Bureaucracy and waste are drowning the state of Victoria. Victoria’s wage bill was $19.5 billion in 2014-15. The most recent state budget projects that wage costs will reach roughly $44 billion by 2028-29. The massive blowout in bureaucratic headcount is behind Victoria’s gargantuan wage bill. Labor costs are the state’s biggest expense and a key
The global stock market looks stretched at first glance—but the story is more nuanced once you dig beneath the surface. The perception of lofty valuations is being driven almost entirely by the very largest companies, while much of the rest of the market is priced closer to historical norms. Why the Market Looks Expensive Headline
Wall Street was able to rebound from the Friday night slump with all markets expected another TACO trade setup in the latest bruhaha with the Chinese over rare earth exports. Meanwhile the USD was able to rebound against some of the majors with gold soaring another 2% to above the $4100USD per ounce level while
DXY is not going away. AUD bought the dip. CNY meh. Gold unhinged. AI metals likewise. Big bear bounced back. EM rollercoaster. Junk not buying it. Bonds bid bigly. BTFDUC! Who cna work out what means? Welcome to Trump world. A casino so unhinged that divining the movement of assets is the same as spinning
Domain reported that the cost of renting a median Sydney home hit a record high in September. As illustrated below, the median weekly Sydney house rent was $780 in the September quarter of 2025, up $240 (44%) from $540 in the September quarter of 2020. The median Sydney unit rent was $750 in the September
Swan Bay sunrise AUD/USD EUR/USD USD/JPY GBP/USD Gold WTI Brent Australia 200 US S&P 500 UK 100 Japan 225 Vids https://www.youtube.com/live/k78oGXBaEK8?si=VwI4algv675-3i4D
The Albanese government has responded to widespread concerns and dumped its proposal to tax unrealised gains on superannuation balances of above $3 million without indexation. Instead, Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced the following significant changes to the Division 296 extra tax on superannuation balances: The tax will no longer apply to unrealised gains. This was poorly designed
Roy Morgan has released its labour force estimates for September, which reported a solid decline in both unemployment and underemployment. According to Roy Morgan, unemployment decreased by 37,000 to 1,739,000 (down 0.3% to 10.8% of the workforce) while under-employment dropped 243,000 to 1,499,000 (down 1.6% to 9.3%). However, as illustrated below, both unemployment and underemployment
Michael Hartnett at BofA has good news for Australia. Zeitgeist:“Having lunch with X and he is asking should he invest in physical gold or silver or is it too late as his wine investments have been tanking?”–brother-in-law. The Price is Right: price action since Fed cut good for cash-needy not-for-profit tech(XBI, ARKK), bad for rate-sensitive
Update: Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced this afternoon that Labor has dumped its unrealised superannuation tax proposal, as well as made several other worthwhile changes. A full breakdown of these changes is available here. Original article below: ———————————————————————————————– The head of Treasury’s revenue group, Diane Brown, has told Senate estimates that the Prime Minister’s office had