For years Australian policy makers have grappled with ways to eliminate poverty. Then the coronavirus came along and they managed, for a short time, to eliminate poverty by accident. In response to the pandemic, the federal government temporarily doubled the JobSeeker unemployment allowance via the $550 a fortnight Coronavirus Supplement, and this raised the benefit
The first auction of 5G spectrum will be undertaken in March, with each bidder to be given the opportunity to buy up to one gigahertz of spectrum. Telstra head of networks Nikos Katinakis says that one of the telco’s first uses for the spectrum it intends to purchase will be for 5G fixed wireless products
Australia recorded 5 new locally acquired COVID-19 infections overnight, 2 in NSW and 3 in Victoria: Australia now has 217 active local cases: 190 of these infections are in NSW: Whereas Victoria has 27 active local cases: Virus suppression is working for now. We should know within a week whether New Years Eve was a
It was all set to be a clear path into 2021 with Asian and European stock markets doing well, as Wall Street lost confidence overnight in the wake of the UK virus lockdown and uncertainty around the US election (both presidential and upcoming Georgian senate races). This should prove a big headwind for stocks today
It is hard to believe that only one month ago the NSW Government hatched a treasonous plan to reserve one-third of the state’s hotel quarantine places for international students to be flown into Australia on chartered flights and have their quarantine costs paid for by universities: The NSW government is taking a plan to national cabinet
The iron ore complex is taking it a little more easy into the new calendar year with seaborne prices and Dalian futures lifting on Monday, as firm demand in steel and positive sentiment after the New Year holiday continued: The Chinese are starting to get real about diversifying away from near total reliance on Australian
Australian universities earned over $7 billion in student fees from China in 2019, with outgoing Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Greg Craven describing the sector’s reliance on Chinese markets as being like a “drug addiction”. Craven says the big universities will have to accept that their budgets will never be as big as they were before
CoreLogic’s December housing market report, released yesterday, included the below interesting chart showing the monumental collapse in Melbourne and Sydney apartment rents following the COVID-19 induced collapse in immigration: According to CoreLogic: …weak demand and high supply has driven a sharp drop in rents. Demand for inner city unit rentals has been significantly impacted by
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: It Wasn’t Just The Pandemic: Oil’s Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Year – NPR The Work From Home Trend Is Going To Accelerate in 2021, Says Aquent CEO – Quora After golden year for precious metals, silver set to shine in 2021 – Reuters More Than 12 Million Shots
A relatively mixed first day of trading in 2021 here in Asia with Japanese stock markets pulling back as Yen surges, while the rest of the region saw good moves higher across stocks and other risk assets. The big non-suprise (?) has been epic upside volatility in Bitcoin, which launched over 10% higher to be
From CommSec: Home prices are rising across the country. In fact home prices only fell in two of the 88 regions in the past month. And over the past year all but 12 regions posted gains in home prices. The icing on the cake: data shows that in 39 of the 88 regions, home prices
You can’t keep the crypto craze down! After doubling in little over a month before the end of the year, Bitcoin has gapped 10% higher to be well above the $33000USD per coin level this morning Definitely NOT a bubble – this is the monthly chart: Meanwhile, gold is being pulled along, gapping above the
Labor’s proposed reforms to franking credits, which were taken to the 2019 federal election, were officially scrapped by leader Anthony Albanese over the weekend: Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has dumped Labor’s policy to overhaul franking credits… The Opposition Leader said the policy had distracted voters from the party’s core messages… The Coalition targeted the
The SMH’s Elizabeth Farrelly – a former Sydney Councillor – has penned another article decrying the proliferation of low quality “slum” high-rise apartments across her beloved Sydney: I love cities, especially Sydney, and especially their ancient inner cores. I support density and renewal. But not like this. Even by comparison with the seventies, this new
Two million unemployed Australians have suffered a $100 a fortnight cut to their incomes as the Coronavirus Supplement was reduced from $250 a fortnight to only $150 a fortnight from 1 January. This cut took the total JobSeeker and Coronavirus Supplement payment to $715.70 a fortnight for a single person with no children, equating to
