Blogotariat

By Leith van Onselen NAB has released its Australian Residential Property Survey for the March quarter of 2014, which revealed a small rise in sentiment nationally amongst property professionals, with house price expectations also strengthening is all states except Victoria. Concerns about rising interest rates are starting to rise, whereas employment security continues to be [...]

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New South Wales will shortly have its fifth Premier in seven years following the bombshell resignation of Barry O’Farrell, who was today embarrassed by the emergence of a card in which he thanked Australian Water Holdings boss Nick Di Girolamo for a $3000 bottle of wine he yesterday denied having received. O’Farrell is the state’s second Liberal Premier to have been brought down by the exertions of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Nick Greiner having fallen foul of an adverse ruling in 1992 involving a job offer to Liberal-turned-independent MP Terry Metherell.

And so things change. Sinodinos cannot any longer be a Senator, Carr may return as party leader, or Rees, and no Liberal can win in New South Wales, Victoria, or Queensland in the next year, and the map will be pretty red by the hundredth Anzac Day, Abbott no longer Prime Minister, Labor on 54 or 56 two party preferred, Morrison in gaol, and the Greens on 20 percent.

And all because of a good Grange, duly drunk with sausages and thanked for in writing. Never in the field of human wine-tasting has so little cost a Party so much, for so long.

And so things change.

Year after year the mining industry rolls out a PR campaign to defend the huge subsidies they receive. This year's was more tone deaf than usual - perhaps we're wising up, writes Dugald Murray

From Westpac: The six month annualised deviation from trend growth rate of the Westpac Melbourne Institute Leading Index which indicates the likely pace of economic growth three to nine months into the future rose from –0.15% in February to –0.09% in March. Read on… Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Reddit + -

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NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell has resigned after a handwritten note  in which the premier thanked the head of a company linked to Eddie Obeid for a $3000 bottle of wine was tendered to the Obeid ICAC inquiry. The wine was sent during negotiations for a $1 billion government contract with Australian Water Holdings. O’Farrell had [...]

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BHP has shown up Rio’s thin weather excuse yesterday with boom quarter of iron ore production on good weather and annual output upgrade: BHP Billiton maintained strong momentum in the nine months ended March 2014 with record production achieved for four commodities and at 10 operations. Strong operating performance throughout the period, the relatively limited [...]

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  Last night’s market action saw a decent bounce in stocks with the S&P up 12 points. However, the more important action was in bond markets which, despite the rise in stocks, remained strongly bid and again threatened to break yields down to new lows. Data for the night was modestly positive. The NAHB Builder [...]

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As a Tasmanian who has endured a destroyed budget in recent years, it frustrates me no end to see the same issues played out nationally, and be completely missed by the media. 99% of media focus on gov’t spending / taxation – nothing about how our economy grows and contracts. In other words all focus is […]

Capital Economics has produced a little note on China with which I entirely agree. It examines the slowing growth base case, as well as very plausible Chinese hard landing scenarios if reform has a little accident on the way. China’s changing growth model Before getting into what a hard-landing would look like, it is important to [...]

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From Bloomie: Ukraine unleashed an offensive to dislodge militants from cities in the eastern Donetsk region as authorities in the capital Kiev said Russian special forces were identified among the anti-government groups. From four to 11 militants were killed and two wounded when Ukrainian troops stormed an airfield in Kramatorsk, taking it under control, Russian state television reported…The [...]

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I missed this yesterday, the cause of macroprudential took another serious blow after it was backed by the Pascometer: …if the strong dollar is restraining economic growth, it becomes much harder for the RBA to lift rates if they only reason is the perception that housing prices are rising too far, too fast. Which in [...]

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