ScoMo continues his sensible path on Chinese aggression, at the AFR he writes: …economic interdependence and openness has created unprecedented wealth and prosperity, and lifted billions out of poverty. Importantly, it facilitated the economic rise of China. No country has pulled more people out of poverty than China, and we in Australia are pleased to
Via Bloomie: New Zealand’s government has proposed adding house prices to the central bank’s remit to rein in an overheating property market, prompting investors to reduce bets on lower interest rates. The local dollar jumped. Finance Minister Grant Robertson said Tuesday he has written to Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr, asking him to consider amending
The Victorian Government yesterday released its 2020-21 State Budget, which will see the Government embark on a massive stimulus program in a bid to support 200,000 jobs within 18 months and 400,000 by 2025. Below are key extracts from Treasurer Tim Pallas’ speech combined with key figures from the Budget Papers: With Victoria’s gross state
Iron ore prices for November 24, 2020: A weak response to the global fireworks from spot. Paper too. Perhaps some of the obvious cooling in underlying Chinese demand drivers is starting to permeate the market. Empties are still trending lower: Moreover, post-COVID global normalisaion is iron ore bearish. We can already see this in China’s
Via RBA deputy Guy Debelle: Monetary Policy in 2020 I spoke at the ABE annual event 2 years ago in December 2018. In that speech, I talked about the lessons and questions from the global financial crisis that had occurred 10 years earlier. Today, the global economy has experienced another crisis, but one which has taken a very
DXY is at the edge of breakdown and EUR breakout: The Australian dollar likewise: Gold puked again as oil took off: Metals mania: Mining mania: EM mania: Junk mania: Treasuries were soft: Stocks unstoppable: What a blowoff we have on our hands now. Risk has not only ceased to matter it has ceased to exist.
Calls are growing to allow first home buyers (FHBs) to access their superannuation savings to purchase a home after the Treasury’s Retirement Income Review found that home owners have far better retirement outcomes than non-home owners. A group of Liberal MPs, led by Tim Wilson, are leading the calls: Mr Wilson… told The Age and
According to The Australian’s Judith Sloan, Australia’s current retirement income system is a costly one that contains a range of inequities. One alternative would be to combine a universal pension with voluntary savings, which is essentially the New Zealand model. Sloan argues that such a model would likely cost taxpayers less than the present system,
I just bought a case of Tahbilk wine. You should too. Why? This: Tahbilk Wines, a historic fifth-generation family-owned winery in central Victoria, presently has four shipping containers of its wine stalled in Chinese ports as customs officials find excuses not to release them, and for now no more Tahbilk will be shipped to China.
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Wall Street’s Biggest Dogs All Need Bitcoin for the Upcoming Years – Medium COVID-19’s economic fallout will long outlive the health crisis, report warns – UNCTAD Global inequality highest in decades — Sustainable Review Stocks extend their gains on report Biden to pick Yellen for Treasury, Dow up 400
Stock markets are pushing forward with gusto across Asia in the wake of the “conceding non-concession” from ex-President Trump overnight, with USD giving back some of its gains against the majors overnight, although gold is flopping to new monthly lows, now at the $1824USD per ounce level: The Shanghai Composite is meandering nowhere going
From Roy Morgan Research: In November, support for the L-NP Federal Government is unchanged since October with a narrow lead of 50.5% cf. ALP 49.5% on a two-party preferred basis according to the latest Morgan Poll on Federal voting intention. If a Federal Election were held now it would be too close to call with
Via Bloomie: The U.K. is considering a ban on the installation of Huawei Technologies Co. 5G equipment as soon as next year to appease lawmakers pushing for tighter restrictions on the Chinese telecom equipment maker, according to people familiar with the matter. Lawmakers from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party are demanding stricter rules on
A new survey from Roy Morgan Research reveals how COVID-19 has accelerated the shift to online shopping: Roy Morgan data shows major increases in online shopping over the past 12 months, when the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns of varying lengths drove shoppers online. For the first time, a majority (52%) of computers, tablets, accessories and
The latest ABS wage price index revealed that private sector wage growth collapsed to only 1.2% in the September quarter versus 1.8% growth across the public sector: Data from the federal Attorney-General’s Department shows that the average pay rise in new private sector enterprise agreements (EA) was 3% in the June quarter, beating 2.2% growth
