Shareswatch Australia

Often finance writers comment that the investment world has changed since the Global Financial Crisis sent stock markets around the world tumbling in 2008 and 2009.  Maybe that is true or maybe it’s just that investors stopped paying attention to the risks and focused too much on the possible profits? In any case, it’s time to think about what might happen in the next 5 years or so and contemplate making some changes to my Australian stock market investment strategy.

Often it is useful to step away from looking at the daily movements of the stock market and review what has happened over the last decade.  This won’t exactly tell investors which stocks will do well during the next 10 years, but it does show which trends have moved the market to where it is now.

First a few personal facts. My involvement with China goes back to the early sixties as a diplomat in Hongkong where I was learning Mandarin. For a while I served as China desk officer in Canberra’s foreign affairs ministry. Then during Cultural Revolution days I finally got to China, by organizing an Australian pingpong team (over Canberra’s opposition).

Well the Dow Jones closed this morning below 10,000 and for those financial writers who focus more on grabbing reader’s attention rather than on facts, that can only mean one thing: the U.S economy is heading for a double dip recession! Of course the fact that the U.S economy is actually expanding, as are other major economies like China, Japan and Germany, appears irrelevant to many market commentators who seem intent on making investors fear that another economic crisis is at hand.

Well the Government’s response to the Henry Tax Review has been released and even Ruddites like David Koch from Kev07′s public relations program “Sunrise”, seem annoyed by the way the report is basically being shelved. Suddenly the business media has woken up to the fact that Rudd and Swan are economic dills, but as reader’s of this blog will be aware I have been warning about what these two would do to the economy for years.

Toyota’s current recall woes have generated a range of articles about the Japanese economy as journalists rush to get some Japan flavoured content served up to their masters. But often these articles simply rehash the same tired cliches about Japan and it’s economy and don’t provide people outside Japan with a balanced view of what is really happening.

I have not focused on the Australian political landscape for a few months but the recent tragic deaths of 4 people installing home insulation as part of the Rudd Governments spend-a-thon, has reminded me of the dangers of a government obsessed with poll numbers and popularity.

Over the last week the Australian stock market has taken a turn downwards pretty much inline with markets across Asia, Europe and the U.S.  Once again no mater how much the RBA talks up our economy, the fact is that Australia’s economic health depends on how our major trading partners are doing and investors are starting to get worried about the global economic outlook.

Have you noticed of late how the Australian stock market is just not listening to the Reserve Bank’s Glenn Stevens? No matter how optimistic the RBA Governor sounds the ASX All Ords refuses to surge past 5000, so what is happening? Are investors wrong about the state of the Australian economy and simply not picking up on the positive economic indicators the RBA is apparently seeing?

Over the past few weeks most of the economic news from Australia’s major trading partners has been fairly good. As a result the Australian stock market has continued to rise along with markets in Europe, Asia and the United States. But before we get too carried away it is probably a good idea to look beyond stock prices in order to check how the global economy is really faring.

Tomorrow Japan goes to the polls and there seems almost no chance that Taro Aso will be returned as Prime Minister. But don’t be fooled into thinking this is because the DPJ (Democratic Part of Japan) ran a great election campaign, put forward excellent policies or their leader Yukio Hatayama is hugely popular.

The tentative signs of a global recovery (albeit a weak one) are becoming stronger each day and people who predicted a global depression have faded from view.  So the Australian economy is poised for growth again and everything is back on track right? Well not quite.

Technological advancements and the fortunes of mankind have been intertwined since our distant ancestors worked out how to harness the power of fire or use a sharpened stick to hunt for food. The future will be no different so it makes sense as investors to try and have some understanding of how some technologies may develop over the next decade or so.

Well another financial year is drawing to a close and for most stock market investors the last 12 months have not been very kind. But it is now time to contemplate how the next financial year may unfold and think about any opportunities or threats we may face as investors.

One of the many misjudgements made by the Rudd Government in managing the Australian economy this year has been their almost fanatical belief that Australia would be shielded from the worst of the global financial crisis because of our trade with China. For the first part of this year in addition to the “War on Inflation”, Rudd and Swan were also pushing the line that our significant exports to China would keep the Australian economy ticking over nicely despite the problems brewing in the economies of the United States and the Eurozone.

As most people will probably know, real estate prices in Japan collapsed in the early 1990′s as part of the damage caused by the bursting of the infamous Japanese bubble economy. Sadly for the Japanese economy, there was no magical recovery and the dizzying prices seen in the late 1980′s were never seen again. Prices dropped for years and Japan entered a period often labelled as “the lost decade”. (although the term seems a little harsh to me)