The cost of healthcare is under scrutiny in the wake of revelations that a growing number of Australians are seeking early access to their superannuation to pay medical expenses. The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia raised concerns about this trend in February, warning that it demonstrates the need for government funding to the healthcare
Australia’s apartment crisis continues to mushroom, with engineers warning the removal of dangerous flammable cladding will expose other building faults and will require at least $3 billion to fix. From The ABC: The State Government has earmarked a budget of $600 million to fix the 500 most dangerous buildings over a five-year period. Each building
New Social Services Minister, Anne Ruston, has sparked outrage from Labor after she claimed on radio that the Aged Pension was “welfare” for people who can’t look after themselves. From The New Daily: “Pensioners do it tough. They deserve our respect, they get a pension as payback for what they have done in contributing to
Last weekend, CoreLogic released its preliminary auction clearance rates, which revealed the following results: Today, CoreLogic has released its final auction results, which reported a 3.6% decline in the final national auction clearance rate to 65.4% – well above the same weekend last year (52.0%) and above last week’s 64.0%: As you can see, Sydney’s final auction
As summarised earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released its labour force report for May, which registered a weak 500 increase in total employment and a flat headline unemployment rate (still 5.2%), driven by a 0.05% fall in labour force participation. However, the underemployment rate fell by 0.4%. In trend terms, the unemployment
From University of Sydney adjunct professor Adrian Blundell-Wignall: Years of rapid debt accumulation have left China facing a “major financial danger”, which in turn poses an economic threat to Australia’s future prosperity, University of Sydney adjunct professor Adrian Blundell-Wignall warns. …”Just because we dig holes in the ground and we build houses, we think we are a
The SMH has run an article bleating about the “extraordinary collapse in home ownership in Sydney and Melbourne”: The number of people owning their home outright has collapsed by a third as house prices have soared four-fold over the past two decades, leaving a growing number of older Australians shackled to mortgages as they head
Via the AFR comes nightmare of the ACCC’s making: Shell is edging towards a long-awaited decision to develop about 5 trillion cubic feet of gas at its Arrow operation in southern Queensland, but senior management has made it clear a go-ahead later this year is not a foregone conclusion after several “surprises” from governments that
In todays LIVE webinar (12:30pm AEST, Thursday 18th July), hear from MB Fund’s Head of Investment, Damien Klassen and Tim Fuller as we have a look at: The latest stats from Australian SMSFs and where they are currently invested 2 major mistakes SMSF trustees make in asset allocation Some key ways to avoid making these
Via Fitch for ANZ: VIABILITY RATING, IDRS AND SENIOR UNSECURED DEBT The revision of the rating Outlook to Negative reflects the risk that ANZ’s focus on remediating operational and compliance risk issues and culture may result in the diversion of resources from ongoing operations, which could ultimately lead to a weakening of ANZ’s earnings relative
The federal government is adamant that the states should bear the full financial cost of remediation work on buildings that have structural defects or use combustible cladding. Industry Minister Karen Andrews says the states should not “shirk their responsibilities”, given the revenue they have gained from the construction boom over the last decade. Meanwhile, Victoria’s
The ABS is out with June Labor Force and the news is soft: SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES Employment increased 500 to 12,871,700 persons. Full-time employment increased 21,100 to 8,815,600 persons and part-time employment decreased 20,600 to 4,056,100 persons. Unemployment increased 6,600 to 711,500 persons. Unemployment rate remained steady at 5.2%. Participation rate remained steady at 66.0%.
