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Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) — London’s Square Mile is shrinking faster than any financial center in the world.

Having fired more employees than in any other country last year, the capital’s banks are facing falling trading revenue, attacks from politicians to reduce pay and more job cuts. The U.K. government wants banks to split their consumer and investment banking units while European Union leaders are pushing to tax individual trades by the end of this year.

“We’re going to end up with a smaller, more focused financial sector,” said Michael Kirkwood, 64, former head of Citigroup Inc.’s U.K. division, who began his career in the Square Mile in 1965. “The entire financial world became too bloated in the run up to the financial crisis, and London was excessively bloated.”

London, the world’s biggest center for foreign-exchange trading, cross-border bank lending and interest-rate derivatives, is being squeezed by both the impact of the European sovereign-debt crisis on demand for its services and politicians who blame financiers for bringing the world economy to the brink of collapse. Banks are responding to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s latest rules by exiting capital-intensive activities such as proprietary trading, putting at risk the U.K.’s biggest exporting industry and 12 percent of its tax receipts.

RBS Cuts 3,500

“Most of the main sales and trading desks in Europe, Middle East and Africa are here,” said Philip Keevil, a former head of North American investment banking at S.G. Warburg & Co. and now a partner at New York-based advisory firm Compass Advisers LLP. “Insofar as global banks have to make cuts in these areas because of Basel III and other regulations, then the cuts will be in London.”

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, which got the world’s biggest bank bailout, said last week it will close its equities and corporate finance units, cutting as many as 3,500 jobs. The division is unprofitable and the bank will “reduce in areas where capital intensity is high,” it said. RBS has already cut 30,000 jobs since it was bailed out by the government in 2008 and 2009, costing 45.5 billion pounds ($69.7 billion).

U.K. Cutbacks

U.K. financial-services firms eliminated 58,000 jobs last year, more than any other country in the world and 45 percent of the cutbacks announced by all western European banks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Employment for London’s bankers dropped 8.5 percent last year compared with 2010 and over the next two years will remain below 1998 levels, according to the Centre for Economics & Business Research Ltd. U.S finance jobs dropped 1.7 percent in the same period, according to headhunting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., citing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The industry’s contribution to U.K. gross domestic product shrank from 2009 to 2010, the first time in a decade, according to TheCityUK, a lobby group, which cited data from the Office of National Statistics. Financial services dropped to 8.9 percent of GDP in 2010, the latest data available, from 10.1 percent in 2009. That’s still up from 5.2 percent of GDP in 2000.

“The whole industry needs to be consolidated and needs to be shrunk,” said John Mann, a Labour Party lawmaker. “It’s too powerful. That is to the huge detriment of the long-term sustainability of economic growth in this country.”

Tax Revenue Declines

The shrinking financial sector is lowering Britain’s tax revenue, according to TheCityUK. Financial services paid 63 billion pounds in taxes last year, or 12 percent of total revenue, it said, citing data from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the City of London Corporation. That’s down from 2007, when the industry contributed 14 percent of tax receipts.

Tax revenue is being squeezed because banks are making lower profits. Basel III’s capital and liquidity rules will cut investment banks’ return on equity to 7 percent from 20 percent, according to a report by New York-based McKinsey & Co. published in September. That will reduce profit after tax to $30 billion from $40 billion for the biggest 13 banks, it said.

“Institutions that aren’t in the top positions in certain products will begin to exit those products,” said Giles Williams, head of KPMG LLP’s financial-services regulatory center of excellence in London. “Banks will focus on what they are good at and what they’re famous for.”

Proprietary trading in fixed income, commodities and derivatives markets may be the worst affected by the extra capital requirements, Williams said.

UBS Cuts 2,000

“Trying to reduce the capital impact is clearly an aim for many of the banks,” said Ian Baggs, global banking and capital markets deputy leader at Ernst & Young LLP in London. Banks are focusing on achieving a high volume of trades with client money in markets such as interest-rate swaps rather than proprietary trading, which uses the bank’s own money to take positions and carries a high regulatory capital requirement, he said.

UBS AG, hit by a $2.3 billion trading loss in London, announced a plan in November to shrink its investment bank to focus on wealth management at a cost of 2,000 jobs. It plans to exit asset securitization, complex structured products, macro- directional trading and equity proprietary trading. The firm investment bank’s European headquarters is in London and it employs about 7,000 people in the U.K.

