International Reading:

• Student-loan borrowers are at high risk if Trump dismantles the Department of Education, 11 organizations told Elizabeth Warren – Business Insider
• Texas ranks as No. 1 state with the most people in financial distress – Dallas Culture Map
• The number of first-time homebuyers is plummeting. Why that’s bad news for the US economy. – Business Insider
• DOGE Put Free Tax Filing Tool on Chopping Block After One Meeting With Lobbyists – Wired
• Homebuilders are slashing prices at the highest rate in 3 years – CNBC
• House Republican Says Trump Is ‘Gonna Crash the Economy’ if Mass Deportations Continue – Mediate
• Is the recent surge in U.S. Treasury yields an indication that the bond market is beginning to price in fiscal concerns? – CME Group
• Scale AI Layoffs – Why Meta’s $14.3 Billion Investment Led to 200 Job Cuts – Final Roundai
• Bankruptcy filings soar as farmers face inflation, ICE raids – News Nation Now
• Netflix Raises Revenue, Margin Forecasts After Strong Second Quarter – WSJ
• More Americans Than Ever Are Struggling to Afford Their Prescription Medications: 67% described the cost of their medication as a burden. – Good RX
• To everyone who thought Trump firing Powell today was a hoax there’s a letter from Trump to Republicans asking to do it – NY times

Local Reading:

• Experts say forcing companies to delete data would remove cybercrime ‘honey pot’ – ABC News
• Qantas travellers’ bush stranding highlights Australia’s need for aviation consumer law – ABC
• Shoddy work and rogue tradies: the home repair practices targeting vulnerable Australians – The Guardian
• Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party suffers data breach potentially affecting all its members – Crikey
• ‘Human catastrophe’: What lower birth rates could mean for Australia’s future – SBS
• Birthrate falls in Australia’s biggest cities amid cost-of-living crisis, preliminary data shows – The Guardian
• Report claims Australia sending F-35 parts to Israel, despite denials – JPost
• Meta argues its AI needs personal information from social media posts to learn ‘Australian concepts’ – The Guardian
• Private ATMs in tobacco shops face being cut off from payment network EFTEX following ABC investigation – ABC
• Data centres bid to guzzle drinking water -ABC
• Real estate industry estimated to have earned half a billion dollar in residential commissions in Q2 this year – Interest.co.nz
• Can the economy recover if house prices don’t? – Interest.co.nz
• Food prices surge again – up 4.6% in past year – Interest.co.nz
• Higher NZ inflation track ignored by wholesale markets – Interest.co.nz
• NZ economy heads back into recession – Interest.co.nz

MB Media Appearances:

Australians are being gaslit on the housing crisis

Unemployment shock to trigger RBA rate cuts