Blogotariat

By Harry Ottley, economist at CBA: The RBA left the cash rate on hold at 3.60% as widely expected.The post-meeting communication was not quite as hawkish as we had expected. The data flow was mixed with home price rises accelerating and building approvals improving but household spending looking a touch softer than expected. Offshore, soft

The post The economic week ahead appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The US government shutdown is inflicting “far worse” economic damage than had been estimated and could cut fourth quarter GDP growth in half, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett has warned.

The 38-day shutdown, the longest in US history, is hitting travel, hotel and construction sectors particularly hard, he told Fox Business in an interview on Friday.

The ferrous complex is buckling. Steel output cuts are so far insufficient to lift steel prices. Iron must fall much further if steel mill margins are to be restored. Weekly data from consultancy firm Mysteel showed that fewer than 40% of the 247 surveyed steel mills were profitable, a level last seen in October 2024.

The post Iron ore enters the perfect storm appeared first on MacroBusiness.

International Reading: Tesla shareholders approve Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package – CNN ‘As Ugly and Cruel As It Gets’: Trump Fights Order to Fully Fund November SNAP Benefits – Common Dreams The US national debt has just passed $38 trillion — and economists say they might never recover – News.com Tariff refunds are now

The post Weekend Reading and MB Media Appearances appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Asian equities are not doing well as markets start agitate over AI amid tonight’s looming US jobs report with the recent strength in the USD about to be tested. Continued volatility over trade wars amid the challenge to the Trump regime’s tariffs in the US Supreme Court are not helping either. The Australian dollar remains

The post Macro Afternoon appeared first on MacroBusiness.

If the Coalition stopped for a moment to look at science, ethics and technology, would it change much? A perfect time for Bowen to lob in idea of free solar for lunch.

The energy transition is not only about wind turbines and solar panels. It is also about using the most stable, abundant and local energy source available: Geothermal.

Some wind projects are having to pay up to $100 million - just to secure state planning approvals - partly because of the impact of long distance objectors, report finds.

Australians have suffered the deepest decline in real wages in recorded history. As of the June quarter of 2025, Australian real wages were tracking 6.0% below their June 2020 peak, at roughly the same level as December 2011. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released its Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP) this week, which contains

The post Australia’s real wage depression appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The US jobs market is being buffeted by a number of forces. reduced government spending; tarrif shocks to margins recouped through labour efficiencies; investment uncertainty owing to the orange madman; and AI. The BLS labour market data is still down, but Revelio has a decent correlation with the NFP (roughly 0.75%), and it just printed

The post AI job shock begins in America appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The Deloitte Investment Monitor for the September quarter is out. Releasing the latest edition of the quarterly Investment Monitor report, Deloitte Access Economics Partner and lead author, Stephen Smith, said: “The value of projects in the Investment Monitor database is just under $1.2 trillion in September, which is 7% higher than a year ago. “As

The post Infrastructure winddown exacerbates jobs bust appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Elon Musk gets his trillion dollar payday and outlines plans to have a robot army numbering tens of billions. "Everyone will want one," he says.