Blogotariat

Patrik Baab argues that Western governments—especially in Europe—refuse to pursue a negotiated settlement with Russia because their political survival depends on continuing the war. He claims Ukraine is being sacrificed (“brought to the butcher”) to serve Western geopolitical interests, primarily the U.S. goal of weakening Russia.

According to this view:

Now is the sinister time of year when the Barons of Big Oil gather together, under the auspices of the United Nations and with the blessing of most world leaders, to celebrate the 350 million needless deaths they plan to cause between now and 2050 in the name of profit.

Julian Cribb

The black work of big oil

Long, long ago – almost as if yesterday really – Ukrainians were promised that if enough of them were to die in a Western proxy war against Russia first, then, in an ill-defined, probably far-away future, their country – or whatever would be left of it – would be allowed to enter NATO. It is now considered rude to mention that promise, because the West has in effect broken it, while asking Ukrainians to please keep dying, preferably for a few more years at least.

Risk markets in Asia are responding positively to possible news that the Republican shutdown of the US government may finally be coming to an end with the Senate passing a spending bill. Futures for Wall Street and undollars like gold and the Australian dollar have gapped higher as well with the latter leaping above the

The post Macro Afternoon appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Renewable energy retailer unveils plans for a big battery near Corowa as it accelerates plans to establish itself in the country's biggest market.

IEEFA wants Albo to waste another $1bn on green iron. As Australia pours $1 billion into its Green Iron Investment Fund, it can learn important lessons from the US and EU, where several low-emissions steel projects backed by capital grants were subsequently cancelled or delayed.  Projects with a “gas first, green hydrogen later” approach struggled,

The post Green iron and steel in a deep freeze appeared first on MacroBusiness.

China printed a bit of inflation in October, but it was pretty obviously seasonal. There is bugger all momentum in prices. The PPI was worse, though it also fell over the line in the month.   Anti-involution has dented deflation but it is temporary. Bloomberg has some great charts on the great deflation. Rise of

The post Chinese Titanic sucked into deflationary depths appeared first on MacroBusiness.

It is time to shutter the ABC. Flag burning should be criminalised, immigration should be capped based on housing supply, and the ABC and SBS should be sold and replaced by a taxpayer-funded broadcaster only for regional and outback Australia, according to resolutions to be debated at the Liberal National Party’s state council this weekend.

The post Time to cancel the ABC appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Last week, I reported an AFR analysis of 16 financial reports from federal agencies, which revealed that 14 had unbudgeted increases in staff expenses totaling $841 million. Budget watcher Chris Richardson warned that the wage blowout could threaten the federal budget’s March forecast of a $42 billion deficit for this financial year, as could the billions

The post Australia’s bloated bureaucrat economy appeared first on MacroBusiness.

ARENA is funding Fortescue's Pilbara solar hub concept with $45 million to test new technologies in the harsh outback, where building PV farms can be dusty and boring.

Envision Energy partners with Statera Energy to deliver AI-powered battery storage system for UK’s 680MW Carrington project.

OMG. The economists are panicking. “Interest rate cuts are off the table,” Mr Bloxham said. “The problem is that productivity is so weak that supply is constrained. So as input costs such as labour and energy rise there is no equal increase in output.” UBS economist George Tharenou said the underlying inflation rate would overshoot

The post Panicked Chalmers to restore energy rebates appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Judge says council case against contested wind project has "gone off the rails" and orders it to re-plead its case.