Australian Economy

Via Domain: Four out of five childcare centres are on the brink of collapse and the out of school hours care industry fears it may never recover from the COVID-19 crisis, with both sectors being told they must wait for financial relief until the government orders them to close.

The federal government’s short-sighted decision to allow Australia’s automotive manufacturing industry to close has left the nation desperately short of ventilators, placing lives at risk: The coronavirus crisis is placing immense pressure on the global availability of ventilators, which are needed to pump oxygen into the failing lungs of critically ill patients.

Via The Guardian: You might think that the consequences of recessions are short-lived.

Raina Macintyre from the University of New South Wales believes a total lockdown of Australia could potentially stop the coronavirus within two weeks.

The ABS has released household wealth data for the December quarter of 2019, which revealed a big lift in wealth driven by property: Household wealth Household net worth (wealth) increased $360.9b (3.3%) in December quarter 2019 driven by a $382.8b increase in total assets.

From The ABS: The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the results of the first Business Impacts of COVID-19 survey as part of a series of additional product releases over the coming months to help measure the economic impact of coronavirus.

Chalk up a win for Wuhan flu: Filming on The Block has shut down, with contestants being dispatched to their homes around the country on Wednesday morning as the coronavirus crisis worsened.

About 35 retail tenants at Melbourne’s Chadstone Shopping Centre have lobbied its management to waive rents for three months due to the coronavirus.

Australia’s Minister for Government Services, Stuart Robert, has confirmed that an extraordinary 3.2 million Australians attempted to login to myGov in only 20 hours: We have facilitated 3.2 million logins to myGov over the past 20 hours.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) yesterday released its Regional Population report for the 2018-19 financial year, which revealed that Melbourne remained the king of the population ponzi, adding an insane 113,480 people to its population in 2018-19, representing growth of 2.3%.

Via Capital Economics.

Via the AFR’s Joe Aston: …the veteran retailer’s 60 Minutes interview on Sunday was genuinely breathtaking.

Over the past week, I have gone to pains to explain why I believe a temporary universal basic income (UBI) is necessary to ease the acute liquidity crunch afflicting Australian households and small businesses.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has indicated that pay rises for federal politicians and senior public services will be put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Australian’s Judith Sloan has taken a timely dig at her own (and my) economics profession, claiming “economists have not shown themselves in a very good light” during the coronavirus outbreak.

The coronavirus lockdown is expected to result in a sharp rise in unemployment and see more Australian workers compete for jobs that are usually held by temporary visa holders.

Via Nouriel Roubini: The shock to the global economy from COVID-19 has been both faster and more severe than the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) and even the Great Depression.

Via Westpac: The COVID-19 shock to the Australian economy will trigger a deep recession and a sharp spike in the unemployment rate, jumping to 11% by mid-2020.

Former Treasury official Steven Hamilton has urged the federal government to increase the wage subsidies for small and medium enterprises in response to the pandemic.

General SloMo contonues to fight his virus war as if mired in caramel, at Domain: Guests will be banned from attending weddings and no more than 10 mourners will be allowed to attend funerals under a new nation-wide crackdown on public events to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

It appears China has gifted us the super virus, via CNBC: The coronavirus survived for up to 17 days aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, living far longer on surfaces than previous research has shown, according to new data published Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Via Guy Rundle at Crikey: The Centrelink lines are going round the block, the government has made vague announcements of rent assistance, twitter buzzes with notes from the newly laid-off wondering how they’ll put food on the table and pay the rent and the mortgage.