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Links 29 Aug: Maybe It's Time To Sell Australia Then?

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One way of looking at the Australian economy is as a highly leveraged (and more honest!) play on the Chinese economy. The iron ore and coal being mined and delivered north is producing a lot of the froth in the OZ economy.

Morgan Stanley yesterday lowered its iron ore and metallurgical coal forecasts by up to 14 per cent for 2012 to 2014. Analyst Brendan Fitzpatrick told clients that the spot price for iron ore could have between 7 to 16 per cent downside risk.

He also warned that hard coking coal prices were likely to fall between 5 and 8 per cent from the current level of $US164 per tonne (free on board).

Hmm, maybe that boom might be coming to an end?

Virtual worlds like Second Life are pretty much internet backwaters these days. But there's a lot of life left in economic backwaters. Perhaps not much growth but still a lot of life. No one's relied upon horses for transport for near a century but people still train as farriers after all.

Other places with little economic life: southern Europe. Unilever is considering bringing in sales techniques from their Third World operations: they think they're more appropriate for local living standards now.

Not surprisingly, the Spanish banks are seeing a run on their liabilities.

It would appear that the most immediate effect of the Apple Samsung patent fight is a run on Samsung phones before they are banned.

And finally, there will be more about how to fail at Kickstarter later.