Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Mapping the Global Migration of Millionaires – Visual Capitalist China and Russia Buy Gold as US Keeps Gold Prices Artificially Low – Bunker Basics The Bank of England gives a masterclass on the “very real” risks of climate change – Qz Will we survive the next financial crisis? – Politico Belarus President
CoreLogic’s Cameron Kusher has released a research note looking at dwelling commencement trends across Australia’s various sub-components, which shows that risks are skewed towards high-rise construction: The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recently released the quarterly Building Activity data for December 2018. The release is a treasure-trove of data and includes information on dwelling commencements,
By Leith van Onselen As summarised earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released its labour force report for March, which registered a solid 25,700 increase in total employment but a 0.1% increase in the headline unemployment rate (to 5.0%) because of a 0.1% rise in labour force participation. In trend terms, the unemployment
By Leith van Onselen Last weekend, CoreLogic released its preliminary auction clearance rates, which revealed the following results: Today, CoreLogic has released its final auction results, which reported a 5.0% decline in the final national auction clearance rate to 52.2% – slightly below last week’s final clearance rate of 52.6%: As you can see, Sydney’s final
By Leith van Onselen New Zealand will remain one of the few developed nations in the world not to have a capital gains tax (CGT), after the Labour-led Government yesterday ruled-out implementing such a measure. From Interest.co.nz: The Government will not introduce a Capital Gains Tax having failed to reach a consensus, with coalition partner
By Leith van Onselen In the week ended 18 April 2019, the CoreLogic 5-city daily dwelling price index, which covers the five major capital city markets, fell another 0.07%: Values fell across four major markets: So far in April, home values have fallen by 0.35% at the 5-city level, with all major capitals falling: The
By Leith van Onselen The decline in EU immigration into the UK in the wake of the Brexit Turmoil has proven to be a massive boon for workers, with unemployment falling to the lowest level since the 1970s and UK wages surging: Average wages are rising at the fastest rate in a decade and employment
Digital Finance Analytics’ principal analyst, Martin North, appeared on the 7.30 Report last night where he and Stephen Koukoulas (‘The Kouk’) debated the threat of negative equity as Aussie house prices fall: New data from Digital Finance Analytics has revealed there are 3,900 households in this post code, where the owner has a mortgage higher
By Leith van Onselen While Australia may currently be a preferred destination for international students, as evidenced by nearly half a million student visas on issue at the end of 2018: Competition for international students is heating-up, both from competitor countries and the source nations. For example, the Canadian Government is planning to expand its
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Plummeting battery prices to make electric cars cheaper than gas cars in 3 years – Think Progress Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Lower for the Year, Vulnerable to Steep $15 – $20 Break – FX Empire Middle class struggles are now threatening the global economy –
By Leith van Onselen Shadow industry minister Kim Carr has flagged the possibility of imposing temporary import quotas on certain products if it wins the federal election, in order to prevent low-cost imports from flooding the domestic market. Carr has also expressed concern that the Trump administration’s tariffs on steel and aluminium imports could eventually
By Leith van Onselen The Australian reports that the proportion of investors who are aged 60-plus rose from around 15% to about 23.5% between 2000 and 2017, whereas the number of negatively geared investors also surged from 631,000 to about 1.3 million over the same period: The statistics show that between 2000 and 2017, the
By Leith van Onselen Over the past year or so, I have ridiculed the new found push by Coalition politicians towards decentralisation, noting that this is a pipe dream based on the settlement pattern of new migrants, which have overwhelmingly chosen to flood the major cities. My view was initially based primarily on data from
By Leith van Onselen In his Budget reply speech last year, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten announced plans to impose a cap on the amount that can be claimed for getting tax returns done by a tax agent. Shorten said Labor would apply a cap of $3,000, claiming that 48 wealthy individuals had paid an average
By Leith van Onselen Back in 2016, Vancouver city council has voted to approve a tax on empty homes introduced a 1% tax on homes that are not principal residences or aren’t rented out for at least six months of the year, in response to a large number of homes reportedly being left vacant by overseas
