00:00You might think that with everything going on at the moment, you know, an uprising in
00:05Iran, the prosecution of the chairman of the American Central Bank, as US government debt
00:09hits $38 trillion on the way to the moon, that the market might be getting jumpy.
00:13Well, you'd be wrong.
00:15Here's a graph of the VIX volatility index, and it has started the year in a state of
00:20blissful tranquility.
00:22In fact, the share market has gone full Alfred E. Newman.
00:26By the way, the world's leading central bankers, including Australia's Michelle Bullock, rode
00:30to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's defence last night with a joint statement that the independence
00:35of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interests
00:40of citizens, and that Mr Powell is a respected colleague held in the highest regard by all
00:45of them.
00:47Last night the US market fell slightly, and the Australian market was an oasis of calm
00:52today with gains by energy stocks, offsetting falls by the banks, led by Commonwealth, which
00:57has now fallen 20% from last year's peak of $192.
01:01The Aussie dollar eased back to just below 67 US cents, and the oil price jumped more than
01:072% last night because of what's going on in Iran, which is why energy stocks went up today.
01:12And speaking of Iran, here's a 12-month chart of the Iranian currency, the rial, and its exchange
01:18rate versus the US dollar, which is set by the mullahs.
01:22This month it's been devalued from two hundred thousandths of a US dollar to a bit less than
01:28a millionth.
01:29The average Iranian annual wage is about five billion rial, but it's fair to say Iranian
01:34people are not big travellers.
01:35A cup of coffee in Paris would cost them 25 million rial, or more than a day's salary.
01:41No wonder they're sick of it.
01:44And that's finance.
01:48There you go.
Comments