A new analysis finds that the richest 15 billionaires in the U.S. saw their wealth skyrocket by nearly $1 trillion in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, which also contained one of the single largest cuts to welfare benefits in U.S. history.
With corporate media forcing PM Albanese into a small target corner on messaging, the right is filling the rhetorical void. Andrew Gardiner looks at the repercussions.
Albo’s search for the middle leaves him exposed on both flanks
by Andrew Gardiner
Australia’s visa laws allow exclusion on grounds of character and incitement of discord. Those tests raise serious questions about whether Israel’s president should be welcomed while the killing in Gaza continues.
In the years since the Global Financial Crisis, the Australian economy has become ever more reliant on government for positive outcomes. Much of the revenue required to underpin this ongoing intervention has been derived from the explosive rise in resource exports, which rose by well over 200% at their peak in 2023 compared with their
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Asian share markets are not doing well as the positive lead from Wall Street dissipated overnight with commodity volatility continuing to dominate other risk markets while bonds go sleepy. Currency markets are selling off commodity currencies while Euro and Pound Sterling are trying to stabilise after a wobbly start to the new year, relatively speaking
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Price and emissions savings seen in 2025 could soon be in the rear vision mirror as the Queensland Government commits to expensive, polluting fossil fuels.
The Market Ear on where we are. SPX stuck SPX remains stuck in the wide range that’s been in place since September. We’re now sitting in the upper end of that range, an area that has rejected price on three prior occasions, with 7000 (futures) standing out as major resistance. Mean reversion has been the
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Readers will be well aware of the looming global LNG glut. Global LNG output rose 6% in 2025 and is expected to grow for at least another four years on the back of record-setting investment in new facilities. This year alone, two giant projects — Golden Pass in Texas and a major expansion in Qatar — are
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The Albanese government’s 5% deposit scheme for first home buyers, which came into effect on 1 October, has pushed the last of Australia’s affordable housing beyond reach. Lower-priced properties, or those covered by the extended Home Guarantee Scheme price caps, have generally seen better growth since September of last year, according to new Cotality study.
The iron ore jaws are opening wide. Put your hand in if you dare. The widest in three years, in fact. Scuttlebutt is excited! Iron ore futures rallied on Wednesday to their highest in multiple months, boosted by hopes of improving demand in top consumer China following Beijing’s pledge of easing monetary policy this year.
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During Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign for the U.S. presidency, campaign strategist James Carville coined a now-legendary catchphrase. Those four simple words were: “It’s the economy, stupid”. While originally intended as a campaign motto to maintain on-message, it became a de facto campaign slogan that remains a point of focus to this day. But in the
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The US Justice Department has quietly scaled back its indictment of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, retreating from a central Trump-era claim that he led a drug cartel.
The original accusation, included in a 2020 grand jury indictment, portrayed the Cartel de los Soles as an organized criminal group allegedly led by Maduro and engaged in large-scale cocaine trafficking.
Yesterday’s monthly inflation number was softer than expected, easing fears of a February rate hike. Summing up, headline CPI was lower than Westpac had anticipated, coming in at 0.0% for the month as opposed to its projection of 0.4%. This puts Westpac’s current December quarter nearcast of 0.6%qtr for the Headline CPI and 0.8%qtr for
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As things currently stand, the Albanese government possesses the largest majority achieved by any postwar federal Labor government at the ballot box, holding 94 out of the lower house’s 150 seats. Meanwhile, unlike other governments of the recent past that were heavily reliant on a broad range of Senate crossbenchers, Labor needs only the support