Blogotariat

The pet shop has gone mad this weekend with all and sundry declaring ANZUS dead and Australia alone in the world. America may abandon NATO though I doubt that as well. It looks more to me like America wants Europe to pay its own way in its defence. There is no danger to America from

The post America will not abandon Australia appeared first on MacroBusiness.

While Wall Street rebounded on Friday night it was basically just a short covering exercise after falling for four weeks straight with expectations of higher volatility continuing this trading week amid the ongoing trade war and a very busy economic calendar, including the latest Fed meeting. European stocks got a breather as well but are

The post Macro Morning appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.

I’m now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow me on Mastodon here.

Last year, former federal Treasury official Stephen Anthony warned that Victoria could require a federal “bailout” amid soaring state debt, which hit $27,729 per person in 2023-24. “Victoria is on a suicide mission to record borrowing, just as global interest rates are about to hit 5%”, Anthony warned. “Potholes can’t get filled, emergency departments can’t

The post Victoria turns welfare state appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Knowing well in advance that Russia would reject it, the U.S. and Ukraine announced with fanfare that its ceasefire deal was in “Russia’s court” in what was an exercise of pure public relations, writes Joe Lauria.

CoreLogic’s preliminary auction results reported a clearance rate of 71.4% for Sydney. This was the sixth consecutive week that the preliminary clearance rate was above 70%. The following chart shows the strong rebound in final Sydney clearance rates since the beginning of the year. Sydney’s final auction clearance rate has rebounded from an average of

The post Sydney leads house price upswing appeared first on MacroBusiness.

US bombs Yemen: As it happenedThe US president has ordered a “powerful military action” against the Yemeni-based Houthi militants

Dozens of people were killed or injured after the US launched a major airstrike campaign against Yemeni-based Houthi militants, with President Donald Trump personally observing the operation as it unfolded.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that Kiev has received widespread applause from its Western backers over its handling of the recent talks with the US in Saudi Arabia. The diplomatic success, he stated, puts Russia in a difficult situation that could be hard to “wiggle out of.”

During a meeting in Jeddah on Tuesday, the Ukrainian delegation agreed to a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire.

6:00 – Polls have just closed for the by-election for the New South Wales state seat of Port Macquarie, covering one of the larger regional cities on the mid north coast.

I’m out tonight so probably won’t be live-blogging much, but you can discuss the results here and I might drop in a little bit.

The face ripper is here as DXY falls and EUR rises. AUD to the moon! Lead boots are heavy. Base metals sold the fact. RIO’s copper is opening jaws to BHP. EM meh. Junk firmed. Bad new for all. Yields up as Germany’s Merz got his fiscal deal. Stocks to the moon! Three points of

The post Australian dollar face ripper arrives appeared first on MacroBusiness.

HAVING BEEN A FOLLOWER OF PETER SELLERS SINCE THE 1960s AND USING THE GOON SHOW REPEATS ON BBC (ONE?) TO SHARPEN MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HUMOUR — I HAVE RECENTLY DISCOVERED A LITTLE GEM FROM THE MASTER OF BUMBLING ALONG. 

IN THE PICTURE ABOVE, THE RUSSIANS AND THE EUROPEANS ARE PLAYING THE GAME OF DIPLOMACY — WHICH IS A VERSION OF MONOPOLY, IN WHICH THE PLAYERS CAN BUY AND SELL OR DESTROY COUNTRIES…

We have reached a point where, with regard to Russia, the US is more reasonable and less bellicose than its currently semi-rebellious European vassals.

Washington is trying to end the senseless proxy war against Russia via Ukraine and also to facilitate a broader détente with Moscow. The NATO-EU European elites are desperate to keep the war going and to build their own countries’ whole futures on confronting Russia – forever.