Blogotariat

The continuing decline in Australia’s productivity was one of the most important data points from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Q4 national accounts released this week. Labour productivity (GDP per hour worked) fell by 0.1%, which follows declines of 0.7% and 0.5% in the previous two quarters, respectively. This lowered Australia’s labour productivity to

The post Productivity collapses on Australia’s economy appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Battery expert Iola Hughes from Rho Motion on the latest trends, developments and date on grid and EV batteries. Plus: Quinbrook looks to 8-hour storage with big solar battery plans.

Washington views the Ukraine conflict as a prolonged “proxy war” between itself and Russia and is eager to bring it to an end, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Rubio reiterated President Donald Trump’s commitment to being a “peacemaker” in the conflict, contrasting this approach with the previous administration’s policy of supporting Kiev indefinitely.

Aside from oil, Australia has almost every natural resource the world requires. Australia has significant reserves of coal, gas, uranium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and lithium. Over the past two decades, Australia has reaped the greatest benefit from global commodity prices. The following chart from independent economist Tarric Brooker shows the extraordinary growth in Australian resources

  AUD/USD     EUR/USD     USD/JPY     GBP/USD     Gold     WTI     Brent     Australia 200     US S&P 500     UK 100     Japan 225                

The post Macro Afternoon: 6 March 2025 appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Hamas must release the remaining Israeli hostages or face certain destruction, US President Donald Trump has warned. He issued the threat after the talks about further prisoner swaps between Israel and the Palestinian armed group reportedly stalled. 

“Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday.

Ausgrid-owned Plus Es will start rolling out its 1000 pole-mounted EV chargers next week after winning a waiver from the AER.

By Stephen Saunders At times, Canberra is another world. From its Press Gallery comes this Financial Review bedtime-story of “best performer” Jim Chalmers with his “disdain for” inequality. The 28 February AFR gushes for the “smartest person” in the room and his enthralling (who among average Australians even cares?) insider skirmishes with the Reserve Bank.

The most recidivist liar in the parliament is Treasurer Jim “chicken” Chalmers. Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the Australian economy has turned a corner after the strongest GDP growth figures since the pandemic, but economists say any recovery will be shallow as long as productivity remains stuck at 2016 levels and business investment stays tepid. The

The post Chicken Chalmers crows about economic wreckage appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Plibersek approves three big wind projects in NSW, including the state's biggest, its most controversial, and another big asset from Andrew Forrest.

It has been a busy few weeks in geopolitics. Late last week, we changed our portfolio allocation to pull back on stocks in our tactical funds. There are a broad number of reasons that I will discuss in podcasts and the performance report (later this week). The headline is that there is growing execution risk

The post MB Fund Podcast: We Have Been Selling Stocks appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The Australian Treasury is arguably the nation’s most potent lobbyist for Big Australia immigration. Treasury supports mass immigration because it only has two key performance indicators (KPIs) that are narrowly focused and do not align with the broader interests of Australians: Treasury only cares about the health of the federal budget, while ignoring impacts on