It is incomprehensible that Australia’s leading business paper, which should understand the interaction of supply and demand, lacks the honesty to mention demand when evaluating the housing crisis: The AFR View rightly claims that “housing affordability” policies like looser lending standards and shared equity are unhelpful to Australia’s housing affordability crisis. It also argues that
On Thursday, Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas was interviewed about the additional $837 million blowout in the cost of the Metro Tunnel Project, which was originally costed at $10.9 billion when it was first announced in the 2016 State Budget, but several escalations have pushed the price tag to $13.48 billion. There have been massive cost
Under the heading “Justin Trudeau is wrecking Canada’s liberal dream”, The Economist this week may also have condemned Anthony Albanese. “It is A time of massive anxiety.” Justin Trudeau was talking about Canadians’ economic outlook, pitching the durability of his liberal project to a gathering of global progressives in Montreal last month. “People notice the hike in their
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released labour force data for September, which was unambiguously strong. The participation rate and employment-to-population rates edged to fresh record highs, while the unemployment rate ticked lower to 4.1% (from 4.2%). As shown above, 64,000 jobs were created in September in seasonally adjusted terms, well above consensus forecasts of
John Kehoe is a twit: The media intrigue over Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s $4.3 million coastal home joint purchase with his fiancee confirms that tall poppy syndrome is alive in Australia. In the United States, where I lived for almost five years as a foreign correspondent, Americans celebrate financial success. Billionaire Donald Trump was elected president
CBA economist Harry Ottley has produced a terrific update on Australia’s rental market, provided below. Key Points: We are increasingly confident the near-term inflation pulse has eased but rents remain a big driver of above target inflation. Growth in advertised rents is easing quickly in the 8-capital cities index. Sydney, the largest rental market in
Last month, the NSW Productivity and Equality Commission spruiked higher towers, smaller apartments, less storage and natural light, smaller balconies, and fewer car spaces as the solution to the state’s housing crisis: “Higher-density zones around train stations would double in size… The NSW productivity commissioner is also recommending design standards be relaxed to allow the
Gottiboff is up to his usual businessomics drivel. The doyen of ALP energy policy, Martin Ferguson, has called for a gas-driven power station in the Latrobe Valley in a direct policy confrontation with current Energy Minister Chris Bowen. When Ferguson made the declaration, he would not have known three weeks later shadow Minister for Energy
SHFE and SGX are stalled: Mad Dalian too: Vale is pumping iron: Iron ore production reached 91.0 Mt, 4.7 Mt (+5%) higher y/y, driven by improved performance at S11D, Itabira and Brucutu. As previously announced, Vale has revised its production guidance upward to 323-330 Mt (from 310-320 Mt), reflecting continued improvements on operational stability and
I do love the smell of a burning PM in the morning: Colleagues of Anthony Albanese counselled him against buying a $4.3 million clifftop home on the NSW Central Coast because of the poor optics in the run-up to the federal election. …“It looks like he’s got one foot out the door,” one MP told