Blogotariat

Australians who have been critical of AUKUS have tended to focus on Australian problems with it – it’s too dear, we have neither a nuclear industry nor a nuclear workforce, etc.

But very recent events and reported remarks by US Defence official Elbridge Colby show how much of a problem it — or at least the nuclear submarine aspect of it — is for the US.

As shown by the following chart from Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro, Australia’s recent productivity growth has been among the worst in the advanced world. Australia’s labour productivity (GDP per hour worked) has experienced virtually zero growth since 2016. Reasons for the productivity decline: I attribute Australia’s poor productivity performance to four main factors. 1)

Asian share markets are quite mixed in the first trading session of the week as concerns over the Trump regimes bullying of the EU in its “negotiations” over the looming August 1st trade deal are spilling over. The USD is losing ground against all the major currency pairs as a result with Yen also gapping

The post Macro Afternoon appeared first on MacroBusiness.

State and federally-funded program to boost the energy efficiency and performance of up to 5,000 public and community housing properties has passed the half-way mark.

The state of Victoria’s financial woes is well documented. In 2023-24, the state had the nation’s largest per capita net debt and the lowest credit rating (AA). Per capita state debt was only $3,600 in Labor’s first budget in 2015. It has since climbed to $21,900 and is projected over the budget forward estimates to

The post Welcome to Victoria: the insolvency state appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Iieeeeuuuuuu… Why use an AI when you have the Aussie PM on his knees? The CCP propaganda arm, The Global Times, is cock-a-whoop. Two issues are particularly noteworthy during Albanese’s visit to China, as they have sent a message to the world that  Australia is re-balancing its international relationships to assert its core national interests,

The post Creepy Albo turns CCP propaganda pin-up boy appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Having to deal with recent monumentally stupid management decisions in the organisation where I used to work and, until a few months ago, at which I used to volunteer, made me think about some of the stupidity I encountered from management in the past. One of these happened nearly three decades ago. Because of my particular palaeontological expertise, I was asked to be involved in a project with the Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS). They were about to begin remapping several 1:250,000 geological map sheets in the Georgina Basin. This basin is enormous and is about 330,000 sq km in size, about the size of modern Germany.

The housing crisis persists in a significant portion of the nation, and neither the Albanese government nor state governments appear to be making the necessary policy changes to tackle the housing deficit effectively. According to figures from the Albanese government’s National Housing Supply and Affordability Council (NHSAC), the housing deficit is projected to increase annually

The ferrous complex is fast hurtling into the absurd. Above $100, an abundant Indian supply will gush back into the market. And we’ve got some shorts to squeeze. Meanwhile. Pilbara killer port operations are coming to life as huge transformer-like monsters are installed. Such state-of-the-art operations risk the possibility of outperforming projected volume benchmarks. Yawnulus

Are Australians so grotesquely entitled that they’d rather jettison democracy than pay a little more for their defence of said democracy? From The Australian: Core support for the Coalition has collapsed to the lowest point in 40 years following Labor’s convincing election victory, despite poor approval ratings for Anthony Albanese’s leadership at the start of

The post Peak Labor is here appeared first on MacroBusiness.

I reported last week that Australians have become increasingly bullish on house prices, with the latest Westpac consumer sentiment index showing that house price expectations have surged to a cyclical high, coinciding with a strong rebound in the “time to buy a dwelling” index. The auction market matches the surge in expectations. Cotality reported that

The post RBA and government put a rocket under house prices appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Alan MacLeod looks at how the Swedish climate activist widened her focus to the capitalist system and Israeli genocide in Gaza and lost the attention of the corporate press.

Once the favoured child of the establishment, Greta Thunberg has been dropped by the global elite.

From Media Darling to Persona Non Grata: Greta Thunberg’s Journey