July 11, 2019 Edition.
-----
President Trump is back in Washington and now threatening to round up immigrants in a range of major cities who do not have visa’s and kicking them and their family out of the US. He is also creating military parades for the 4th of July and other strange actions that are attacking the unity of the US populace. I suspect he is gradually getting worse and may struggle to keep his base together for another 18 months until the next Presidential election.
We are all waiting now to see if Boris can actually become the UK PM. It looks likely now.
In Australia ScoMo has passed his tax bill and is now working on religious freedom legislation. That will be very tricky I suspect. It would be fair to say Digital Health is on absolutely no-one’s radar, which I feel is dangerous.
-----
Major Issues.
-----
(Information Sourced from Australian Sources)
Asian century throws up the question once again of the nation’s military defence capability
- 12:00AM June 29, 2019
Can Australia defend itself? It is an old question. We have faced it before — in the uncertain years before 1914, again as the clouds gathered before 1939, and as our allies faltered in Asia in the 1960s.
But today we confront the old question in new circumstances. They are new, and indeed unprecedented, because never before has the power of the West, on which until now we have always depended for our security, faced such a serious challenge in Asia.
The West has never encountered Asian powers as rich and strong as China is today and as India will be in the decades ahead. The simple historical fact is Western powers, especially our great allies Britain and the US, have been able to dominate Asia strategically and keep Australia safe because they have been far richer, stronger and more technologically advanced than any Asian rival.
-----
The allure of simplism
Collectively, we know an awful lot, but each individual’s knowledge of the world is much sketchier and more superficial than he or she imagines.
Ian Leslie
Jun 29, 2019 — 12.00am
From 30,000 feet, Britain’s coastline has a familiar sweep and shape. Zoom closer in – to, say, the cliffs of Dover – and it becomes less easy to comprehend. All you can see is a confusing series of jagged edges; down on the beach, peering at rocks with a magnifying glass, the coastline refuses to resolve itself into a regular pattern. The closer you look, the more that comprehension eludes you.
Reality is annoying like that: at every level of examination, it raises more questions than answers. There are always details that don’t fit, exceptions to rules, consequences that can’t be predicted. That’s why humans, who famously cannot bear too much reality, have evolved a method of coping with all this complexity: we lie to ourselves about how much we understand.
In 2002, the psychologists Frank Keil and Leonid Rozenblit asked people to rate their own understanding of how zips work. The respondents answered very confidently – after all, they used zips all the time. But when asked to explain how a zip works, they failed dismally. Similar results have been obtained with respect to flush toilets, piano keys, helicopters and bicycles. It doesn’t just apply to physical objects: people have been found to overestimate their understanding of climate change, the tax system and foreign policy.
-----
Portfolio construction in defensive times
Great investing ideas and portfolio management are different skills. Both are important but the latter goes well beyond making good individual investment decisions.
Tim Mackay
Jul 1, 2019 — 11.15am
Now is a great time to review your self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) investment portfolio. Think of it like a jigsaw puzzle – you try to put the pieces in a structured order but as you move them, they bump each other.
There are two reasons you have a portfolio – to have more to spend in the future (ie, your returns are greater than inflation and after taxes) and to ensure you don’t permanently lose your capital. It’s not rocket science.
If your current asset allocation is not in line with your target asset allocation, take action.
-----
Get set for US interest rates to fall to zero
If there is no room in your portfolios for fixed income, make room. If you already own government bonds, buy more.
Vimal Gor
Jun 30, 2019 — 3.27pm
Everything (yes, everything) has a price, and in most cases higher prices drive down demand. But in rare cases when the thing in question satisfies a basic need and there are limited alternatives, higher prices can actually attract greater demand.
Economists call these things Giffen goods, and government bonds are rapidly falling into this category. There is growing concern around the role that fixed income can and will be able to play in portfolios given today’s low-yield environment.
That role is being questioned because of the belief that zero is a powerful lower bound not only on policy rates but on bond yields. However, the very fact that German bund yields are now -0.3 per cent (and people still want to own them) should be enough to challenge that belief.
-----
Newspaper group slams grim PwC print advertising decline forecasts
By Jennifer Duke
July 1, 2019 — 12.00am
A lobby group representing media companies Nine Entertainment Co, Seven West Media and News Corp has criticised grim forecasts of 20 per cent declines in newspaper advertising amid strong readership on major titles.
The PwC 2019 to 2023 Australian Entertainment & Media Outlook released in June tips a compound annual rate decline of 20 per cent in print advertising, 6.4 per cent falls in print circulation and 5.9 per cent growth in digital advertising.
Digital circulation is forecast to grow 11.4 per cent but, overall, the market is expected to decline 6.2 per cent.
"While success of subscription-based models has somewhat offset the decline in print readership, future success within news media will rely on the consolidation of brands and products, the continued introduction of more integrated content models, and new payment models," the report says.
-----
First rise in Sydney, Melbourne property prices since 2017
- July 1, 2019
Sydney and Melbourne property markets have each reported the first rise in values since their 2017 price peaks on the back of improved economic and market conditions, according to CoreLogic’s monthly data released today.
Conditions have been improving in the country’s two largest cities throughout the first half of the year as the market continues to run out of steam, with each reporting smaller month-on-month declines since January, CoreLogic’s Hedonic Home Value Index has shown.
Sydney increased 0.1 per cent for the month during June, the first rise since market peak in July 2017. Melbourne saw its first increase since November 2017, up 0.2 per cent last month.
-----
Manufacturing weakest in 3 years: survey
- By Michael Mehr
- AAP
- July 1, 2019
The pace of manufacturing contracted across the country in June, according to a survey of companies, despite government spending giving some industries a boost.
“Australia’s manufacturers reported the weakest conditions in almost three years in June,” Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox said after the release of the Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index.
The PMI fell 3.3 points to 49.4, dipping below the 50-point mark separating expansion and contraction in activity, bringing an end to 33 consecutive months of steady or positive results since August 2016.
The survey results suggested increased federal government spending was offsetting a decline in demand in the broader economy for manufacturers in the building, machinery and metals sectors.
-----
Soul destroying: What's next for savers
Jul 2, 2019 — 12.32pm
Savers with at-call cash are facing rates of return below 2 per cent if the Reserve Bank of Australia follows through as predicted with further rate cuts.
Experts say depositors could reasonably expect most banks to begin paying less than 2 per cent if the Reserve Bank delivers a third 25 basis point cut before the end of the year, with a fourth being even more damaging.
