There are few economies on the planet more concentrated in terms of vital services and markets than Australia. The players and actors are few and far between, be they in banking, insurance, supermarkets, the media or the aviation market. Continue reading »
Economy
Iron ore has underpinned Australia’s prosperity. Gas and coal exports are bound to fall as market countries cut their carbon emissions. Can we build our future on “green” steel? Australia’s number one export today is iron ore. In 2023, our miners shipped out around 900 million tonnes of ore worth $124 billion. This amounted to Continue reading »
The All-Ords was in a sideways trading range between early February and early August and then dived. Since then, it has not only rebounded but escaped its former range ceiling and is now trading at a record high. The next chart shows that American S&P 500 index has been on an upward trajectory all this Continue reading »
One should never feel sympathy for a politician caught in a rule-in rule-out game. Perhaps the period should be after the eighth word, but there is something spectacularly dumb about foreclosing on policy options even when they are not under active contemplation, narrowing the range of debate and allowing its terms to be set by Continue reading »
Much of the expert commentary on Australia’s monetary policy settings is guided by what is happening in other countries. However, monetary tightening can have a markedly different impact in different countries, and while Australia appears to have been more cautious, so far it seems to have managed well. A brief history of recent monetary policy Continue reading »
The chief business of the American people is business." This sentiment rings true today, particularly when examining the growing divide between business leaders and political elites regarding China. While business leaders view China as a crucial partner, political figures continue to frame the count Continue reading »
Shortly after he became Treasurer, in July 2022, Jim Chalmers announced a review of the Reserve Bank – the first since the current monetary policy arrangements were instituted in the 1990s. A lot of the recommendations from the review were not controversial and could be described as “improved housekeeping”. As Chalmers recently told journalists, the Continue reading »
Something absolutely stupefying is happening in Germany: its iconic auto company, VW, the darling of every Chancellor from Adolf Hitler to Olaf Scholz, appears to be in a death spiral. At the end of this story I’ll draw a link to the salutary lesson countries like Australia and New Zealand need to draw from the Continue reading »
Donald Trump inherited a strong economy from President Barack Obama and managed it poorly. Real GDP grew more slowly under Trump than it had under any president since World War II. He was the only president since then to preside over a fall in the number of workers with a job. In 2016, the United Continue reading »
An article published in the Medical Journal of Australia earlier this year points to increased private equity (PE) activity in Australian healthcare, conservatively estimating A$4.5 billion in acquisitions across general practice and selected specialties in 2022 alone. The paper refrains from extensive commentary on the drivers and implications of this trend. However, it points to Continue reading »