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…
Unsustainable markets the new abnormal
Ferris Bueller would be proud. The RBA’s day off set the cat amongst the pigeons. That free market interest rate pricing bore no resemblance to the market price should have been obvious. It did not stop those accustomed to turning up at the auction every day to sell their overpriced bonds to an overly enthusiastic…
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…
Will Australia see a volatile recovery?
The rotation to an economic recovery favouring value stocks continues but risks loom on the horizon. Perpetual’s Head of Equities, Paul Skamvougeras, looks at the lessons learnt from reporting season and the trends he expects to see as NSW and Victoria reopen. A strong August reporting season for our portfolios vindicated many of our positions….
Understanding the global energy crisis
Far from emerging from the COVID shock awash with fuel, as might be expected after an economic slowdown, the world is entering a new energy crisis the like of which hasn’t been seen since the 1970s. European and Asian gas prices are at an all-time high, the oil price is at a three-year high, and…
Aussie businesses cheer reopening roadmaps
Aussie businesses cheer reopening roadmaps NAB Business survey; New home sales; Labour force status of families The business confidence index rose from -5.5 points to +13.0 points. Sales of new detached houses rose by 2.3 per cent in September. The proportion of families with dependents has fallen sharply over the last five years. National Australia…
Payroll jobs below pre-pandemic levels.
Payroll jobs below pre-pandemic levels. Weekly payroll jobs and wages; Services sector activity National payroll jobs fell by 0.7 per cent over the fortnight to September 11, 2021. The AiGroup Performance of Services Index (PSI) rose from 45.6 in August to 45.7 in September. Weekly payrolls – Fortnight ended September 11, 2021 • Overall assessment:…
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…
Flexible RBA. Consumer confidence hits 9-week high
Flexible RBA. Consumer confidence hits 9-week high RBA Board meeting minutes; Consumer confidence; CBA Household spending intentions What happened? The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Board released the minutes of its September 7 meeting. At the meeting, the Board decided to taper its bond purchases from $5 billion to $4 billion per week until at…
Retirement: How to beat inflation
Investors with long memories – or a good education – will recall the bad old days when inflation was the economic bogeyman. It broke Germany’s Weimar Republic in the 1930s and nearly cratered America’s economy in the 1970s. Fortunately, inflation has been a non-issue in Western economies for decades. But is that about to change?…