RateCity research director Sally Tindall said the outlook for savers was grim. Ms Tindall said it was useful to consider the situation in Europe after the European Central Bank cut rates from 1 per cent in 2012 to zero in 2016.
-----
PM stresses unity on religious freedom push
Jul 2, 2019 — 5.11pm
Scott Morrison has stressed the need for unity in a new push to enshrine religious freedom in Australian law, outlining a detailed consultation process for protections before Christmas.
After promising to add religious belief to Australia's suite of anti-discrimination laws during the federal election campaign, Mr Morrison told Coalition MPs in Canberra on Tuesday that a move to add new religious protections should unite Australians, not divide them.
Coalition MPs and Labor will be consulted throughout planning for the legislation, designed to make it unlawful to discriminate against anyone based on their religious beliefs or activities, or lack thereof.
-----
Interest rates slashed to record low 1 per cent
By Shane Wright and Eryk Bagshaw
Updated July 2, 2019 — 4.24pmfirst published at 2.30pm
The Reserve Bank of Australia has cut official interest rates to 1 per cent, the lowest level on record, as it tries to boost the economy enough to drive down unemployment and lift wages.
Following its monthly board meeting in Darwin, the first time it has met in the Northern Territory capital since 1968, RBA governor Philip Lowe revealed the bank would slice the cash rate by 0.25 percentage points for a second consecutive month.
It is the first back-to-back cut in interest rates since 2012.
-----
Easy money revives asset bubble fears
Jul 3, 2019 — 12.00am
The record low cash rate risks reflating asset bubbles in shares, property and more speculative investments, as central banks around the world make a forceful return to policy easing to rescue growth.
The Reserve Bank of Australia's second consecutive rate cut takes the key rate to 1 per cent. It follows interest rate reductions this year from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Malaysia and Iceland. Sweden's central bank meets on Wednesday, and the US Federal Reserve is widely expected to bow to pressure to cut in 2019.
"There is a risk we do get a melt-up in equity prices," said David Bassanese, an economist at Betashares. Central banks "are taking a risk on asset prices based on their reappraisal of where unemployment is globally".
-----
Netwealth and Hub24 smashed by rate cuts
Important ethical questions have come under the spotlight at specialist wealth platforms after the RBA cut the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 1 per cent.
Jul 3, 2019 — 12.00am
The second successive cut in the official cash rate this year has raised the prospect of thousands of account holders at two of the country’s fastest growing specialist investment platforms earning a negative net return on their cash.
This raises important ethical questions for financial advisers putting their clients on the Netwealth Group and Hub24 specialist investment platforms. It also puts the pressure on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority to investigate.
-----
Mr 1 per cent promises more to come 'if needed'
Jul 2, 2019 — 9.10pm
The Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates to a record low 1 per cent and signalled that while it could pause next month it would not back away from further cuts if the jobless rate failed to improve.
RBA governor Philip Lowe said the decision to cut rates by another 0.25 percentage points was to "help make further inroads into the spare capacity in the economy" but also expected disposable incomes to pick up with imminent tax cuts and acknowledged an improvement in the housing market.
"There has been little inroad into the spare capacity in the labour market recently, with the unemployment rate having risen slightly to 5.2 per cent," Dr Lowe said in a speech on Tuesday evening.
-----
https://www.afr.com/markets/debt-markets/nothing-feels-natural-about-this-new-normal-20190702-p523f5
Nothing feels natural about this 'new normal'
Rates will have to hit zero or thereabouts to get the federal government moving. And only then if the economy looks in danger of keeling over.
Jul 3, 2019 — 12.00am
For many years after the GFC, it looked like Australia was immune to the global malaise of low growth and even lower rates.
PIMCO in 2013 may have coined the term "the new normal" to describe this post-crisis state of the world, in which growth was sub-par and inflation somnolent. But Aussies were less worried.
After all, we had a historic mining investment boom that drove wages and growth, thanks to China implementing the largest stimulus program in history. And even as that resources boom rolled over, we enjoyed a once-in-a-generation construction boom.
-----
The Reserve Bank's message to Scott Morrison: Do your job
By Shane Wright
July 2, 2019 — 7.30pm
The Reserve Bank of Australia is at loggerheads with the freshly re-elected Morrison government over economic policy.
The move by the RBA to take official interest rates to 1 per cent, and the ongoing commentary out of Martin Place, is evidence enough of the bank's wilting patience with those in the Canberra bubble.
For the second month in a row, the Reserve Bank has slashed interest rates. The cash rate now sits at one per cent - the lowest on record.
To put in context what the Reserve Bank has done in the past six weeks, consider this.
-----
Making Australia nuclear-armed too risky: analysts
By Deborah Snow
July 2, 2019 — 11.55pm
Former Australian army chief, Peter Leahy, says the idea that Australia should consider arming itself with defensive nuclear weapons is "too risky."
And the head of the ANU's National Security College, Professor Rory Medcalf, agrees, arguing that a better hedge against a less reliable security guarantee from the United States would be for Australia to beef up its cyber power.
Both experts were responding to a new book by leading strategist Professor Hugh White, who suggests Australia should consider a debate about acquiring nuclear weapons because it can no longer rely on the US security umbrella in an era of growing assertiveness by Beijing.
-----
Music to our ears: Let's reform like it's 1983
Shane Wright
Senior economics correspondent
July 2, 2019 — 6.00pm
A great way to get a conversation started is to ask people what was the best year in popular music.
The usual offenders come up. Years such as 1969 (Woodstock, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles' Abbey Road) or 1991 (Nirvana's Nevermind, U2's Achtung, Baby, REM's Out of Mind) rightly get a run.
But 1978 is also pretty important. Springsteen came back with Darkness on the Edge of Town, Blondie released Parallel Lines, Grease (and its soundtrack) premiered, there were debuts by Midnight Oil, Devo and Dire Straits while the Sex Pistols played their last show.
More importantly, a young Kate Bush gave the world Wuthering Heights to become the first woman to top the British charts with a self-penned song. She also delivered two albums that year.
-----
Ice levels in Antarctica have reduced in a few short years.
By Agencies
AFP
After mysteriously expanding for decades, Antarctica’s sea ice cover melted by an area four times greater than France in just a few years and now stands at a record low, a new study says.
Scientists knew Antarctica was thawing at an increasing rate, like the Arctic, because of an accelerating discharge from glaciers, the rivers of ice that push up slowly against the shore, but between 1979 and 2014 they observed a phenomenon both intriguing and reassuring: the sea ice cover was expanding. From 2014 to 2017, however, “the Antarctic lost almost as much as the Arctic” over almost 40 years, NASA climatologist Claire Parkinson said, and the trend has continued since.
