Weekend Links and Videos: 3-4 January 2026

Yellow Robin with katydid in Broulee

Courtesy Geoff McVeigh

Global Macro

• Five charts that explain the global economic outlook for 2026 – Guardian
• Oil prices record steepest annual fall since Covid pandemic – Guardian
• The 2025 energy transition in eight charts: clean wins, dirty setbacks – Reuters
• Commodities buffeted by Trump whirlwind seek relief in 2026 – Reuters

Terra Specufestorus

• Record year for Australian beef exports despite Donald Trump’s tariffs – ABC
• ASIC’s remarkable turnaround as the tiger that found its teeth – ABC
• AI powered 2025’s economy to record highs. So why are only robots smiling? – ABC
• Mechanic shortage driving Queensland businesses to look overseas for qualified workers – ABC
• Sydney and Melbourne property markets go backwards as national values hit speed bump – ABC
• Australian meat industry warns China’s new beef tariff impact will be ‘severe’ – ABC
• “Absolutely devastating”. Israel bans aid orgs from Gaza, publishes Aussie antisemites list – Michael West
• Is Albo’s ‘Richardson Review’ into Bondi independent or for a roving insider? – Michael West, Rex Patrick
• Whistleblower urges ASIC to intervene as RACP crisis deepens – Michael West, Stephanie Tran
• This one’s on Netanyahu, not Albanese – Pearls and Irritations, Jack Waterford…….at last someone speaking common sense
• The stats don’t lie. Australia’s tax system is designed to benefit the wealthiest and the rest of us pay for it – Guardian, Jericho
• Sticky inflation, metal prices and the AI bubble risk: key trends to watch in the Australian economy in 2026 – Guardian

The rest

• China forecast to have sold one in every 10 new cars in UK in 2025 – Guardian
• Is Russia close to collapse? Russia vs US wartime budget deficits – BNE Intellinews
• The Real Existential Threat Facing Europe – Project Syndicate
• Signs of trouble in the U.S. economy: Where are all the jobs? – CBC
• The Nexperia crisis: a wake-up call for Europe’s approach to Chinese investment – Bruegel
• Washington Post’s Trumpian Ideology Boils Over – CEPR
• US jobless claims slide to cap a bumpy year for job market – Reuters
• Dire year for dollar has little light at end of tunnel in 2026 – Reuters
• China’s economy looks more resilient than it feels as a property slump drags on – AP
• Resilient US consumers drive strongest economic expansion in 2 years – AP

What the almighty?…….

• ‘Weights of gold in bullion’: how the ancients invested in precious metals – The Conversation
• Did Mark Zuckerberg Throw $77 Billion of Our Money into the Toilet? – CEPR
• AI and systemic risk – VoxEU
• The paradox of perfect supervision – VoxEU
• A nonlinear Phillips curve helps explain the inflation overshoot – VoxEU
• Tariffs and technological hegemony – VoxEU
• Harnessing the wisdom of the crowds for OECD recession predictions – VoxEU
• How foreign wars can consolidate authoritarian power: Evidence from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – VoxEU

Videos

Australian Houses

US Economy (raises some big issues)

Global Economy

Canada and US Beef

Food Supply

China – Taiwan

Australian Terrorists

Trump – NATO – and Europe

Med Diet

Decline Decadence and Civilisation

MBS and Saudi Arabia

Gamificatrion of Markets and trading – I reckon its a thing

AI Deepfakes