The Coalition began implementing some of the Hayne banking royal commission’s recommendations prior to the federal election. However, the government has warned that the bulk of the recommendations are unlikely to be implemented before the end of 2019. Treasury has barely begun the consultation process and drafting of legislative reforms. Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers says
They’ll be rooned, says News: Setting aside the fact that just 160,000 members of the Conservative party will ultimately decide who will secure Britain’s exit from the EU, the new leader will find themselves in much the same position as that which forced Theresa May to quit. The conundrum is this: Theresa May negotiated a
As we round out 2 years in the saddle, we are happy to announce round three of the MB Fund seminar series. This year’s presentation is titled Global Shocker! It will examine the mushrooming threats in Australia’s external environment including Cold War 2.0 and trade wars, Brexit, a slowing China and US recession, as well as their impacts
Via New York fundie Exante: Australia is standing out globally. The improvement in the current account is extreme when the positions of other countries such as Korea are collapsing in the wrong direction. There are some internal economic weaknesses and everyone is focusing in the RBA but underneath the surface this improvement in flows could
Chanticleer is expressing public doubts as besieged APRA chairman Wayne Byers couldn’t even front cameras yesterday, preferring a teleconference from his fortress of solitude: This tight control of the dissemination of information and the strategic decision to avoid the nightly news sits oddly with the firm advice in the capability review for APRA to engage
Via Ray Dalio: One of my investment principles is: Identify the paradigm you’re in, examine if and how it is unsustainable, and visualize how the paradigm shift will transpire when that which is unsustainable stops. Over my roughly 50 years of being a global macro investor, I have observed there to be relatively long of
Via BofAML: The BofAML July Global Fund Manager Survey The nut: dovish Fed & trade truce have caused investors to reduce cash and add risk; but expectations of EPS recession & debt deflation still dominate FMS investor sentiment and the summer “pain trade” remains up in stocks & yields; note since the uber-bearish June FMS,
For a long time MB campaigned for a national Housing Minister to address affordability. Careful what you wish for, via The Australian: Housing Minister Michael Sukkar has urged first-home buyers to try to snap up a property now, ahead of the government’s signature loan deposit scheme starting next year, warning that housing prices are likely
At Domain: Staff at a restaurant in Chinatown were paid as little as $5 an hour, slept on milk crates in the kitchen and were sacked via social media, according to a complaint to the workplace watchdog. A union has alleged to the Fair Work Ombudsman that Hochi Mama workers were underpaid by thousands of
Via the Global Times, Communist Party of China foghorn: The progress and functioning of Russia’s Power of Siberia pipeline could be a bad omen for Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports despite record volumes recorded in recent months. Chinese state-owned oil major China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Russia’s Gazprom agreed on certain details about
By Chris Becker The US earnings season is putting several headwinds in the way of an ever-rising stock market with US bourses falling overnight in disappointment. European markets fell as well as the prospect of a hard Brexit becomes more likely, with Treasury yields falling again in response. Looking at the action in Asia yesterday
Reuters has the wrap: The most-active DCE iron ore contract closed down 1.2% at 899.5 yuan a ton, while the rest of China’s ferrous complex edged higher. “You may see some correction today, or maybe tomorrow, but generally speaking, the uptrend is intact, with demand still supporting the prices,” a Shanghai-based trader said. China’s government
DXY eased last night as CNY and EUR firmed: The Australian dollar was down across the board: Gold jumped: Oil was bashed again: Metals are amusing: Miners were soft: EM stocks are stalled: Junk was mixed: Treasuries big bigly: Bunds biggerer: And Aussie bonds: Stocks were hit as earnings were crapola: Westpac has the wrap:
Via NAB: The trend decline in foreign buyers of Australian residential property over 2018 and into early-2019 can be attributed largely to the crackdown on capital outflows in China in recent years and to local state government charges on foreign buyers and stricter lending limits by Australian institutions. But this trend reversed in Q2 with
The NSW Office of State Revenue has released stamp duty data to June, which reveals a massive $1.65 billion (24%) decline over the past year and a $2.3 billion (31%) decline since stamp duty receipts peaked in October 2017: The latest retracement in stamp duty receipts follows a sharp 23% decline in property transfers in
A jump in the number of high-risk student visa applications from India have driven lengthy delays in student visa processing across New Zealand: The majority of offshore student visa applications received by Immigration NZ since November last year have been high risk. Since November 2018, only 16 percent of the 3800 visa offshore student applications
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Hyperinflation and hunger: Turkmenistan on ‘edge of catastrophe’ – Aljazeera Bank Run: Deutsche Bank Clients Are Pulling $1 Billion A Day – Zero Hedge True cost of cheap GMO and pesticide food is health and climate crises – The Guardian ‘I like bitcoin,’ says House GOP leader McCarthy while
Stocks in Asia are flat again with only the ASX200 putting in a positive performance as concerns over Trump’s mishandling of the trade war with China rise again. The USD is relatively calm although Pound Sterling remains under pressure with S&P futures flat before tonights open. The Shanghai Composite has been unable to get out
