The Guardian’s Luca Ittimani asks why state and local government plans to convert empty office buildings into apartments to ease the housing crisis have not come to fruition: Momentum to create homes out of empty offices has faded even as office vacancies rise and housing shortages intensify. Developers have not submitted a single application to
Australians are consistently ranked among the wealthiest people on earth. The 2025 UBS Global Wealth Report ranked Australians second in the world for median wealth, with the typical Australian having a net worth of US$268,424. Australia had 1,904 US dollar millionaires in 2025, according to UBS. However, Australia stands out from most other nations, as
For the life of me, I don’t know why anybody wants to be long iron ore here but hey, that’s how markets work sometimes. Steel prices continue to fall, though long products are falling faster than flat products, which is key to some market resilience, as it helps hold up blast furnace output over electric-arc
While Japan welcomes almost 37 million visitors per year and is widely considered one of the safest places in the world, in quarters more focused on economics, the focus is often placed on its status as a cautionary tale. In some ways, this characterisation is entirely fair. Japan is the developed world’s poster child for
The biggest problem is the systemic long. Any decent shock gives VaR implosion. Fragile SPX futures basically reversing the bounce from yesterday. 6600 is the big short term level. The 50 day comes in right on that level. A close below, and 6500 is the next support, followed by the 100 day at 6400. A
This month, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to hold the official cash rate at 3.60%, citing resurgent inflation risks. The RBA’s statement alongside its decision noted that “the decline in underlying inflation has slowed”, with “recent data, while partial and volatile, suggest[ing] that inflation in the September quarter may be higher than expected
An MB reader has sent this excellent proposal for resolving the East Coast gas crisis by shutting down GLNG without creating sovereign risk. There’s a possible win/win/win scenario that could be negotiated Suitors for GLNG take a look at the books and run—I think the contingency liability not currently sitting on the Santos balance sheet
Wall Street is trying to continue its rebound from its Friday night slump while navigating a speech by Fed Chair Powell as other risk markets are still expecting another TACO trade setup when the Fat House eventually capitulates. Meanwhile the USD was unable to continue its nascent lift with most of the majors returning to
DXY is hovering. AUD dumped and pumped on tariff headlines. CNY has rolled. Gold to heaven, oil to hell. Metals turned casinos. RIO is breaking out of the big bear on the debasement trade. If it mined gold, I might agree. It doesn’t. EM dubious. Junk trying at the centre , not so much the
The latest batch of rental data from Cotality and SQM Research suggests that Australia’s rental market has tightened. As illustrated below by Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro, Cotality reported a capital city vacancy rate of 1.5% in September, which was 0.4% lower than a year ago and the lowest vacancy rate on record: The number