Smaller Stockbrokers

In the first quarter of last year, bank executives were planning to cut costs by 10 percent to 15 percent to boost return on equity targets, Ernst & Young’s Baggs said. Now they’re targeting 40 percent cost reductions, he said.

Clients’ aversion to risk amid the turmoil in Europe is also squeezing equity trading desks and smaller stockbrokers in particular. Average trading volumes on the London Stock Exchange has remained below pre-crisis levels, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Morgan Stanley’s heads of European credit sales and trading, emerging market fixed-income sales and trading departed as well as two managing directors at its equities unit in London. Nomura Holdings Inc. is also scaling back its European expansion that began after the purchase of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s European and Asian units in 2008.

Stockbrokers Evolution Group Plc, Merchant Securities Group Plc, Arbuthnot Securities Ltd. and Collins Stewart Hawkpoint Plc have all accepted takeover offers from larger competitors since the end of October.

Economic Forecasts Reduced

“For firms that have revenue falling off a cliff with a large cost base, the future is very bleak,” said Jamie Moyes, who worked in sales trading at London-based brokerage Liberum Capital Ltd. until September. “The events of the market place are horrendous.” Moyes plans to help set up a stockbroking firm, starting with about six partners.

Aside from trading, equity capital markets and merger and acquisition advisory teams are also being slimmed down as a result of lower demand from corporate clients because of the European sovereign-debt crisis and worsening economic outlook.

The euro-region economy may expand 0.3 percent in 2012 instead of a previously forecast 1.3 percent, the European Central Bank said on Dec. 8. Some forecasters, including Morgan Stanley, project the region will shrink this year.

Firms in the U.K. raised 9.7 billion euros ($12.4 billion) through share sales last year compared with 24.9 billion euros in 2010 and 71.4 billion euros in 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Bonuses Decline

The reduced corporate activity is affecting pay. Bonuses paid to the average London financial services worker for 2011 may shrink by about a fifth to 19,920 pounds, or 24 percent of their base salary, according to a survey by recruitment firm Astbury Marsden.

While London’s banks have survived declines before, their profitability is under a fresh attack from international regulators. The European Commission, which drafts legislation for the European Union, has proposed a transaction tax of 0.1 percent on trading of stocks and bonds, and a 0.01 percent rate for derivatives contracts.

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne called the tax “a bullet aimed at the heart of London” and estimates as much as 80 percent of the revenue raised will come from U.K. firms. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said last week he’s willing to impose the levy unilaterally in an effort to spur other countries to join.

Transaction Tax

The European Commission estimates the tax on its own could raise 57 billion euros a year. That’s optimistic because it excludes the impact of lower capital-gains tax revenue and gross domestic product, a study by Ernst & Young said this month.

The tax will increase transaction costs in the foreign- exchange market by three to seven times and by as much as 18 times for the most traded parts of the market, a study by Oliver Wyman commissioned by the Global Financial Markets Association said today.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron insists Britain can veto the EU tax, meaning countries within the 17-nation euro area may need to introduce the levy on their own. That may still put pressure on Britain should euro-region countries impose the tax on euro-denominated products.

Talking Tough

European parliamentarians have also suggested rules to force clearinghouses that handle euro-denominated securities to be based within the euro region, prompting the U.K. to sue the European Central Bank, saying the plan would compromise free markets. London is home to 40 percent of the world’s over-the- counter derivatives trades and LCH Clearnet Group Ltd., Europe’s biggest clearinghouse.

While defending London’s financial interests in Europe, the U.K. government has been talking tough on the industry at home, where unemployment is at a 17-year high and the economy has struggled to grow following the financial crisis four years ago.

Cameron used his first speech of the New Year to pledge an end to bankers’ “excess” while Osborne said last week the industry should be a “smaller slice” of the economy.

Cameron’s government last year accepted proposals from the Independent Commission on Banking to force banks to insulate their consumer banking units while increasing capital requirements. Those recommendations will cost banks as much as 7 billion pounds annually to implement, the panel said.

Barclays, HSBC

Among the U.K. banks, the proposals will affect lenders with investment banking divisions the most and Lloyds Banking Group Plc the least because it is mainly a retail bank, according to analysts at HSBC Global Research on Jan. 10. RBS, Barclays Plc, and HSBC Holdings Plc all have investment banks.

