Blogotariat

Oz Blog News Commentary

University financial claims are full of self-serving errors

February 18, 2026 - 13:00 -- Admin

By Salvatore Babones, Associate Professor at Sydney University and author of the book “Australia’s Universities, Can They Reform” Universities Australia (UA) has published its pre-budget submission, and it opens with the claim that its members educate “1.5 million Australians every year”. That is incorrect. They educate roughly 1.5 million people every year—of whom only about

Australian real wages crunched lower

February 18, 2026 - 11:46 -- Admin

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) revised its forecasts on CPI inflation and wage growth in the February Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP), as summarised below: The key takeaway was that the RBA does not anticipate that real wages will recover over the forward estimates, as illustrated below: By the June quarter of 2028, Australia’s real

Leading index drives into RBA ditch

February 18, 2026 - 11:30 -- Admin

The six-month annualized growth rate of the Westpac–Melbourne Institute Leading Index, which shows how much economic activity is expected to change in relation to trend three to nine months from now, went down from +0.44% in December to +0.02% in January. Westpac argues, as I do, that the most recent data shows that the momentum

A RBA rate hawk enters the room

February 18, 2026 - 11:00 -- Admin

The minutes from the RBA’s February monetary policy meeting were released on Tuesday. The key takeaways are that the RBA is highly uncertain about the outlook for inflation and interest rates: “Members agreed that the prevailing uncertainties meant it was not possible to have a high degree of confidence in any particular path for the

Tech wreck 2.0 just getting started?

February 18, 2026 - 10:30 -- Admin

Charts from TME. NDX is flirting with serious support levels while tech volatility trends higher.. Sag 7 in trouble. It’s pretty clear the market wants less capex spending. Apple is showing the way. Concentration is falling. NDX skew is nasty. Lot’s of bears here. Diffusion is extraordinary as the market gyrates wildly through winners and