Australia recorded only 3 new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 overnight, with another 13 cases internationally acquired in hotel quarantine: All three local cases were recorded in Victoria, with NSW thankfully recording no new local COVID cases – the first time it has done so since 15 December: NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases
The Australian Markit December Manufacturing PMI is out and it shows that Australia’s manufacturers ended 2020 on a strong note, with the PMI hovering near a three-year high and jobs growth the strongest for over two years: Key findings: Output and new orders growth continues to accelerate Jobs growth strongest for over two years as
CoreLogic’s December housing report, released today, contains interesting data showing the extent to which market housing demand is running well ahead of supply, which is helping to fuel rising prices: Low inventory levels have been a feature of the Australian housing market through 2020. Although the number of new listings surged higher through spring and
And we’re back for 2021 with risk markets really loving the Christmas/New Year break as US stocks go to new record highs, pushing up other risk assets along the way. The fly in the ointment of course was Brexit, with European and non-European bourses (aka FTSE) not having a sterling (sic) a time over the
The lockdown of Sydney’s northern beaches because of a COVID-19 outbreak is expected to have resulted in 34 million fewer hours being worked in December, according to modelling by KPMG. KPMG estimates this reduction in working hours would have inflicted a $3.2 billion hit to the economy, and would have reduced Treasury’s forecast that the
Over the Christmas break, The Australian’s Tom Dusevic published a terrific article entitled “Does the pandemic mean the end of Big Australia?”, which carefully unpicked Australia’s mass immigration ‘Big Australia’ policy, which has been in effect since the early 2000s. In this article, Dusevic describes the fault-lines in the population debate. On one side, are
The New Year is here and the speculative fest that is the iron ore complex continues to deliver, although the Tianjin spot price did waver over the Christmas break, falling more than 3% to be at its lowest since mid December: It has to be remembered that the most active iron ore futures on the
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has released household debt data for the September quarter of 2020, which reveals that the ratio of household debt to disposable income fell to 179.9% from 182.6% in the June quarter: Within this figure, the ratio of mortgage debt to household disposable income fell to 138.0% in September from
According to CoreLogic, Australian dwelling values rose another 0.89% in December at the 5-city level, with all major markets experiencing strong growth: It was the third monthly rise in a row at the 5-city level: Over Q4, dwelling values rose by 1.7% across the major capitals: The smaller major capitals drove the quarterly price growth:
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: After golden year for precious metals, silver set to shine in 2021 – Reuters Top 500 richest people in the world add 1.8 trillion dollars to their fortunes in 2020 – bitarafhaber.net These billionaires have grown their wealth by more than $1trillion since the coronavirus pandemic – Mazech Ancient
Macro & Markets After golden year for precious metals, silver set to shine in 2021 – Reuters Turbulent times for travel – Bangkok Post…a big hit… Small firms: Little engines that could save the global economy – Al Jazeera Don’t Worry About a Weak Dollar. Here’s Why. – Market Watch Why Markets Boomed in
‘Swanston St from the Bridge’ 1861, Henry Burn, National Gallery of Victoria Macro & Markets Dollar on borrowed time as U.S. twin deficits balloon – Reuters U.S. slaps tariffs on French and German wines, aircraft parts amid EU dispute – Reuters The key takeaways for global markets in 2020 – Ninefax, El-Erian Cryptocurrency going
This week we thought we might finish off the year with another big show on Australia’s favourite investment class, property. To help colour in the conversation we have brought along Bushy Martin who is a keynote speaker, all round property investment wizard and award winning author of his 2018 book, Get Invested. Link here –
Macro & Markets Past epidemics raised income inequality & hurt employment prospects of the lower educated, while scarcely affecting those with advanced degrees – VOXEU Changes to the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting panel will make the U.S. central bank even less likely to tighten monetary policy in the new year – Bloomberg Most people
‘Holiday Resort’ 1946, Jeffrey Smart, Art Gallery of South Australia Macro & Markets A historic oil price collapse, with worries headed into 2021 – Reuters China-Russia ties won’t be broken, declare Xi and Putin in signal to Biden – SCMP How China’s digital currency will thwart US dollar trap and help the world – SCMP
