Australian Economy

The joke used to run that the local garbologist enjoyed not just good pay but as much as he could eat.

Farewell construction, via the AIG: Why anyone sees any positives here is beyond us.

The rictus Treasurer is copping a lot of flack, via The Australian: Former Reserve Bank governor Ian Macfarlane has warned that the central bank has reached the limits of its ability to boost the economy through interest rate cuts and further reductions will have “very little power to do anything useful’’.

Via Domain: A detailed external audit shows that the high-end restaurant business that runs Chin Chin in Melbourne and Sydney underpaid staff by $340,000 in a single year, with one-fifth of the company’s workforce affected.

Via Westpac: The August retail update showed sales up 0.4% in the month.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released retail sales figures for the month of July, which recorded a 0.4% rise in retail sales over the month in seasonally-adjusted terms, with annual sales growth rebounding to just 2.6%: In trend terms, annual retail sales growth slowed to 2.3%.

This morning I was interviewed by Radio 2GB’s Luke Grant, whereby I demolished the RBA’s claim that Australia’s weak wage growth has been caused by the rise of older Australians in the workforce, which has supposedly raised labour supply relative to demand.

A fair point at Domain: Some top restaurateurs say they have been left ‘‘scared’’ after several wage scandals in their industry, with calls for an amnesty to bring operations into compliance.

Via Martin North: The latest data released today by DFA is our mortgage stress analysis to the end of September 2019.

The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has investigated 22 Subway franchisees for compliance with workplace laws.

Not going anywhere fast: Nothing burger.

The latest CoreLogic Pain & Gain Report shows that a much higher share of investors sold their properties for a loss over the June quarter than owner-occupiers: As shown above, nearly one-in-five investors across Australia’s capital cities made a loss in the June quarter, versus just over one-in-ten owner-occupiers.

Though not for long!

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has released its debt ratios for the June quarter, which revealed that Australian households’ debt loads have hit another all-time high.

There are currently 13 China-backed Confucius Institutes operating at Australian universities, including many of the prestigious Group of Eight institutions such as the universities of Sydney, Melbourne, NSW, and Queensland.

Clyde Russell asks an uncharacteristically stupid question: Is Australia the ultimate commodity hedge? When looking at the country’s natural resources the focus tends to be as its status as the world’s biggest exporter of iron ore and liquefied natural gas (LNG), and its competition with Indonesia as the top shipper of coal.

Not that they were ever going to do much anyway.