The managed decline of the Chinese economy continues as the property sector is hollowed out. Last year’s yawnulus didn’t touch the sides of the bottomless black hole. Coal consumption growth has completely stalled. Trade appears to be booming. But only if China is shipping more smaller and lighter items. The economy has been pancaked for
Almost every infrastructure expert opposed the Victorian government’s Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) because the price tag was excessive, the project lacked a business case, it failed any objective cost-benefit analysis, and it would have insufficient user demand. For example, a cost-benefit analysis by Victoria’s Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) found that the SRL East and North
Throughout much of the last term of federal parliament, the Coalition under its then leader Peter Dutton made a case that the Albanese government was unable to adequately manage the nation’s affairs, using words like “disaster” to characterise some of the government’s policies. While there is certainly a case to be made that the Albanese
DXY is up and away! Euro toast. AUD is stuck on the treadmill from hell. CNY down. Gold still looks shaky to me as DXY firms. AI metals find a headwind. Big miners, big shooting star. EM toppy. Jun rejection! Yield back-up continues but is not a trend break yet. Stocks trying/ The Market Ear
Iron ore is riding high with the Pilbara killer one week away. Dynamics have shifted, as expected. Late last week, hot metal output fell to 2.36mt. This has been low enough to reverse the steel inventory accumulation, though it is still much higher than last year. In turn, port inventories of iron ore are on
The East Coast gas cartel is destroying your living standards by injecting ceaseless cost-push inflation into the headwaters of the supply chain for every business in the country east of WA. It is the core of household’s cost-of-living crisis as well, adding about 6% to the CPI year on year since 2021. By itself, not
Friday night saw Wall Street rally after falling for several sessions, but again it was tech stock earnings due to the AI bubble keeping everything afloat. The USD is still reasserting its recent strength against all the majors although gold is trying to make a comeback with Euro and Pound Sterling falling sharply while the
When Clare O’Neil was Australia’s Home Affairs Minister, she regularly lamented that Australia’s migration system was too temporary and was holding the nation back. “Today, really for the first time in our modern history, our uncapped, unplanned temporary program is the centrepiece and driver of our migration system. This simple fact is the source of huge
The Albanese government’s 5% deposit scheme for first home buyers, effective from 1 October, appears to have significantly boosted home prices. Cotality’s house price results for October reported the strongest increase in values since June 2023, up 1.1% over the month and 2.9% over the quarter at the combined capital city level. Over the past
Last week’s shocking inflation result, which saw Australia’s trimmed mean inflation surge by 1.0% in Q3 2025 and the annual rate of inflation rise to 3.0%, has all but eliminated chances of another interest rate cut over the foreseeable future. As illustrated below by CBA, financial markets now ascribe a near-zero chance of another rate