Healthcare’s Role in the Fight Against Climate Change
With a long-term approach to sustainability, hospitals and healthcare systems can help create a healthier planet—and healthier people. Extreme weather events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, blizzards, droughts and wildfires can wreak havoc on the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. The resulting power outages, emergency evacuations, transportation disruptions…
Australia’s strange W-shaped recovery
The Reserve Bank has used Friday’s quarterly assessment of the economy to declare that lockdowns have “delayed but not derailed” Australia’s recovery. It says economic activity probably contracted 2.5% in the three months to September, but the December quarter (the one we are in now) will regain most of what was lost, leaving the economy…
Reaching for yield into corporate debt takes on a risky hue
Broader financial instability can’t be ruled out. William White, a Canadian, became the top economist at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) over a 14-year career to 2008 at the bank owned by central banks. Among those who heard of him, White became known as “the man no one wanted to hear”. From 2003, in…
Has a bear case emerged?
Even though factors such as supply chain issues have caused a slowdown, we still see room to grow in this expansion. I’m an optimist, so I like to get the bad news out of the way first. Global stocks just had their worst month in a year. Companies such as Sherwin-Williams, Micron and Bed Bath…
Vital Signs: the Greens’ super-profits tax idea
Earlier this year, the Australian Greens proposed a wealth tax on billionaires straight out of the (former US presidential candidate) Elizabeth Warren playbook. This week it added what it called a “tycoon tax” that would tax so-called super-profits made by companies with annual turnovers of more than A$100 million. It might not be the winner…
Why Coles and Woolworths are using robot warehouses
As lockdowns continue across Australia, many households are doing something they may not have considered just 18 months ago: ordering groceries online. Australia’s supermarket duopoly, Coles and Woolworths, have raced to implement new technology and transform labour arrangements to keep up with the e-grocery boom. Both are investing in “smart” warehousing and distribution systems with…
Lessons learned over the past 12 months
As we head into the new financial year, we feel really excited by the stocks and exposures we have in both the long and short book. However, if FY21 has taught us anything it is to keep an open mind and learn from where we got things wrong. After contributing 270bps of alpha for the…
Global growth weighted in favour of emerging markets
With emerging markets set to make up more than 62 per cent of world GDP by next year – up from 54 per cent – now is perhaps the time to seriously look at including an emerging market exchange traded fund in your portfolio. Rachel White, head of product management for Vanguard Australia, says there…
Predicting the future: Astrologers or economists?
If you ask most people what economists do, they might tell you it has something to do with money. Or perhaps forecasting what the economy will look like a year from now. Most of the other comparisons would be less charitable. I’ve heard plenty that can’t be printed. The reality is very different. For example,…
Electric vehicles are the next revolution in automobiles
But problems need to be overcome to hasten the switch and cement the climate benefits. For Formula E motorsport, the 2020-21 racing season was transformational. Seven years after electric single-seaters first raced, Formula E gained the elevated ‘championship’ status enjoyed by Formula 1, World Endurance, World Rally and World Rallycross. Then came the embarrassment, the…
