I noted on Monday how Australia is facing rising energy costs on three fronts: Soaring petrol/diesel prices Rising gas prices Rising electricity prices. The most immediate shock is higher petrol/diesel prices, which have risen above $2 per litre in most capital cities. As illustrated below by Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro, global oil prices have
Yes, you read that right, you’re about to get power and gas bill cuts. Gas prices have tanked over the last quarter. This is especially striking given the spike in Asian LNG prices above $23Gj. The falling gas price has helped wholesale electricity prices fall over the last five months from an average of $116M/h
The G7 will bail out the American Idiot with its strategic petroleum reserve after he proposed a 300-400m/b release, roughly a quarter of the total and equivalent to all of the remaining US strategic reserve. This is desperate stuff. Or will it? French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said the Group of Seven is “not there
As the war in the Middle East continues to drag on, the Trump Administration is seeking a means by which it can be brought to a swift conclusion. One option that is increasingly gaining traction is seizing Kharg Island in the northwestern corner of the Persian Gulf, which currently accounts for 90% of Iran’s oil
The 2020s are shaping up as a decade to forget for Australian households. According to national accounts data released last week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), real per capita household disposable income—arguably the best indicator of material living standards—remained stuck in the low growth zone in 2025, still tracking 3.9% below the COVID-19
It may seem counterintuitive, but, in my view, the odds of a Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) rate hike next week are falling by the minute. If the Iran war continues at its current intensity and the Straits of Hormuz remain closed, the oil price will be $200 next week, on its way to $500
Australia’s major capital city housing markets have been two-speed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. As illustrated below using PropTrack data on dwelling values, home prices across Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide have more than doubled since March 2020, whereas Sydney (46%) and Melbourne (22%) have experienced significantly slower value growth: Cotality’s
The supply-side nutters at the Centre for Independent Studies have produced “research” showing that “migrants aren’t to blame for the housing crisis”. Instead, the CIS argues that Australia’s housing shortage is “the result of not enough dwellings being built”: “Population growth alone does not produce today’s housing shortage”, claimed CIS author Marian L Tupy. “The
With the likelihood of a protracted war in the Middle East increasing, Australia is facing rising energy prices on three fronts. Rising Oil (Petrol and Diesel) Prices: The price of oil has already risen and should continue to do so as global supplies are halted and the Straits of Hormuz seize up. All Iran needs
Proponents of high levels of immigration typically argue that it lifts productivity and living standards because migrants tend to be better educated and more highly skilled than the average Australian. They generally cite spurious modelling to support their claims, ignoring the actual empirical evidence showing that Australia’s labour productivity and per capita GDP growth slowed