When Labor was in opposition, then Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers was a strong proponent of a wide variety of metrics that are championed by economists as more accurate indicators of economic performance. This earned him respect, even from his rivals, though only behind closed doors. But since coming to power, his focus has often turned
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will release the official population and migration data for the June quarter of 2025 next week. Ahead of the release of this data, the ABS has released various estimates suggesting that population growth has increased. Thursday’s labour force release for November contains estimates of the civilian population aged 15
In the last four years, expectations for the RBA cash rate have been wildly variable. Back in late 2021, the Commonwealth Bank was projecting a peak cash rate of just 1.25% by the end of 2023. While this estimate may seem low now, it was not alone at the time, as many economists and institutions
Australians experienced one of the world’s largest declines in real per capita household disposable income after the pandemic, reflecting soft nominal wage growth amid high inflation, tax increases, and rising interest payments. Australia’s growth in real per capita household disposable income has also been among the softest in the world over the past decade, according
A wobbly night on Wall Street due to Oracles earnings but also a “normalised” US initial jobless claims print proving the labour market is soft as the Fed claimed in its rate cut the previous session. While tech stocks pulled back, European shares lifted with futures indicating a boost for Asian markets here on the
I reported last week how Chief Executive and Principal Registrar at the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART), Michael Hawkins, informed Senate Estimates that the ART was being overwhelmed by an “explosion” of international students appealing their visa rejections. Senate Estimates was told that the ART is struggling to process a whopping 46,590 student visa decisions as
The cost of Sydney housing is insane. According to Domain, the median house price in Sydney was $1,751,700 in the September quarter of 2025, up more than $700,000 from a decade earlier. According to Cotality’s latest housing affordability report, the cost of the median dwelling in Sydney was valued at 10.0 times the median household
Its not been all roses and sunshine following last night’s rate cut by the Fed with Asian share markets mixed at best while commodity and currency markets are moving into risk off mode on the escalation in the Caribbean by the Trump regime’s seizure of an oil tanker and some questioning around AI spending via
Thursday’s labour force release for the month of November handed Victoria another unwanted title: the unemployment state. As illustrated in the next chart, Victoria’s trend unemployment rate was the highest in the nation at 4.7%, significantly above the national average unemployment rate of 4.3%: As illustrated below by Alex Joiner from IFM Investors, if you
From the Market Ear: Inverse HS? Is SPX flirting with an inverse HS formation? A proper close above the 6900 area (futures) and things could get squeezy. If November was just a shake out of weak hands, and the trend channel remains the compass, then we have room to push this substantially higher. Russell roaring