Blogotariat

Vast Renewables completes first-of-its-kind CSP receiver tower, one of the final components of what will be Australia's first large scale solar thermal project.

Opposition is building against Peter Dutton’s plan to reinstate a “golden ticket” visa for wealthy investors who commit $5 million to enter Australia. These visas were abolished by the Albanese government one year ago. Dutton announced his intention at a Liberal Party fundraiser last month after a migration agent, Min Li, requested he reinstate the

The post Australia must axe all retirement visas appeared first on MacroBusiness.

This is a follow-up to my previous post on the end of US democracy and its implications. Here I will discuss how what’s left of the democratic world can respond.

Surprisingly in many ways, the military part of dispensing with the US is the easiest bit, in each of its major areas of operation: Europe, Taiwan, and the broader Asia-Pacific region including Australian and New Zealand.

As regards Europe, NATO would be massively stronger with the US (100 000 troops in Europe) out and Ukraine (Zelensky claims 800 000) in. 

Lightning strikes on wind farms are becoming more common, says consultant Rosie Barnes.

The Market Ear on ludicrously overbought gold. Gold – on the road to 3k Unstoppable gold continues surging today again. As we have been pointing out recently: gold is overbought, but there is room for it to move even higher before we reach the upper part of the channel (comes in around $3k). Source: Refinitiv

The post Golden bubble inflates appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Current market pricing has ascribed a 93% probability that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will cut the official cash rate at next week’s monetary policy meeting. CBA’s head of Australian economics, Gareth Aird, ascribes an 80% probability of a 0.25% rate cut next week. Aird noted that the Q4 24 trimmed mean CPI came

The post Has RBA slain the inflation dragon? appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Alan Kohler penned another article decrying Australia’s housing crisis, which he argues is driven by “lip service, hypocrisy, and an investment culture”. Kohler notes that the Albanese government’s target of building 1.2 million homes over five years is a “lost cause”. “The number of housing approvals has declined, not increased!”. “Since mid-2024, when the five

The post Australian housing is a misery machine appeared first on MacroBusiness.

According to George Bernard Shaw, the most popular method of distributing wealth is the method of the roulette table.

Even though I didn’t drive, I was still pretty worn out by the time I got back from the film festival panel on the weekend. Luckily, Jane had made chicken Provençal, which was a nice thing to come home to. She’d opened a bottle of Chardonnay for the recipe—Allendale, I think—so I had a glass with dinner. It was the first bottle of wine we’d opened in about six months. Anyway, it was nice. We ate, had a drink, and then I sort of drifted around, not doing much of anything.

Rise up people and fast. Tyrant Trump and his Musk-driven gangsters are launching a fascistic coup d’état. Much of everything you like about federal/civil service for your health, safety, and economic well-being and protections is being targeted.

AusNet seeks approval to spend $3.5bn on upgrading its network over a five-year period it says will bring "significant changes" to the electricity market.