Asian share markets are not moving with any vigor in today’s session with concern over the direction of bond markets and tonight’s upcoming US GDP print. The USD is gaining some strength which is impacting the Australian dollar, which is falling in sympathy with the Kiwi due to the very dovish RBNZ meeting this afternoon.
Last week we looked at the macroeconomic and investment impacts of a second Trump presidency. This week we look at the other alternatives: Another Biden win A different republican nominee (presumably because Trump was found guilty in a criminal trial) A different democrat nominee (presumably because Biden opted to step down) Can’t make it to
RIO is getting spooked that its China-grovelling, Australia-smashing Pilbara killer project is generating negative press. Suddenly, the miner has launched a love-in with a prostrate, Ross Greenwood, to upsell the benefits. But there are none, not for Australia, at least: An alternative iron ore pipeline this large risks emboldening Chinese military aggression. Coming at a
If you want a textbook example of why housing policy is broken in this country, look no further than the below Sky News segment on Perth’s housing market: The segment opens by explaining how Western Australia’s Health Minister is in India on a mission to recruit more than 5,000 healthcare staff to fill shortages across
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has gone against the forecasts of ANZ and TD Securities and chosen to hold the official cash rate (OCR) at 5.50% at Wednesday’s monetary policy meeting. In its statement accompanying its decision, the Reserve Bank noted that “core inflation and most measures of inflation expectations have declined, and the
Like clockwork. If you won’t supply enough gas, then the power network melts down into a cascade of baseload failures as coal power ages: Daily wholesale power prices are now frequently double those of energy-poor Europe. The quarterly moving average of wholesale power costs id 80-90% higher than it should be. Why? When demand is
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released its monthly inflation indicator for January, which posted a 3.4% rise over the year, well below economists’ expectations of a 3.6% rise. The most significant price rises were Housing (+4.6%), Food and non-alcoholic beverages (+4.4%), Alcohol and tobacco (+6.7%) and Insurance and financial services (+8.2%). Housing, which
On Tuesday night, I was interviewed by Sky News host Sharri Markson where I demolished the Australian Treasury’s claim that wage growth was driving Australia’s inflation. Below are highlights along with key charts backing my claims. Leith van Onselen: The Treasury has got it wrong here. Australian wages only grew by 0.1% more than headline
The YIMBY movement claims that if Australia simply relaxed zoning and planning rules and let developers build apartments wherever they wanted, Australia’s housing crisis would magically resolve. Their argument was demolished by an article published this month in the Daily Telegraph, which reported that “almost one billion dollars worth of housing in one of Sydney’s
If you believe Australia is a Ponzi economy, spare a thought for Canada. Canada’s population surged by more than 1.2 million people last year, driven almost entirely by net overseas migration: This population surge has created a diabolical shortage of housing across Canada: With housing starts failing miserably to keep pace with population growth: In