London’s decline puts its status as the world’s premier financial center under threat from New York and Hong Kong, which are catching up, according to a survey of 1,887 executives by financial-services research firm Z/Yen, published in September. The survey asked about issues such as regulation, tax and lifestyle.

“London may not always be number one in the world, but it will still be a strong financial center,” said Mark Yeandle, Z/Yen’s associate director in London. “It’s not going to fall out of the top five anytime soon.”

London’s Advantages

London’s strengths include its depth of expertise, time zone, language and legal infrastructure, according to Z/Yen. It is home to 241 foreign banks, more than in any other country, the biggest foreign-exchange market and the largest market for interest-rate derivatives, with $1.4 trillion of daily revenue, or 46 percent of the world’s total, according to the Bank for International Settlements.

Ten years ago, London’s bankers were dealing with the bursting of the dot-com bubble and were concerned the City would be left behind as Europe began trading its single currency. It went on to have its most profitable five years on record. This time, bankers say they’re hoping history repeats itself.

The second half of 2011 “was the worst I can remember in my career because we moved from a financial crisis to a sovereign-debt crisis,” said Robert James, an analyst of financial stocks at Aviva Plc who has worked in London for 22 years. “Now the realization has dawned on the politicians that they have to do something about it. That has to be a good thing for 2012.”

Residex Pty Limited
John Edwards

Given the problems and the position of global economies, Australia has done well by comparison and in global stakes it remains one of the few bright spots.

Adverse comments and the position currently surrounding European economic problems have certainly had an impact on Australia’s economy; however it is important to recognise the position Australia holds, and that if things do go horribly wrong, Australia has the capacity to simulate its economy by increasing borrowings and decreasing interest rates.

Our housing markets ended 2011 in a better position to where they started and I am confident that the year ahead will be better for residential property owners compared to last year. Most owners should see their assets hold value or increase and this year could in fact be a good time for investor activity provided the world economy doesn’t move into severe recession as a consequence of the problems in Europe.

In the graph ‘House and Unit Trends’ I present the monthly trend for Australia over the last two years. The data suggests that we are exiting a period of negative adjustment however, in my view, we should not expect any rapid uplift in housing values because current economic conditions are not capable of supporting strong consumer activity. Retail activity during the Christmas period certainly suggests that consumers are cautious.

A number of capital city markets are now trending up. I present the “good and the bad” outcomes in the following graphs*.

While most of us will not be happy to see the adjustments that have taken place in the last year, we should recognise that our markets were overvalued and affordability was a real issue. Realistically, affordability is still an issue but provided growth rates over the next few years are in line with long term growth trends of close to one percent real growth (one percent above inflation), and interest rates decrease a little further, last year’s adjustments have been good and ensured that we avoid the speculated housing “bubble bust”. The bottom line is that we have achieved a good result and it looks like an overall improving position may be the trend in the coming year.

The unemployment rate is going to play a significant role in Reserve Bank decision on the cash rate this year. Employment growth has slowed to less than 1 per cent and in annual terms the rate has ranged from 5 per cent to 5.3 per cent since mid-2011. The Reserve Bank closed out 2011 with two consecutive rate cuts of 25 basis points and the RBA will be closely monitoring unemployment figures. Any increase in unemployment will trigger further interest rate reductions and with the slowing in retail activity we should expect an increase in layoffs in this sector in the first quarter of 2012.

A further potential driver of RBA interest rate reductions this year is the trading bank funding costs. The eurozone crisis has seen an increase in the spread between the Reserve Bank’s cash rate and its cost of funds. Should this continue, it will cause banks to hold back on passing on the full benefit of RBA cash rate reductions. This in turn will cause the Reserve Bank to make larger reductions than it might not have otherwise made.

I believe that the top of the current interest rate cycle has passed and from here we will see rates decrease. Interest rate decreases have an added benefit in that they will reduce the value of the Australian dollar and help to stimulate exports. Should the time come when Australia does find it necessary to stimulate the economy, as I mentioned before, there is plenty of monetary adjustment available to do so.

Overall, the outcome for the year ahead will depend on interest rates, the eurozone crisis, inflation, the employment level and the carbon tax.