From a peak area of 12.8 million square kilometres, the sea ice cover receded two million square kilometres for reasons unknown.
-----
There's no scientific consensus that humanity is doomed
David Von Drehle
Jul 3, 2019 — 2.20pm
I am a big, big fan of science.
I am grateful for the scientific method. I am an admirer of scientific geniuses. I support the work of scientists past and present, and I hope more scientists will do more excellent work across an ever-widening range of discovery in the future. I value pure science, and I value applied science. I don't find scientific breakthroughs threatening; quite the contrary. I enjoy the feeling of assimilating new knowledge into my existing store.
Very pro-science, am I.
-----
Stunning bond returns may eclipse equities
Jul 4, 2019 — 4.06pm
The stunning returns from government bonds over the past year aren't over yet and the asset class is now on course to overtake equities through the remainder of the year.
Bond yields are already at record lows in many developed government bond markets, as fear over trade wars linger and central banks show every sign of relaxing monetary policy to support growth in the face of trade tensions.
The yield on the Australian 10-year government bond touched 1.290 per cent on Thursday, threatening last week's record low of 1.278 per cent. The US government 10-year bond yield traded at 1.949 per cent.
-----
The FOMO rally is on fire
That punters are scrambling to grab whatever yield they can before it disappears is another reminder that it pays to be contrarian in a one-sided market.
Jul 5, 2019 — 10.19am
The fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) rally has well and truly arrived and appears likely to intensify, which is furnishing extraordinary returns. Our central case had been that as the Reserve Bank of Australia cuts its cash rate to record lows below the core inflation rate, the search-for-yield dynamic would return with unprecedented gusto.
When the US Federal Reserve revealed in early June that it would contemplate reducing its own cash rate, this became a powerful global tailwind, reinforced by the expectation that the European Central Bank will recommence its corporate bond purchasing program (aka quantitative easing, or QE). Punters are now scrambling to grab whatever yield they can before it disappears.
It’s all rather ironic given that it seemed like every investor in the world was noticeably negative on credit spreads in the second half of 2018, with many redeeming from the sector, amplifying the move wider. It was very easy to pick up large volumes of extremely cheap corporate and financial bonds if you were brave enough to go on the bid (we reduced our portfolio weights to cash to all-time lows).
-----
Religious discrimination laws are a new culture war in the making
David Crowe
Chief political correspondent
July 4, 2019 — 11.45pm
Scott Morrison had an easy answer two years ago when asked about one of the laws his Liberal and Nationals colleagues wanted him to support in order to enshrine a personal freedom.
“I know there are a lot of people who are interested in this issue,” he said, before explaining why he was not joining them. “I know this issue doesn’t create one job, doesn’t open one business, doesn’t give anyone one extra hour. It doesn’t make housing more affordable or energy more affordable.”
The government will accept recommendations in the Ruddock review with laws that will be similar to those prohibiting other forms of discrimination, but stalls on LGBT student protections.
The issue then was freedom of speech. Morrison, as the treasurer in the Turnbull government, gave no help to those on his own side who worried that Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act made it an offence to “insult” or “offend” someone on the basis of their race.
-----
In bonds versus equities, one must be wrong
Steve Miller
Jul 4, 2019 — 4.02pm
There has been much to confound the financial market punditry so far this year. Of course, there always is. Personal experience has taught this humble pundit that much.
In any case, having issued the pundits’ caveat emptor, the element of the financial landscape that continues to confound me is the quite different perceptions of the outlook being taken by developed sovereign bond markets on the one hand, and the equity market on the other.
The former is sounding the alarm on potential recessionary conditions ahead, while the latter are a lot more relaxed about what is to come.
Of course, the simple (and at this stage seemingly accurate) answer is that the decline in yields has ameliorated any nascent equity market concern.
-----
Why 1pc rates will change everything
Record low interest rates are going to reshape not just investment portfolios but the entire financial system.
Jul 5, 2019 — 1.36pm
For many Australians, a Reserve Bank of Australia cash rate setting of one per cent is unthinkably, and dangerously, low. But for those with a global perspective, the cash rate's current setting was inevitable. That it will go even lower is probable.
Most of the developed world has been dealing with low, zero or even negative interest rates for the past five years, so it should not come as a total shock that an economy such as ours could avoid this destiny.
There are important lessons from overseas. But when they are applied to Australia's financial system and investment landscape – both dominated by the banks – it becomes apparent that a profound shift is underway.
-----
Is the world on the brink of recession?
Investors need to be realistic about the risks as well as the opportunities offered by low and falling rates.
Jul 5, 2019 — 2.45pm
Speaking this week in the British seaside town of Bournemouth, Bank of England governor Mark Carney remarked: "The markets’ faith in the power of monetary policy is notable". In just 11 words, Carney summed up how investors have responded to what he describes as an economic and monetary policy "sea change" over the past year. It also implicitly asks the question: is that faith justified?
The setting is a world economy suffering through a synchronised downturn. Since the middle of 2018, as Carney explained, the global economy has "shifted from a robust, broad-based expansion to a widespread slowdown, with the proportion of the global economy growing above trend falling from four-fifths to one-sixth".
Australia has not been immune. Average year-on-year growth of 3.1 per cent over the first half of 2018 slowed to 2.6 per cent over the second half. Growth over the year to March was 1.8 per cent.
-----
It’s getting harder to shake off that sinking feeling
- 12:00AM July 6, 2019
While visiting the US recently, I was pressed on what Australia excelled at. My answer: coffee. After suffering with Starbucks for months, I’d become keenly aware of the superior quality of our flat whites — much nicer and far cheaper.
I went on to explain the importance of iron ore and coalmining, the huge fees we charge Asian students for university education, and how financial services make up a bigger chunk of our economy than any other developed country.
And, with the highest paid political class in the world, Canberra is overflowing with talent, producing reports, inquiries and ministerial talking points with a finesse hitherto unseen.
-----
APRA bins buffer, lets lending rip
Jul 5, 2019 — 11.11am
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has removed the serviceability buffer that required banks to assess all borrowers against their capacity to repay the loan at 7 per cent.
Under the new rules, banks will merely add 250 basis points to the rate paid in order to assess whether or not the loan is suitable for the borrower.
APRA chairman Wayne Byres said it had become clear that the floor of 7 per cent was too high in the current low interest rate environment but stressed banks should remain vigilant.
-----
Why 'slowing growth' does not have to mean 'sell shares'
Don't make short-term portfolio adjustments based on second-guessing the market's response to economic news.
