Peter Strachan

IN the current global cyclical economic downturn, plummeting commodity prices have already met with a swift response from producers.

LAST year, in a deal which was value destroying for the shareholders of base metal miner Oxiana Limited, that company merged with Zinifex Ltd to become Oz Minerals.

THE ASX 200 Index is currently trading with a trailing price to earnings ratio of less than eight times historical earnings, while consensus estimates for the 2009 financial year earnings place the index on a forward multiple of 10.

BRIEFCASE is amazed at the poor understanding of market dynamics shown by many commentators and self-appointed analysts.

WE do indeed live in a land of confusion. As the dust begins to settle, through the smoke and destruction of the great credit crunch of 2007/08, we can begin to observe the debris that unfettered and under-regulated consumer capitalism has wrought on th

LAST week, global stock markets experienced possibly the worst days of trading that will be seen during the current bear phase.

A MID-DECADE housing industry boom in Australia, fuelled by an ultimately destabilising rate of population growth, diverts scarce resources, including funds, away from much more productive sectors of the economy.

THE next stop for the Australian All Ordinaries Index now looks likely to be 4,300 points, which will be a 61.

FOR much of 2007, iron was the mineral of choice for speculators.Companies like Midwest, Atlas, and Sundance Resources all rose like phoenixes out of the ashes, with paper fortunes made and more recently lost, as share prices tumbled. During this time, ma