Labor greybeard, Bill Kelty, has delivered the government, especially Treasurer Jim “chicken” Chalmers, a stinging slap across the face. Former trade union leader and economic trailblazer Kelty, whose work with the Hawke and Keating Labor governments helped usher in two decades of prosperity, described the reality of many Australians’ declining living standards as “political kryptonite”
In January, Domain published a series of charts showing that Australia’s housing affordability was the worst in recorded history. The national dwelling value-to-income ratio hit an equal record high of 8.0 in Q3 2024, up from a 20-year average of 6.7. The amount of time taken for the median-income household to save a deposit on
Wholesale electricity prices have been falling in recent days. However, they are still double year on year! Prices have been easing in the weak demand shoulder season as the gas cartel plays dead going into the election. However, ahead are still some very difficult problems with very severe outcomes. With futures up 25% year on
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Australians have endured the largest cost-of-living shock in modern history. The following chart deflates the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) official wage price index against the ABS’ cost of living index for employee households. On this measure, Australian real wages in Q4 2024 were tracking 10.1% below the peak at around Q1 2012 levels. The
SINCE THE INCEPTION OF THIS SITE, WE HAVE TOYED WITH THE CONCEPT THAT THE MOST SUCCESSFUL HUMAN SPECIES INVENTION WAS DECEIT. WE HAVE ALSO OFTEN DEMONSTRATED THAT OUR MOST POPULAR INVENTION WAS STUPIDITY.
Goldman is unusually bearish. 5 Key Themes to End the Week 1. The Risk of a Prolonged Bear Market: No Crisis, Just Pain The lack of a clear financial crisis means markets won’t experience a rapid, cathartic selloff that forces deleveraging and resets valuations. Instead, the risk is a slow, painful decline over multiple years,
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Via Goldman, the headline numbers and deficit breakdown. The 2025 fiscal targets unveiled during the “Two Sessions” imply the total amount of government bond net issuance quota will increase to RMB11.9tn in 2025 from RMB9.0tn in 2024. According to the 2025 budget report proposal, the MOF expects fiscal revenue growth to slow, but fiscal expenditure
China is in the flush of one last steel export surge, up 6.7% year on year for Jan/Feb. Iron ore fell sharply on supply disruptions. The balance explains the small easing in port stocks of iron ore. It also helps explain tearaway CISA steel out mid-February. But, dead ahead are the tariffs and the export
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Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.
I’m now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow me on Mastodon here.
Friday night saw the release of the latest US unemployment aka non-farm payroll figures and while they underperformed they came in as expected, giving a relief valve to Wall Street which managed a meagre rally to end the trading week still at a new low. European stocks pulled back but then managed more gains in
The post Macro Morning appeared first on MacroBusiness.
Australia’s labour market appears to be tremendously healthy. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) monthly labour market survey, the economy added 173,000 (3.5%) jobs in the year to January. Australia’s official unemployment rate (4.1%) is also among the lowest in the advanced world, alongside the United States. On Friday, the ABS released its
On Saturday morning, I awoke to news that a friend’s home one kilometre away was the victim of an attempted home invasion. The bandits climbed over a neighbour’s side fence and attempted to force their way into the rear door. Luckily the neighbour awoke, made a racket, and they ran away. The following day, the
The post Melbourne has fallen appeared first on MacroBusiness.