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
Australia’s economy has experienced some of the weakest per capita growth in the OECD over the past four years, with per capita GDP declining by 0.3% between Q2 2022 and Q2 2026. The only thing keeping the Australian economy from experiencing an actual technical recession is the nation’s strong population growth (via immigration), which is
Several Australian journalists and economists have claimed this week that One Nation’s sensible proposal to reduce the stock of temporary migrants back to pre-pandemic levels would create skills shortages and worsen population ageing. The following Tweet from journalist Hugh Riminton encapsulates this way of thinking: The argument is as asinine as it is ignorant. First,
Iron ore is staging a little recovery, just for fun. The normalised price, accounting for elevated freight costs, is roughly $10 lower. Chinese demand remains poor. The forward orderbook trend of most steel mills picked up MoM in September, and saw weaker than normal seasonality. High-frequency weekly data suggest steel demand declined by 6.0% yoy
Effin Albo. As industry and the energy transition run off the rails owing to our perverse gas shortage, Japan is reselling Aussie gas hand over fist. The biggest Japanese LNG importer and largest power producer, JERA, plans to sell liquefied natural gas in the long term as part of a strategy to tap global LNG
Victoria has legislated a target to source 95% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2035. This is one of the most ambitious renewable energy targets in Australia and globally, designed to accelerate the state’s transition away from cheap brown coal to cleaner energy sources such as wind, solar, and storage. The target is embedded
All it took was a few days off attacks on energy infrastructure, and everything except DXY is to the moon! AUD rebound. The twins of doom reverse roles. Energy relief was metals relief. Mining relief. EM relief. Junk relief. Yield relief. Stocks relief. It’s all one trade, correlation one with oil and products. This should
War headlines today. Pakistan mulls Mecca agreement attack on Houthis. China rumoured to pressure Iran on Houthis. Hormuz traffic has slowed. Madman mulls Iran “annihilation”. Brent and diesel pull back. TME sums up oil market positioning. Range-bound, crowded and convex Oil is sending conflicting signals. The long-term chart remains trendless and volatility refuses to panic,
Recently, there was an analysis published in the Wall Street Journal based on data from the Atlanta branch of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which detailed the median household income in the United States against the income required to purchase a median-priced home and have all housing-related expenses (homeowners association dues, strata fees, insurance, property taxes
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday released the official population data for the March quarter of 2026. Australia’s population increased by 130,900 in the March quarter, driven by net overseas migration (NOM) of 101,000: Over the year, Australia’s population grew by 392,800, driven by NOM of 292,100: Australia’s NOM comprised a historically high
Australian tenants have faced a torrid period since the pandemic, with advertised rents nationally soaring by more than 40% over the past five years. Gerard Burg, Cotality’s Head of Research, noted last month that “the median rent has risen by over $200 per week in the last five years” and that households were “paying a
In this week’s podcast, Nucleus Wealth’s Chief Investment Officer, Damien Klassen, examines just how bad the Middle East oil shock could get — as disruptions spread beyond the Strait of Hormuz and oil prices climb above $100 a barrel. We explore how much global supply is really at risk, what happens if the conflict continues
Yesterday, LVO argued that coal use is still rising using this chart. I will make the basic point that LVO overlooked: in economics, the rate of change matters more than the absolute amount. In those terms, coal use is clearly slowing fast, notwithstanding the recent surge in AI-related demand and post-COVID shocks The IEA put out
Australians face soaring interest repayments on government debt due to a combination of growing debt loads and rising interest rates. As a result, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) forecasts that interest costs will rise from 4.1% of government revenue in 2024-25 to 6.2% in 2029-30: The PBO has forecast that the combined debt of the
There was a time, very recently, when the Trump campaign to contain China was working smoothly. Chinese property was crashing; Beijing was panicking as trade wars disrupted its economic model, capital fled, and CNY fell. China’s economic future as a rising hegemon looked grim. Enter Trump 2.0 and his anarcho-imperialism, and the game has changed.
Realestate.com.au has a virtual monopoly on listing homes for sale or rent. If you are a vendor looking to sell your home, you have little choice but to list it on Realestate.com.au to ensure buyers can find it. Realestate.com.au often charges high, price-discriminatory fees based on a suburb’s value and popularity. However, Realestate.com.au does not
DXY roared as the Fed hiked. AUD was crushed. Oil eased but still looks poised. Woe is gold. No immediate growth worries in metals. Big miners on the other hand… When the Fed hikes, EM panics. Junk spreads are warming up for a legit puke. The long end rallied a little, but Fed dovishness
War headlines today. The Israeli military bombs Lebanon. Saudi Arabia says a drone launched by the Houthis towards Mecca was intercepted, while the Houthis call it a “nauseating lie.” Is this a classic false flag to trigger the Mecca Agreement? Houthis target oil facilities in Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port and Khamis Mushait airbase. But is
As the debate surrounding the right level of migration into Australia continues to be one of the defining issues of this parliamentary term, there continues to be vast differences in opinion on the impact of immigration on wages growth between various policymakers. On one hand, Deputy Treasury Secretary Jenny Wilkinson stated in September 2021 that:
Property developer Bathla Group entered voluntary administration late last month after running out of cash, leaving $3.6 billion in private‑credit debt, 2,000 homes mid‑construction, and 15,000 planned dwellings in limbo. Around 40 private credit funds are owed more than $3 billion, including PAG, Balmain, Trilogy, Centuria Bass, Ray White Capital, and La Trobe Financial. Larry Kaine,
By Deep T, Editing Gunnamatta A critical examination of a $4.4 trillion compulsory savings experiment 1. The Taxpayer Is Subsidising Wealthy Superannuants Superannuation contributions and earnings are taxed at a concessional flat rate of 15% — well below most marginal income tax rates. These tax concessions are forecast to cost the federal budget $61.7
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen told ABC’s 7.30 Report on Monday night that “I never quite bought all the hype on green hydrogen”, despite wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on it. Video by Osher Feldman Bowen’s claim is hilarious given that the Albanese government’s $23 billion Future Made in Australia (FMIA) scheme has set
Good news, but the consequences are unknown. The US Supreme Court refused to clear the Postal Service to enforce new restrictions on mail-in ballots for the congressional midterm elections, rebuffing the Trump administration’s request to intervene after several states launched early voting. The justices’ decision on Monday came after North Carolina and Alabama began mailing thousands of ballots to voters and
The ANU Migration Hub’s Alan Gamlen is one of the nation’s key purveyors of immigration propaganda. While admitting that temporary visa numbers are too high, Gamlen has lambasted One Nation’s planned cuts to temporary visa numbers back to 2017 levels, which would deliver several years of negative net overseas migration (NOM), claiming that it would wreck
New yuan loans for August were out Monday and slowed sharply. Bank loans of RMB 300bn missed the Bloomberg consensus of RMB 404bn. Total social financing was RMB 1660bn, versus Bloomberg’s consensus of RMB 2122 billion. TSF stock growth (or Broad Credit, as I call it) was 7.2% year over year in August compared to
In 2023, federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King rejected Qatar Airways’ bid to add 21 weekly flights to Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. The decision only became public in late July 2023, after airlines and industry groups began questioning why the application had stalled. King signed the rejection on 10 July 2023 but did not announce it
