Australian Housing Valuation Bubbles
An analysis and assessment of investor rationality Much has been written about Australian housing, whether or not it is in a valuation “bubble” or rather been driven by “fundamentals” of supply and demand. At the core of both sides of the argument is supposedly some form of valuation. It is clear... Read more
Recovery finally starts to reach job market
Technically, the recession has been over for nearly two years, since June 2009, but the job market has been agonizingly slow to recover. Now there are encouraging signs that may be changing.The March unemployment rate fell to 8.8 percent, its lowest in two years, and the economy added 216,000 jobs, ... Read more
Quick Analysis – Beyond Blockbuster, the demise of over the counter DVD rental
The decade that was and still is; Facebook, MySpace, You Tube and Internet DVD Rental. So who forgot to tell Blockbuster? Or did Blockbuster honestly think that they could take on its biggest competition....the internet? From 2001 to 2002 Blockbuster was the leader in the video rental business. Trad... Read more
Fantasy football fans are true lovers of the game
Recent research conducted by academics at Deakin university indicates that fantasy football fans are extremely valuable to their code. Associate Professor Heath McDonald and Adam Karg reveal that fantasy football fans are truly die hard supporters of the game. "Fantasy sport is a large industry, pa... Read more
New rumours of a Facebook phone
While many thought that Mark Zuckerberg’s last press presentation in many respects put to rest the likelihood of a Facebook phone being developed, the rumours have again cropped up. The speculation at present is that the new internet titan is developing a strongly cloud orientated phone with popular... Read more
NEC & Lenovo announce new strategic partnership in Japan
Lenovo the fastest growing computer manufacturing company in the world has signed a strategic partnership with NEC. Under the terms of the new agreement a new entity NEC Lenovo Japan group will be formed, with Lenovo holding the majority stake of 51 percent, with the remainder held by NEC. NEC has b... Read more
Nick Leeder new head of Google Australia
Nick Leeder is the new head of Google Australia, having joined the firm at a rather unique time, that is perhaps best described as a watershed period. Having lost long-time Google staffer Lars Rasmussen to rival Facebook, the firm is no longer the new kid on the block exhibiting explosive growth, ... Read more
Motorola becomes Motorola Solutions and Motorola mobility post split
Motorola’s much anticipated split will occur within weeks resulting in the structural separation of the entities core businesses into Motorola Mobility comprising its mobile and home solutions businesses and Motorola Solutions constituted by its enterprise mobile solutions division and networks busi... Read more
Facebook and Google going head to head, trying to change the face of communication
Facebook is trying to reshape communication, and in doing so bring an end to conventional email. Mark Zuckerberg spoke candidly of the need to find a better way to communicate, a more natural way to communicate that did away with some of the unnatural aspects of email style communication. He spoke o... Read more
How has the global recession impacted on the Australian retail industry?