The recent move by the ANZ bank, which will probably be followed by others in due course, to set its home loan rate independently to any interest rate adjustments by the Reserve Bank has reduced the power of the only economic lever that the RBA had. The banks tell us, and it seems very reasonable to believe, that borrowing rates are not significantly aligned with the Reserve Bank cash rate as banks are significant off-shore borrowers.

Consumer confidence and recent retail activity points to a cash rate reduction by the Reserve Bank in February as the most probable outcome. The issue will then be, will lenders pass on the cut and how much will they opt to pass on. The interest rate separation will probably lead to larger RBA cuts in the cash rate than what would have otherwise been necessary.

For Europe, we are approaching the point where decisions and actions are needed and it is likely that the markets will force an outcome. We expect the 17 nation eurozone to change and that it will spend a significant part of this year in recession; in particular the first part of 2012. Further, Standard and Poor’s has just cut the credit rating of nine countries using the euro, including France. This action has the potential to make things worse as the cost of funds is likely to rise as a consequence.

Domestic inflation will be critical to the actions of the Reserve Bank. Recent inflation outcomes have been favourable and in November, the RBA lowered its inflation forecast for 2012 to 2.5 per cent which is within its target band. Inflation doesn’t appear to be an issue in 2012 and should not be the cause of any rate rises.

The new carbon tax comes into effect from July 2012 at $23 per ton of carbon pollution. Tax payers with incomes of less that $80,000 get a reasonable tax cut but we are not prepared to guess the actual impact on the economy and the resulting behaviour of consumers.

In light of all of the above, it is easy to form a negative view about the likely outcome in 2012. I urge you to acknowledge how lucky Australia is and recognise that if the year does unfold in a negative nature, it also provides opportunity. Australians are much better placed than many other people in the world and the adjustment period we have recently seen, with a clear upswing in our markets in the last few months, means that there is a reasonable chance that our markets will advance positively, albeit by a relatively small amount, in the current year. Additionally, in this situation there will be bargains for the astute house hunter along with quality growth in many suburbs.

Make sure you take a look at December 2011 capital city market statistics in Australia as A Whole. For an in-depth market analysis, get a copy of the latest Residex Report which is due out next week.

Until next time,
Happy investing.

Source: The Australian

The past decade has seen a dramatic increase of international students in Australia. See below for a breakdown of which countries are sending the most, which courses are most popular and what the education industry contributes to the world economy.

A broader analysis by The Economist finds that China has already overtaken America on well over half of 21 different indicators, including manufacturing output, exports and fixed investment. The chart below predicts when China will surpass America on the rest. By 2014, for example, it could be the world’s biggest importer and have the largest retail sales. America still tops a few league tables by a wider margin. Its stockmarket capitalisation is four times bigger than China’s, and it spends five times as much on defence. Even though China’s defence budget is growing faster, on recent growth rates America’s will remain larger until 2025.

IN THE spring of 2011 the Pew Global Attitudes Survey asked thousands of people worldwide which country they thought was the leading economic power. Half of the Chinese polled reckoned that America remains number one, twice as many as said “China”. Americans are no longer sure: 43% of US respondents answered “China”; only 38% thought America was still the top dog. The answer depends on which measure you pick. An analysis of 21 different indicators chosen by The Economist (see the full set) finds that China has already overtaken America on over half of them and will be top on virtually all of them within a decade.

Economic power is best gauged by looking at absolute size rather than per-person measures. On a few indicators, such as steel consumption, ownership of mobile phones and beer-guzzling (a crucial test of economic superiority), the milestone was reached as long as a decade ago. Several more have been passed since. In 2011 China exported about 30% more than the United States and spent some 40% more on fixed capital investment. China is the world’s biggest manufacturer, and partly as a result it burns around 10% more energy and emits almost 40% more greenhouse gases than America (although its emissions per person are only one-third as big). The Chinese also buy more new cars each year than anybody else.

The country that invented the compass, gunpowder and printing is also challenging America in the innovation stakes. We estimate that in 2011 more patents were granted to residents in China than in America. The quality of some Chinese patents may be dubious but they will surely improve. The World Economic Forum’s “World Competitiveness Report” ranks China 31st out of 142 countries on the quality of its maths and science education, well ahead of America’s 51st place. China’s external financial clout also beats America’s hands down. It has total net foreign assets of $2 trillion; America has net debts of $2.5 trillion.

