Yawn. Bitcoin continued its relentless surge higher, climbing above $88,000 for the first time, boosted by President-elect Donald Trump’s embrace of digital assets and the prospect of a Congress featuring pro-crypto lawmakers. Trump’s decisive victory in the presidential election has prompted celebratory chest-thumping from the digital-asset industry, which spent over $100 million backing a range of crypto-friendly
Thankfully, peak oil demand is almost here as China decreases the energy-intensity of GDP, and OPEC has way too much product. At $70, oil supply is gushing while demand withers. It’s all coming from non-OPEC. OPEC spare capacity is huge and deficits are increasingly too: If Trump delivers Ukraine peace and Russian barrels re-emerge, the
The post OPEC is going out of business appeared first on MacroBusiness.
The Great War continues, more than 100 years later
Yesterday was November 11, the anniversary of the armistice which ended fighting on the Western Front of what was then called the Great War. It’s always an occasion for sad reflection on my part, thinking about the pointlessness of the massive sacrifices of the War, which achieved nothing except to set the scene for worse disasters to come.
In April, former Treasury economist Stephen Anthony summed up the Victorian government’s management of the state as follows: “Victoria is on a suicide mission to record borrowing, just as global interest rates are about to hit 5%”. “Potholes can’t get filled, emergency departments can’t afford clean linen, primary schools can’t fix heaters”. “Things are about
Westpac with the note. Westpac Consumer Sentiment up 5.3% to 94.6. Consumers now optimistic about outlook for economy and finances. Responses over the week show a pull-back after the US election. Job loss fears drop to a 19-month low. Consumers’ Christmas spending plans more ‘average’ than ‘austere’. Jobs, falling inflation, and rate cuts coming when
The post Consumer fear eases appeared first on MacroBusiness.
By Stephen Saunders Here we go again. The ABC claims Australia “doesn’t have” a population plan. But we do – it’s massive. Can Donald Trump’s victory change that at all? Forever, influential pro-migration stakeholders have wrung their hands in mock distress. By golly, if only we had a “population plan”. We should have an “immigration
US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a staunch ally of Israel and a foreign policy hawk, to serve as the next ambassador to the UN.
“I am honored to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my Cabinet as US Ambassador to the United Nations. Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement to the media on Monday.
There was a famous saying about how people who live by the sword, die by the sword… which is ridiculous on so many levels apart from the fact that you have to infer so much meaning that the saying makes no literal sense… I mean, if you said those who live by the river, die…
The post Down The Rabbit Hole, Said Humpty Trumpty…and we followed! appeared first on The AIM Network.
ABC Radio Nation aired a segment on the “battle between millennials and boomers”. The segment couched Australia’s housing crisis as a conflict between the ‘Yes in my backyard’ (YIMBY) movement, who want greater density in established suburbs and the inner-city, against the ‘Not in my backyard’ (NIMBY) movement, which objects to forced densification. We have seen
Chinese credit is still buggered. Total social financing in October was soft at CNY1.36tr. The growth in the stock of credit continues to shrink, down to a record low 7.8%. Under the bonnet, household credit grew a bit at CNY160bn but it was mostly short-term debt not mortgages. Not much joy for property stabilisation. Most
The post Chinese credit into the pit appeared first on MacroBusiness.
Steel futures have not updated. Dalian is breaking down: The blows are coming from all directions: “Not only has China’s recent stimulus package fallen short of investor expectations, but the weekend’s fresh disappointments from the inflation report and FDI data have also reinforced the view that China is still far from stabilizing its beleaguered economy,”
For this post, I am looking at how the parties have done in the Victorian council elections, and I run through a quick summary of how each council went.
As of the time of writing, all but three of the wards I am tracking have been finalised. The Wilton and Yamala wards in Frankston and the Westerfolds ward in Manningham have reported primary votes, but no preference distribution. For this analysis I am assuming the primary vote leaders win here.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that if re-elected, the federal government would erase 20% of student debt. The Greens have taken the policy to the next level, promising to waive the student debts of 3 million graduates and make university and TAFE education free at a proposed cost of more than $120