Westpac with the credit card tracker. The Westpac-DataX Card Tracker Index* was largely unchanged over the first two weeks of July. At 137, the latest weekly read continues to hold around the lower end of the range seen since mid-May. The quarterly growth pulse is holding in the 0.9-1.1% range that has prevailed for
Drew Hutton has been credited with co-founding the Greens with Bob Brown. Hutton was the lead Queensland Greens Senate candidate for many years and ran for the party in numerous elections. Following his retirement from parliament, he founded Lock the Gate and led a successful campaign against coal seam gas. However, on June 24, Drew
Goldman with the note. …the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs (CCFEA) meeting chaired by President Xi on July 1 called for building a “unified national market” to discourage local protectionism, as well as regulating disorderly price-cutting and excessive competition among producers. For background, the CCFEA held a meeting on the “healthy development of
Scott Maynard, managing director of electric vehicle (EV) maker Polestar in Australia, has called for an end to tax breaks for large four-wheel-drive utes. Maynard says the fringe benefits tax (FBT) concession “continues to disproportionately serve the sale of dual cab utes and not what I would consider to be a far more progressive style
We know that we are wrecking our economy with crazy high gas prices. We also know that this is a direct result of subsidising gas exports to China, which it sends back as battleships. We know that Japan resells huge quantities of cheap Aussie gas across Asia at a markup. We know that we need
Yesterday, I started paying for ChatGPT. I am not the only one. The Market Ear. Silicon smackdown: Will OpenAI ever be matched? OpenAI has become the AI industry’s dominant force, with 800M users and a $300B valuation—but the race is far from over. As Gavin Baker notes, an Apple-Grok partnership could be the strategic counter
Less than two months before Australia went to the polls for May’s federal election, the expectation was that the Coalition would achieve a shock victory, becoming the first opposition to unseat a federal government after a single term since the Great Depression. Then, as the spotlight turned to then Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, his frontbench,
The ferrous complex continues to squeeze with seasonality. Previous squeezes in the past year suggest a price cap around $110. Right where Indian exports will surge. Is there anything to it? Not really. So far, we have had excuses such as Chinese property mega-stimulus. Albo grovelling. A new dam. For example: The massive economic stimulus
Last night saw risk markets barely move on a quiet economic calendar or geopolitical catalysts with only the USD having any reactions as continued trade concerns with the Trump regime pushing for a baseline 15-20% tariff on all EU products sending King Dollar down against everything. Wall Street eked out more record highs with minimal
Australia is suffering a generational housing shortage amid historically high immigration-driven population growth and sluggish housing supply. In late 2023, the National Cabinet agreed to a new Housing Accord, which would deliver 1.2 million homes over five years, commencing on 1 July 2024. Australian dwelling approvals, commencements, and completions are currently tracking around 25% (60,000)