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
International Reading: Donald Trump $250 bill would violate 1866 Congress law on sitting presidents – The Mirror Fox Business reporter delivers gut check on Trump economy: ‘Inflation is wiping out wages’ – Raw Story The Mother Of All Corruption: Why Trump isn’t bothering to hide his corruption – The Guardian The first inflation report under
DXY is sideways. Weaker-than-expected inflation and employment data have weighed on the AUD. But there is ongoing support from China. JPY could fix or break the world. Interesting that gold hasn’t got relief from oil. AI metals chug on. Miners not ATH though. EM ATH. EM meh. The US 30-year is back below the 5%
Property investors have been a major driver of the recent boom in Australian home prices. In the second half of 2025, Google searches for “investment property” surged, then slowed in the early months of 2026, though they remained strong. The latest credit aggregates data from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) showed that annual investor
The ‘Yes in My Backyard’ (YIMBY) movement argues that the solution to Australia’s crisis lies in upzoning our cities to permit high-rise apartments in more locations. They believe that blanket approval of high-density apartments will magically increase supply, ignoring how the development system actually works. The Herald-Sun highlighted the problem, with a major gap developing
Last year, a Senate inquiry into university governance heard claims that the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) was failing to monitor the standard of university degrees. The assertion was made by a group of more than 200 ‘old-school’ academics known as Public Universities Australia, which claimed that universities are “soft marking” and passing
According to Cotality, 2026 began with Australians required to dedicate a near-record share of their income to servicing a new mortgage. Since then, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has increased the official cash rate three times to 4.35%, the same level as the prior peak. As a result, the discount variable mortgage rate on
Two of Australia’s richest people are very unimpressed with your coming cheaper utility bills. Gina Rinehart’s Senex Energy has ramped the hyperbowl to full spew. Speaking at an industry event on Thursday, Senex Energy chief executive Darren Stevenson accused Canberra of moving towards political control of gas supply, and pricing through expanded ministerial powers over
Here is today’s oil manipulation from recidivist offender Axios. This is the sixth deal announcement with no deal. “This is an agreement to get everybody to the table. We will work out the details in the negotiations,” one of the U.S. officials said Behind the scenes:Â U.S. officials said terms of the deal were mostly agreed
Since the Albanese unveiled its changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount on existing residential property, it has set off perhaps the most predictable round of opposition and controversy in Australian political history. In relatively short order, all manner of myths about negative gearing and the historic impact of its removal once
Australia’s housing minister said the quiet bit out loud when she admitted that the tax changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax won’t do much for housing affordability. Rather, O’Neil said that Australia’s inability to build enough homes for its ballooning population is the main cause of the nation’s housing affordability problems. Stephen
Realestate.com.au reports that Australians — including high‑income professionals earning six‑figure salaries — are increasingly turning to van and caravan living as soaring rents, mortgage stress, and rising living costs make traditional housing feel unaffordable or not worth the pressure. Money.com.au’s survey shows: Almost 1 in 10 Australians lived in a caravan in the past year.
Deutsche considers. Fed communications last week remained hawkish, with more officials signaling that the balance of risks has shifted away from an easing bias and toward a more symmetric reaction function. The Minutes to the April FOMC meeting highlighted “a majority of” participants willing to contemplate tightening policy if inflation were to run persistently above
Via the ABS come capex intentions. Total is pretty damn good. Mining meh. Services whoa! AI holy shite. Mother of god. Investment in the end of your work!
China is by far the world’s largest and major driver of carbon emissions: China’s growing emissions have been driven by its insatiable appetite for coal: China has a significant number of new coal mines in development: More than 50 large coal units—individual boiler and turbine sets with generating capacity of 1 gigawatt or more—were commissioned
 In this week’s podcast, Nucleus Wealth’s Chief Investment Officer, Damien Klassen, is joined by Samuel Kerr to walk through your EOFY 2026 Tax Strategy Guide. We break down the key deadlines, smart deductions, contribution tactics, and portfolio adjustments that can help investors optimise their tax position before June 30 — plus the practical steps you
The decline in Australian real wages has been well documented by MB. Deflating the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) wage price index by headline CPI inflation reveals that real wages are tracking 6.6% below their June quarter 2022 peak and have fallen by 1.6% since the Albanese government came to office in the June quarter
I admit it, I just wanted to write the word Uranus. When Johann Elert Bode suggested the name for the seventh planet, he could not have known that he had created the greatest running joke for the next 250 years. Anyway, the bubble is hurtling through space, without reference to Earth, and might as well
The media and Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen were busy crowing about renewables supposedly helping lower the Default Market Offer (DMO) electricity prices, which were released this week by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER). “We’ve just hit 50% renewables, and renewables are the cheapest form of energy, and that puts downward pressure on
Yesterday we saw an increase in the monthly CPI of 0.4%mth (4.2%yr), undershooting expectations. Core inflation was even better at 0.3%mth, up 3.4%yr from 3.3% in March. For the time being, there is little pass-through from increased fuel costs to freight-exposed components, which were mitigated by the fuel levy cuts. The hottest area was housing
Good luck making sense of this. Overnight saw oil prices slide as optimism of a deal picked up (though few headlines) and IRGC said that a return to war with the US was unlikely (while warning that it stood ready against any attack). 0800ET Oil tumbled on Iran TV reports of optimism on a MOU and draft deal status
For over 15 years, the people of Britain have been promised lower migration, and time after time, the British people have gone to the polls and voted for just that. According to polling from Ipsos, at the time of the Brexit vote, over 40% of Britons said that immigration was the most important issue facing
After years of vendors having the upper hand, the scales have finally tilted in favour of home buyers. The latest weekly housing market indicators report from Cotality shows that for-sale listings are rising, meaning that supply is flooding the market: As illustrated above, new for-sale listings have increased by 8.9% at the combined capital city
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released CPI inflation data for April, which retraces some of the spike observed last month as petrol prices fell 7% and public transport subsidies lowered transport prices. Headline CPI rose by 4.2% in the 12 months to April 2026, down from 4.6% in March. The policy-relevant trimmed mean
By Stephen Saunders While Anthony Albanese crush-loads ethnic immigration at unprecedented levels to help Labor win, the Budget has highlighted Samaras as a crucial analyst of this faux democracy. Greek-origin commentator George Megalogenis has made a vocation of Australia’s “cultural diversity” obsession, doing victory-laps as we hit 30% overseas born, 50% “migrant origin”. Only Middle
Via Westpac. The six-month annualised growth rate in the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Leading Index, which indicates the likely pace of economic activity relative to trend three to nine months into the future, declined to -0.17% in April from -0.11% in March. Coasting to a standstill.
