Blogotariat

The Victorian government’s financial troubles are widely documented. In 2023-24, the state had the nation’s highest per capita net debt and the lowest credit rating (AA). The trend growth in Victoria’s debt is equally alarming. The two leading international rating agencies, S&P and Moody’s, warned that if debt levels are not managed, Victoria’s credit rating

The post Victoria is the bankruptcy capital of Australia appeared first on MacroBusiness.

My latest piece in The Conversation is one of six looking at changes in various aspects of Australian life since the turn of the century. Most of it is a recounting of the history, but I have a few things to say at the end about the information economy

In 1998, gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield and 12 of his colleagues published a case study in one of the most highly respected medical journals, the UK’s Lancet. This paper suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine may predispose children to behavioural regression and pervasive developmental disorder (i.e. autism). Despite the small sample size of only 12 individuals, the lack of controls, and the speculative nature of the conclusions, the paper received wide publicity, and MMR vaccination rates began to drop because parents were concerned about the risk of autism after vaccination1.

The jaws are getting stupid as steel prices are in free fall. This gap is destroying steel mill profitability. They are not overstocked with ore but they’ll need to run even tighter inventories soon to cut the price of inputs. The news flow is awful. The European Union will tighten steel import quotas to reduce

The post Iron ore is going to break… appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Last night saw the Bank of England and Swiss Central Bank meetings, the latter cutting while the former is looking to ease soon as concerns over the Trump Trade War continue to mount across the financial complex. Wall Street pulled back slightly while European stocks had a broader selloff albeit still near their recent highs.

The post Macro Morning appeared first on MacroBusiness.

China (31.5% of total), the United States (13.0% of total) and India (8.1% of total) are the world’s three largest carbon emitters. In 2023, these three nations accounted for more than half (52.6%) of the world’s carbon emissions. As illustrated above, China and India are rapidly growing their emissions while the developed world is cutting

The post Should Australia abandon net zero? appeared first on MacroBusiness.

As we know, Australian industry has been dying for decades. So much so that we leading the OCED into industrial oblivion. Now, the death of Australian industry is at hand. Bloomberg. Near the Indonesian city of Surakarta, a one-time royal capital on the island of Java that’s long been known for producing elaborate fabrics, dozens

The post The death of Australian industry is at hand appeared first on MacroBusiness.

A very mixed session across Asian stock markets despite a rebound on Wall Street overnight with steady Chinese interest rates not lifting stocks in the Middle Kingdom as expected while local stocks ending up higher on the latest unemployment numberwang print. The USD is trying to fight back as it remains weak against Euro and

The post Macro Afternoon appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Billion dollar finding against Greenpeace has implications for green groups in Australia who are also being targeted by fossil fuel companies

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has cut the official cash rate by 1.75% to 3.75% over the past six months. New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.7% in the Q4 2024 quarter, following a 1.1% decrease in the Q3 2024 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ on Tuesday. The result was

The post Reserve Bank pulls economy out of recession appeared first on MacroBusiness.