James Weir
Jul 6, 2019 — 12.00am
If the economy looks like it could be slowing, the usual approach by investors is that this will affect companies so it's worth pulling back exposure to shares and going a little more defensive.
It's not, however, that straightforward: it turns out stock market returns over the short term have little, if any, relationship to the most popular measures of economic activity. Even if you’re convinced the economy is going to slow down, your portfolio could still go up.
How many times have you read the headlines that the stock market seems to defy logic by going up on bad news? Trying to pin down what drives the share market in the short term, let alone get ahead of it in anticipation of good or bad economic news, turns out to be a great way to wrong-foot yourself and potentially lose money.
-----
Billions spent 'investing in the wrong stuff', social services sector responds to report
By Lisa Visentin
July 5, 2019 — 5.48pm
Leading child advocacy services say a NSW government report into the social services sector has exposed a misguided funding model that has seen billions of dollars spent on the wrong services.
The Forecasting Future Outcomes report, released by the Berejiklian government on Friday, found seven per cent of people aged under 25 will account for half of the estimated $100 billion cost of social services by the time they are 40 years old.
Julie Hourigan-Ruse, chief executive of Fams, the peak body for child advocacy in NSW, said the extensive data revealed what many in the sector had long suspected.
-----
It’s unrealistic to leave US out of the defence picture
- By Michael Shoebridge
- 12:00AM July 6, 2019
Hugh White’s new book, How to Defend Australia, shows a master storyteller at work. It’s part of a debate Australians must have, and resolve.
While the work starts that debate, its core judgments shift from possibilities to certainties, and its assumptions shift and expand without explanation. This undercuts its conclusions — including its proposals for Australia’s defence strategy and forces.
In the Indo-Pacific, along with China, India’s power will grow, as will Indonesia’s. Japan will remain a major power, with a growing willingness to use its power for regional security.
In White’s assessment, China only wants to resume “its rightful place as East Asia’s leading power”, and that “China, for all its potential strength, will not become predominant beyond East Asia and the Western Pacific, because it will be resisted by India, Russia and Europe as well as America”.
-----
Why monetary policy doesn’t work anymore
- 12:00AM July 6, 2019
It’s hard to imagine a more futile act than this week’s rate cut by the Reserve Bank, at least on its own terms.
The economy’s debt engine is rattling along at maximum speed; monetary policy can’t work anymore.
Even the RBA recognises this, calling for fiscal stimulus at the same time as it cuts, and on that score, no sooner said than done: two days after Governor Philip Lowe’s speech on the matter, the tax package was passed, delivering the equivalent of two rate cuts in tax refunds.
But that seems to be it for fiscal stimulus because this is The Year Of The Surplus. All hail the surplus.
Total Australian debt is 250 per cent of GDP, around $4.6 trillion, up from 150 per cent 20 years ago. Household debt has gone from 75 per cent of income after the last recession in 1991, and following 335 months of economic growth, to 200 per cent now, one of the highest debt-to-income ratios in the world. It’s not just us of course — global debt is $US244 trillion ($347bn), 220 per cent of world GDP. Between 1950 and 1980 it was half that.
-----
'A pox on both their houses': Senator warns of voter backlash if religious freedoms not protected
By Judith Ireland
July 6, 2019 — 8.00pm
A senior Liberal has warned both the Coalition and Labor face a voter backlash at the next election if Parliament does not legislate sweeping protections for religious believers.
NSW Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has launched a petition to pressure the Morrison government to pass a religious freedom act. She said religious Australians have been mobilised by the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2017 and the recent sacking of rugby player Israel Folau, after he expressed his religious views online.
"Ordinary people of faith are now, understandably, asking the question: if I quote my Bible, will it get me into trouble?", Senator Fierravanti-Wells said.
After the Coalition's tax cuts passed Parliament last week, religious discrimination looms as one of the next major agenda items for the federal government. Attorney-General Christian Porter began briefing government MPs on details of a new religious discrimination bill on Friday.
-----
Liberalism is 'diseased' and needs to be rescued: George Brandis
By Latika Bourke
July 7, 2019 — 12.00am
London: Liberalism has lost its way in Western Europe, is "diseased" in the United States and needs rescuing, Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom George Brandis said in an address in London.
The former attorney-general delivered the Sir Isaiah Berlin Lecture at the Latvian Embassy on Thursday, calling on liberals to "rescue the concept".
Mr Brandis said the claim made by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who told world leaders at the G20 in Osaka last week that "liberalism has become obsolete" and has "outlived its purpose" was wrong.
Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK, George Brandis, with the Latvian Ambassador Baiba Braze at the Latvian Embassy in London on Thursday.
-----
Australian auction results bounce back as lending shackles released
- 12:00AM July 7, 2019
The prospect of greater access to finance has boosted confidence, driving a lift in home auction results across Australia as buyers see that lenders ready to open up again.
Buyers have been tipped to surge into the housing market after financial regulators this week removed the shackles from lenders, allowing borrowers to boost the size of their loans.
A switch unveiled on Friday by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has given borrowers the chance to access mortgages 14 per cent larger in a move that may reignite the housing boom.
Online listings service Domain said that the national clearance rate had edged up to 64.3 per cent as 366 homes sold this week, up from the previous week when the clearance rate was at 61.8 per cent, albeit on higher volumes as 591 homes sold.
-----
Royal Commissions And The Like.
-----
Boardroom shrinks may have 'chilling effect' on deals
Jul 1, 2019 — 12.00am
One of Australia's leading mergers and acquisitions lawyers says his clients are fearful the corporate regulator's plan to put psychologists in boardroom meetings could stifle decision making and undermine confidentiality.
King & Wood Mallesons partner David Friedlander, who advises Australia's largest corporations, said many of his clients have told him the initiative will have a "chilling effect" on board discussions.
"You wouldn’t make love to your spouse with your mother-in-law in the room … Given that so much of the job of a board today is dealing with regulatory issues, how can you have a sensible discussion with a regulator in the room?" Mr Friedlander said.
The chairman of Australian Securities and Investments Commission doubled down on his plan have organisational psychologists sit in on meetings and report back to ASIC during a speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia last week.
-----
National Budget Issues.
-----
Australia worried about trade deal impact on farmers
Jun 30, 2019 — 8.00pm
Osaka: The Morrison government is scrambling to ensure Australian farmers are not hurt as trade talks between the United States and China resume after Donald Trump said Beijing had agreed to buy a "tremendous amount" of US agricultural products.
While the government joined other G20 nations in welcoming the resumption of negotiations and the withholding of further tariffs by Mr Trump, it was worried any extra purchase of US farm goods by China might be at the expense of Australian agriculture.
