Macquarie Bank

Does anyone else have a creepy feeling about the strength of the Australian economy?

I can’t seem to shake the sensation that we’re all in some kind of 80s teen horror film: all dancing to the drum machine at summer camp with a frothing cup of beer in one arm and the entire cheerleading team in the other. This is of course moments Jason returns from the dead once more – announcing his entrance to the party by beheading the captain of the football team with an efficient slash of his machete.

If you think this overly pessimistic just remember all good things end: the record high Dow Jones Industrial Average was recorded on this date, October 11 2007, on day high 14,198.10 points. Almost exactly one year later, October 10 2008, the you have the largest intra day point swing on the Dow Jones since 1987, of 1,018.77, that day the market hits a low of 7,882.51 points.

Continue reading "What does Martin Place think of the Aussie economy?" »

In his great book City of Quartz urban geographer Mike Davis describes the lengths to which the City of Los Angeles has gone to make life difficult on its own people, reaching its zenith with the creation of “the bum-proof bench”, a specially-designed park bench which is curved so that homeless people can’t sleep on it.

If Mike ever comes to Australia he won’t have to go very far to find a similar level of designed hostility towards the public - he’ll have landed right next to it.

Already voted the worst airport in Australia, Sydney Airport has just become a whole lot more unpleasant with its management closing a turning lane for motorists – forcing them to use the exorbitant Macquarie Bank-owned carpark, or exit the airport altogether.

Without any public announcement, Sydney Airports Corporation has placed yellow road blocks and a no-exit sign on what for years had been a public turning lane which let motorists do a lap as they waited to pick and family and friends whose flights had been delayed.

Continue reading "The worst piece of infrastructure in Australia" »

For most of this century, it’s been very hard to love Macquarie Group, as the bank is now known.

It should be held up as a great Australian success story - a home-grown investment bank that has followed only a handful of local companies in creating a truly global business. Think Westfield (shopping malls), BHP (rocks and oil), Foster’s (beer and wine), CSL (blood and plasma) and News Corporation (fine company, generous employer).

It built a business model - buying, owning and milking infrastructure assets - that, at least until very recently, was being emulated around the world.

Continue reading "Come back Macquarie Bank, all is forgiven" »