Charles Dickens penned these words as the start of his ‘Tale of Two Cities‘ – a stark portrayal of social, political and economic contrasts so vivid that it remains, even today, one of the biggest selling English novels. Why the literary reference? Apart from enjoying the novel immensely, the key phrase most clearly elucidates my…
This is just a quick note to comment on the wildly erratic gyrations on the US stockmarket overnight. It seems that speculation, fear and quite possibly a few incorrectly processed trades have resulted in the kind of near-meltdown that we have seen in the past – except that this time the actual basis of the…
Many, many people get hung up on whether houses are better than shares as long term investments and vice versa. Logic would dictate that over the long term, houses are a depreciating asset requiring substantial capital to buy or maintain with high transaction costs, and therefore are likely to underperform listed equity, which should overcome these hurdles. However, this ignores key characteristics of the property market as well as issues specific to Australia…
