Labor’s First Home Guarantee scheme, which commenced at the beginning of October, enables first home buyers to purchase a home with only a 5% deposit without requiring lenders’ mortgage insurance, with the government guaranteeing 15% of the mortgage. With Australian home values already the most expensive in history relative to household incomes, the First Home
I cannot comment on the prospects of the latest deal, but we can run some scenario analysis to assess the outcomes. Goldman looks at oil. Brent crude prices have declined 5% over the past week to $62/bbl as the market reassesses the prospect of a potential Russia-Ukraine peace deal. While uncertainty around the details of
Recall Labor’s Powering Australia Plan, released before the 2022 federal election, which claimed that it would cut NEM wholesale power rates by $11 per MWh (from $62 to $51) by 2025, resulting in lower retail power prices. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed RepuTex Energy’s analysis as “the most comprehensive modelling ever done for any policy
The Market Ear on stocks and fear. Panic gone The extreme VIX vs SPX gap is gone. Chart shows SPX vs VIX (inverted). Source: LSEG Workspace Downside panic also gone Downside protection has reset sharply lower during the latest bounce. The SDEX implosion has been agressive over the past days. Source: LSEG Workspace Seen VVIX?
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Recall that long-time immigration influencer Abul Rizi, who has forever championed a Big Australia and has ruthlessly attacked anybody arguing for lower immigration, amusingly endorsed the Canadian government’s sharp immigration cuts. In an article published on Independent Australia this month, Rizvi said the following about Canada’s immigration cuts: CONSISTENT WITH its announced long-term immigration plan
The larger the nation’s bureaucracy, the worse the policymaking. Data from the Australian Public Service Commission (APS) shows that the number of federal public servants increased by 7.4% in 2024-25, to a record high of 198,529. The public service headcount has increased by 24.7%—or 39,350 people—since Labor took office in May 2022. The APS report
In 2024, the NSW Productivity Commission warned that excessive housing costs were driving younger residents out of Sydney, resulting in a “brain drain” of 30- to 40 year olds. The NSW Productivity Commission found Sydney lost about 35,000 people aged 30-40 between 2016 and 2021. This week, Cotality released its September quarter housing affordability report, which
The robots are coming for your job. Expected capex is through the roof. Via the ABS. Total capital expenditure Estimate 4 for 2025-26 is $191.3b This is 9.4% higher than Estimate 3 for 2025-26 In this very rare case, the outcome is not related to mining. It is AI. Whoa! Westpac is bullish for GDP.
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There are some days when an economist can only shake his head in appalled wonder. After the shock jump in monthly inflation on Wednesday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government was still weighing up whether to extend the federal subsidy that is due to expire next month. …National Australia Bank chief economist Sally Auld said
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On Thursday morning, a press release from APRA with the headline: ‘APRA to limit high debt-to-income home loans to constrain riskier lending’ At first glance, it sounds perfectly reasonable, but once one begins to read into the details, it swiftly becomes clear that it is yet another one of APRA’s wet lettuce leaf approaches to