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Articles from MacroBusiness

If renewables are cheaper, why the secrecy?

October 8, 2025 - 14:00 -- Admin

The NSW government has been criticised for blocking Freedom of Information (FOI) requests for access to taxpayer-funded reports on the likely impact of closing down coal-fired power stations on electricity prices. The government has commissioned at least 10 reports, studies, and presentations between June 2024 and July 2025 on the impact of its emissions reduction

Reserve Bank panics, cuts rates by 0.5%

October 8, 2025 - 13:06 -- Admin

New Zealand’s economy is in a deep hole. As illustrated below by Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro, real GDP contracted sharply in the June quarter, drastically underperforming the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s forecast: The number of filled jobs in New Zealand has also contracted sharply: As a result, the Reserve Bank on Wednesday chose

Looking at politics all wrong

October 8, 2025 - 12:00 -- Admin

One of the often repeated tropes of social media discourse or backyard BBQ political debates is the idea that the election victories that Labor has won in Victoria and federally are indicative of the public holding a high level of support for their leadership. Such an assumption is not a new phenomenon. This perspective has

Labor ignored regulator warnings about high LVR mortgages

October 8, 2025 - 10:30 -- Admin

The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) has consistently flagged high loan-to-valuation ratio (LVR) mortgage lending as a risk area. For example, in December 2014, the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) released guidance stating that “ADIs should not undertake large volumes of, or increase their share of, higher-risk lending. This included lending at very high LVRs”:

Australia’s battered regions get a raw deal

October 8, 2025 - 10:00 -- Admin

In the popular imagination, Australia is often viewed as a sophisticated 21st-century economy, comparable to any number of advanced developed economies. Yet when one examines the balance of the nation’s exports, it’s largely about resources, as the chart below of quarterly export volumes from CBA illustrates. And this is assuming one takes the nation’s education

Snowy Hydro 2.0 is symptomatic of broader renewable problems

October 8, 2025 - 08:00 -- Admin

Former Prime Minister and architect of the Snowy Hydro 2.0 pumped hydro scheme, Malcolm Turnbull, has hit back at critics following a 900% blowout in the mega project’s costs. The government-owned Snowy Hydro confirmed on Friday that the project’s costs would easily exceed its $12 billion budget, which was already six times higher than the

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