International Reading: Elon Musk, Amazon, and AT&T are demanding a return to office. But there aren’t enough desks – Fortune What debt ceiling? “Spend, Spend, Spend goes the Trumpie – CBS News Government Shutdown Grows Closer as Trump Tells G.O.P. to Kill Spending Deal – NY Times Obscene Prices, Declining Quality: Luxury Is in a
Asian stock markets are having staid sessions going into the end of the trading week with local stocks still selling off. The USD remains King against everything with the BOE hold as expectations for tonight’s PCE inflation print ramp up. The Kiwi and the Australian dollar remain under the pump as the Pacific Peso almost
On Thursday, Statistics New Zealand released the national accounts for Q3 2024, which reported a 1.0% decline in GDP over the quarter to be 1.5% lower annually. As illustrated in the following table from major bank ASB, the result was far worse than economists, the market, and the Reserve Bank’s expectations. The result meant the
Redbridge Group Director Simon Welsh was interviewed by Sky News this week. In the interview, he argued that the Albanese government had abandoned the “forgotten Australians”. “I think what we are looking at here is we are headed now for an election that is going to be defined by the Forgotten people—the forgotten Australians”. “2022
I noted earlier this week how the federal budget is facing a decade of deficits. The situation is even worse when off-budget spending is taken into account. The federal government will spend a record $90 billion “off-budget” over the next four years, a figure that is not captured in the underlying budget figures. This off-budget
The AFR’s Ronald Mizen has published an article describing Australia’s broken ‘skilled’ visa system, which is importing many purportedly skilled workers who end up working in menial jobs such as driving Uber. The article profiles engineer Muhammad Ahsan Siddiqi, who migrated to Australia from Karachi in Pakistan in 2010 to drive Uber and work security.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recently released data on the value of the country’s residential housing stock. As of 30 September 2024, there were 11,252,600 residential dwellings worth $11,093.8 billion. This implied that the average Australian home was valued at $985,900. As of September 30, 2024, an estimated 27,368,029 Australians held a record-high $389,400
Earlier this month, the ANU’s chief immigration propagandist, Alan Gamlen, claimed that “by March 2024, Net Overseas Migration (NOM) had added 31,000 fewer people to the population than it would have if migration had stayed at 2019 levels”. “Basically, NOM added 168,000 fewer people to Australia’s population between 2019 and 2024 than if NOM had
The Albanese government’s target of building 1.2 million homes over five years, or 240,000 homes annually, necessitates having a capable construction industry. The latest insolvency data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) does not inspire hope, with a record number of construction firms collapsing. As illustrated in the following graphic from The Australian,
Wall Street came back from its worst one day performance for the calendar year overnight, lifting slightly while European stocks played catchup and fell across the board. This is likely a deep breath before the plunge as markets go quiet over the Xmas break. King Dollar remains unopposed with only a mild mid session dip