Blogotariat

Man, what a week! Monday was a public holiday. Tuesday, I caught up with old mates. On Thursday, I had to take the car to the shop again and get myself into the city for a skin check. (One minor BCC to come in December.)

Long story short, not a lot was written this week. But I did go back and do proper edits on some earlier chapters of 3.3, which will save me some time in about a month or so. In fact, it convinced me I should block out a couple of hours a week to edit as I go rather than letting it build into a 20-hour job after I finish the first draft.

Recall that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivered a speech late last month to the UK Labour Party conference, whereby he vowed to “defend democracy itself” alongside “my mate”, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Albanese said he shared a “determination” with the UK leader and an “absolute resolve to stand together and defend democracy

The post Albo’s Ministry of Truth rejected by cross bench appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Why is everything to do with energy in Australia so stupid? Labor is awarding contracts under its flagship renewable energy scheme to developments years away from board approval, let alone construction, raising fears that projects in line for taxpayer support may never be built. One major Victorian wind farm proposed by AGL Energy, which will

The post Energy superidiot delivers fake renewables boom appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Powerlink CEO Paul Simshauser on managing the closure of Queensland's biggest coal generator, the role of transmission as prices double, and batteries vs syncons.

Santos is widely regarded as a major contributor to the East Coast Australian gas shortage. About a decade ago, Santos expanded its gas export facility at Curtis Island, signing long-term contracts with Asian buyers. However, the anticipated gas reserves weren’t sufficient, so Santos began buying up local gas and diverting gas meant for domestic use

The post Is Santos Australia’s most evil company? appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Big super funds are Australia's most powerful investors, but have no guiding value on the cost of carbon - an anomaly that must be fixed. Here's how.

It was going so well, and then thump! Westpac mulls what happened. Consumers appear to have been rattled by recent updates on inflation. ‘Partial’ measures released over the last month suggest annual inflation has lifted back towards the top of the RBA’s 2–3% target range. This news, and signs of firmer consumer demand and a

The post What smashed consumer confidence back down? appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The ferrous complex popped at the end of Golden Week yesterday. Pretty typical stuff. The steel profitability gap remains wide. We know a shakeout is coming for iron ore. The question is how deep it will need to be. Morgan Stanley has a crack at it. Downside risks to our long-term price target could emerge

The post Will China or BHP win the iron ore fight? appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s vote for the endangered Australasian Bittern raises eyebrows given her record on coal and climate policies.

The greenback is ripping. AUD is rolling over. CNY stalled. This is not good for gold. Or the silly AI metals rush. Which is feeding RIO. EM is also a DXY downplay. Junk is cracking lower. Which is odd given yields. Bubble paused. There’s no obvious reason for the sudden volatility, except that there is

The post Australian dollar hit hard by greenback hammer appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Wednesday accused Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk of “defending terrorists,” over comments about the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. 

Tusk had claimed the day before in a post on X that “the problem with North Stream 2 is not that it was blown up. The problem is that it was built.”

The 2025 federal election campaign saw both sides admit that they wanted to see Australian home prices rise at a ‘sustainable rate’ from already record-high levels. Both Labor and the Coalition offered ‘affordability’ policies that were really aimed at pumping homebuyer demand and increasing prices. It was a theme that has been repeated throughout this

The post Mortgage affordability is not housing affordability appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Proposed 20-turbine wind project near Augusta seeks EPA approval, but has sparked a number of concerns, and memories of the impact of a BHP mine.