Karen Maley

Australia does indeed face a looming and acute housing shortage, but with house prices seen at up to 30 per cent overvalued a severe speedbump in China could still see property values tumble.

This lacklustre round of big US bank earnings should serve as a wake-up call to Macquarie, which must identify creative new ways to differentiate itself from its larger global peers to return to bumper profits.

In an exclusive interview with Business Spectator, influential market analyst Charles Nenner argues there is much more pain ahead for the US as it enters a bond bear market, and that the Australian dollar is headed lower.

With industrialised nations facing years of weakness, a leading economist has identified 11 emerging economies that are most likely to drive global growth - and investment returns - in the years ahead.

As Chinese buyers ramp up their property presence across the globe, capital outflows from the country are a major challenge for Beijing, which is also battling the fallout from Europe.

Five years on from the beginning of the global financial crisis, there's far too much evidence financial regulators have been overly trusting of investment banks - and bankers are taking advantage of this.

Within weeks of the Beijing Olympic Games ending, global markets commenced a sharp correction. Now analysts argue we could be in for the same again - or worse.

As fears grow over Italy's ability to meet debt repayments, the country's bond yields are growing alarmingly high - and it looks like Mario Monti may have missed his chance to put a dampener on them.

Despite gains on Wall Street the American economy faces a string of problems that threaten its positive GDP print, including a raft of bad data coming out of China and Europe.

Trans-Atlantic co-operation between bank regulators has broken down, with the US pointing the finger at London over Standard Chartered. But Britain has hit back hard with talk of an anti-UK bias.

European leaders seems to have to come to terms with the possibility of a Greek exit from the eurozone, but markets are far more sceptical of the region's ability to cope with such a situation.

Shell's decision to pull funds out of Europe serves to further erode confidence in the region's battered banks at a time when financial scandals are erupting on both sides of the Atlantic.