By Leith van Onselen Of all the idiotic ‘awards’ handed out, The Economist’s ‘Most Livable City’ must surely rank near the top. That being said, Melbourne has finally lost its title to Vienna: The two cities are now separated by 0.7 of a percentage point in the rankings, with Vienna scoring a near-ideal 99.1 out
By Leith van Onselen Earlier this year, the poster boy for the globalist ‘Fake Left’, Greg Jericho, penned a drivelling article in The Guardian labelling any discussion of Australia’s reckless ‘Big Australia’ mass immigration program as ‘racist’: Immigration – because there are many desperate to hate – must be treated with extreme care by politicians
I’ve been having this conversation regularly lately. Gold is falling and breaking support just as global markets tilt towards a possible risk accident: Once again gold is proving that it is the absolute opposite of a cyclical safe haven. When markets crash so does it. Notice that exactly the same thing during the GFC, even
I’ve waded through Matt Comyn’s presentation of CBA’s results and some things struck me as, bluntly, lacking clarity. There’s no doubting CBA has a valuable franchise inherited mainly from its government owned history and its does have leading tech in delivering customer outcomes, but when it comes to the capital and liability side of the
By Leith van Onselen With the recent release of the ABS’ lending finance data for June, it’s an opportune time to once again chart how capital city house prices are tracking against both investor and total housing finance. As readers no doubt already know, housing finance has historically been strongly correlated with values, therefore it
By Leith van Onselen As if yesterday’s demolition job of RBA Governor Phil Lowe’s speech strongly supporting Australia’s mass immigration ‘Big Australia’ program wasn’t enough, The Australian’s Judith Sloan – who was the Commissioner in charge of the Productivity Commission’s (PC) 2006 review into the Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth and can be considered
By Leith van Onselen With NSW declared 100% in drought: And Sydney’s water supplies plummeting: Sydney’s Water network is literally cracking under pressure of drought. From The ABC: Sydney Water says it is drowning in leaks across the city due to the NSW drought, with some pipes spurting water for weeks before being repaired. As
By Leith van Onselen Amid the explosion of foreign student visas with work rights, who are remaining in Australia for up to four years on graduate work visas following their studies: As well as the ballooning in bridging visas, which have blown-out by 40,000 over the past year, as well as by 90,000 since 2014:
I’m back next week from holidays but threw together this little post on an important piece from Crikey’s Guy Rundle, Australia’s leading Marxist thinker, who finally led a push-back against mass immigration from the genuine Left this week: Well, the Australian population has passed 25 million. Twenty five million! When I opened a primary school
Domainfax locusts are swarming today as their real estate empire crumbles: So after 150-plus years this is all we get: “I would like to thank everyone for their contribution to Fairfax” https://t.co/GHjXMRTX2f — Kate McClymont (@Kate_McClymont) July 25, 2018 As always, @Kate_McClymont gets to the nub of it. 150 years of history wiped away in
By Leith van Onselen The backlash against short-stay apartment rentals through portals like Airbnb continues to build. After the weekend’s violent death of teenager Laa Chol during a wild party in a Melbourne CBD high-rise, Fairfax reports that neighbours lives are being turned upside down: Defecating in the sauna. Breaking bottles in the apartment tower’s swimming pool.
By Leith van Onselen It seems Michael Pascoe’s move to the New Daily, after getting dumped by Fairfax, hasn’t stopped the housing spruiking. Yesterday, Pascoe penned another article lambasting us from the “Doom & Gloom Brigade” (DGB) for being concerned about Australia’s extreme household debt: [Here’s a] graph that tells you a lot about the
A pointless wages debate today. First the Left, at The Guardian: Despite chief executives having bumper pay increases last year, the majority of Australian workers have seen their wages decline. Figures released on Wednesday show the real value of wages has stagnated across the economy, with inflation and wages now growing at the same annual
Via CNBC comes rumours of the death of the West being greatly exaggerated: President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States and the European Union had launched a “new phase” in their relationship, saying that the two major economies would start negotiations immediately on a number of areas including working toward “zero tariffs” on industrial goods
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has joined the push for a ‘Big Australia’ of 40 million mid-century, publishing the following propaganda on its Facebook page: Of course, there’s no mention of the fact that Australia is mostly desert: Since when has it been the job of the ABS to promote current government’s policies? Poor
By Leith van Onselen Following the weekend’s violent death of teenager Laa Chol during a wild party in a CBD high-rise, the Victorian Andrews Government has finally flagged changes to tighten short-stay rental laws through portals like Airbnb: …the recently completed tower had been swamped by investor owners letting apartments via Airbnb and other short-stay
Last night I appeared on The Bolt Report, where I was interviewed on the immigration debate, in particular the ‘smoke & mirrors’ coming from our politicians. Enjoy!
