Aussie dollar reaches new high

The Australian dollar reached a fresh two-year high against the U.S. dollar early Wednesday as strong retail sales and a banking report of more help from the U.S. Federal Reserve lifted the currency.The Aussie was further boosted in Asian trading after intervention by Japanese authorities to sell down the price of the Yen. Japan stepped into the currency market on Wednesday for the first time in six years, selling yen to stem a rise that is threatening its fragile economic recovery.

(source: Wall Street Journal; Business Spectator)

Commercial finance commitments improve

Total personal finance commitments fell 0.7 per cent in July $6.833 billion, down from $6.882 billion in June, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This is for stuff like personal loans, personal credit cards and store finance. No doubt we'll soon hear from Gerry Harvey about the need for further government stimulous if this trend is maintained.

However, on a more positive note for the economy, total commercial finance rose 8.2 per cent in July to $29.785 billion, up from $27.537 billion in June. Lease finance was up 3.2 per cent $386 million, compared with $374 million the month before, and housing finance for owner occupation rose 2.3 per cent to $13.761 billion in July, up from $13.458 billion in June.

(Source: Business Spectator)

Australia - we're a nation of givers

According to a report by the British-based Charities Aid Foundation, AUSTRALIA is a nation of givers, tying equal first with our cousins across the Tasman, New Zealand as the countries whose citizens are most willing to donate their time and money to charity.

The report found 70 per cent of Australians had given money to a charity, and 38 per cent had donated their time, in the month before they were surveyed. Almost two-thirds had given assistance to a stranger.

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)

Home buyers returning to market

HOME buyers, lured by a steady interest rate outlook and cooling house-price growth, have been returning to the market, with demand for home loans picking up. At the same time, there are
emerging signs that some banks are again letting home owners borrow more, with some lenders starting to relax recent tight standards with the reintroduction of higher LVR loans.

Demand for home loans eased earlier this year, pressured by three consecutive monthly interest rate rises and ballooning prices along Australia's east coast. In May, housing credit was running at a three-month annualised growth rate of 6 per cent; however, this had since increased to 8.2 per cent.

Yesterday the Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures showing housing finance commitments rose 1.7 per cent in July, seasonally adjusted. The result easily beat the market forecast of a 1 per cent rise.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

Money makes you think you're happy

Does money make you happy?

It's an age-old question, and two American researchers think they have the answer: it does ... and it also doesn't.

More money may bring a life you think is better, but on an everyday basis you won't actually be any happier for it, according to Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton from Princeton University, who authored the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

Previous studies have found the relationship between wealth and well-being to be fairly weak

Two types of happiness

Kahneman and Deaton, however, made a subtle but important distinction between two types of well-being: life evaluation, which is a person's thoughts about their life over a long period, and emotional well-being, which is a measure of their daily emotions, such as joy, affection, anger and anxiety... read more

(source: Cosmos: The science of everything)