Shareswatch Australia

It is time once again to put my ramblings, rants and ruminations for the previous 12 months under the spotlight. Did I correctly spot any stock market or economic trends or should I be standing in the corner with the dunce cap on for most of 2010?

Well 2009 is almost over and although stock market investors did it tough in the first quarter, overall the ASX All Ordinaries and S&P/ASX 200 posted healthy gains of around 30%. This means stocks & shares were in fact a good place to have your money over the last 12 months.

Recently Glenn Stevens of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) appears to be taking credit for everything from the robust nature of the Australian economy to the mining boom. What he seems to have forgotten or is not willing to admit, is that the RBA has made a number of  forecasts over the last couple of years that have been very wrong and probably raised interest rates too high in 2008.

Often economists, journalists and politicians use so much jargon when talking about the current economic situation that is is hard to follow what they are actually trying to say. Economists for example cannot seem to agree on anything except that they are legends in their own minds, journalists try and fumble through economic discussions and politicians simply try and convince us they know what they are talking about. The simple fact is much of the time all three groups talk utter rubbish.