Summary: Interview with Lee Hawksley from email marketing and cross channel marketing firm ExactTarget Interview with RMIT economist Sinclair Davidson Leon and Garry discuss issues including: · President Obama indicating that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke will be leaving his post in September. Fed indicates stimulus will continue · Construction of new United States homes rebounding modestly in May from a plunge the prior month · British 12-month inflation accelerating to 2.7 per cent in May, rebounding from a seven-month low point struck in April · Spain’s Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro saying Spain is emerging from its financial crisis and may be heading for a "turning point" thanks to strengthened public finances · The price of New York's main oil benchmark hitting a nine-month peak, as traders worried the Syria crisis could hit supplies from the crude-rich Middle East · The Reserve Bank of Australia saying the falling Australian dollar may have a stabilising effect on the domestic economy and foster improved growth. · Bank of America Merrill Lynch slashing its forecast for the nation's 2014 GDP growth, hot on the heels of Goldman Sachs. The bank has cut its forecast to 2.4 per cent GDP growth for Australia next year, down from 2.9 per cent and Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Saul Eslake says the Australian economy has a 25 per cent chance of going into recession and warns the nation may have to follow the lead of other countries by effectively printing money. · A new report commissioned by the Australian Local Government Association finds that increasing frequency of natural disasters is rendering some communities uninsurable · The largest retailers putting aside competitive differences to lobby both sides of politics in a last-ditch bid to impose the GST on online imports, thwart calls to strengthen competition laws, and boost labour productivity · Supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles setting up a dispute resolution body with the Australian Food and Grocery Council in a move that will allow them to avoid attracting regulatory and political attention · The Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network recommending NBN Co prepare itself for a change of government following the September 14 election. · Billionaire mining magnate and would-be Prime Minister Palmer telling his closest advisers and a major Chinese company that he will have to axe about 1000 Australian jobs from his businesses unless he receives a massive cash injection. · The Grattan Institute warning that households will pay half a billion dollars more for domestic gas by the decade's end, with wholesale prices forecast to spike 80 per cent in eastern states · ANZ and Macquarie getting implicated in an interest-rate rigging scandal in Singapore, forcing each of them to set aside an extra $S100 million ($83 million) to $S300 million in reserves · Lend Lease poised to overhaul its Australian construction and infrastructure businesses. · A PricewaterhouseCoopers study finding that labour productivity growth slowed in the year to March, with the mining sector suffering a fall of almost six per cent
