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
TME argues tech fear has gone too far. Peak Tech Vol? The AI options frenzy may finally be cooling. Nasdaq volatility remains elevated across almost every relative measure, but the options dynamics that kept VXN bid for months are beginning to fade. If that continues, tech volatility could become one of the market’s more interesting
The Aussie PMI is out, and it is a mess. Production decreases for fifth successive month Inflationary pressures remain considerable, despite easing sharply from May Further substantial lengthening of suppliers’ Output falls again amid sustained price and supply pressures Australian manufacturers continued to register falls in output and new orders during June amid market uncertainty
Recently there was an article in the Australian Financial Review advice columns which was based on a couple with $4.6 million in superannuation asking if they could qualify for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card. I will include the full text of the question below and link the article. While the article made no mention of
The one economic feature of Australia that has defined MB for fifteen years is a belief in the need for lower house prices. We’ve had many fits and starts hoping the cycle would finally break, but it has always been rescued by one force or another. Now, finally, we are rid of the Boomer tax
In a recent appearance on the floor of the Senate, Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson urged Australians to and I quote verbatim, “Wake the f*** up”. Whish-Wilson made the argument that the rise of One Nation has been driven by a “massive international misinformation and disinformation machine”, that One Nation surging from 5% in the polls
More gas lies to unpack today from the AFR, which is gas propaganda HQ. The amount of gas likely to be used to generate power over the next 25 years has been slashed by almost 39 per cent in the grid operator’s central forecasts as renewables growth undercuts its role and boosts criticism of Labor’s plan
As the uneasy truce between Washington and Tehran continues to mostly hold overall, Iran continues to attempt to throttle traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in order to maintain a greater degree of it’s negotiating leverage. This comes amidst commentary from U.S. President Donald Trump on exactly how vulnerable the world is to a continued
One of the claimed intents of the Albanese government’s recent budget was the pursuit of so-called “intergenerational equity”, which, by adjusting the settings of the tax system, would help improve the fortunes of the nation’s young. In terms of the changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount as they relate to existing residential
ANZ says 2% and no more. Adjusted for population growth that is under 1%, ANZ models predict the economy may already be near balance, our output gap models suggest the Australian economy tightened during 2025. It’s even worse in the RBA’s suite of models from the May Statement on Monetary Policy (SMP). Output gaps are
Over the past several decades, Australia’s universities have been dumbed down by the flood of international students with poor English. For example, a tutor at a leading sandstone university told The Guardian Australia in 2024 that the number of international students in her classes had reached as high as 80% and had badly degraded pedagogical standards.
I write to you today from a secret location in a private hospital. I was admitted yesterday with cortisol-induced diabetes. I will carry this illness for the rest of my days. The kind staff here are also checking into whether I have had a cortisol-induced heart attack. It looks hopeful at this stage. For those
In March, I wrote the following commentary about the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) monetary tightening: Author Mark Twain once famously said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes”. We are witnessing such an event following the RBA’s back-to-back interest rate hikes, which have taken the official cash rate to 4.10%. The interest rate
Australia consistently ranks near the top in the world for household wealth. According to the UBS Global Wealth Report 2025, Australia had the second highest median household wealth in the world, after only Luxembourg. However, unlike in other countries, real estate makes for the majority of Australia’s household wealth. Australian housing values have increased relentlessly
Cotality’s daily dwelling values index for June shows that home values across the combined capital cities ended the month far softer than when they began, reflecting the collapse in the auction clearance rates to below 50%. Over the month of June, values at the 5-city aggregate level declined by 0.6%, led by Sydney (-1.2%) and
On the 17th of June, One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson made her first-ever address to the National Press Club in Canberra. As the debate continues over the content and delivery of her speech, we have the first polling with which to gauge how the electorate has received One Nation’s foray into the political spotlight.
Australia’s governments have conducted dozens of housing affordability inquiries over the years, including the following compiled by Dr Cameron Murray at Fresh Economic Thinking: Organisations like the Grattan Institute, the McKell Institute, AHURI, and others have published similar reports. These reports have consumed thousands of work hours and millions of dollars in wages and consulting fees,
To date, Australia’s house price correction has been confined to the nation’s largest capital city markets – Sydney and Melbourne – where values have fallen by 3.0% (Sydney) and 3.6% (Melbourne) in 2026, according to Cotality. However, the latest daily dwelling values index results from Cotality shows that the price correction has broadened to Brisbane
Greens senator Pete Whish‑Wilson has issued a blunt warning to Australians to “wake the fk up”** amid One Nation’s dramatic surge in national polling, arguing that the rise may be linked to a coordinated online bot‑driven influence campaign. Whish‑Wilson cites ABC News Verify findings showing a large volume of AI‑generated political content promoting Pauline Hanson
It’s about time we did something about Prelude. This monstrous floating LNG train was designed for one purpose and one purpose only. To dodge terrestrial royalties. Analysts claim that Resources Minister Madeleine King’s refusal to rule out requiring Shell’s massive Prelude floating LNG project off the north-west coast to feed the domestic gas market is
The costs of Australia’s rental crisis are often measured by the sharp decline in the rental vacancy rate, which is tracking at historical lows, alongside the strong rise in advertised rents. According to Cotality, advertised rents have risen by around 50% since the end of 2019, adding more than $12,000 to the annual cost of
She’s monoculturalised back into deep second, the idiot. Anthony Albanese has secured a bounce back in voter support after scrapping contentious measures from Labor’s unpopular budget that broke key election promises, as One Nation and the Coalition copped electoral hits following clashes over monoculture and multiculturalism. An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian Âbetween Monday and Thursday last week
Steel prices are falling in the wake of the war on the prospect of resuming Gulf volumes. CISA Chinese volumes are still down 6%. Port stocks are on the march. Steel inventories are robusst. Still no news on Simdou locos. A weak market, nonetheless.
By Alex Joiner, chief economist at IFM Investors For most of the last decade, Australians have been told a reassuring story: the economy is growing, unemployment is low, and we navigated the GFC, a pandemic, and a once-in-a-generation terms-of-trade shock better than almost anyone else. All true. But strip population growth out of the picture
In 2014, Ms Rosy Batty turned her son’s dreadful murder into a crusade against family violence reform. Her advocacy has focused on: Better protection for women and children experiencing family violence. Improving coordination between police, courts, schools and child protection agencies. Raising public awareness about coercive control and domestic abuse. Reforming laws and government systems
As the Coalition under the leadership of Angus Taylor attempts to forge a narrative that it’s getting tough on the issue of migration amidst the rise of One Nation and record low polling of its primary vote, there has been an unwanted development in the career of the Coalition’s former leader and prime minister, Scott
