Blogotariat

Households with solar and batteries are not shifting away from the grid, but into a different kind of relationship with it - active, price-aware, and responsive.

Meeting privately with King Charles III and Queen Camilla, Pope Francis congratulated the pair for their 20 years together. Despite having canceled their official state visit to the Holy See citing Pope Francis’ ill health and need for recovery, the king and queen nevertheless met privately with the Pontiff Wednesday afternoon.

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.

The Q4 2024 national accounts from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that households were stuck in a recession. Real per capita household consumption fell for a record eighth consecutive quarter. This followed a record 8% drop in real per capita household disposable income. CBA has released its Household Spending Insights (HSI) for March,

The post Australia’s long, grinding household recession appeared first on MacroBusiness.

There were very few cicadas around this year... No Greengocers, but some of these highly decorated types, strangely quieter — unless the pitch of their call was too high to be heard.... I will try to identify.

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

The Albanese government is primed to win the upcoming federal election, with all recent opinion polls showing them leading the Coalition on a two-party preferred basis. House prices will undoubtedly skyrocket following the election of a second-term Labor government. First, the latest interest rate predictions from the futures market tip that Australia’s official cash rate

The post Australian house prices are set to rocket appeared first on MacroBusiness.

What happens when sun don't shine? At this solar farm, it continues feeding power into the grid in the evening peaks, with the help of a DC-couple battery.

Thanks to James Wimberley for prompting me to write this, and alerting me to the data on China’s emissions

Most of the news these days is bad, and that’s true of the climate. Even as climatic disasters worsen, the Trump regime is doing its best to dismantle US and global efforts to decarbonize our energy systems. But there is still some surprisingly good news.

FT Alphaville wraps up the sell-side views on tariffs. This was the week when the tariff tantrum morphed into something much more serious. Analysts and investors are now openly questioning whether the US can keep its position at the apex of global finance. Alphaville has raided our inbox for some of the more eye-catching bits

The post Uninvestible appeared first on MacroBusiness.

IN 2012, CRIKEY POSTED A SOMEWHAT PESSIMISTIC ARTICLE ON THE IRANIAN URANIUM DEAL:... 

US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Friday as Donald Trump urged the Russian president to "get moving" on a ceasefire in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said the meeting lasted for more than four hours and focused on "aspects of a Ukrainian settlement". The talks, Witkoff's third with Putin this year, were described by special envoy Kirill Dmitriev as "productive". 

As we're about to remember the sacrifice of soldiers in war, with ANZAC day, and about to vote for our Australian government we should reflect on the ideas that have shaped our choices through history.