Australian Economy

Cross-posted from The Conversation This week, Australian motoring groups decided to back road user charges, arguing that it would be a fairer system.

From COMMSEC comes a wrap of the national financial accounts:   Total household wealth (net worth) stood at a record $7,531.8 billion at the end of December, up $253.7 billion over the quarter – the biggest quarterly rise in four years.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the Australian Demographic Statistics for the September quarter of 2013.

There’s nothing wrong with a good public sector clean out from time to time to clean up the budget.

From the Herald Sun comes an interesting little tale about soon to be obsolescent jobs: TAXIS The emergence of car sharing apps like Uber and Lyft are quickly putting an end to the taxi industry’s cartel-like control over personal transportation.

I’ve had my Bill Evans moment.

A couple of months is long time in economics, seemingly.

From NAB: NSW The outlook for NSW has improved modestly since the last update, partly reflecting positive conditions reported by business services and better consumer spending in response to higher household wealth (driven by rising property prices).

By Leith van Onselen On Monday,  Deloitte Access Economics released its “fantastic five” report on future growth industries that are expected to drive the post-mining economy in Australia.

By Leith van Onselen The ANZ-Roy Morgan Research (RMR) consumer confidence index has been released for the week ended 23 March, which registered a 2.0% increase, retracing most of the weakness seen in late-February.

By Leith van Onselen Earlier this year, I cautioned the Abbott Government against committing to conclude its free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations by September: A big risk is that in setting a one year deadline to conclude negotiations, the Abbott Government could forgo quality.

By Leith van Onselen Above is an interesting segment from ABC’s The Business last night, which discusses a new Deloitte Access Economics report highlighting five “fantastic” growth industries that are poised to take the baton from mining over the next few decades, namely: agribusiness; gas; tourism; international education; and wealth management.

Yesterday I served a ladle of gruel over Roy Hill but today I’m going to defend Gina Rinehart from a bitchy MSM onslaught. From John Kehoe: How Australia’s richest person, mining heiress Gina Rinehart, secured a $US694 million ($764 million) loan from American taxpayers is surely one of the great ironies of the capitalist system.

House prices are now an official excuse to hollow out the economy. From The Age (since Tim left I didn’t know it was still published!): Home ownership is beyond the reach of an estimated 1.5 million Australians because the growth in house prices has outstripped the rise in minimum wage more than twofold, unions say.

The Australian dollar wrecking ball is swinging.

Jennifer Hewitt has wasted no time today in praising the rise of Roy Hill: Gina Rinehart always prefers to let her actions do the talking. But she will revel in a very personal way in the enthusiastic reaction to the $US7.2 billion ($7.9 billion) funding package for her Roy Hill iron ore project.

By Leith van Onselen Over the past few years, I have written a bunch of articles questioning the efficacy of Australia’s high population (immigration) growth strategy, which provides dubious economic benefits and creates a number of adverse impacts on living standards and the environment.

HSBC runs a periodic “trade confidence” index that is worth the occasional mention: Australian businesses expect international trade conditions to considerably improve over the next six months with businesses in construction and wholesale/retail most positive, according to HSBC’s latest Trade Confidence Index.