Via The Australian: Malcolm Turnbull is facing an escalating Labor attack over the stability of his government after a third cabinet minister owned up to being a dual citizen by descent, shocking observers with another test in the High Court that could reshape the ministry. Nationals deputy leader and Regional Affairs Minister Fiona Nash last
By Leith van Onselen Wages and earnings growth data this week has revealed the widening gulf between public servants and private sector employees. First, Wednesday’s wages price index frevealed that private sector wages grew by only 1.78% in the year to June 2017, whereas public sector wages grew by 2.39%: Next, yesterday’s Average Weekly Earnings
By Leith van Onselen This week’s economic data has not been kind to Australia’s workers. Wednesday’s wages price index released by the ABS revealed that wages growth across the nation hit another all-time low 1.86%, with private sector workers (1.78% growth) faring much worse than their public sector counterparts (+2.39%): The news wasn’t much better
By Leith van Onselen Another week, another #SardineSydney story in the mainstream media on how the city’s population is swelling way above the capacity of its infrastructure. The latest example relates to Sydney’s long suffering trains, whereby skyrocketing passenger numbers are causing chronic crush-loading. From The Canberra Times: Passenger demand for trains in Sydney has
Via Reuters: The federal government is pushing ahead with its expansion of the anti-money laundering (AML) regime, with the financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC set to receive additional powers. The government unveiled changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 yesterday, which will also bring digital currency providers within the AML regime. Michael Keenan,
By Leith van Onselen In the week ended 17 August 2017, the CoreLogic 5-city daily dwelling price index, which covers the five major capital city markets, rose by 0.41%: The rise in prices was driven by the two biggest capitals and Adelaide: So far in August home values have risen by 0.82%, with everywhere but
By Leith van Onselen Yesterday’s ABS labour force release for July revealed some better news for those aged 15 to 24 years old that are looking for a job. Although the trend headline unemployment rate rose from 12.95% in June to 12.97%: Total employment growth for those aged 15-24 years of age has turned positive:
Charlene Chu at Autonomous Research is making waves at the FT today: Corporate investigator Violet Ho never put a lot of faith in the bad loan numbers reported by China’s banks: crisscrossing provinces from Shandong to Xinjiang, she’s seen too much – from the shell game of moving assets between affiliated companies to disguise the true
From the NOAA: The globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for July 2017 was the second highest for the month of July in the NOAA global temperature dataset record, which dates back 138-years to 1880. The year-to-date global temperature was also second warmest on record. This monthly summary, developed by scientists at NOAA’s
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Over $9tn of bonds trade with negative yields – FT Libor-tracking investments hit U.S. exchanges; complexity a worry – Apple News Sam Zell on Global Growth: “Where’s the Demand?” – CFA Institute Billionaire Richard Branson weighs in on free cash handouts—there’s a ‘real danger’ tech will replace jobs –
by Chris Becker A very mixed day in Asia after what looked like a good lead overnight from risk markets, with response to the dovish Fed minutes muted by resumed Korean tensions and a burgeoning Yen. Stocks were down across most of the region. Commodities were the highlight with oil rebounded a little, while industrial
Bloody Pauline: One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson arrived in Senate question time dressed in a burka, a form of Islamic dress with a face covering. …“In light of the national security of this nation will you work to ban the burka in Australia,” she asked Attorney-General George Brandis. Senator Brandis said: “No”. Earlier someone in
Via The Guardian: White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has given an unusual interview in which he claimed there was no military solution for North Korea, the far right was a “collection of clowns” and the left’s focus on racism would allow him to “crush the Democrats”. Bannon, who has been called the mastermind behind Donald Trump’s nationalist
By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) data for the six months to May 2016. A breakdown of the key changes are provided below: According to the ABS, on a seasonally-adjusted basis, national total AWE increased by 1.3% in the six months to May 2017,
The commodity pain trade is roaring upwards today with iron ore off the hook up 6%: Big Iron is pretty circumspect about it: Big Gas is weak, notably so when one reads all of the positive guff coming from brokers: Big Gold is hot as it signals more USD weakness. I am a seller here
By Leith van Onselen As summarised earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released its labour force report for July, which registered a solid 27,900 increase in total employment and no change to the headline unemployment rate (still 5.6% after last month’s figure was revised upwards). In trend terms, the unemployment rate fell marginally
It’s still a long shot but worthy of consideration, from RBC: With an already precarious one-seat majority, the Liberal-National Coalition government risks turning into a minority government should the High Court uphold Section 44 of the Constitution and rule the current Deputy PM and leader of the National Party ineligible for Parliament. There must also be
July jobs are out from the ABS and it’s a mixed bag: Employment increased 27,900 to 12,201,400. Full-time employment decreased 20,300 to 8,342,300 and part-time employment increased 48,200 to 3,859,10 Unemployment increased 1,100 to 730,600. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work decreased 3,800 to 496,400 and the number of unemployed persons only
Makes sense to me: Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi has called for parliament to be prorogued pending the outcome of the High Court cases over the citizenship status of Barnaby Joyce, Matt Canavan, Malcolm Roberts, Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam have been determined. “There are great concerns about the health and wellbeing of our institutions,”
Dick and Pauline have enjoyed a Twitter love-in today to help promote his Fair Go campaign. Both come over well. It’s good to see Dick get a platform and good to see Pauline get humanised, which is the best way to defeat One Nation (as opposed to turning them into some titanic resistance movement). Here’s the
As said this morning, the Fed hedged dovish minutes today with this: This overall assessment incorporated the staff’s judgment that, since the April assessment, vulnerabilities associated with asset valuation pressures had edged up from notable to elevated, as asset prices remained high or climbed further, risk spreads narrowed, and expected and actual volatility remained muted in
Back in saddle after this morning’s dummy spit, Credit Suisse has some of the finer detail driving the coking coal rebound: China struggling to meet demand China demand is stronger than anticipated due to solid steel production, which is probably enhanced by the closure of induction furnaces and their replacement with blast furnace steel. Against
By Leith van Onselen The Turnbull Government is optimistic that its proposed 0.5% increase in the Medicare levy will be passed by the Senate. The bill will be put before the upper house later today, although a vote is unlikely before September. The Labor Opposition is pushing for the increased levy to be restricted to
By Leith van Onselen A bit of comedy today from Australia’s soon to be ousted federal Treasurer: The Treasurer said the wage data was “as forecast in the budget” — which pencilled in wage growth rising from 2 per cent this year to 3.5 per cent by 2021 — and in line with market expectations.
By Leith van Onselen The Turnbull Government has reportedly back flipped on its promise to allow personal imports of high quality overseas vehicles – so-called “grey imports”. From Motoring.com.au: The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) has offered its approval of the federal government’s official announcement today that it will not deregulate personal vehicle importation.