"We'll be watching very closely in that space,'' said Trade Minister Simon Birmingham, who attended the G20 with Scott Morrison as well as the dinner with Mr Trump on Thursday night.
-----
'You can't fly on one wing': Government told to stop relying on cheap money
By Shane Wright
June 30, 2019 — 8.30pm
World governments, including Australia, have been urged by the globe's peak banking authority to stop relying on cheap money to boost their economies, with a warning about the build-up of major financial threats from low interest rates.
Before the Reserve Bank of Australia's July board meeting on Tuesday, at which markets believe there is a 70 per cent chance official interest rates will be sliced to a record low of 1 per cent, the Bank for International Settlements has issued a global warning that easy monetary policy may not be able to deal with a slowdown in the economy.
The BIS - effectively the central bank to the world's central banks such as the RBA - used its annual overview of the global economy to say politicians had to start making difficult but necessary structural reforms to avoid the dangers created by easy money.
-----
Grattan Institute backs Labor in opposing revamped tax plan
- 12:00AM July 1, 2019
The government’s revamped tax cut plan is too costly, putting future budget surpluses in doubt, the Grattan Institute argues in a new analysis that calls on the Coalition to split the three-stage plan and delay the third phase.
As the government seeks to secure crossbench support for its tax plan, the Melbourne-based Grattan Institute has backed Labor’s call to postpone the third phase of the plan, which would see the 32.5 per cent tax rate fall to 30 per cent from 2024 and the second-top tax bracket abolished.
-----
'Is that a typo?': Australia recoils at record-low yields
Adam Haigh and Michael Heath
Jul 1, 2019 — 2.40pm
Australia is about to reach its last percentage point of interest-rate ammunition, dragging the country's economy and markets deeper into the low-yield world that's already engulfed many of its developed-world peers.
Yields on the nation's 10-year government bonds hit an all-time low 1.26 per cent last week, more than a percentage point below where they started the year.
The slide means every Australian bond -- out to the longest maturity of 2047 -- is yielding less than the bottom of the central bank's 2-3 per cent inflation target.
For a country that avoided the worst of the turmoil that followed the global financial crisis and the unprecedented quantitative easing by central banks from the US, Japan and Europe, Australia is now having to contend with a possible future inside that club.
-----
Scott Morrison wins $158b income tax cut deal
Jul 4, 2019 — 8.13am
The Morrison government will secure the first major win of this term with the passage through the Senate today of the $158 billion in income tax cuts it took to the election.
Both the Centre Alliance and Tasmanian independent Senator Jacqui Lambie confirmed they would be voting for the entire three-stage package, unamended.
Jacqui Lambie backed the tax cuts this morning.
"Yes, I will be supporting the tax cuts,'' Senator Lambie said.
-----
Australia's unique opportunity for an infrastructure revolution
John Hewson
Columnist and former Liberal opposition leader
July 4, 2019 — 12.00am
Setting aside all the hubris and exaggeration of the election rhetoric on the strength of our economy, it is fundamentally important to recognise that the Morrison government faces the near-term challenge that our economy is drifting towards a recession, in a very difficult and unpredictable global growth and trading environment, compounded by serious and mounting longer-term structural weaknesses in almost every area of public policy.
The obsession of our short-term politics, focused daily on point-scoring and blame-shifting, has essentially killed off mature, longer-term, policy leadership, development and implementation.
What if, in the near term, the tax and interest rate cuts don’t stimulate as hoped?
The RBA has indicated its willingness to do more, even pushing the cash rate to near zero, and probably quantitative easing – injecting extra liquidity into the economy. But it obviously fears this may still prove inadequate, now constantly calling on the government to use its budget and other initiatives to provide additional stimulus.
-----
Senate delivers tax cut triumph
Jul 4, 2019 — 7.21pm
The re-elected Morrison government has scored a major victory after the passage of its $158 billion income tax cut package but is on a collision course with the gas industry after promising a number of price interventions in return for the support of the Senate crossbench.
The political battle over the tax cuts could also reignite after Labor capitulated and voted for the package but then flagged going to the next election promising to revoke stage three of the package on the basis it may be unaffordable.
At a cost of $137 billion, stage three begins in 2024 and will apply a 30 per cent rate to all income between $45,000 and $200,000.
The move leaves Labor exposed to a new government campaign that it is opposed to tax cuts. Labor sources have already warned any move to repeal legislated tax cuts will be explosive internally.
-----
GFC stimulus-like bounce, and cheap TVs set to flow as $158 billion tax cut package passes Parliament
By David Crowe and Shane Wright
July 4, 2019 — 5.54pm
A consumer spending boost will fuel Australia's sluggish economy as soon as next week after the Morrison government gained Labor support for its $158 billion income tax cut, delivering payments to millions of workers on the same scale as the cash stimulus during the global financial crisis.
The package passed the Senate on Thursday night 59 votes to 9. The Coalition, Labor and four crossbenchers voted for the package while the Greens voted against. One Nation senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts abstained.
Tax refunds worth up to $1080 will now flow to about 10 million people who earned less than $126,000 in the last financial year, with 4.5 million of these workers likely to receive the full $1080, depending on their tax affairs.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison acclaimed the victory on Thursday night as a way to reward aspiration and boost the economy, while noting the government would "consider" other ways to spur growth if necessary in the half-year budget update due by December.
-----
First abolition of a tax scale in three decades as system simplified
By Shane Wright
July 5, 2019 — 12.01am
Josh Frydenberg is poised to become the first Treasurer in three decades to remove a personal income tax threshold after the successful passage of the government's tax plan through the Senate.
The government has talked up the benefits of the $158 billion tax plan for what it delivers to working Australians. But it also marks the biggest simplification of the tax system since the early 1990s.
Under the government's plan, the 37 per cent tax rate that hits incomes between $80,001 and $180,000 will be removed with the start of the 2024-25 financial year.
-----
Tax cuts: Scott Morrison says economy will stay on track
- July 5, 2019
Scott Morrison has declared his economic plan will keep the economy on track and dismissed Labor claims that the contentious stage three relief to higher income earners will force cuts to government services.
Speaking this morning after parliament passed tax cuts, the centrepiece of the government’s re-election platform, the Prime Minister said they would stimulate the economy and some commentators were at risk of “over-interpreting” Reserve Bank Governor Phillip Lowe’s calls for boosting infrastructure spending.
The tax package will hand an immediate $15 billion in cuts to lower and middle income earners.
