Blogotariat

I was having breakfast with a mate this morning who had just started watching Foundation on Apple TV, and I warned him that the first series was a bit ordinary but that he should stick with it because it got so much better in the later series.

I don't know how we segued from that to Blade Runner but I think we were talking about unfilmable books. Rob told me something I’d never known. Blade Runner was not a title Ridley Scott came up with because the original Philip K Dick story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? would’ve been a box office disaster.

Markets are so fun sometimes. Iron ore is in all sorts of trouble, but traders love to push a counter-trend rally. The latest MySteel data is still down as expected. Westpac sums it beautifully. Iron ore has been incredibly stable A good example of why to stay calm has been the relative lack of volatility

The post Iron ore hands bears a gift appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Ukraine will receive its first batch of long-range missiles financed by Germany by the end of July, a top German general has said, acknowledging that Kiev’s battlefield situation is deteriorating.

In an interview with ZDF, Major General Christian Freuding, who oversees the coordination of Berlin’s military support for Kiev, said Germany is “ready to make these weapons systems available.”

On July 6, BRICS member states signed the Joint Declaration of the 17th BRICS Summit, “Strengthening Global South Cooperation for More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance”, in Rio de Janeiro.

Decvelopers of a proposed 300 MW solar project with a massive eight-hour "integrated" battery in north west Victoria seek federal environmental approval.

On June 22, 2025, South Korean presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung announced that President Lee Jae-myung would not be participating in the NATO summit scheduled for June 24–25 in The Hague. She referred to domestic priorities and the escalating uncertainty in the Middle East as reasons for the decision.  

Why Lee Jae-myung Did Not Attend the NATO Summit

Konstantin Asmolov

Everything old is new again in Australia’s parasitic media. Nothing more so than house prices as we head into another monetary policy easing cycle. The media, which largely relies on real estate revenues to exist, loves to pretend to care. These days, ABC is dedicated entirely to pretence. This small gathering of homeowners and politicians

The post Pretending to care about house prices is new again appeared first on MacroBusiness.

As summer warms Istanbul's waters, the megacity's authorities are having to battle a noxious algal bloom dubbed "sea snot".

If you are curious about the differences in methodology between myself and the usual auction data providers, there is an explanation down the page.   This weeks result brought something of a rare result to the Sydney and Melbourne auction markets. The headline sold to listed clearance rate in Sydney eclipsed that of Melbourne, with

The post Sydney booms ahead as Melbourne falls behind appeared first on MacroBusiness.

How “humour” opens the door to far right politics.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 10th July 2025

Membership of the Chinese Communist Party has just exceeded 100 million. It has long been the largest political party in world history.

When Prime Minister Albanese meets President Xi Jinping, he is not only meeting the head of the second largest economy in the world in nominal dollars, and by far the largest in purchasing power parity terms, but also the head of the biggest political party the world has ever seen. This matters.

The US has removed Syria’s al-Qaeda franchise from its list of designated terrorist organisations just days after the UK added nonviolent activist group Palestine Action to its own list of banned terrorist groups.

The Western empire will surely find ways to be even more hypocritical and ridiculous about its “terrorism” designations in the future, but at this point it’s hard to imagine how it will manage to do so.

Britain and France have unveiled a new agreement to coordinate their nuclear arsenals more closely, citing what they see as heightened “threats”to security in Europe. Moscow has called the move part of NATO’s overtly anti-Russian policy, warning it would factor the agreement into its military planning.