Last month, Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro posted the following chart tracking labour productivity across major advanced nations. As you can see, Australia’s labour productivity growth has been among the worst in the advanced world after recording zero improvement since 2016. Last week, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) Michael Plumb delivered a speech to a
Metricon Homes CEO Brad Duggan warns that Australia cannot house its growing population, and believes the federal government must adopt a “wartime response” to the housing crisis. Based on current construction rates, Duggan adds that the government’s target of building 1.2 million homes in the five years from mid-2024 will likely fall about 300,000 short.
Asian share markets are seeing generally positive results across the board but have been overshadowed by the spike in cryptocurrencies on the latest Trump spewing of verbal diarrhea that continues to evaporate confidence in the USD. Indeed King Dollar is falling against most of the majors with the Australian dollar coming back with a reprieve
In a November joint statement, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher announced that the Future Fund, which is one-third the size of the Australian economy, will be directed to invest in housing, security, and the green energy transition “where possible, appropriate, and consistent with strong returns”. This marked the first time the federal
Every so often the old bastard makes sense. Sadly, he can’t do so with any frequency because Domain profits come with a fatwa against criticism of immigration . The productivity of labour hasn’t increased much because business hasn’t been spending much on labour-saving equipment. Mystery solved. Almost to a person, economists are great believers in
The latest rental vacancy report from SQM Research showed that the nation’s vacancy rate fell to 1.0% in January 2025, down 0.1% from a year earlier. “The sharp decrease in rental vacancies strongly indicates Australia’s rental market crisis is not over and has potentially deteriorated at the start of 2025”, SQM Research noted. SQM Research
Here are some sensible words. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to repair his relationship with US counterpart Donald Trump after a public spat at the White House on Friday. …Qualifying the incident as “very unfortunate,” Mark Rutte said in an interview with the BBC that he’s spoken to Zelenskiy twice
This is how catastrophic the East Coast gas cartel will become if left to its own devices. Competition cop Gina Cass-Gottlieb has picked a fight with Australia’s top energy companies over data she says shows they are planning to increasingly use gas produced for domestic purposes to meet commitments to foreign buyers. Queensland’s three major
Victoria has been a stronghold for the Labor Party in recent federal and state elections. In the 2022 federal election, Labor won 24 of 39 Victorian seats and 54.83% of the two-party preferred vote. However, in the forthcoming election, Victoria will become a serious problem for the Albanese government. Poll Bludger shows a 5.4% swing
It had to happen. Amid so much uncertainty around China, what was iron ore doing near $110? There is a little better news over the weekend but hardly game-changing. The Chinese manufacturing PMI flopped into expansion. The services PMI remains very weak. Though construction bounced, in rather unconvincing fashion. There is the NPC this week,