Asian share markets remain in a somewhat positive mood today although Chinese stocks remain closed while Japanese bourses fell as Yen volatility continues to weigh. Local stocks continue to float slightly higher despite the equally rising Australian dollar which is now pushing well above the 67 cent level to exceed its previous weekly high. Oil
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut the official cash rate (OCR) by 0.25% last month to 5.25%. It also forecasts a series of rate cuts over the next 18 months: The latest batch of data on the New Zealand economy suggests that the deep per capita recession shows no signs of abating, as illustrated
According to John Kehoe at The AFR, Business Council of Australia (BCA) CEO Bran Black will use a speech at its annual dinner on Tuesday to claim that all sides of politics are failing to address the issue of ‘runaway’ government spending. Black will say that young Australians are becoming concerned that they will never
Two of the best-performing stocks in our portfolio over the last year or so have been Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, due to their successful obesity drug rollouts. The question is whether there is more growth to come or if the share prices have run too far. Both have taken 1st-generation drugs that had daily
Albo’ social media ban is attracting global criticism. As it should. The guy has the intellectual depth of a gnat and policy process to match: The government doesn’t identify what social media platforms the youth ban would apply to (Can children message their parents on WhatsApp? Or watch Khan Academy’s Algebra tutorials on YouTube?). It
HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham has warned that Australia’s productivity decline since the pandemic has been the steepest in the world and that the nation risks stagflation and higher interest rates if the situation is not reversed: Unfortunately, Australia has had the worst productivity performance of any comparable developed economy in the post-pandemic period. The
Gareth Evans is the tip of the spear in Labor’s AUKUS rebellion: …Our critique – much of which has either been misrepresented or ignored in these responses – has five basic elements. One, there is zero certainty of the timely delivery of the eight AUKUS boats. Both the US and UK have explicit opt-out rights.
The only chart that matters in the endless housing debate is the following: As house prices rise, the media’s hypocrisy rises with it. The media, and especially Nine, employer of Ross Gittins, has a vested interest in house prices via its ownership of Domain. That is why there is no concerted pressure placed upon any
A few more charts on Chinese credit. Total social financing is fading with some support from grovernment: Households are capitulating: Banks whoa! Monetary aggregates into the pit: Credit impulse a bust: And still no stimulus is coming, at least until post-US election and probably not even then unless Trump wins.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) presently costs around $42 billion and has a higher annual operating cost than aged care ($36 billion), Medicare ($32 billion), federal hospital financing ($30 billion), and medicines ($20 billion). The NDIS is also growing at a rate of almost 20% per year and has become one of the federal