By Salvatore Babones, Associate Professor at Sydney University and author of the book “Australia’s Universities, Can They Reform” Universities Australia (UA) has published its pre-budget submission, and it opens with the claim that its members educate “1.5 million Australians every year”. That is incorrect. They educate roughly 1.5 million people every year—of whom only about
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) revised its forecasts on CPI inflation and wage growth in the February Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP), as summarised below: The key takeaway was that the RBA does not anticipate that real wages will recover over the forward estimates, as illustrated below: By the June quarter of 2028, Australia’s real
The six-month annualized growth rate of the Westpac–Melbourne Institute Leading Index, which shows how much economic activity is expected to change in relation to trend three to nine months from now, went down from +0.44% in December to +0.02% in January. Westpac argues, as I do, that the most recent data shows that the momentum
The minutes from the RBA’s February monetary policy meeting were released on Tuesday. The key takeaways are that the RBA is highly uncertain about the outlook for inflation and interest rates: “Members agreed that the prevailing uncertainties meant it was not possible to have a high degree of confidence in any particular path for the
Charts from TME. NDX is flirting with serious support levels while tech volatility trends higher.. Sag 7 in trouble. It’s pretty clear the market wants less capex spending. Apple is showing the way. Concentration is falling. NDX skew is nasty. Lot’s of bears here. Diffusion is extraordinary as the market gyrates wildly through winners and
There’s no escaping the fact that buying a property in Australia will naturally entail high costs. This is especially true in populated regions near major cities like Sydney and Melbourne—places where demand for housing is steadily and sharply rising well beyond the $1 million barrier. The good news is that prospective homeowners don’t have to
The Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) July 2023 Transmission Cost Report, which was released alongside updates to the 2022 Integrated System Plan (ISP), stated that estimated costs for some major transmission projects had increased by up to 100% compared with 2022 ISP estimates. AEMO also said that “we recognise that higher costs for network development
“Tiny” Tim Wilson is your new shadow treasurer. New Coalition Treasury spokesman Tim Wilson has warned too many jobs are reliant on government support and vowed to put small business at the heart of his agenda, amid expectations real wages will go backwards for the first time in more than two years. With Labor set to
The RBA minutes made clear there is no hurry to move again, either way. In considering what these observations implied for upcoming decisions, members agreed that the prevailing uncertainties meant it was not possible to have a high degree of confidence in any particular path for the cash rate. They pointed to risks on both
Over the decades of America’s post-war history, few sectors have been as strongly protected as car manufacturers, with everything from bailouts to favourable regulations helping them survive in an increasingly competitive automotive landscape. Over the years, a well-trodden path for manufacturers seeking access to the American market with minimal to no trade barriers has been