It’s a Sunday and I can’t finish the lawn with a bit of moisture about. Someone flips an article by Abul Rizvi into play, and foolishly I read it. Doc Rizvi is slagging off the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) for a release about immigration. I find myself reading both the IPA release and the
The ferrous complex remains paralysed by overly high iron ore prices. I have switched to Shanghai HRC (purple) prices from the national average, which may help explain some of the stickiness in iron ore prices. Despite the recent price falls in steel inputs, steel remains unprofitable. Production is being forced lower. But slowly so far.
Merchant.adventurers.of.london · DeepT Nov 25 Australian Inflation Interest Rates and the Need for Economic Policy reform As the Australian economy staggers towards Christmas 2025 with cost of living and energy pressures still hammering the electorate, Deep T and Gunnamatta discuss the dynamics surrounding current scope for the RBA to cut interest rates. Over about 45
International reading: Foreclosures surge 20% as Americans struggle to pay mortgages – and fears of 2008-style crash soar – Daily Mail Economist Stunned By Trump’s Latest Wild Claim: ‘Quite Literally False’ – Huff Post Ford CEO says he has 5,000 open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries from the shortage of manually skilled workers: ‘We are
A sea of read across Asian stock markets in response to the selloff on Wall Street as the premium for pricing in the re-start of the US federal government is being overshadowed by political events, namely a probable war in central America. Operation “Big Distraction” I think it’s called? Currency markets appear nonchalant however with
On Thursday, Stats NZ released data showing that 12,400 net migrants arrived in the year to September 2025, down from a net gain of 42,400 in the September 2024 year. The current migration inflow is also well below the circa 130,000 peak in 2023 and is below the decade average annual net inflow of about
In the second last line of the RBA’s exhaustive forecasts out to December 2027 was their projection for real wage growth in year-on-year terms at 6-month intervals. According to an analysis from Greg Jericho, the policy director at the Centre for Future Work, what they have projected is effectively two separate recessions for real wages
Why are wrongful dismissal claims soaring?…Everyone has a theory. A weakening job market. Artificial intelligence-assisted applications. Greater media attention on the cases leading to greater worker awareness of their rights. Did something break in people’s attitudes during the pandemic that contributed to the increase? Has working from home done something to curdle workplace relationships? A
Canberra is on a charge for the media moguls. Facebook owner Meta would be liable to pay the Australian Taxation Office more than $112 million a year if it fails to strike commercial deals with local publishers under new laws aimed at forcing recalcitrant social media platforms to pay for news. But the tax, which
Australia’s population grew by an extraordinary 8.5 million (45%) over the first 25 years of this century, far exceeding the population growth of other advanced nations. Over the four years from Q1 2021 to Q1 2025, Australia’s population grew by an estraordinary 1.88 million (7.9%)—equivalent to adding an Adelaide and Hobart to the nation’s population.