Blogotariat

So, what is Australia doing for the future? Cutting funding to science, that’s what. Since the beginning of 2024, 800 staff have been cut from Australia’s leading scientific research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and another 350 are to be cut in 2026, which brings the total cuts to over 16% of the organisation’s staff. The Labor government has dealt the CSIRO some of the largest job cuts in the organisation’s history.

Construction has begun on four key electricity transmission sites for the largest investment in state's electricity grid in more than a decade.

It was MB that led APRA to adopt macroprudential tools designed to lean against the cycle and aid monetary policy. Alas, like everything else in the Australian political economy these days, APRA’s latest round of macroprudential tightening is purely performative, or fake, achieving the opposite. Back in the 2015 lending bubble, MB forced AHPRA to

The post Fake macroprudential green lights property bubble appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Plans for Australia's biggest solar-battery hybrid project have been adjusted to include a near doubling of battery capacity and a pared back solar footprint.

The Market Ear kicks us off. Welcome weekend CTAs swing wildly, risk appetite collapses, tech suffers its largest outflows in 4 years, and AI finally shows up in real earnings. Here are the 10 charts we’re watching this weekend — from market panic to full-stack AI dominance. 1 – CTAs What is the next CTA

The post Stocks bull roarer into 2026 appeared first on MacroBusiness.

China isn’t growing. Just ask the PMIs. Manufacturing. Services. Combined. This economy is pancaked as its property sector implodes. China uses various tricks to exaggerate GDP: focusing on the supply side, failing to write down investments, and underestimating the GDP deflator. All of these overestimate growth that is not there. Now it is going to

The post The Chinese economy hasn’t grown in two years appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The latest ABS Labour Force survey painted a deeply mixed picture of the job market. On the one hand, this single print presented a compelling picture: a substantial increase of 42,200 new jobs, all full-time in net terms, and a robust growth in hours worked. However, a longer view reveals a decidedly more challenging picture. As

The post Australia’s hidden labour market recession appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The ferrous complex remains paralysed by iron ore prices that are too high for steel profits. But we are in some equilibrium, as steel demand and supply are locked together. Modestly reduced steel supply has been drawing down inventory. While lifting iron ore inventory at ports. Something needs to change to rebalance. Either the government

The post Pilbra killer fails to fire a shot appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The Australian National University (ANU) is one of the nation’s key purveyors of immigration propaganda. Propagandists like “Dr Demography” Liz Allen are regular mouthpieces on the pro-Big Australia migration circuit, as are the ANU Migration Hub’s Peter McDonald and Alan Gamlen. When Australia’s net overseas migration hit 530,000 in the year to December 2023, the

The post ANU propagandists spin more migration lies appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Last week, the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) released its new prudential standard, effective February 2026, which caps high-risk mortgages (debt-to-income ratio over 6x) at 20% of new lending. APRA’s announcement aims to manage housing vulnerabilities preemptively amid rising prices but excludes new housing builds and applies portfolio-wide, allowing banks flexibility while aligning with government goals

I’ve been seeing more and more alarmism about the idea that, on current demographic trends, the world’s population might shrink to a billion in a century or two. That distant prospect is producing lots of advocacy for policies to increase birth rates right now.

Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.

I’m now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow me on Mastodon here.