Ben Eltham, who teaches international students at Monash University, published an article in Crikey attacking the Albanese government’s “crackdown” on international students, claiming it will endanger “a hugely successful export industry for Australia”. “Education is a hugely successful export industry for Australia. So why is the Albanese government trying to kill it?”, Eltham asked. “The
What a ludicrous country. Its economy is a combination of a publicly supported housing bubble and commodity prices leveraged to an economy with a bursting housing bubble. Yet nobody cares. Just buy banks and then buy ’em again: As is so often the case with bubbles, rather than rationality returning to the core, the periphery
Asian share markets are seeing a very solid bid across the region, save for mainland China as newsflow and macro events over the weekend have not overshadowed the solid gains on Wall Street from Friday night. A little bit of stability in currency markets has returned due to the series of interest rate decisions that
The latest house price data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand shows that prices and sales are falling once more after a brief period of rebound: As illustrated in the next chart from Tarric Brooker, New Zealand house prices have now fallen by 16.5% from their peak, led by Auckland (-22.1%) and Wellington
Narcissists appear capricious, volatile and difficult to manage. But, in truth, they are putty in the right hands: At an event where vendors hawked red hats reading “Make Bitcoin Great Again,” the crowd erupted in applause when Donald Trump vowed to fire Gary Gensler, the Securities and Exchange Commission chair, and replace him with regulators
You have got to love contemporary politics. Whenever they see their popularity driving on bad policy, they always assume it is the messaging that is the issue. If you’re just catching up, on Sunday Albanese announced Clare O’Neil and Andrew Giles were being removed from the troubled Home Affairs and Immigration portfolios and put in
If you want to buy dirt, then know what you’re buying. Over the past few years, investors have been exposed to a rolling series of commodity booms and busts that have claimed lots of dough and more than a few very high-profile analyst careers. At issue is an imperfect understanding of commodity markets, and their
There is no “think tank” in Australia that has done more harm to households than the industry-captured Grattan Institute. On the two critical economic inputs over the last decade – energy and immigration/housing – Grattan advice has consistently favoured sponsors over Australians. Despite the destruction this is causing to the economy, the so-called “institute” continues
In this detailed interview with John Stanley from Radio 2GB, I discuss several critical areas of policy failure that are damaging the Australian economy and trashing living standards. Of particular note, I deride Resources Minister Madeleine King, who last week rejected the notion of reserving East Coast gas for domestic use on the grounds that
The ABC’s business editor, Michael Janda, has published the following chart showing the sharp increase in short-term home re-sales, which he says is evidence of struggling borrowers bailing out and selling. “While it’s impossible to find an exact number, there is strong evidence that a significant cohort of struggling borrowers have bailed out and sold”,