Blogotariat

I find it hard to understand how passionate some folks are about voting Yes or voting No. Not because I do not understand passion, but because the cases for either position are so unconvincing.

It’s a movie we’ve seen over and over again in US politics. Centrists engage in respectful discussion with a thoughtful conservative[1], only to discover they are actually talking to a dishonest troll. Yet, just like Charlie Brown lining up to kick Lucy’s football, they keep coming back for another try.

Nothing new except the language is simpler.  At its meeting today, the Board decided to leave the cash rate target unchanged at 4.10 per cent and the interest rate paid on Exchange Settlement balances unchanged at 4.00 per cent. Interest rates have been increased by 4 percentage points since May last year. The higher interest rates are working to establish

The post Simplified RBA statement retains tightening bias appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Iron ore is toast, says Australia via the Office of the Chief Economist. Spot iron ore prices have been volatile in the September quarter, but have generally moderated since the start of the year, driven by slowing global economic growth and China’s property sector weakness. Australian export volumes remain strong, with further greenfield supply from

The post Australia: Iron ore is toast appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Apparently, Dan Tehan was on QandA last night. I only know this because I’ve picked it up on social media because I’ve been forbidden to watch the show for the past ten years or so, owing to my tendency to shout verbal obscenities at some of the guests and my wife convinced me that this…

The post The Admirable Demonstration of Dan Tehan And Other Cunning Liberal Plans! appeared first on The AIM Network.

Over the weekend, the Albanese Government announced that it would attempt to stem the flow of non-genuine international students coming to Australia for work and residency via: Banning colleges that target international students from paying commissions to agents; Implementing a series of “risk indicators” as part of a monitoring framework that will track student attendance;

Mad King is the energy gaslighter-in-chief: Resources Minister Madeleine King has warned that decreasing gas supply faster than demand will lead to “shortages, supply disruptions and high prices”, while also “worsening poverty and inequality”, launching a strong economic defence for the fuel source’s role in underpinning the nation’s clean energy transition. Really? What about the

According to the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) population figures, NSW experienced the largest intake of net overseas migrants in the country’s history, with an unprecedented 153,400 net migrants arriving in the state in the year to March 2023: At the same time as NSW’s population is surging via record immigration, actual dwelling

The post Sydney faces dire housing shortage appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Australia’s extraordinary house price rebound rolled on in September, with CoreLogic data showing that values have risen by 7.2% at the 5-city aggregate level after bottoming in February 2023. The rebound has also been broad-based with all five major capital city markets recording value rises: PropTrack’s property index has also recorded a strong rebound with

The post Supply shortage drives house prices higher appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is widely tipped by economists to keep interest rates on hold at Tuesday’s monetary policy meeting, which will be Michele Bullock’s first as governor. There are good reasons to keep rates on hold, including: Despite the lift in petrol prices, core inflation (excluding volatile items) is still trending lower.

The post Mortgage rate rises will prevent RBA from hiking again appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Referendum results are made up of building blocks of states – four states are required to pass a referendum. While a successful referendum also requires a majority nationwide, that has never been the deciding factor. It’s always been about the four states.

In this post I’m analysing which states have tended to vote together, and the combinations of states that have appeared throughout the twentieth century.

There have been 44 referendums, but eighteen of those have involved all six states voting together. On eleven occasions, all six states have voted No. On another seven cases, they have all voted Yes.