House auctions go well despite near universal expectation of another rate rise next week. That just about sums up the current state of Australia’s economy, and helps to explain why the PM has conceded the case for said rate rise.

In the weekend press, Terry McCrann was trying to make the case that the US had overdone the monetary tightening and that, before long, US rates would be falling again. Nice try Terry, but the most likely scenario is that US growth will continue with just a pause despite US housing correcting more seriously than the same industry in the UK and Australia.

For my money, there are further rate rises to come in the US, and the best approach here might well be a pre-emptive 50 basis point hike. Such a hike would of course do little to help the Howard government – already under strain as Australian politics begins to heat up with only a year to the next election.

The loyal Aussie Sheik has put his foot in it again, endorsing fighters in the Palestinian territories, Iraq and Afghanistan, and paying tribute to Sayyid Qutb, the mentor of Osama bin laden and al-Qaeda.

To Henry, the best news in this matter is that the local Muslims appear to be steeling themselves to walk away from this bloke, which is the least the rest of us can expect. And why are we not surprised that Paul Keating and his mates in the right wing of NSW Labor overruled Chris Hurford’s attempts to deport this fellow when that could have been done easily?

Read more at Henry Thornton.