Blogotariat

The Department of Home Affairs has released temporary visa data for Q1 2025, showing a record 2,541,651 temporary visas on issue in Australia (excluding visitors). This figure was around 120,000 higher than the year prior and about 580,000 higher than Q1 2020, before the pandemic. As illustrated below, the surge in temporary visas since Q1

The post International students ruthlessly exploit bridging visas appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The Albanese government was the worst government in modern Australian history. It is a: routine liar political hack over national interest policymaker housing calamity energy price catastrophe industrial horror story budget wrecker wages killer living standards destroyer immigration obsessive China groveller. The nation just handed this black hole government the largest blank cheque anybody can

The latest rental affordability report from PropTrack revealed that at the end of 2024, Australian households could afford to rent the smallest share of advertised rentals since at least 2008, when records began. The primary cause of the collapse in rental affordability is the extreme growth of rents, which have risen by 48% nationally since

The post Aussie landlords gain from renters’ pain appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The stakes will be higher for Labor's second term in a variety of ways, and the fight to own the narrative if Australia hosts the UN climate conference in 2026 will be intense.

The Market Ear on the short squeeze. Most since August S&P 500 +18% from the lows 4 weeks ago. More than 88% of S&P 500 stocks are trading above their 20 day moving average, the most since August. However, many sentiment & positioning indicators are still massively lagging, which would indicate room for more buying.

The post The short squeeze rips appeared first on MacroBusiness.

It seems to me that Trump has gone a little crazy by his 100 days of presidency. On paper, he did very well, but he He clearly had no idea the extent of Zelensky's idiocy and the hatred of European idiots for himself.

Goldman wraps a Q1 dud. Nominal retail sales rose 0.3%mom in March, broadly in line with expectations (GSe: +0.2%mom, BBG: 0.4%mom). That said, the details were softer, with ex-food sales broadly flat for a second consecutive month. The quarterly data were also weaker than expected, with volumes flat in 1Q2025 against expectations for an ongoing

The post RBA to cut as retail slumps again appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.

I’m now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow me on Mastodon here.

Australian households are suffering their longest recession in generations. The Q4 national accounts, released in March, revealed that real per capita household consumption fell for an eighth consecutive quarter. A steep decline in household incomes is behind the fall in consumption. As illustrated below, real per capita household consumption had declined by around 8% from its

I have written several pieces about the Liberal Party branches being taken over by the religious in most of the Australian states. It seems to have started in Victoria1,2, and quickly spread to other states with Western Australia2,3, Queensland2  and South Australia4,5  having fallen to the religious. The only holdouts seem to be Tasmania6  and New South Wales7.

Australia has said no to Trumpism, no to nuclear and no to a vision of a country in perpetual fear. A triumphant Labor government must now rise to the occasion.

The coalition's nuclear power plan "bombed at the ballot" and is now off the table, climate action and renewable energy groups say.

RT has released AI-generated footage of Winston Churchill highlighting the crucial role of the Soviet Union in the defeat of Nazi Germany and other Axis powers.