The chart shows our predictions for when China will overtake America on several other measures. Official figures show that China’s consumer spending is currently only one-fifth of that in America (although that may be understated because of China’s poor statistical coverage of services). Based on relative growth rates over the past five years it will remain smaller until 2023. Retail sales are catching up much faster, and could exceed America’s by 2014. In that same year China also looks set to become the world’s biggest importer—a huge turnaround from 2000, when America’s imports were six times those of China.

What about GDP, the most widely used measure of economic power? The IMF predicts that China’s GDP will surpass America’s in 2016 if measured on a purchasing-power parity (PPP) basis, which adjusts for the fact that prices are lower in poorer countries. But America will only really be eclipsed when China’s GDP outstrips it in dollar terms, converted at market-exchange rates.

In 2011 America’s GDP was roughly twice as big as China’s, down from eight times bigger in 2000. To predict how quickly that gap might be closed, The Economist has updated its interactive online chart (also here) which allows you to plug in your own assumptions about real GDP growth in China and America, inflation rates and the yuan’s exchange rate against the dollar. Our best guess is that annual real GDP growth over the next decade averages 7.75% in China (down from 10.5% over the past decade) and 2.5% in America; that inflation (as measured by the GDP deflator) averages 4% and 1.5% respectively; and that the yuan appreciates by 3% a year. If so, then China will overtake America in 2018. That is a year earlier than our prediction in December 2010 because China’s GDP in dollar terms increased by more than expected in 2011.

Second place is for winners

Even if China became the world’s biggest economy by 2018, Americans would remain much richer, with a GDP per head four times that in China. But Rupert Hoogewerf, the founder of the annual Hurun Report on China’s richest citizens, reckons that it may already have more billionaires. His latest survey identified 270 dollar billionaires but the true total, he says, is probably double that because many Chinese are secretive about their wealth. According to the Forbes rich list, America has 400 billionaires or so.

America still tops a few league tables by a wide margin. Its stockmarket capitalisation is four times bigger than China’s and it has more than twice as many firms in the Fortuneglobal 500, which lists the world’s biggest companies by revenue. Last but not least, America spends five times as much on defence as China does, and even though China’s defence budget is expanding faster, on recent growth rates America will remain top gun until 2025.

Being the biggest economy in the world does offer advantages. It helps to ensure military superiority and gives a country more say in fixing international rules. Historically, the biggest economy has become the issuer of the main reserve currency, which is why America has also been able to borrow more cheaply than it otherwise would. But it would be a mistake for American leaders to try to block China’s rise. China’s rapid growth benefits the whole global economy. It is better to be number two in a fast-growing world than top dog in a stagnant one.

Theage.com.au
Gareth Hutchens December 26, 2011

THE Australian dollar had two stories to tell this year, like the sides of a classic gold coin.In the first half of the year, it was a tale of dollar “strength”, when the Chinese-led mining boom put a rocket under commodity prices, lifting the currency to a post-float high in July.Its record US110.81¢ price tag forced a rethink on how the dollar fitted into the global economy.Traders started to call it a “safe haven”, a harbour from wobbles on jittery sharemarkets, when previously it had been considered a ”barometer of risk”, the sort of currency investors would dump when they worried about global economic conditions.By midyear, some economists were predicting the dollar would jump past US115¢, even US120¢, if China’s economic growth continued apace and stability returned to Europe and the US, where the “debt ceiling” crisis was then at its pointy end.But the coin flipped and the dollar’s story changed around midyear. When China’s economy started to slow and waves of bad news pulsed out from Europe, it switched to a story of the dollar’s “resilience” – despite large disruptions in global markets, the currency held up remarkably well.

AAP

Greek residents are flocking to Australia in search of a better life as economic turmoil in their home country takes its toll on their professional prospects.

Since June, community leaders in suburban Melbourne claim to have been deluged with thousands of letters, emails and telephone calls from Greeks desperate to migrate to Australia, a nation seen as a land of opportunity, British newspaper The Guardian reports.

