Unconventional Economist

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also Chief Economist and co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.

Aussie house prices projected to rocket higher

The bulls are rushing Australia’s property market. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is forecast to cut the official cash rate by 1.0% by the end of 2025, taking it to 3.10%.

Harry Triguboff gaslights on housing crisis

For decades, billionaire Meriton founder ‘Highrise’ Harry Triguboff has persuaded politicians to implement policies favourable to his financial interests, including mass immigration.

Apartments are too expensive and take too long to build

I have frequently cautioned that state and federal government plans to blanket our cities with high-rise apartments will not help Australian housing affordability and will reduce livability.

When will Australian real wages recover?

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP) forecast that by Q2 2027, Australian real wages would be 5.9% below the Q2 2020 peak, tracking around the same level as December 2011.

Aussie inflation continues to ease

The official Q1 CPI inflation print from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that the policy-important trimmed mean inflation fell to 2.9% year-on-year to be within the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) inflation target of 2% to 3%.

Australia’s housing crisis takes ugly turn

Australia is experiencing a housing crisis because its home prices are among the highest in the world compared to incomes, we have some of the most indebted households in the world, and tenants are paying a record share of their income on rent.

Aussie mortgage holders plead for respite

Twitter (X) user Oliver in WA posted the following stunning chart showing how Australians are heavily overweight in housing (4.5 times GDP) compared to other English-speaking nations.

Australia’s lost economic decade

Alex Joiner, chief economist at IFM Investors, published the following chart showing the structural decline in private demand over the past decade, offset by the surge in public demand.

Generous subsidies can’t rescue EV sales

Australian taxpayers heavily subsidise electric vehicles (EVs). First, the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption for battery EVs and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) is estimated to cost the federal budget more than $550 million in lost tax revenue annually.

Why Labor loves high immigration

A 2022 survey by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace showed that Indian migrants overwhelmingly vote for Labor over the Coalition.

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