Blogotariat

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) shocked economists by holding the official cash rate (OCR) at 3.85% at its latest monetary policy meeting. The decision caught financial markets off guard, which had assigned a near 100% probability of a rate cut. The decision was a close call, with the board voting 6-3 in favour of

The post RBA given green light to cut interest rates appeared first on MacroBusiness.

I spent several years in a movement that goes by many names: the New Right, the populist right, Trumpism, postliberalism, national conservatism, working-class conservatism, common-good conservatism, and so on. Amid the chaos set off by the 2016 election, a set of writers, wonks, and political staffers spanning Washington D.C., New York, and Silicon Valley rushed to build an “intellectual” version of pro-Trump conservatism.

Last night saw risk markets unable to make headway again, although European stocks sold off across the calendar as the lack of any progress on any trade deals with the Trump regime continues to weigh. Wall Street tried to eke out more record highs but were pulled back in selloffs in tech stocks as more

The post Macro Morning appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The mix of Australia’s international student enrolments has shifted dramatically during the last two decades. In the January-April period of 2005, 288,579 overseas students were studying in Australia, according to the Department of Education. China (63,635) led enrolments, with India (24,642) coming in a distant second. The Department of Education did not even mention Nepal. A

The post How Indian students game the visa system appeared first on MacroBusiness.

It’s a platitude that war kills not only people but truth. And as all platitudes, the statement is true, boring, and misleading. Because it omits the real murderers: “War” does not, actually, kill truth; people kill truth. War just tempts them to do so as few other things – such as job applications or marriage – can. The flipside of that fact is that it is perfectly possible to stick to the truth – or at least make an honest effort to do so – in war, too.

Hardware giant Bunnings is stepping into the home energy market with a zero up front subscription offer for rooftop PV and household batteries.

A soft risk taking mood on Asian share markets today following yesterday’s quiet sessions as concerns continue over the inability of the Trump regime to get any trade “deals” cut before the August 1st deadline, with India and Japan effectively ruling out any such notion. Meanwhile the Europeans are pushing back on the new baseline

The post Macro Afternoon appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Tonight, I will be appearing on DFA Live with Martin North from 8:00 pm AEST, where we will discuss everything related to housing, energy, and the economy. The YouTube feed is below. I hope to see you there.

The post Join me tonight on DFA Live with Martin North appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Electric homes and vehicles can help turn Australian cities into "giant batteries," study finds, with each resident owning around three Tesla Powerwalls-worth of flexible storage capacity.

Smart home energy upgrades, not power plants, could slash electricity bills by up to 90% and transform Australia's energy future.

The federal government’s election pledge to reduce student debt for about three million Australians will be a legislative priority for the first week of the new parliament. University graduates will have their debt reduced by 20%, but e61 Institute economists Jack Buckley and Matthew Maltman have concluded that people in the top third of income-earners

Westpac with the credit card tracker. The Westpac-DataX Card Tracker Index* was largely unchanged over the first two weeks of July. At 137, the latest weekly read continues to hold around the lower end of the range seen since mid-May.   The quarterly growth pulse is holding in the 0.9-1.1% range that has prevailed for

The post Aussie consumer crawls along appeared first on MacroBusiness.