Justin Fabo at Macquarie Group has charted Tuesday’s weak ABS Household Spending Indicator (HSI) against household consumption in the national accounts: As shown above, the HSI is pointing to a further softening of household consumption growth when the ABS releases the September quarter national accounts on Wednesday.

You can multiply this debate 1000x across all major Aussie cities.

Simon Kuestenmacher from The Demographics Group has penned another article spruiking the benefits of a ‘Big Australia’, arguing that it will be key to the nation’s economic success in the years ahead: “In Australia we create wealth by doing four things very well: Mining, agriculture, international education and tourism.

Before last month’s interest rate hike from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Australian households were already spending a record share of their incomes on mortgage repayments: Australian households were also spending a higher share of their incomes on essentials like rents and energy following rampant inflation over recent years.

The greatest accomplishment of the Albanese Labor Government has been delivering the worst rental and homelessness crisis in living memory. The Albanese government has lifted net overseas migration to an estimated record high 500,000, driven by surging temporary migration (mostly foreign students).

The Market Ear kicks us off. The big short is now a big long From minus 200bn to plus 200bn… GS Crap is king In mid November (here), we asked ourselves rhetorically when the chase for laggards and low quality would begin.

Australia’s population growth has been off the charts this century, adding 7.6 million people. The 2023 Intergenerational Report (IGR) projected that Australia’s population will grow to 40.5 million people by 2062-63: This means that Australia’s population will have more than doubled in only 60 years.

The Victorian Government is already drowning in debt with the nation’s lowest credit rating. Victoria has the nation’s largest state debt (Source: Alex Joiner).

This is pretty weird.

ANZ with the report.

The global gas glut has returned as it was always going to.

Last night’s first session of the trading week lacked any major catalysts with stocks on both sides of the Atlantic slipping, Wall Street more so as oil prices took a dive despite some more strategic building of US reserves.

Way to go, Albo: The latest Resolve Political Monitor, conducted for this masthead by research company Resolve Strategic, found that core support for Labor was unchanged at 35% over the past month.

Over the weekend, The AFR’s John Kehoe defended the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) “straight talking”, saying that it is “needed to cut through the noise” in the “age of political spin and social media echo chambers”.

International Reads: The Federal Reserve will cut interest rates 6 times in 2024 as the economy shows clear signs of cooling down, ING says – Yahoo Mexico’s minimum wage will rise by 20% next year, to about $14.25 per day – AP News Gas prices drop more than 60 days in a row.

Asian share markets are doing poorly in the first session of the trading week despite the rebound on Wall Street on Friday night with the weekend gap providing some volatility.

This is how low things have sunk.

So says Westpac.

Australia experienced its largest-ever increase in mortgage refinances over the last three years.

Australia is experiencing a record influx of international students that is causing immense pressure on Australia’s rental market and infrastructure and is helping to drive inflation higher.

The east coast gas price remains around $8Gj: This has crashed power costs again: Further aided by strong wind: Even sticky power futures have fallen below $85MWh: A break below $85MWh would be significant.