Dr Lowe, after cutting official interest rates 0.25 points to a record low of 1 per cent, this week warned the country should “not rely on monetary policy alone’’ and urged the government to spend more on infrastructure while increasing fiscal and productivity measures.
-----
Infrastructure spending and deeming rates on Frydenberg's list
By David Crowe
July 6, 2019 — 12.00am
The Morrison government is ready to bring forward major building projects to give the economy another boost, declaring it is looking "closely" at further options after millions of workers receive a tax refund worth up to $1080 within weeks.
The government will consider the options in its budget update at the end of the year after monitoring any rise in consumer demand from the income tax cut, amid a 50 per cent surge in tax returns as workers queue to claim the cash.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age the government was also looking "closely" at helping pensioners hurt by deeming rates that assume they are earning more from their investments than they really are.
-----
Health Issues.
-----
Fake doctors to face jail time under tough new penalties
By Melissa Cunningham
July 1, 2019 — 12.11am
Bogus doctors and health practitioners caught deceiving patients face jail time for lying about their qualifications under a suite of tough penalties being rolled out as part of a national crackdown on impostors.
While a number of criminal offences already exist under the National Practitioner Regulation National Law Act for impersonating a registered health practitioner, until now those offences have not included jail terms.
Under sweeping amendments to the national law, harsh new punishments will come into effect on Monday, meaning those caught masquerading as health professionals face up to three years in prison for each offence. "It is a very gross violation of a patient's trust, it furiously threatens public safety and they deserve to feel the full force of the law," Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency chief executive Martin Fletcher said.
-----
Young doctors have broken down in front of me
By Dr Louis Izzo
July 3, 2019 — 12.11am
The training of young doctors is at a crisis point. Over the last four years I have seen suicides. I have seen severe depression. I have seen doctors virtually catatonic under the stresses they face. I have seen doctors failing to come to work because they can no longer cope. I have attempted to console doctors who are inconsolable and have broken down before me. I have seen doctors leave the branch of medicine which they love. I have seen doctors cease medicine altogether.
I am a senior obstetrician and gynaecologist with more than 35 years experience who has been active in my professional college. I have been a training supervisor and mentor to doctors over these 35 years and, as head of department in three hospitals in Sydney, I have trained at least 400 specialists. But it is only in the last few years that I have seen these severe problems.
Over this time, as the workload has increased for all, I have noticed senior staff becoming more frustrated with the inexperience of their juniors. A sense prevails that they have paid their dues and now it is time for the next generations to pay theirs. But this fails to acknowledge the new challenges of the increasingly complex modern medical environment, including rigorous governance expectations and the threat of litigation. Additionally, doctors are entering their training at an older age and are expected to juggle the punishing hours of old with family responsibilities that lay ahead of the practitioners of my era.
-----
Rates of HIV lowest in 18 years
12:00AM July 3, 2019
Australia has recorded the lowest number of HIV diagnoses since 2001, with a notable decline in new infections among gay men but still concerning rates in indigenous communities.According to data released today by the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney, there were 835 HIV diagnoses in 2018, which represents a fall of 23 per cent over five years. Among gay men, the decline was more significant at 30 per cent over the period.
The institute’s Rebecca Guy said more Australians were being tested for HIV, people living with HIV were starting treatment earlier, and there had been a promising uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs among at-risk gay and bisexual men.
The positive results come as the Australian Red Cross Blood Service considers updated advice from an expert committee on whether to ease the restrictions on gay men wishing to donate.
Any changes would still need the approval of the Therapeutic Goods Administration and governments, but the growing demand for plasma donations, in particular, may give weight to calls for restrictions to be eased.
-----
Funding deficit for children’s hospitals in Sydney
- 12:00AM July 4, 2019
Sydney’s children’s hospitals are significantly underfunded compared with other states and a major shake-up is needed to the way paediatric services in NSW are run.
A long-awaited governance review yesterday found the need for a clearer statewide strategy for paediatric services — especially for rare and high-risk interventions — rather than decisions being left to hospital executives.
The finding comes amid a vitriolic dispute over cardiac services between the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick, in the city’s east, and the rival Children’s Hospital at Westmead, in the west.
Randwick doctors voted in May to leave the network that runs the two hospitals because they said trust between the two campuses had been destroyed.
-----
Overhaul of archaic vets’ affairs system needed: Productivity Commission
- 12:00AM July 5, 2019
The nation’s $13.2 billion veterans affairs system is out of date, overly complex and requires “fundamental reform” to focus on the lifetime wellbeing of those it serves, the Productivity Commission says.
In a 930-page report tabled in parliament yesterday, the commission says the Department of Veterans Affairs-run system is poorly administered and in some respects “archaic”, placing unwarranted stress on claimants.
“It should be redesigned based on the best-practice features of contemporary workers’ compensation and social insurance schemes, while recognising the special characteristics of military service,” the report says.
“This will change the incentives in the system so more attention is paid to the prevention of injury and illness, to rehabilitation and to transition support.”
-----
Living proof of Hawke and his successors' triumph against HIV
Peter Hartcher
Political and international editor for The Sydney Morning Herald
July 6, 2019 — 12.00am
Scott Morrison on Tuesday asked his government's gathered MPs and senators to cast their minds forward three years. What would they like to be able to say they'd achieved in this term of Parliament?
A day later, Morrison, first of dozens, stood in the House to deliver tributes to Bob Hawke. Among the many Hawke government achievements that he acknowledged was this:
"'His work, along with health minister Neal Blewett, ensured Australia’s response to the AIDS epidemic was the best in the world. Tens of thousands of people are alive today because of those efforts," said Morrison.
"'His work, along with health minister Neal Blewett, ensured Australia’s response to the AIDS epidemic was the best in the world. Tens of thousands of people are alive today because of those efforts," said Morrison.
That very day, Australia's latest annual infection rates for HIV – the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS – were published. The Kirby Institute reported that 835 cases were diagnosed last year. It was a fall of 23 per cent over five years.
-----
'Jaws of death': Health insurance faces its crisis moment
By Colin Kruger
July 6, 2019 — 12.00am
“My goal is very clear, to make sure we achieve the goal of being the best health system in the world,” Health Minister Greg Hunt told the ABC's 7.30 Report on Wednesday night.
Hunt's lofty ambition was offered during a program focused on poor health care outcomes for those who cannot afford private health insurance.
Health Minister Greg Hunt tells the ABC's 7.30 that the fact that many lower income earners take out private health insurance indicates it is still a value for money proposition in the eyes of many Australians.
He added in a boast about the government's reforms in the private health insurance sector to address concerns that members are not getting a great deal either.
