Blogotariat

Via the Kouk earlier this week: Do we need to be worried about Australia’s economic outlook? The Reserve Bank of Australia reckons that the next move in official interest rates is more likely to be up than down. RBA Governor has said so in recent weeks as he talks up the prospects for the economy

The post Kouk: RBA gunna cut interest rates later this year appeared first on MacroBusiness.

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Nothing exemplifies better how totally lacking in judgement the Coalition is than the superannuation saga. (Ok, maybe their determination to exacerbate climate change, but that’s another story albeit very similar in its short-sighted ignorance.) In the brief moments between discussing dual citizenship and Gestapotato’s latest bid to make us all scared, they sometimes remember we…

By Leith van Onselen The infrastructure being built to fix the problems caused by mass immigration continues to pile on the pain for taxpayers in Queen Lucy Turnbull’s Sydney. Hot on the heels of Spanish contractor Acciona demanding an additional $200 million from taxpayers as compensation for delays caused by the NSW State Government relating to the Sydney

The post Another contractor lines up to sue Sydney’s Light Rail farce appeared first on MacroBusiness.

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Here's a question you should be asking yourself:

What does 21st Century authoritarianism look like?

Given what we've seen so far, it isn't likely that we're going to see a return to the 20th Century model, with its absolute dictators, industrial scale bureaucracies, paramilitaries, ideologies, ubiquitous/vicious secret police, relentless propaganda, etc... 

That model died when globalization and the Internet hollowed out the nation-state.

The new model of authoritarianism.  The model that is sweeping the world is very different. 

It's networked. 

I’ve wanted to do a podcast for a while, but haven’t been in a position to spend the time to do it properly. I think I’m pretty much there now, but I’m looking for some help with it.

I have a plan to launch a podcast in June, which should hopefully give us at least two episodes before the by-elections on July 28. It will start out slow, and may not be the most professionally produced podcast at first, but I’d like to work out the technology and spend the time to turn it into something really good. Hopefully it would be running smoothly for the big three elections due later this year.

By Leith van Onselen We wrote last week how home values have fallen fastest across the top 25% of properties by value. Now, CoreLogic has gone a step further by assessing home price growth across each decile, which confirms that values have fallen fastest at the premium end of the market: The report provides a

The post Premium homes cop biggest value declines appeared first on MacroBusiness.

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By Chris Becker Trump’s sudden cancellation of the summit with North Korea caught markets a bit unawares, sending European stocks down while US bourses recovered later in the session. Oil prices tumbled however as the USD was mixed against the majors, with a bounce in gold prices rounding out the volatile overnight session. Recapping stocks

The post Macro Morning appeared first on MacroBusiness.

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Via Domainfax: Crowding on Sydney’s trains has worsened significantly in just a year, new figures show, frustrating passengers and placing greater pressure on an aged rail network struggling to cope with a booming population. Trains are running during the morning peak with loads as high as 185 per cent, way above the level at which

The post The King and Queen of Point Piper’s plan is to wreck Sydney appeared first on MacroBusiness.

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The blog has been pretty quiet lately. That’s partly because I’m trying really hard to focus on finishing my Two Lessons book, but also because so many of the debates that come up have been had many times before, and I don’t feel like repeating myself. So, I’m going to try reposting older material. The risk is that it will be out of date, but on an early sample, it’s surprising how little I would change if I were rewriting.

I’m going to start with the current topic of hyperventilation in the Australian media: China and the South China Sea

On Friday 18 May 2018 Patagonia Australia held a “Never Town” film showing and information night on environmental and conservation issues affecting the Clarence Coast. Part surf film, part conservation film, Never Town takes a journey along some wild coastlines and talks with the people fighting to keep them wild. Filmed along the Southern Ocean coasts of Australia, it’s an exploration of what these places mean to surfers… and what surfers are willing to do to save them. Featuring Dave Rastovich, Wayne Lynch, Dan Ross, Belinda Baggs and Heath Joske.

By Leith van Onselen Th AFR’s Phillip Coorey has done a good job describing the conundrum facing the Turnbull Government with respect to its company tax cut policy: Inevitably, in the wake of this week’s events, there are murmurs among the Nationals and some others on the backbench to dump the cuts rather than fight

The post Coalition painted into corner on company tax cuts appeared first on MacroBusiness.

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By Leith van Onselen The deflation of Sydney’s housing market ceased this week, with Sydney values rebounding by 0.04% in the week ended 24 May, according to CoreLogic: Sydney home values have now declined by a cumulative 4.6% over the past 37-weeks, with values also down 4.5% over the past 42 weeks. By comparison, Melbourne

The post Melbourne housing overtakes Sydney as price falls leader appeared first on MacroBusiness.

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The OECD has joined The Movement. In a new report it’s saying that plastic recycling isn’t working. So we’ve got to make it work. Fair enough. Perhaps we should.