Blogotariat

A rare legal effort to secure rights for atheists and nonbelievers was quashed last month by Indonesia's Constitutional Court, which ruled that a citizen must profess a faith, even a minority one, on official documents, and that marriage must conform to religion.  

Bent like a crooked hook, my old body falls apart

The grocery bags are scratching the ground

Arms weakened by muscle-mass loss abound

Lady walking ahead has a bargearse fart

From too tight pants that value a butt-crack

Short legged with tattoos ending higher forever

A pigeon walks like a distinguished drunken hack

Comes man in black — lorikeet on shoulder

A bird that constantly speaks its mind

Asian share markets are somewhat mixed with only Chinese shares really advancing as local markets dip into the red for the week on the back of a much stronger Australian dollar while Japanese shares are suffering despite some good domestic economic prints. Oil markets are slowly decelerating from their recent falls with Brent crude still

The post Macro Afternoon appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Danish energy giant begins construction of the first giga-scale battery project in Australia's most advanced renewable energy state.

I reported on Thursday how 48,000 New Zealand citizens left the country in the year to November 2024. Statistics New Zealand noted a provisional annual net migration loss of 30,100 people to Australia. The loss of Kiwis to Australia reflects, at least in part, the diverging labour market outcomes. Australia’s unemployment rate was only 3.9% in

The post Record number of Kiwis escaped to Australia appeared first on MacroBusiness.

I never bet on employment reports. It is too flaky. But here’s Goldman’s take on the NFP. We estimate nonfarm payrolls rose by 190k in January, above consensus of +170k … We assume that the Los Angeles wildfires and colder-than-usual weather will each subtract 20k from January job growth. … We estimate that the unemployment

The post US jobs preview appeared first on MacroBusiness.

In pulling support for the CQ-H2 green ammonia export project, Queensland’s LNP has chosen tantrum over trade, politics over partnership, ideology over economic sense.

Victoria is the most indebted state in Australia and has the lowest credit rating. Victoria’s debt is projected to soar in the years ahead, likely resulting in further credit rating downgrades. When this happens, interest payments will soar, driving up costs for Victorians and resulting in higher taxes and less money for infrastructure and services.

The post Victorian budget sinks into funding black hole appeared first on MacroBusiness.

There’s just nothing good about it. Literally nothing. Everybody has lost money. IEEFA with the report.  Queensland marked 10 years as an LNG exporter in January 2025, and has emerged as a key supplier of LNG, primarily to China. Besides boosting Australia’s energy trade with Asia’s largest economy, the industry has left a legacy of higher

The post Everybody has lost money on East Coast gas appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The Market Ear on the Retail Army. Shorts gone Short Interest as a % share of share outstanding at depressed levels. Source: JPM Needs a bigger chart Retail sentiment at new all time highs… Source: JPM Is this time different? So are the AI leaders in a “winners’ curse” situation reminiscent of telcos in 2000,

The post The bubble inflates appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro has published interesting charts from the latest NAB Business Survey showing that Australian firms continue to experience high labour shortages. Nearly half of Australian firms—close to a record high—claim that labour availability is a “minor” constraint on output. A further one-third of firms report that it is a “significant” constraint