Ransomware is so rife it’s a threat to national security
Cracking down on cryptocurrencies might ruin the risk-reward calculation for criminals. Tobias Vernon of the UK owns two small galleries that sell 20th-century ceramics and artworks. Thanks to marketing efforts, the business has almost 50,000 Instagram followers. One weekend in May, an email appeared from Instagram congratulating the business for getting a ‘blue tick’, which…
In review: Lessons from COVID-19
Among the many messages is the notable one that competence matters during emergencies but is hard to achieve. Severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, hit Taiwan hard in 2003. The virus tore through several hospitals and Heping hospital in Taipei was hastily closed, imprisoning staff and patients, after the head nurse became one of the…
Investor Signposts: Week Beginning 12 July, 2021
Australia: Jobs data is the highlight The highlight in the coming week is the June jobs data. But both consumer and producer sentiment gauges vie for attention. The week kicks-off on Monday when the Australian Institute of Petroleum (AIP) issues the weekly data on petrol prices. And Datium Insights issues the weekly update on used…
Biden is revving a US economy already enjoying a vaccine-inspired recovery
Detroit’s giant carmakers were among the US businesses tottering as the Great Recession took hold. About 2.6 million Americans lost their jobs over the four months from when the global financial crisis erupted in September 2008 until President Barack Obama assumed office at the start of 2009. The modelling of Christina Romer, Obama’s chair of…
Economic review: A hard bump ahead?
The vast arsenal of fiscal, monetary and legal measures used by Australian governments to offset the COVID-induced economic crisis have worked well. They did not prevent a recession (popularly defined as two quarters of negative GDP growth) but things could have been much worse. What is particularly interesting is that the expected consequences have not…
Risk on? Australian banks skirt unofficial home lending limits
By Rodney Maddock, Monash University Australian banks are much more heavily exposed to mortgage lending than banks in most parts of the world, which is why the latest publication of APRA data on home lending has set the hares running. The data showed 14% of the recent mortgage lending by banks has been for loans…
Intervene or wait? The RBA faces tricky path to a lower dollar
By Mark Crosby, Melbourne Business School Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens has again weighed in on the value of the Australian dollar, telling a group of economists the bank is open to the idea of intervening to bring its value down. With the Australian dollar having been plus or minus ten cents from parity…
Green hypocrites? Behaviour change in a consumerist society
By Peter Newton, Swinburne University of Technology Many Australians are happy to declare their interest in sustainability, to reducing their environmental impact. But how many of them are prepared to reduce the amount they actually consume? We recently explored whether Australian households have an “attitude-action gap” on environment and consumption. We surveyed 1200 Melbourne households,…
Stocks to watch at noon on Monday
Stocks to watch on the Australian stock exchange at noon on Monday: ADD – ARDENT LEISURE GROUP – down one cent, at $1.035 Queensland’s embattled tourism industry can ill afford a transport strike, says Premier Anna Bligh. BOW – BOW ENERGY LTD – up 1.5 cents, or 1.03 per cent, at $1.475 BOW says it…
