With Wall Street closed for the long weekend, most risk markets reacted positively to the 180 degree spinning top EU tariffs by the Trump regime, with European shares taking back their Friday night losses. Meanwhile the broader selloff in USD continued Pound Sterling making a new yearly high while Euro, Loonie and Yen all consolidated
The latest data from the Department of Home Affairs shows a record 2,541,651 temporary visas on issue in Australia (excluding tourists) in Q1 2025. This figure was almost 120,000 more than the previous year and approximately 580,000 higher than Q1 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since Q1 2019, the increase in temporary visas has been
The NSW and Victorian governments are pushing hard to liberalise planning and encourage the rapid construction of high-rise towers within inner and middle-ring suburbs. Last year, the NSW Productivity and Equality Commission recommended bigger towers, smaller apartments, less storage and natural light, smaller balconies, and fewer parking places as solutions to the state’s housing crisis.
Risk markets in Asia were mixed to start with on the Trump regime EU tariff bomb from the weekend gap but then the inevitable 180 spin got stocks at least somewhat back on track while currency markets continue to selloff the USD, believing the facts behind the demented spin. The Australian dollar is now at
Mega City One, otherwise know as Hellbourne, is Australia number one example of what a bad economy model does to living standards. Since when did Aussie cities deal with this? The Victorian Labor government will introduce an interim ban on machete sales across the state following a violent brawl involving 10 people at Melbourne’s Northland
Australia’s superannuation system is too costly and inequitable. The Australian Treasury estimated total superannuation tax expenditures at around $60 billion in 2024–25, with contribution concessions being the most expensive at $37 billion, growing to $36,750 billion by 2027–28. Most of these concessions go to high-income earners, as illustrated below. In 2021-22, 91% of the benefit
Property market softened in April: The latest batch of property market data show some weakening in both price and activity. The official NBS 70-city average new home prices declined by about 2% mom annualized in April, with prices in lower-tier cities falling more. The Centaline existing home price indices for top-tier cities posted renewed declines
At the end of 2024, Australia’s mortgage affordability was the worst on record, with households required to sacrifice a record share of their incomes to repay the median-sized new mortgage. There was also a record gap between the median home price and borrowers’ capacity to pay, assuming traditional affordability metrics. So far this year, the
Steel in pancaked an iron ore hoping. Channel checks are showing that damage is creeping up the supply chain but it’s not disastrous. Goldman. Feedback from producers as of mid-May suggests end-user orderbooks were flat MoM, softer than past seasonality. Infrastructure recovery paused, reflected in lack of funding for new project starts and weak cement
Last year, prominent immigration propagandist and managing director of the Australian Housing and Research Institute, Michael Fotheringham, blamed the nation’s housing shortage on ‘greedy’ households consuming too many homes. “We are consuming more houses for the number of people we have. That is a bigger driver for shortfall in housing than migration”. “The number of