Via Bloomie: A string of defaults by Chinese state-owned companies has sent shockwaves across the world’s second-largest credit market. But some bonds have fared much worse than others as investors clamber to avoid the next potential blowup. Among the most notable losers: notes issued by Pingdingshan Tianan Coal Mining Co., Jizhong Energy Group Co., Tianjin TEDA Investment Holding
Unsurprisingly, the Australian Banking Association (ABA) supports changes to responsible lending laws in its submission to an inquiry into the federal government’s proposed reforms. The ABA claims the reforms “strike the right balance” between protecting consumers and ensuring that credit is available: A submission by the industry’s peak lobby group, the Australian Banking Association, says
Via Deutsche: Range bound US equities despite two large positive catalysts points to extended positioning Back in July, we noted that the market then was rallying on good news (data surprises) but failing to selloff on bad news (virus resurgence) and that this asymmetric response confirmed our read that equity positioning was quite low (Equity
October saw domestic multi-asset portfolios achieve small gains with Australian equities the prime driver. International markets fell reflecting uncertainties of the US election and the deteriorating lockdown situation in Europe. Australia equities gained with the improving situation in Victoria with respect to Covid shutdowns, and proved one of the better equity markets over October as
On Friday, the federal government released Treasury’s 600-page Retirement Income Review Final Report, which highlighted in great detail why lifting the superannuation guarantee (SG) from 9.5% would be unambiguously bad policy. First, the Review notes that the federal budget would be plunged further into deficit, since any cost savings for the Aged Pension would be
Today, QLD Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that she would open the border to all of NSW and VIC on 1 December, provided both state record zero local COVID-19 infections tomorrow: It’s been 28 days since New South Wales had an unlinked case. Victoria passes the 28-day mark tomorrow. All going well it too should be
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s call to open Australia to international students and skilled migrants has been shut down by reality, with minutes of a meeting between government officials and representatives of security firms showing NSW’s hotel quarantine system is at breaking point: The NSW hotel quarantine scheme has been beset with thousands of incidents, with
The Aussie dollar is still plodding: Bonds too: But XJO is flying: With Big Iron: Big Gas: Big Gold puked: Big Banks are unstoppable: Big Tech not so much: More classic value rotation. There is no yield curve steepening to drive it but it’s happening anyway on the expectation of it driven by vaccines. My
I’ve noted plenty already: Mathias is the Morrison Government’s most radical supply-side nutter. He is not corrupt which might make this position forgivable. He actually believes in trickle-down economics, which leaves the room short of oxygen given Cormann is obviously intelligent. Mathias has a record of deep climate skepticism having voted in favour of climate
Australia recorded 8 new COVID-19 infections, although only 1 was locally acquired: The locally acquired infection was recorded by South Australia, which is still getting its outbreak under control: Australia now has only 94 active COVID-19 infections, of which 40 are locally acquired: These active local cases are comprised of 28 in South Australia: Whereas
This is how out of touch is Labor and Anthony Albanese. As the CCP launched its economic war on Australia last week with demands to end our democracy: Anthony Albanese was not only busy being silent, he was busy doing this: Returned to @Sydney_Uni for opening of superb Chau Chak Wing museum tonight – arts,
Victoria has recorded a 24th consecutive day with no new COVID-19 cases, and the state now has no active cases for the first time since February. An elderly couple were the last remaining COVID-19 patients from the state’s second wave of infections. The man in his 90s was discharged from Monash Medical Centre on yesterday
Former CEO of Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission, Alistair Maclean, has been appointed as the new CEO of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). Maclean has promised to broaden TEQSA’s regulatory reach, including by setting up a new integrity unit: Maclean… told The Australian Financial Review there were “harder edged” tools at his
The RBA has released new analysis on the JobKeeper scheme’s impact on unemployment, which found that JobKeeper reduced Australian’s unemployment by 700,000 over the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic: We find that one in five employees who received JobKeeper (and, thus, remained employed) would not have remained employed during this period had it
ANZ-Roy Morgan Aus Consumer Confidence broke an 11-week winning streak to fall 2%, as SA went into a short lockdown. With the lifting of restrictions in Vic and NSW, the impact may be short-lived. #ausecon #ausretail @roymorganonline @DavidPlank12 pic.twitter.com/vlfPuHetvu — ANZ_Research (@ANZ_Research) November 23, 2020
