rate by another 25 basis points ...

Chief economist update: A prelude to a rate cut?

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 7 DEC 2018
Could it be? Could it be that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is now pondering the likelihood that the next move in interest rates is down rather than up? In early June this year, I put forth a thesis that long stretches of steady interest rates ...