-----
How caps work in aged care
The limits on what you'll pay may be a relief for many, but they don't work equitably across the board.
Bina Brown Columnist
Jul 3, 2019 — 12.00am
To know that some of the seemingly enormous fees associated with aged care are capped should come as a relief to anyone despairing at the numbers involved.
It is possible you could be at home receiving government-subsidised care for 10 years before you move into residential care.
There is a lifetime cap which could be reached reasonably quickly depending on the sort of government-subsidised care you receive and pay for, as well as upper annual limits on means-tested fees.
How it works with home care
If you are single and receiving a home care package which was put in place after July 2014 and have income below $52,634, the maximum income-tested care fee you will pay is $5.12 a day or $5,506 a year.
-----
'The system will eat itself': Alarm over reliance on locums in NSW public hospitals
By Caitlin Fitzsimmons
July 7, 2019 — 12.00am
A growing number of hospital doctors are opting to work as locums for more pay and flexibility rather than take permanent staff positions, forcing hospitals to compete for short-term staff to plug vacancies, medical experts say.
Outside the greater urban area of Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, NSW Health figures reveal an average of 16.5 per cent of doctors working in the public health system are locums - medical professionals employed as contractors usually through specialist agencies.
Locum usage runs as high as 38.4 per cent of the medical workforce in Southern NSW Local Health District, near Canberra, and 22.9 per cent in the Far West district, which includes Broken Hill.
-----
International Issues.
-----
Acting on Iran has painful shades of joining the US in Iraq
Tony Walker
Columnist and award-winning foreign correspondent
June 30, 2019 — 11.23pm
Here’s a word of advice to Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Unless he wants to risk a smudge on his reputation of the sort that accompanies John Howard to this day: don’t get involved in conflict with Iran beyond limited naval engagement in a Gulf peace-keeping role.
When we read that Canberra is open to joining an international effort to ratchet up pressure on Iran "in consultation with our allies and partners", this invites disquieting questions.
If Morrison is talking about involvement in a "global coalition", as described by the hawkish US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then he might remind himself of what happened when Australia last lent itself to a so-called "Coalition of the Willing".
-----
Donald Trump crosses border, meets Kim Jong-un in North Korea
Updated June 30, 2019 — 5.33pmfirst published at 2.23pm
Seoul: US President Donald Trump has shaken hands with North Korea's Kim Jong-un at the Korean Demilitarised Zone before briefly crossing the border into North Korea.
Trump became the first US leader to meet his North Korean counterpart at the border since an armistice was signed after the Korean War 66 years ago.
Moments later Kim joined Trump to step into the South Korean side.
Trump hailed ties with Kim and invited him to the White House.
-----
Sanctions put Iran under maximum pressure
The US has deployed the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, F-22 stealth fighters and B-52
By The Economist
- 12:00AM July 1, 2019
The facility 30km northwest of the Iranian city of Natanz looks like a humdrum industrial site. Only the anti-aircraft guns hint at what goes on 8m underground.
For more than a decade Iranian scientists there have fed uranium hexafluoride into centrifuges that spin at twice the speed of sound so as to sift out uranium-235, the isotope capable of sustaining a chain reaction in a nuclear power plant or bomb.
The “raw” uranium that goes in is 0.7 per cent 235U; the stuff that comes out is 4 per cent 235U.
In 2015, as part of the nuclear deal between Iran, the permanent-five nations on the UN Security Council and Germany, Iran promised it would not enrich any uranium beyond this 4 per cent level, or hold stocks of more than 300kg of such low-enriched uranium.
-----
Trump is not the only risk-taker
If Trump and Kim keep meeting something will have to give - and it might be the US giving up protection of its Asian allies.
Andrew O'Neil
Jul 1, 2019 — 2.07pm
Donald Trump’s taste for showmanship and political theatre reached a climax on Sunday when he became the first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea.
The sight of the US Commander-in-Chief being greeted by Kim Jong-un on North Korean territory was quite a moment – even for someone like Trump who retains the genuine ability to shock.
After all, this is the same President who threatened less than two years ago to unleash “fire and fury” in response to Pyongyang’s public threats.
-----
Ivanka Trump’s G20 performance puzzles world leaders
Edward Luce
Updated Jul 1, 2019 — 3.43pm, first published at 3.41pm
The abiding image from this year’s G20 summit will not be Donald Trump sharing another chuckle with Vladimir Putin. It is the clip of his daughter, Ivanka, inserting herself into an awkward circle of world leaders.
The video, released by the French government, shows varying expressions of tortured politeness as Ms Trump intrudes on a discussion between France’s Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Theresa May, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF. Ms Lagarde, in particular, was unable to conceal her irritation.
What they were discussing is secondary. Mr Macron made a point about social justice. Mrs May replied that people notice when the economy is brought into it. Ms Trump then interrupted with a non sequitur about how the defence industry is male-dominated.
-----
A gathering that requires democratic leaders to stand side-by-side with dictators and bullies
By David Crowe
June 29, 2019 — 11.00pm
There is no comfortable way to greet a man accused of hiring assassins to drug and dismember a journalist, but Scott Morrison put on a smile at the weekend when he met Saudi prince Mohammad bin Salman.
The man who rules Saudi Arabia, known as MbS, is facing calls for a closer investigation into his role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October, but he showed no sign of that trouble at the G20 summit in Osaka.
Morrison had little choice but to offer a friendly handshake knowing he was allocated a seat next to MbS for every major session of the summit. And MbS is the host of next year's summit, which means Australia may need his help if it wants to put something on the agenda.
-----
Hong Kong is unlikely to win this war with China
By Malcolm Rifkind
July 2, 2019 — 8.00am
London: The people of Hong Kong won a great battle when they forced the Hong Kong government and Beijing to announce an indefinite suspension of the extradition bill last month. Their ability to bring 2 million Hong Kongers out on to the streets, along with the mass protests held Monday on the anniversary of the handover, have stood as a clear repudiation of Xi Jinping's assertion that democracy and human rights are a "Western" concept that will not work in Asia.
But, sadly, although Hong Kong has won the battle it is unlikely to win the war. President Xi has not only suffered his most serious setback since he came to power, he will also feel humiliated by the success that this popular revolt has, so far, enjoyed. One response would be to use yesterday's events as an excuse to clampdown on Hong Kong's long-running protests and to erode the island's special freedoms.
Hong Kong police moved into the chambers of the Legislative Council building early Tuesday morning after protesters had stormed the building, destroying pictures and spraying walls with graffiti.