“They’re all university graduates, engineers, architects, mechanics, teachers, bankers who will do anything for work,” Greek community president and lawyer Bill Papastergiades said from Melbourne.

smh.com.au

December 23, 2011

“It’s desperate stuff. We’re all aghast. Often they’ll just turn up with a bag. Their stories are heartbreaking and on every plane there are more.”

During 2011 some 2500 Greeks have moved to Australia, while officials in Athens told The Guardian that a further 40,000 have “expressed interest” in relocating.

“The other day I had a phone call from a Greek plumber who said he hadn’t worked for eight months, had three kids to feed and was so desperate he had considered killing himself,” Mr Papastergiades said.

“The same day I received a letter from a professor at Athens University who also said he wanted to migrate with his entire family here.”

Unemployment in Greece stands at a record 18 per cent as the country braces to enter a fifth year of recession.

Artist and curator Tessie Spilioti, 45, who relocated from Athens to Melbourne in 2010, told The Guardian she misses her family and friends in Greece every day.

“But Australia is a positive country. It’s the land of plenty, there’s a feeling of abundance and of opportunity,” she said.

“That’s missing in Greece. Instead people are panic-stricken, the vibe is bad, the psychology is bad and there’s a feeling of almost being under siege.”

While Australia tops the list of favoured relocation options, a recent study of Greek university graduates showed that younger generations are turning to more diverse countries such as Russia, China and Iran.

By Residex
22 NOVEMBER 2011

From the CEO
“Worlds Apart”
MarketWrap with John Edwards,
CEO of Residex and FindMeaHome.com.au

Click here to read John’s complete MarketWrap commentary.

Australia as a Whole

Click here to see the capital city market analysis for houses and units.

*The results provided above are not subject to any future revision. Residex has developed technology which allows it to release statistics on the performance of the markets with proven high levels of accuracy with lower levels of data than is required for hedonic and stratified median results. This means Residex is able to release accurate results earlier than any other party in the market. The Residex method is unique and while it is based on a repeat sales technology it is not the usual method and therefore avoids the inherent problems in generally accepted hedonic, repeat sales and stratified median methods.

By John McCarthy From: The Courier-Mail November 09, 2011 1:00am

CHINA has fallen in love with Australia in what is forecast to become a $9 billion romance if the tourism industry gets it right.

While financially strapped Americans and disaster-affected Japanese have stopped travelling Down Under, the Chinese are heading to our shores in record numbers, the Courier-Mail reported.

The industry is poised the reap the benefits of a boom bigger than the Japanese influx during the 1980s.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show visitors from China for the year to September jumped 23 per cent, almost wiping out the losses from America (-10.6 per cent) and Japan (-16.3 per cent).

Tourism Australia said the China inbound market in 2010 was worth $3.26 billion to the Australian economy. By 2020, this market has the potential to contribute $7 billion to $9 billion annually.

The statistics back the decision by Queensland’s richest man, Clive Palmer, to buy the Hyatt Coolum and focus on the China market.

The coming boom increases Australia’s economic reliance on China, which is already underwriting much of the current mining expansion in Queensland.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said dealing with the influx was a big challenge because Chinese visitors were as culturally diverse as parts of Europe.

He said word-of-mouth promotion was a major factor in China.

The Chinese were also less likely to move away from the major cities such as Cairns, Brisbane and the Gold Coast and many travelled just to buy major fashion labels, which were more expensive in China than here.

Mr Gschwind said Australia was short of Mandarin-speaking guides and there had been issues around shopping rip-offs where tour groups were herded towards shops that paid kickbacks to guides.

While numbers from China were increasing, the total number of incoming tourists was down 4.1 per cent, the first decline in three months.

The drop means tourist numbers for the year are now below 2010 figures and Australia has a major tourist deficit with 1.77 million more people leaving the country than arriving.

Bloomberg By John Detrixhe - Aug 6, 2011 9:09 AM GMT+0800   The U.S. had its AAA credit rating downgraded for the first time byStandard & Poor’s, which slammed the nation’s political process and said lawmakers failed to cut spending enough to reduce record deficits. S&P dropped the ranking one level to AA+, after warning on [...]

Asian migration a tour de force Tim Colebatch June 17, 2011 Photo: Rebecca Hallas AUSTRALIA is now home to more than 2 million people born in Asia – and they are on the brink of overtaking the European-born population for the first time in our history. New figures from the Bureau of Statistics estimate the [...]