Blogotariat

From ekathemerini: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is set to begin a bruising week by clearing out party rebels opposed to an austerity package that will have to go through parliament within days, people close to the government say. With Greece’s future in the eurozone in the balance and European partners demanding immediate action to

The post Greece writhes appeared first on MacroBusiness.

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

By Leith van Onselen Australian Treasury head, John Fraser, gave a speech on Friday to the 2015 Australian Conference of Economists, whereby he pushed the case for tax reform: Unless we lift productivity growth, through reforms across all sectors of our economy, we face a future of stagnant and possibly declining living standards – a

The post Treasury Secretary John Fraser calls for tax reform appeared first on MacroBusiness.

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Hunt admitted that no more money would go to wind farms, though they made the government a billion a year, nor to rooftop solar for houses and small blocks of flats, which every Australian wanted. He also admitted, or hinted, that these cancellations had been commanded by a Cabinet which had not consulted him. He is the Minister for the Environment.

Tim Flannery said emissions had gone down under Labor, and up under Abbott, who had exceeded in skyfilth the previous government’s gains. Tim said we would become the ‘world pariah’ on climate change.

From RBC: We think the near term outlook for the majors remains difficult. We expect iron ore to remain weak over H2, while other key commodities such as oil, copper, metallurgical coal, and aluminium are all facing near term headwinds. Our preference for RIO (Sector Perform) over BHP (Underperform) is based on its more attractive

The post More on big iron profit damage appeared first on MacroBusiness.

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I was doing so well getting back towards my goal weight of the mid-80s. Until Professor Boylan turned up, martinis clutched in one fist, a brace of slow cooked lamb shoulders in the other. I fear to step on the scales and check my weight now – not that there would be much point. I doubt I could see them over my bulging gut.

By Leith van Onselen The Property Council of Australia (PCA) has stepped-up its lobbying on tax reform, commissioning research based on a survey of 1,957 respondents showing that most Australians would prefer to see stamp duty abolished in exchange for an increase in the GST: A comprehensive report from Newgate Research Community attitudes towards tax

The post Property Council talks its book on tax reform appeared first on MacroBusiness.

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Rehypothecation. It’s a strange word. It doesn’t mean you’ve got asthma and it has nothing to do with the meaning of life but your financial well-being now depends upon understanding what it means. The Wikipaedia definition is as good as any: Rehypothecation is a practice that occurs principally in the financial markets, where a bank or other

The post Get set for Australia’s China margin call appeared first on MacroBusiness.

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

The weekend’s European news could not be more extraordinary. A superb opinion piece by Yanis Varafoukas in The Guardian brought everything to a head: In 2010, the Greek state became insolvent. Two options consistent with continuing membership of the eurozone presented themselves: the sensible one, that any decent banker would recommend – restructuring the debt and reforming

The post Greece brought a latte to a gunfight appeared first on MacroBusiness.

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

By Leith van Onselen The Australian published an interesting article over the weekend claiming that around 4,000 homes purchased by Chinese-based investors over the past two years are being kept empty, often leading to over grown lawns and dereliction across Australia’s suburbs: MacroPlan Dimasi chief economist Jason Anderson expects a further 10,000 new homes bought

The post Illegal Asian buyers raise ghost house fears appeared first on MacroBusiness.

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Core Logic-RP Data released its auction market report last night, which revealed a slight weakening in the national auction clearance rate. The preliminary national clearance rate was 76.2%, down from the 78.1% recorded last weekend, according to Core Logic-RP Data: Sydney’s clearance rate fell by 3.5% to 81.0%, whereas Melbourne’s was 78.2%, up from the

The post Auction clearances slowly descend from orbit appeared first on MacroBusiness.

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Here are the iron ore charts for July 10, 2015:    Qingdao spot rallied 2.3% to $50.10. Tianjin benchmark ended up 3.3% to $49.90. 12 month swaps added a little and Dalian a little more with it rising another 3 points Friday night to 372. Rebar average actually added a little too. As did port

The post Daily iron or price update (rally) appeared first on MacroBusiness.

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Why Investing Is So Complicated, and How to Make It Simpler – New York Times Service labour market: The engine of growth and inequality – VOX Global Solar Power Capacity About To Hit 200 GW – cleantechnica.com Greek, Chinese and Puerto Rican Crises All Fall Short of Going Global

The post Links 13 July 2015 appeared first on MacroBusiness.

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

In the next few months, most Australians will be considering their financial affairs and the preparation of their annual tax return. It is usually a time for some questioning around how you did manage to spend all that money in the past year and what changes you can make to become thriftier in the upcoming year.