-----
Global economy on knife edge as manufacturing weakens
Jul 2, 2019 — 3.59pm
The global economy is starting the new fiscal year on a knife edge, with Australia slipping into contraction and other regions similarly weak, surveys of manufacturing sentiment show.
Some economists are counting on monetary policy easing from the world's central banks - including from the Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday - and an improvement in US and China trade tensions to arrest the slump in sentiment. Others are more pessimistic, however, and have already started to slash into growth forecasts.
A Morgan Stanley-compiled global manufacturing purchasing manufacturing index fell to 49.8 in June, from 50.1 in May, which was the lowest level since February 2016, the bank's economists led by Chetan Ahya said.
"More than 80 per cent of the PMIs we track deteriorated further on the month and almost two-thirds of the manufacturing PMIs are now in contraction territory," the economists said.
-----
Trump airs concern at surge in Australian aluminium exports
By David Crowe and David Wroe
July 3, 2019 — 7.04pm
United States President Donald Trump has fired another warning shot over a surge in Australian aluminium exports to his country, reviving concerns that almost led him to impose tariffs on the products six weeks ago.
Mr Trump and his top officials raised the aluminium trade in their private dinner with Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka.
The talks highlighted the frustration in the Trump administration at the strong increase in the aluminium exports, said to have risen 350 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.
Mr Trump mentioned a "trade situation" with Australia in his public remarks at the beginning of his meeting with Mr Morrison but the concern about aluminium during the private talks was not revealed last week.
-----
Currency war threat: Trump says that the US should start manipulating the dollar
By Martin Crutsinger
July 4, 2019 — 10.24am
President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused China and Europe of playing a "big currency manipulation game." He said the United States should match that effort, a move that directly contradicts official US policy not to manipulate the dollar's value to gain trade advantages.
In a tweet, the president said if America doesn't act, the country will continue "being the dummies who sit back and politely watch as other countries continue to play their games - as they have for so many years."
Trump's own Treasury Department in May found that no country meets the criteria of being labelled a currency manipulator, although the report did put China and eight other countries on a watch list.
-----
China missile test in South China Sea 'disturbing', says Pentagon
By Idrees Ali
July 4, 2019 — 7.09am
Washington: The Pentagon said a recent Chinese missile launch in the South China Sea was "disturbing" and contrary to Chinese pledges that it would not militarise the disputed waterway.
The South China Sea is one of a growing number of flash-points in the US-China relationship, which include a trade war, US sanctions and Taiwan.
The Chinese missile frigate Yuncheng launches an anti-ship missile during a military exercise in the waters near south China's Paracel Islands last year.Credit:Xinhua/AP
China and the United States have repeatedly traded barbs in the past over what Washington says is Beijing's militarisation of the South China Sea by building military installations on artificial islands and reefs.
-----
Liberalism will endure but must be renewed
Jul 3, 2019 — 10.28am
“There is also the so-called liberal idea, which has outlived its purpose. Our western partners have admitted that some elements of the liberal idea, such as multiculturalism, are no longer tenable.”
Thus, did Vladimir Putin claim to be on the right side of history, in a remarkable interview with the Financial Times. But, as Mark Twain might have said, the report of liberalism’s death is an exaggeration. Societies based on core liberal ideas are the most successful in history. They need to be defended against their enemies.
What is “liberalism”? To answer this question, I would first ask American readers to forget what liberalism means to them: the opposite of conservatism. This is a uniquely American meaning that makes sense in the unique American context: immigrants who founded their new state on a set of liberal ideas — liberal in the European sense, in opposition to authoritarian.
-----
Standing up for Hong Kong means standing up for human rights
By Joshua Wong
July 5, 2019 — 8.00am
Hong Kong: A few days ago, my comrades marked the 22nd anniversary of Hong Kong's handover by storming into the legislature, embodying their discontent with ongoing political prosecution and the government's refusal to fully withdraw a provocative extradition bill, and - most fundamentally - with the undemocratic and inhumane government.
The protesters come from all walks of life. One young scholar removed his mask and shouted the reason why people have to occupy the chamber: "To win now or lose Hong Kong forever. If we fail, the authorities will purge dissidents and protest leaders. We are at the point of no return."
Their aims were simple: for the government to fully withdraw the extradition bill, stop defining the recent demonstrations as riots, drop all charges against protesters, hold police accountable for the use of force, and call for democratic reform.
-----
Donald Trump pays homage to American story in patriotic speech
- July 5, 2019
Donald Trump has paid homage to the story of America, honouring its heroes, pioneers and martyrs in an historic Independence Day speech dripping with patriotism in front of Washington’s Lincoln Memorial.
The president avoided any partisan political comment in the face of searing criticism from his opponents that he was politicising a traditionally bipartisan celebration by holding the July 4 spectacle in the capital.
“As we gather this evening in the joy of freedom, we remember that we all share a truly extraordinary heritage,” Mr Trump said in a speech punctuated by military flyovers and triumphant music. “Together, we are part of one of the greatest stories ever told — the story of America.”
-----
US economy adds 224,000 jobs in June
Lucia Mutikani
Jul 6, 2019 — 4.57am
Washington | US job growth rebounded strongly in June, with government payrolls surging, but persistent moderate wage gains and mounting evidence the economy was losing momentum could still encourage the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this month.
The Labor Department's closely watched employment report on Friday suggested May's sharp slowdown in hiring was probably a fluke. Lack of concrete progress in resolving an acrimonious trade war between the United States and China, however, means the bar could be very high for the Fed not to lower borrowing costs at its July 30-31 policy meeting.
But the strong pace of job gains reduced the chances of a half percentage point rate cut at the end of the month. The US central bank in June signalled it could ease monetary policy as early as this month citing low inflation and growing risks to the economy from an escalation in trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
-----
Lagarde to inherit an ailing eurozone and an unhappy Trump
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
July 4, 2019 — 12.15am
After some intense horse-trading, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde has been anointed Mario Draghi’s successor as president of the European Central Bank. That signals a continuity of European monetary policy that won’t please Donald Trump.
Lagarde was somewhat of a surprising choice to lead the ECB, having previously said she wasn’t interested in any of the senior eurozone roles, including the ECB presidency. She would also be, not just the first woman to head the ECB, but the first non-economist and the first without any central banking experience.
Once German defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen won the coveted presidency of the European Commission, however, the next most senior position available, the ECB presidency, was always going to be nominated by the other major European power, France.
Lagarde, a former French finance minister widely respected for her eight-year leadership of the IMF, was sponsored by French President Emmanuel Macron.
-----
I look forward to comments on all this!
-----
David.
No comments:
Post a Comment