The following is a narrative provided by Dr. Margaret McKenzie to journalist inquiries in relation to the Global financial crisis. It was authored last year and Dr. McKenzie has kindly allowed it to be reproduced for the Analyst. How has the global recession impacted on the Australian retail indus... Read more
Google announces new WebP image format
Google has recently released a new image format that is about 40% smaller than JPEGs, but there is one drawback, the new svelte format takes quite a bit longer to encode. It is nonetheless an intriguing development within image standards, an area where there has been some standards inertia for some ... Read more
Ebay reloaded
It has been recently reported that online seller Ebay is about to embark upon a major rebranding, and reorientating exercise. The online giant is renowned as a meeting place for buyers and sellers of all persuasions, but is particularly well known as an online used goods exchange conduit. Individual... Read more
Facebook not making a phone, looking for deep social integration
Reports have been circulating through the net that Facebook the social networking giant was looking to push its ubiquitous platform more heavily by producing and marketing its own phone. It was an intriguing supposition, the online behemoth taking on the hardware and software dominance of technology... Read more
John Maynard Keynes and the Global Financial Crisis
Keynes is best known as the author of the General Theory … published in 1936. Outside of Chapter 12, which is on long-run expectations, the book is not well written as compared to Keynes’ other efforts. It is as if he had forgotten his past, his writing style changed, a man under mental stress no... Read more
Airline Alliances get a little more interesting, as Branson’s Virgin enters the fray
Richard Branson is known for his unique approach to business and his ability to generate significant interest and support for his new ventures. From Virgin Music to Virgin Galactic, the serial entrepreneur has seemingly done it all. Yet his most recent venture speaks volumes about his business pragm... Read more
HP holds the lead with Dell in second, Lenovo making gains
It has been quite a year in the personal computer market; Matthew Wilkins of iSuppli has reported that first quarter sales reached a record 81.5 million, effectively about a 23% increase on 2009. HP remains the producer by market share, accounting for just over 18% of the total market equating to 14... Read more
The Kindle strategy – Gratis 3G coverage
Amazon has just released a new Kindle. While the devices are aesthetically and functionally similar to prior devices the new devices are differentiated in several key ways. The Kindle is 3G enabled making it one of the first e-ink devices with this capability. While this may seem somewhat unremarkab... Read more
The Keynote Blog
The Analyst is about to launch its newest blog the keynote. The Keynote focuses in the issues central to current trends and debates within society, and aims to get to the heart of matters currently conjectured. It provides critical coverage of key speeches and assertions offered in public forum. A p... Read more
The Financial Historian
The Analyst is pleased to announce that Professor Edwin Maberly and Dr. Raylene Maberly Pierce are going to be commencing their column on financial history in the coming weeks (titled the Financial Historian, the frequency of publication TBA). Both Ed and Raylene are recognised as experts in the are... Read more
Featured Analyst opinion
The Analyst features a number of expert business thinkers, in our monthly Expert Analysis column. The featured analysts provide their salient opinions in relation to a number of pertinent business issues. Contributions take the form of interviews, blog postings, guest editorial activities and feat... Read more
Recovery finally starts to reach job market
Technically, the recession has been over for nearly two years, since June 2009, but the job market has been agonizingly slow to recover. Now there are encouraging signs that may be changing.
The March unemployment rate fell to 8.8 percent, its lowest in two years, and the economy added 216,000 jobs, along with the 200,000-plus added in February, making those the strongest two months of hiring since the recession began in December 2007.
The unemployment rate has dropped a full percentage point over the past four months, making it the sharpest drop since 1983, when we were coming out of another bad recession.
The Associated Press notes that if hiring continues at this rate through the end of the year, the economy will have generated 2.5 million new jobs. While that's good, it's still not enough to make up for the 7.5 million jobs lost during the recession or employ the 13.5 million out of work.
The underemployment rate -- the percentage of people who are so discouraged that they have quit looking for work altogether and those who work part-time but want full-time jobs -- fell to 15.7 percent.
The unemployment rate may rise again, but for a good reason. As the job picture brightens, discouraged workers, who are not counted in the regular unemployment rate, may come flooding back into the job market, swelling the size of the workforce.
Employment shrank in construction, transportation and telecommunications; and after four months of layoffs, appears to have bottomed out in state government. But hiring in other sectors was more than healthy enough to offset that shrinkage plus the 15,000 layoffs by local governments.
More than anything the Republicans do, the economy will be the significant factor in whether Barack Obama is re-elected president. The jobs figures --"signs of real strength" -- left the president almost giddy.
At a visit to a UPS facility in the Washington suburbs, Obama said that making sure good jobs were available to any American who wants one "is the first thing I think about when I wake up every morning. It's the last thing I think about when I go to bed each night."
Hold that thought, Mr. President. The March numbers show we're getting there, but we're not there yet.
Dale McFeatters is a political analyst,his regular columns feature in the Analyst e-edition and monthly
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