Blogotariat

Be careful what you wish for, Treasurer Jim “chicken” Chalmers. Back in July 2023, Chicken Chalmers declared: The Albanese Government has appointed Michele Bullock as the ninth Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) for a seven‑year term beginning on 18 September 2023. Ms Bullock is the right person to lead the RBA into the future and

The post Chalmers sets a match to RBA’s “first woman” appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The Market Ear picks up the equity body parts. That’s gross Looking at leverage for “all hedge fund categories” we can see that gross is close to maximum (and nets a little high too). A lot of de-grossing potential if this volatility continues. JPM PI That’s really gross GS Prime data confirms that hedge fund

The post The bear roars appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Wednesday’s poor Q2 national accounts release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) should raise eyebrows within the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). While the 1.0% annual growth in real GDP was in line with the RBA’s latest forecasts, the Bank should be concerned about the private sector economy’s embedded weakness. The 2.0% decline-from-peak in

The post Will the RBA do an about face on interest rates? appeared first on MacroBusiness.

NSW local government elections are conducted using single transferable vote proportional representation, but the actual shape of the ballot paper differs depending on who runs, and whether they run as a group.

This is a somewhat elegant way to allow for the same system to produce a Senate-style grouped ballot with above-the-line voting for big urban councils, but also means that in small rural councils, where parties don’t exist, candidates run as individuals on a vertical ballot. But it can create some odd shapes when councils transition between those two states.

Last night saw some interesting volatiltiy around risk markets with softer US jobs data before tomorrow night’s official US NFP print saw big drops in Treasury yields while stocks vacillated between losses and gains, with Wall Street eventually finishing unsettled and slightly lower. Commodity markets remain on a downer while the USD saw a slight

The post Macro Morning appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Australian home builders are in a world of pain, as evidenced by nearly 3,000 construction firms collapsing over the past year: This week, leading Victorian builder Grandeur Homes collapsed only weeks after claiming that “we are thriving”. On 21 August, news.com.au was told: “Grandeur Homes is solvent and is not in financial difficulty. The suggestion

The post Building a home in Australia is Russian Roulette appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Canada’s National Post is refusing to comment after one of its columnists revealed himself to be a collaborator with Western-aligned intelligence agencies. A Canadian activist is now threatening to sue the paper after the confessed spy smeared him in a front page article.

Tech mogul Elon Musk has vowed to seek the seizure of Brazilian government assets in the US if Brazil does not return property belonging to his companies X (formerly Twitter) and Space X.

Proud Boys, Donald J. Trump, J.D. Vance Political sexual assault of Kamala Harris By Tess Lawrence Two-timing man-baby, the wannabe two time president Donald J. Trump and new bestie wannabe Veep, J.D. Vance are clearly shit-scared of Vice President Kamala Harris. That much is clear. To put it in language these red necks understand, she’s…

The post Making Kamerica Great Again! appeared first on The AIM Network.

Arguably the Albanese Government is routinely tied up trying to explain their way out of a dilemma of their own creation. A recent example is the brouhaha around the potential Census question regarding how Australians identify themselves sexually. When some equivocation was displayed by the government, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton donned the hob-nailed workboots and…

The post Define the problem appeared first on The AIM Network.

A sea of red across Asian share markets as they respond to the overnight rout on Wall Street as growth concerns from China and the US through their respective manufacturing PMI surveys combined with bond market volatility is not helping risk markets overall. Commodities are taking the biggest hits but the Australian dollar remains surprisingly

The post Macro Afternoon appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Over the past year or so I’ve read for the first time a bunch of research into the economics of mental health, along with a little on the early history of psychotherapy.

Mental health is, undeniably, a big problem in modern societies. (It may have been just as bad in earlier societies too, but the data is much worse.) If we could fix it, people would be happier, more capable and generally use more of their potential.

What’s struck me most?

Installation of the first of 444 Tesla Megapack battery systems is underway at one of the bi