Well, as I write this late in the Kyoto afternoon, Donald Trump has just made a victory speech after an incredible day of election outcomes unfolding. As I wrote last week, the only moral and reasonable position for a progressive to take in this election would be to vote for Jill Stein and send a…
inflation
Today (October 30, 2024), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the latest – Consumer Price Index, Australia – for the September-quarter 2024. The data showed that the annual inflation rate rose by just 0.2 points in the quarter and has fallen to 2.9 per cent on an annual basis. The ABS also released the…
It’s Wednesday and while I usually have a few topics to discuss, today I am concentrating on the recent disruptions to shipping channels and the likely impact on inflation. I was also hoping to post a video of the recent launch of my new book with Warren Mosler in Melbourne on September 12, 2024 but…
It has been quite the week in central banking terms in Australia. We had the Federal Greens economic justice spokesperson demanding that the Federal Treasurer use the powers he has under the Reserve Bank of Australia Act 1959 and order the RBA to lower interest rates. Then we had the Treasurer playing the ‘RBA is…
It’s Wednesday and I am mostly thinking about Japan today. In just over a week’s time, I will once again head to Japan to work at Kyoto University. I will be there for several weeks and will provide regular reports as I have in previous years of what is happening there. The LDP leadership struggle…
On Tuesday (September 10, 2024), the UK House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee released their first report for the Session 2024-25 (HL Paper 5) – National debt: it’s time for tough decisions – which was the result of their decision to hold an inquiry – How sustainable is our national debt? – into whether “UK’s…
The Reserve Bank of Australia has certainly attracted headlines this last week or so starting with the claim by the Federal Treasurer that the monetary policy stance is “smashing the economy” (Source), while a past Labor Treasurer and now Labour Party National President (Wayne Swan) was much more openly critical of the RBA conduct over…
Today (August 28, 2024), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the latest – Monthly Consumer Price Index Indicator – for July 2024, which showed that the annual inflation rate has fallen from 3.8 per cent in June to 3.5 per cent in July, a significant decline which continues the downward trend. That trend has…
Today (July 31, 2024), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the latest – Consumer Price Index, Australia – for the June-quarter 2024. The data showed that the annual inflation rate continues rose by 0.2 points to 3.8 per cent but was steady over the quarter. The major factors driving the inflation at present are…
It’s Wednesday, which means a few (sometimes unrelated) items are discussed or analysed. Today, we see that real wages in 16 of the 35 OECD countries are still below the pre-pandemic levels, which tells us among other things that the inflationary pressures were not wage induced. Further, a speech yesterday by the Federal Reserve boss…