MALCOLM IS FINISHED TODAY

Good morning,

it was a good performance by the Prime Minister yesterday, but unfortunately those opinion polls were enough to shake the already fragile foundations into dust.

My forecast would be that he is finished today.

It is sad. I wished him well from the very beginning. He read my personal note about 20% company tax, and for income and GST too at dinner on his third night as Prime Minister. 

Malcolm had been a recipient of my daily reports, and had even asked for them to go to his wife and daughter as well. 

He was popular among voters because he was seen as tough and even brutal. Instead, he went down the path of populist leader, and to be seen to be a carer. When he should have been strong arming and leading the sheep in the party, and voters too. 

We have not had a great Prime Minister since Hawke, Keating, Howard. No one has come close since. They are about focus groups and what voters want. When they should be about seeing what voters cannot see, and then informing and leading the nation with their own viewpoint.

This is what Malcolm should have done. 

This is what Malcolm could have done.

It really is a tragedy for the nation, the missed opportunity to be one of our great Prime Ministers, but so too was Abbott. Who made so many un-necessary major errors with his co called captains picks. Doing a good job, but what an idiot on so many fronts. Half way through his election campaign against Gillard, it was I, who had to tell him to stop calling her the Prime Minister. To instead call her the other candidate or opponent. It always bothered me, that I had to point this out. What were his staff thinking? And it was this staff who were a big part of his un-doing.

With Dutton we will see Abbott back in Cabinet. The Liberals will now have a shot at the next election. As for economic policy... can anyone get me a meeting in Queensland?

Over in the USA

As galling as it is for many of us, Trump continues to make economic sense. It is fair to say that there is no reason for the Fed to keep raising rates. Perhaps not as bluntly as the President has, but the new reality of global competition must be a part of every central banker and every government department regulator's thinking the world over. 

Most behind on all this is Australia.

Yes, I have written many an article entitled "Wake Up Australia". Just 25 million people sitting atop the wealthiest pile of rocks and agricultural land in the world, we really do need to be world's best practice in just about everything. Simply to survive. 

We still expect the Fed to hike, but this will not be a continuous stream of hikes any longer, as we correctly forecast previously. We are almost finished in this tightening cycle, for the reasons of a greater self-regulation by the economy itself on inflation. 

It will take the mainstream quite a while to figure this out. So we still have quite an advantage. Combined with rates being lower long term than just about anyone anticipates, the economic growth and corporate profits will continue to boom.

It is a great time to be aggressively adding to your stock portfolio.

Regards, 

Clifford

www.cliffordbennett.com.au