Blogotariat

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reassured NATO member states that Washington remains committed to the military bloc, while insisting that members must drastically increase spending on their militaries.

Rubio made the remarks at NATO’s foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Thursday.

The Australian reported that international student visas have “dived” amid de facto caps implemented by the Albanese government. Data compiled from the Department of Home Affairs shows that the number of student visa applications in the first two months of 2025 was tracking significantly below the levels of 2023 and 2024. The number of student

The post International student numbers must be managed down appeared first on MacroBusiness.

A bath of blood overnight on all risk markets with the NASDAQ dropping 6% while the S&P500 lost nearly 5% as bond markets surged on a rush to safety and the USD was hit on all fronts with undollars lifting 2% or more against what was “King” Dollar before wannabe King Don upended the global

The post Macro Morning appeared first on MacroBusiness.

DXY was pulverised. Which held AUD up, though not against EUR. CNY was hit. Oil crashed as OPEC decided to pump. The copper bubble goes “pop”. Base metals head for hard landing. Big miners, big damage. EM meh. Junk breaking at last. Yields are in free fall, but a long way to go to make

The post Australian dollar stands tall as stocks crash appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Australia has traditionally had a gaping trade deficit with the United States. The following table from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) shows that the United States exported (A$88.2b) more than double what it imported (A$37.5b) from Australia in 2023-24. On Wednesday, the Trump Administration levied reciprocal tariffs against all nations. The Trump

The post The irony of US tariffs on Australia appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The YIMBY movement claims that the leading solution to Australia’s housing affordability crisis is to rezone our suburbs for high-rise apartment developments. Their argument consistently overlooks evidence suggesting that blanketing cities with high-rise apartment buildings often does not result in more affordable housing. The classic counterargument is illustrated by Vancouver, Canada, which underwent a complete

The initiation of mass firings of over 20,000 scientists and public health workers at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) marks a historic turning point in the collapse of American democracy and the Trump administration’s efforts to establish a fascist dictatorship in the United States.

SEC chair says Victoria needs at least another two gigawatts of committed capacity to cover the 2028 closure of one of its last remaining coal plants.

Australia’s tea lady in Washington, Kevin Rudd, has failed again. SMH. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made an eleventh-hour bid to avoid the worst of US President Donald Trump’s trade strikes by enlisting the advice of one of the most influential Australians in Trump’s orbit, golf star Greg Norman. Albanese dined with Norman in Melbourne

The post Australia well-endowed with Rudd alternative appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The ferrous jaws remain. BHP has delivered iron ore its last rites. BHP (ASX:BHP) Group (NYSE:BHP), the world’s largest publicly traded mining company, is reportedly contemplating the separation of its Australian iron ore and coal divisions. This potential move is part of a mid-term growth strategy, as per Reuters. BHP Group’s potential spinoff of these

The post BHP reads iron ore its last rites appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Jennifer Hewitt writes a reasonable piece on the gas crisis, but her conclusion is rubbish. AFR. …blaming the LNG export industry for high power prices is an easy political target despite the extraordinary complexity and commercial self-interest in the gas market. At various times since, both Coalition and Labor governments have attempted to make up

The post How to break the gas cartel appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Peter Dutton’s excellent East Coast gas reservation policy is being undermined by policies that few voters asked for and that the mainstream will never support. On Wednesday, Dutton announced that a Coalition government will crack down on “waste and rorts” in government spending, which Labor has argued means cuts to essential services, including health and

Grattan Institute CEO, Aruna Sathanapally, told ABC’s Q&A that Australia’s failure to build enough housing was “at the heart of our economic problems”: “We can see that the wealth of higher-income Australians or higher-wealth Australians has turbocharged, particularly due to housing prices. It’s property prices that’s led to that increase in wealth. And we haven’t