By Leith van Onselen The latest Roy Morgan Research (RMR) unemployment estimate for March jumped 1.3% to 10.6%, and surged 2.0% over the year: Labour underutilisation also surged to 20.6%. Below are the key points from the release: Australian unemployment increased to 1.49 million in March (10.9% of the workforce) with an additional 1.32 million
By Leith van Onselen MB has gone to great lengths to expose the crash in real employee incomes that has taken place this decade, as evident by the circa 5% fall in real average employee compensation since March 2012: The 0.5% real fall in average weekly earnings since May 2013: And the 0.3% real decline
By Leith van Onselen After Labor last month doubled down on lifting Australia’s superannuation guarantee (compulsory superannuation) to 12%, the Grattan Institute has issued a firm rebuke in its pre-election Orange Book: [Grattan] urges the next government to abandon the current plan to increase compulsory superannuation payments from 9.5 per cent to 12 per cent,
By Leith van Onselen Migrant communities have stepped up their campaign to loosen Australia’s newly established ‘temporary’ elderly parental visas, which from this month will allow up to 15,000 elderly parents of migrants to live in Australia for a continuous period of three, five or 10 years. Several migrant communities have labelled these “absolutely unfair” because
By Leith van Onselen Infrastructure Victoria has released a incredibly superficial propaganda report, entitled Growing Victoria’s Potential, spruiking the benefits that could arise from the state’s manic population growth, which is expected to see Melbourne’s population balloon to 8 million people by 2051. Below are key extracts from the Executive Summary along with some key charts:
By Leith van Onselen CoreLogic’s latest dwelling sales data reveals more bad news for those groups heavily reliant on property transactions, including real estate agents and state governments (via stamp duty). It also points straight down for house prices. The next chart plots annual sales volumes across Australia’s capital cities to December 2018, which are
By Leith van Onselen SQM Research has released its rental vacancy series for February, which revealed no change in the national vacancy rate over the month or year: Over the year, increases in vacancies were recorded in Sydney (+0.8%), Melbourne (+0.2%), Canberra (+0.3%) and Darwin (+0.1%), whereas Brisbane (-0.7%), Perth (-1.2%), Adelaide (-0.3%) and Hobart
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon slashes pay for his employees as revenue drops – CNBC Plug-in electric car ownership up 76% in 2018 – Fleet News Goldman Sachs Quarterly Profit Falls 20 percent – Reuters Huawei is ‘open’ to selling 5G chips to Apple for iPhones, marking a big
By Leith van Onselen With the election campaign in full swing, Prime Minister Scott Morrison suddenly cares about traffic congestion across Melbourne: More than $150 million of ‘congestion busting’ road projects in Melbourne will be announced by the Coalition on Monday. The Morrison government says the $154 million investment will help ease gridlock across the
By Leith van Onselen EY has released analysis claiming that the majority of Sydneysiders would be better-off renting and investing in shares than purchasing an owner-occupied dwelling. From Domain: “It’s time to give up on the mindset that renting is dead money,” said EY chief economist Jo Masters. “There’s this idea that the only way
CoreLogic has released its quarterly auction market report, which has reported a combined capital city clearance rate of only 49.9% over the March quarter, alongside tanking volumes: Around half of all homes up for auction across Australia’s capital cities sold during the first quarter of 2019, with the latest CoreLogic Quarterly Auction Market Review showing
By Leith van Onselen Australian Finance Group (AFG) has released its housing finance data for the March quarter, which registered a heavy quarterly decline in the number and value of mortgage applications, with applications also crashing over the year. The number of mortgage applications fell by 9.7% over the March quarter and was down by
By Leith van Onselen The Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ACCI) and the Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBA) has urged Labor to reconsider its proposed $17 billion reforms to the taxation of discretionary trusts, arguing that many small and family-owned businesses could be adversely affected by the policy. From The Australian: “Our
By Leith van Onselen Instead of arguing on policy merit, baby boomer mouthpiece Robert Gottliebsen has urged the Coalition to wage an almighty scare campaign against Labor’s tax policies in a bid to wrestle electoral victory from the jaws of defeat: A scare campaign would raise the prospect that all pensioners are in danger [from
By Leith van Onselen Australia’s migrant slave economy continues to be exposed. After last week labelling “outrageous” a Fair Work Commission ruling that fruit pickers should be entitled to overtime if they work excessive hours, it has now been revealed that farmers are choosing to employ migrant workers because they are easier to exploit. From 7News:
