A civil war of sorts has broken out between the big four banks over lending standards pertaining to first home buyers. NAB executive Andy Kerr told a parliamentary inquiry last week that prospective first homebuyers would have more buying power if rules restricting access to mortgages were more flexible. Kerr argued that first homebuyers were
The former Grattan Institute Transport and Cities Program director, Marion Terrill, has lambasted the Victorian government for pursuing the “ruinously expensive” Suburban Loop Project (SRL), which risks burying taxpayers in debt. Terrill notes that nearly all of Victoria’s big ticket infrastructure projects have experienced massive cost overruns, which is likely to be repeated with the
China is growing at 5% and all of that. Pfft. Check this out: Profits at China’s industrial firms in September declined at a faster pace than a month earlier, as deflationary pressures sap the strength of corporate finances. Last month’s industrial profits at large Chinese companies fell 27.1% from a year earlier, after a 17.8%
The Market Ear with the latest equity internals. Do we see a magnificent ATH? MAG 7 index broke well above the short term range yesterday fuelled by the Tesla squeeze. We are not far from ATHs, and the crowd isn’t long enough of Mag stuff these days… Refinitiv THE spread We have seen the AAII
You won’t hear it from the gas cartel-sponsored Grattan Institute but there is a mounting body of evidence that LNG fugitive emissions are calamitous for climate change. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the United States have risen dramatically since the LNG-export ban was lifted in 2016, and the United States is now the world’s
Labor has lost power in Queensland after incurring a swing of more than 7% against it. However, there are claims the swing would have been worse if not for some of the ‘populist’ cost-of-living measures proposed by outgoing Premier Steven Miles. As a result, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is being urged to adopt some of
Westpac estimates that the stage-three personal income tax cuts have injected an additional $6.4 billion into the economy since they took effect on 1 July. However, analysis of one million Westpac bank accounts suggests that about 84% of this money has been put into offset and deposit accounts rather than being spent. Westpac economist Jameson
Last year, former Home Affairs Minister Claire O’Neil decried the temporary nature of Australia’s migration system, claiming that it was holding the country back. “Today, really for the first time in our modern history, our uncapped, unplanned temporary program is the centrepiece and driver of our migration system. This simple fact is the source of
Usually, this kind of arrogance creeps in after two or three terms of government. The Albanese government got a head start, thanks to its dodgy leader. In recent months, we have watched on as Albo allocated $100m to upgrade the road to Avoca to his recently purchased $4.3m lovenest on the ocean at the end
Friday saw a rebound in steel: And iron ore: After a series of stimulus positive comments about the forthcoming NPC scheduled immediately after the US election. The scenario in which iron gets a boost from a large fiscal number is the Trump victory. Even then, it will only be minor because property and infrastructure are