Hi all, A quick note to offer guidance on the new website. As well as the layout changes that make it easier to access content for new readers, it comes with a dramatically improved sign-up and resubscription process, greatly enhanced speed, and a much better mobile experience (since 95% of traffic is now phone!). The
For months on MB, radio, and podcasts, I have been calling for the pension income test to be abolished so that pensioners can take on additional work without losing their access to the Aged Pension. A broad coalition of groups has backed the call, arguing the more people that can be retained in the workforce
The Day After Tomorrow comes to life as the Godzilla El NiƱo pumps its triplets into the Eastern Pacific. Poor little Hawaii is the cyclone sandwich. From left to right, they are Lowell (Cat 5) Karina (Cat 4) and Marie (Cat 2). The big view. Remember the movie. The latest on the Godzilla El NiƱo
According to data from realestate.com.au, housing affordability has fallen to its lowest level on record, with households earning a median income of about $125,000 a year only able to afford 12% of homes sold across the country. Record-high home prices in 2025 combined with higher interest rates could not offset income growth or recent price
The freight-adjusted iron ore price is still at about $90. Chinese port stocks are still easing. Expect a big turn up into year-end. Chinese steel output remains absolutely shocking. But it can’t draw down steel inventory. Nor is there much hope in profit margins. Stimmies suck. The cost curve shakeout has started. Led by Chinese
According to the official population projections from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Sydney’s population was 180,300 larger than Melbourne’s in 2024-25: Sydney is currently Australia’s biggest city because the official boundaries used to draw the city limits are arbitrary. The official definition of Greater Sydney stretches all the way to Lake Macquarie, about 120
I have noted repeatedly that Michael Hartnett at BofA, the most famous asset strategist on the planet, has a blind spot when it comes to geopolitics. Today we get another dose. Midterms not āregime changeā election, e.g. Thatcher/Reagan in 1980 = end of inflation/start of bond bull, BREXIT/Trump in 2016 = end of globalization =
War headlines today: US bombs three Iranian tankers. Iran bombs three tankers and three cargo ships in response. Secretary of Iranās Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei is set to announce a new exclusion zone in the strait. US says it will bomb the strait forever. Israel continues to flatten Southern Lebanon. Russia/Ukraine peace talks
As falling housing prices continue to spread to a greater number of markets across the country, now encompassing 93% of suburbs, forecasts for the magnitude of the eventual peak-to-trough fall continue to be revised larger. According to the latest forecasts from the Commonwealth Bank, they now expect national price falls of 9% from the recent
This week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the national accounts for the June quarter, revealing that the economy grew by 0.4% over the quarter and 2.1% over the year. The result was slightly stronger than both the Reserve Bankās and economistsā expectations, which has unfortunately increased the chance of a rate hike at
By Dr Cameron Murray from Fresh Economic Thinking Your no-nonsense guide to a migration system that is poorly understood A lesson from the past few weeks of public debate in Australia is that even those who are most passionate about immigration donāt seem to understand how the design of the visa system affects Net Overseas
By the Stig, an anonymous beltway insider Albo scorns the voting mass who query his immigration (and climate) directions. Post the Secret Harbour ON surge, heās still blaming them as āmisinformedā or racist.Ā Itās a fashion among Australiaās governing classes to yearn for halcyon days. When supposedly curated and agreed āfactsā could be packaged by
International reading: US Army ‘could use student loans to conscript troops to fight Iran’ – AOL Trump Lies That Medicare for All Would Cost āEntire Budget of the Whole Countryā – Common Dreams Europe increasingly angry at US over world economy as Canada tariffs ‘harm everyone’ – The Mirror Dutch central bank moves ā¬10 billion
Victoria’s economy is in a precarious position. The state has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 5.1%, versus 4.2% across the rest of the nation: Wednesday’s national accounts for the June quarter also showed that Victoria recorded the nation’s biggest decline in real per capita household consumption in 2025-26: Victoria also has the
You have to see this from Ryan Maue. Godzilla El NiƱo birthing conveyor-belt cyclones in the Eastern Pacific. There is a dynamic GIF on his X feed, so check it out. This is pure climate science porn. In the Western Pacific, there is some divergence, which is probably temporary. The SOI, an atmospheric measure, has
The latest dwelling completions data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that only 173,400 homes were built in the year to March 2026, 66,600 (28%) fewer than the 240,000 annual run rate required to meet the National Housing Accord’s target of building 1.2 million homes over five years. Over the first 21 months
The whacko ferrous rally has come to a shuddering halt as coking coal coughs. As previously noted, Chinese inspections of Shanxi coal mines following the epic May explosion that killed 82 workers have slowed production, but I do not expect this to last long. The July surge in imports eased in August. It should continue
Larry Kaine, managing partner at Corporate Recovery Partners, believes the collapse of property developer Bathla Group ā one of Western Sydneyās biggest home builders ā could be the biggest in Australian corporate history. Bathla Group entered voluntary administration last week after running out of cash, leaving $3.6āÆbillion in privateācredit debt, 2,000 homes midāconstruction, and 15,000
TME describes the bull case for tech. The tech squeeze setup Tech has spent months consolidating, but the setup i s starting to look increasingly asymmetric. Risk has been cut, relative vol has collapsed and NVDA is already squeezing. September seasonality can still deliver some wobble, but with Q4 seasonality approaching and tech optionality this
War headlines today: Iran bombs UAE and Kuwait in reprisal for US attacks. Trump mulling declaring war over the midterms. Houthis bomb Yemeni government. Norway outrages Russia by siezing scietific vessel in Arctic. Brent is up but cracks are down. Yields were relieved, given they now follow cracks. Aussie diesel is yet to fully catch
Since U.S. President Donald Trump first unleashed his various tariffs on the Canadian economy, its economic performance has been on a rollercoaster ride. Before the tariffs and the uncertainty they created about Canada’s economic future, the broader Canadian economy was performing relatively well, especially for a nation that had just sharply reduced its migration intake.
According to Cotality, the largest capital city house price decline on record, based on 40 years of data, was between October 2017 and May 2019, when values declined by 8.2%. Cotality’s dwelling value results for August revealed that values across the combined capital cities have already declined by 4.6%, with a hefty 3.7% decline recorded
The notion that renewable energy is cheap to generate (because the fuel source is free) but very expensive to integrate is being borne out by recent cost blowouts in transmission and storage. Already we have seen the cost of the Snowy Hydro 2.0 storage project balloon from an initially announced $2 billion to more than
In this weekās podcast, Nucleus Wealthās Chief Investment Officer, Damien Klassen, examines what Nvidiaās latest earnings tell us about the AI boom ā with record revenue, strong data centre demand, and another major upgrade to its outlook suggesting thereās still plenty of runway ahead. We unpack whatās driving the relentless AI spending, whether the pace
If you want to see a failed market in action, look at this chart. While there was a debate about gas taxes and domestic reservation, the gas export cartel pushed the price lower to hoodwink the public. Now it is over, and global prices are going nuts; the price is glued to the $12Gj price
Melbourne’s population has already expanded by around 2 million people (roughly 57%) this century, from around 3.5 million in 2000 to 5.5 million currently. This rapid growth has been highly problematic, creating intense pressure on infrastructure and services. Victoria’s per capita economic growth and productivity have also lagged the nation’s significantly. The state is drowning