This is why the MB Fund retains exposure to the US earnings boom: Internet giant Alphabet posted a significant earnings beat on Monday after the close, sending shares up more than 5%. Alphabet reported adjusted EPS of $11.75 per share compared to $9.64 expected by analysts. Total revenue came in at $32.7 billion; excluding traffic acquisition costs
The immigration debate has has clearly been won by the skeptics. Coverage today starts with a stark warning from Infrastructure Australia CEO Philip Davies, at The Australian: In an exclusive interview with The Australian, Mr Davies, who will retire from his position at the end of this month, slated successive governments for “gold-plating” infrastructure projects
Via the AFR: ARCO fund manager George Colman says he is cautious on the Australian economy and is warning of a “slow-motion property market crash”. “Broadly speaking, we think that the game has changed in terms of consumer behaviour,” he says. “Bank credit is creating a step change.” Property borrowers moving from interest-only to more
For those suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome” here a Trump 101 series from Steven Bannon via CNBC. On Russia: On NATO: On China: Not much reassurance there for the one trick pony Downunder except, of course, if you believe in liberal democracy.
By Leith van Onselen We noted on Tuesday how Sydney investors are facing the twin shock of both falling prices and rents. This came after SQM Research’s June rental report revealed that Sydney’s asking rents were now falling on the back of a spike in the rental vacancy rate to 2.8% – the highest level
By Leith van Onselen With Sydney having hit permanent peak hour: And the city being transformed into a high-rise ‘battery chook’ farm: NSW Deputy Opposition Leader, Michael Daley, has slammed a “massive overdevelopment” in the inner suburb of Pagewood: Mr Triguboff’s company Meriton proposes to build more than 3000 apartments over 10 years on the former
Competing back-tracking today from Australia’s foreign minister and her shadow. Julie Bishop gave Washington a slap: In a significant speech at London’s Chatham House, Bishop said the international rules-based order put together after the chaos of World War II “is facing its greatest test as it is challenged and strained on multiple fronts”. This crisis
Via The Australian: Industry super fund Hostplus is taking a contrarian view on the market as it celebrates being named Australia’s best-performing super fund for the second year running. The fund’s balanced option posted a 12.5 per cent return for the 2018 financial year, smashing the median return of 9.2 per cent across the industry,
Via the AFR: British owners of apartments clad in combustible aluminium panels are struggling to sell their units in the wake of London’s Grenfell Tower tragedy, as the financial costs of replacing cladding and fixing buildings are unclear to both owners and potential buyers. …Once registers of buildings with combustible cladding, such as the one
By Leith van Onselen Industry Super chief economist, Stephen Anthony, penned a detailed article in Fairfax over the weekend warning of a “homelessness epidemic” in Sydney and Melbourne due to the serious lack of affordable and social housing, and offering policy solutions: Australia stands on the precipice of a major social crisis. Industry Super estimates
By Leith van Onselen As an Australian parent in 2018, the public versus private school debate is hard to avoid. With two children aged 7 and 10, and living in a fairly affluent area of Melbourne, I am continually asked “which private school will you send your kids to”? When I respond that I am
Via AP: NSW Liberal government MP Daryl Maguire has resigned after he was secretly recorded discussing the potential “dividend” he and a local councillor could reap from the sale of a Sydney property to a giant Chinese developer. More: The New South Wales premier is urging the disgraced state MP Daryl Maguire to reconsider his
Oh to be Jess Irvine. There’s never anything wrong. And then when there is it is in retrospect and it’s fixed! So, are we heading for a big property bust up? It’s unlikely. The entire system – from the structure of our tax system to the role of our regulators – is designed to support
