Victorians are experiencing acute Stockholm Syndrome, wedded to the failing state Labor government who has been in power for 22 of the past 26 years. Victoria’s nine-month lockdown during the Covid-19 outbreak was among the longest and most severe in the world. It was also brought to us by the state government, whose incompetence with
We all understand the wisdom of Professor Michael Pettis. Today, he returns to discuss the implications for Australia of a severe China adjustment. “I don’t think overly emphasising commodity production is good for long-term growth because I don’t think productivity growth in commodity production compares with productivity growth in manufacturing,” he says. “Many people see
The Albanese government claims it wants to reduce immigration to Australia. However, its actions on the international student front say otherwise. Australia already has the highest share of international students and graduates in the world, accounting for 3.2% of the nation’s population as of Q3 2025, up from the pre-pandemic peak of 2.9%. However, the
Virtually all infrastructure experts opposed the Victorian government’s Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) because the cost was prohibitively high, the project lacked a business case, failed any objective cost-benefit analysis, and would not generate enough customer demand. For example, Victoria’s Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) conducted a cost-benefit analysis and discovered that the SRL East and North
The Market Ear leads us off. Delicate levels NASDAQ is trading right on the 50-day moving average. Friday saw a huge doji candle, indicating nobody is in control. Let’s see how this develops from here, but the longer-term trend line is a must-hold. Source: LSEG Workspace Relative tech stress VXN – VIX spread has shot
With the release of the latest polling RedBridge, it was revealed that Labor now hold 51% of the votes of Gen Z, followed by the Greens with 24% of the vote. This compares with Labor securing 40.3% of the Gen Z vote at the ballot box at May’s federal election, with 27.2% for the Coalition
Australia’s labour market has been gradually softening over the past year. This softening is evident in the gradual rise in Australia’s unemployment rate: As illustrated below by AMP chief economist Shane Oliver, the various measures of job openings have also weakened: Alex Joiner, chief economist at IFM Investors has published an interesting set of charts
This is ridiculous in every way. In his first public interview on the issue, Australia Pacific LNG chief executive Dan Clark told The Australian that the east coast market’s chronic pressures cannot be solved with the series of band-aid solutions that have been applied over recent years. The call comes as the federal government prepares
Its been a very cautious start to the trading week with more selling but not quite dumping on Wall Street overnight with a parallel selloff in Bitcoin not helping. The run back to USD continues even though without any key economic indicators being published by the Trump regime in the last two months, this looks
DXY is back. AUD is sitting on big support. CNY serene. Gold no bueno. AI metals likewise. Miners fade. EM too. Junk sitting on big support, too. Yields down a smidge. Stocks no bueno. There was not much overnight to explain the strong DXY, other than traditional risk off. That the failure of risk sentiment