Miscellaneous

From the SMH: Polling conducted exclusively for Fairfax Media found Mr Albanese leads Mr Shorten 58-42 as preferred Labor leader among voters in Victoria and NSW.

By Leith van Onselen We’ve had peak oil, peak coal, peak demographics, and now it seems we have peak soil.

From ANZ: Job advertisements rose 0.2% m/m in September, effectively unchanged, but technically the first monthly increase since February.

From JP Morgan: The remerging focus on allegations of corrupt behaviour reminds investors that  mgmt has work to do to address “legacy” issues.

Thankfully someone beyond me cares about the conflicts of interest that will dog the next Senate.

Fairfax and the ABC continue the drumbeat of inquiry into the very senior levels of our regulators today: One of the Reserve Bank’s most senior officials has been accused of ordering an employee not to put in writing information about alleged corruption at the central bank’s currency printing companies.

By Leith van Onselen With the Government set to announce a new inquiry into the financial system, Professor Ian Harper, a panel member of the 1997 Wallis inquiry into the financial sector, has given some sensible thoughts on the direction such an inquiry should take.

If today’s Essential poll is any guide, Tony Abbott’s electoral honeymoon is over before it began.

Cross-posted from The Conversation The news that Coles may be seeking a banking licence would, if confirmed, put the supermarket group and its parent company Wesfarmers in direct competition with Australia’s major banks.

By Leith van Onselen I used to be a beer drinking Aussie bloke. When I was 18 and a “poor student”, I would only drink Powers Ice or Tooheys Red. Not because they were good, but because I could by a 30-can block for around $22 (in 1996 dollars).

Cross-posted from The Conversation Tony Abbott wants to be known as the infrastructure prime minister.

Next Tuesday and Wednesday is the September FOMC meeting and taper-lite is my call.

Cross-posted from The Conversation Imagine a country with a strong, well-performing economy, ruled by a centre-left party that has achieved a number of key reforms.

Gotti has never been one stand on ceremony when it comes to supporting business interests.

From the AFR: The Labor Party could be headed for a month-long leadership battle after former deputy Anthony Albanese told Bill Shorten he intends to run.

One doesn’t like to pre-judge these things.

Disillusion with the major parties has thrown up one helluva weird cocktail in the Australian Parliament.

By Leith van Onselen With the Federal Election tomorrow, and housing being off the radar of the major parties, I want to run through some of the minor parties’ housing policies.

By Leith van Onselen The Coalition has today released its second tranche of pre-election costings (table here), which follows the $31 billion of savings announced previously.

Cross-posted from The Conversation Australia’s 2013 election campaign is noteworthy not just for the ferocity of the party leaders’ exchanges on tax and policy costings but also for the corresponding absence of any substantial debate on competing visions of our economic future.

Tony Abbott is to release his full costings today.

Rob Burgess of BS has a scary take on Labor politics today: When Prime Minister Kevin Rudd unequivocally stated yesterday that Labor would oppose any attempt by an Abbott government to repeal the carbon tax, he was subtly shifting voter attention beyond this election, and on to the next.

Gavin R.

William Pesek of Bloomberg offers an interesting outsiders perspective on the election and the economy: Julia Gillard was a rotten Australian prime minister.