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The post Macro Afternoon: 10 March 2025 appeared first on MacroBusiness.

W.A. Labor has proven to be very good at getting grid batteries built, and promises big boost to household storage, but it has not been so good at wind and solar.

A less-favourable climate for clean technology capital elsewhere in the world might work to Australia's advantage, according to a director at the green bank.

Labor greybeard, Bill Kelty, has delivered the government, especially Treasurer Jim “chicken” Chalmers, a stinging slap across the face. Former trade union leader and economic trailblazer Kelty, whose work with the Hawke and Keating Labor governments helped usher in two decades of prosperity, described the reality of many Australians’ declining living standards as “political kryptonite”

China is in the flush of one last steel export surge, up 6.7% year on year for Jan/Feb. Iron ore fell sharply on supply disruptions. The balance explains the small easing in port stocks of iron ore. It also helps explain tearaway CISA steel out mid-February. But, dead ahead are the tariffs and the export

The post Tariff front running boosts iron ore market appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Australia’s labour market appears to be tremendously healthy. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) monthly labour market survey, the economy added 173,000 (3.5%) jobs in the year to January. Australia’s official unemployment rate (4.1%) is also among the lowest in the advanced world, alongside the United States. On Friday, the ABS released its

The post Taxpayers fuel Aussie jobs boom appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Ben is joined by William Bowe from the Poll Bludger to wrap up the results of yesterday’s Western Australian state election, which was a third consecutive landslide victory for Labor.

For this post I wanted to put together a bunch of my thoughts the day after the WA election. I will be recording a podcast this afternoon and I hope to get it out before the end of the day.

Firstly, let’s zoom out and look at the scale of the result.

Labor won 41 seats out of 59 at the 2017 election, alongside 18 Liberals and Nationals. The 2021 result saw Labor win 53 seats, to just six for the conservative parties.

6:57 – Bunbury is the kind of seat that would fall if the conservative parties were close to taking power, but the swing is falling a long way short. The first booth has a 17.7% swing away from Labor and 8.4% to the Liberals – the ABC thinks that’s a 2PP swing of 12.4%, which is far short of what they’d need to win.

International Reading: Elon Musk says the Post Office and Amtrak should be privatized – Business Insider Trump lifting US sanctions on Russia — a ‘huge win’ for Putin, ‘chaos’ for global economy – Kyiv Independent GOP Lawmakers Unveil Bill To ‘End The Fed’ – Daily Caller ‘Doge’s actual impact is less than $10bn’ – FT

The post Weekend Reading and media appearances appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Could Trump and Musk be seeking to end our time on Earth?

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 5th March 2025

In thinking about the war being waged against life on Earth by Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their minions, I keep bumping into a horrible suspicion. Could it be that this is not just about delivering the world to oligarchs and corporations – not just about wringing as much profit from living systems as they can? Could it be that they want to see the destruction of the habitable planet?