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
Over the last 60 years, the amount of oil required to generate $1,000 worth of GDP output has fallen by approximately 94.2%, from 5.3 barrels per dollar in 1965 to 0.3 barrels in 2024. This is described in some quarters as the “oil intensity” of economies. At first glance, this appears to be a brilliant
Last decade’s high-rise apartment boom was built on shoebox apartments. As illustrated below by the ABC, small apartments with two or fewer bedrooms dominated apartment supply across the three largest capital cities: Unfortunately, many of these ‘shoebox’ apartments were also riddled with defects. Sydney’s Opal and Mascot Towers, for instance, were the most visible examples
Australia’s housing market continues to split in two, with Sydney and Melbourne recording solid declines in value. In contrast, Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide continue to power on, albeit at a slightly slower rate. The weekend’s preliminary auction results remained weak, with the nation’s two largest markets – Melbourne and Sydney – again recording preliminary results
Crypto coins and Stablecoins have evolved from fringe experiments to integral components of the global financial architecture by 2026. Many commentators have called digital scams or worthless but what began as speculative tokens and volatile digital dollars now underpin cross-border payments, institutional treasury management, and even central bank strategies. This aricle explores their current roles,
As Chris Uhlmann wrote in The Australian over the weekend, the Albanese government seems to be on a propaganda tour promoting electrification of the nation’s vehicle fleet as a key solution to the nation’s energy security: Transport Minister Catherine King declared this week that the world had moved on from drilling for oil in the
According to three Australian surveys today, the country’s political landscape is divided, with Labour remaining still competitive on primary vote. Labour is at 31%, the Coalition is at 21%, One Nation is at 24% (down), and the Greens are at 13% (up) in Newspoll. Angus Taylor’s approval dropped to 33%, while Anthony Albanese’s marginally increases
Australia’s retirement system has been based on the presumption that the overwhelming majority of people would own their homes outright upon retirement. However, due to declining homeownership rates, Australians buying homes later, and carrying larger mortgages into retirement, that assumption is clearly crumbling. Westpac notes that people over the age of 40 accounted for around
Albo the coward has a fight on his hands. Key welfare groups are calling on the Albanese government to make major changes to the tax system, including establishing a 25 per cent gas tax, to help Australians struggling with the cost of living crisis. The Australian Council of Social Service and Oxfam Australia are two
Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh holds a PhD in economics. So, he should know better before spouting blatant immigration lies. In a September 2025 interview with the ABC, Leigh stated the following blatant lie about Australia’s immigration numbers: “We’ve reduced migration from the record highs it was under the Coalition”… Leigh released a video on Twitter (X)
TME with the charts. It’s déjà vu all over again We’ve seen this movie before. Violent selloff, positioning collapse, then a face-ripping rally fueled by liquidity and re-leveraging. From hedge funds to CTAs, the setup looks eerily similar to 2025—and if that analogy holds, this move may be far from over. The velocity of the
The iron ore jaws are wide on the war. Seasonality is strong, but Coldman channel checks confirm this is not the case. Orderbook trend: The forward orderbook trend of most steel mills are mixed in April, and weaker than normal seasonality. High-frequency weekly data suggest steel demand declined by 6.6% yoy for construction steel but
Whether you study the ancient history of Rome or you watch the Star Wars saga, you will know a little about the danger of the martial republics morphing into empires. In certain instances, this phenomenon seems inherent to human nature. A lust for power afflicts our species. Every so often, this is embodied in the
When the Germans began their push towards Stalingrad in June 1942, the bombing campaign on the city by the Luftwaffe was a significant element in the strategy to secure the city that bore the name of their enemy’s leader. On the 23rd of August alone, the Luftwaffe launched 1,600 sorties over the city, dropping thousands
Tim Toohey from Yarra Capital recently warned that if AI is “deployed at scale in Australia over the next two years”, then the nation’s unemployment rate could rise to over 6%, up from 4.3% currently. The latest Mercer survey of Australian senior executives, human resources personnel, and employees also revealed that 100% of HR managers believed
You would think that Australia should be able to have an informed, logical discussion about immigration. It is, after all, one of the world’s migration success stories, and currently about a third of us were born elsewhere, with more than half of us having a parent born elsewhere. Compared with the rest of the world,
The ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are doing more than reshaping geopolitics—they are forcing nations to rapidly accelerate their move away from fossil fuels in the name of energy security. But when it comes to the energy transition, the debate is often muddied by disingenuous arguments, linear thinking, and theoretical solutions. As
International Reading: If you bought a home recently, you had some of the worst timing in decades – Business Insider Regulators are reportedly zeroing in on suspicious trades ahead of market-moving Trump post – CNBC Trump Yanks Millions From Catholic Charities Amid Pope Feud – Daily Beast Newly unsealed records reveal Amazon’s price-fixing tactics, California
Just when you thought it might be safe to assume he had a brain, no. Anthony Albanese has assured existing gas contracts would not be affected by any decision to impose a new tax on exports as he and his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim promised to keep supplying each other with essential energy products on a “no
Charts from TME. Nothing matters…for now Flows are in control, and nothing else seems to matter. Oil, volatility, macro — all getting ignored as mechanical buying keeps pushing markets higher. But under the surface, things are getting stretched, and the setup is becoming more fragile. This works… until it doesn’t. Who cares about oil? The
In the final auction weekend before the US-Israeli war with Iran began, Sydney produced its weakest early-March result since SQM Research’s records began in early 2020. Amidst a weak clearance rate result of 45.9%, SQM Research Managing Director Louis Christopher concluded on X (formerly known as Twitter) that: “Just calling it straight – this is
ANZ leads us off. It argues that the damage to consumption from fuel price hikes is material. According to the most recent ABS data available (2019–20), families consume about 77% of automobile gasoline and 29% of automotive diesel, which combined account for about 53% of Australia’s total automotive petroleum use (by volume). In 2025, Australian
As illustrated below by Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro, New Zealand home values have fallen by more than 30% in real inflation-adjusted terms, back to 2019 levels: The latest house price results from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) recorded a second consecutive monthly gain, rising by 0.3% in March. However, house sales
Chinese steel exports are down 10% in Q1. Early February, CISA steel output finally bounced a bit, but is still down 6.2% YTD. Inventories climbed as a result. China also recently lifted all BHP bans, likely due to the Iranian war, so we can expect accumulation to resume at Chinese ports soon. Official Chinese data
The Trumpgod is positive. President Donald Trump says the US and Iran could clinch a permanent ceasefire, with talks between Washington and Tehran possibly resuming this weekend. Trump claims Iran has agreed to terms including giving up ambitions for a nuclear weapon and turning over nuclear material, but Tehran has not publicly confirmed these concessions.
Last month, Louis Christopher, the founder of the property analytics firm SQM Research, published updated home price forecasts for 2026, presented below. As you can see, SQM Research’s base-case forecast for Sydney and Melbourne is that both cities will record dwelling price declines of -1% to -6% in 2026. However, this base case was built
