Talking Business with Leon Gettler

Elon Musk says he may not purchase Twitter after all and blames the number of spam and fake accounts. Time for Twitter to CANCEL the deal? World Bank warns global economy may suffer 1970s-style stagflation With the Reserve Bank of Australia raising interest rates to 0.85%, the futures market has a 3.5% rate priced in by mid-2023. Losses through investment scams have risen sharply so far this year...

AGL has abandoned its plan to demerge its coal-fired power assets and lost its leadership. The outcome is a victory of major shareholder Mike Cannon-Brookes and all opponents of a slower decarbonisation path for the company.   Opposition leader Peter Dutton has lashed Australia’s top corporate executives for siding with Labor and other parties Crown Casino fined $80 million for 'deliberate' i...

Employers urge the Albanese government to use its upcoming jobs summit to restore the Hawke-Keating enterprise bargaining system to boost productivity.   World Economic Forum in Davos is told Russia’s war in Ukraine will unleash “the worst food crisis in recent memory” across vast swathes of the developing world, with the potential to create “hell on earth” for some countries.   Van Eck...

      Whoever wins Saturday’s federal election will face months of rising interest rates and growing household cost of living pressures, with the Reserve Bank of Australia making clear more rate rises are on the way   Goldman Sachs chairman warns risk of US recession is 'very, very high'   Coalition costings: $3.3bn in public service cuts to fund election pledges wort...

Stocks globally are tumbling as renewed worries about China’s economy pile on top of markets already battered by rising interest rates, inflation and the Ukraine war.     A survey has found Australians were struggling even before the Reserve Bank of Australia rate rise.   The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is now calling for a minimum wage increase to be lifted to 5.5%, r...

  Morrison’s re-election suddenly looks much worse with RA raising its official cash rate t9 .35%, the first increase to rates in over a decade.   The Chinese slowdown will weigh on the world’s economy.    One in 25 properties in Australia will be effectively uninsurable by 2030 due to worsening extreme weather caused by climate change, according to a study released by the Clim...

 Elon Musk is Twitter's new owner and some major changes could be on the horizon. Netflix has cancelled multiple TV shows and films after suffering a recent loss of subscribers. Interest rate rises are on the cards from May 3 when the RBA meets after Australia’s inflation soared to a higher than expected 5.1% Australia’s Coalition government is up to a year behind delivering almost...

 Russia is ambling toward a major default on its foreign debt, a grim milestone that it has not seen since the Bolshevik Revolution more than a century ago World Bank and IMF cut their global growth forecast citing the war in Ukraine. World Bank cuts growth estimate by 90 basis points to 3.2% while IMF cuts the global forecast by 80 basis points to 3.6%. Market economists strengthen expectati...

 US inflation just hit 8.5% - the highest since the 70s-80s. Blows out anything from the war on terror Australians are googling "inflation" like it's 2008 Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party has spent nearly $3.5 million on advertising in April as it continues to outpace its political rivals. An overwhelming majority of leading Australian economists say climate change and environmental poli...

Soaring food and fuel prices are starting to rattle governments around the world, showing the widespread political consequences of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.  Over 1,000 major investors believe a worldwide recession is just around the corner, a definitive survey says. The world’s richest man Elon Musk is appointed as a director of Twitter, sparking speculation Mus...

An analysis of Scott Morrison’s vote-buying budget. Rising bond yields mean the multibillion-dollar interest bill on Australia’s $1 trillion debt will jump by nearly 50% to $26.3 billion. CoreLogic warns $25 billion worth of Australian residential property is at risk due to increasing storm surges and coastal erosion. Inflation expectations continued to surge, according to the latest ANZ-Roy Morga...

  Russia’s Ukraine war and the looming global food crisis   Australian consumer confidence has plummeted 4.8% with continued rapid increases in petrol prices seeing inflation expectations rise to 6.0%' The strength of Australia’s post-pandemic economic recovery will bring a $30 billion improvement to the budget bottom line this year, but whoever wins the federal election in May will face...

Vladimir Putin has set the clock ticking for possible defaults on about $150 billion in debt as the Russian economy slumps and its currency collapses under the pressure of sanctions, including on its foreign-currency reserves  Petrol prices across Australia continue to rise after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed crude oil prices to an eight-year high. Spikes in fuel prices have fed into an...

With the US and the UK banning oil, Moscow warns that the price of oil may reach $300 a barrel in the event of a ban on Russian exports.   Economists are increasingly warning of a possible bout of stagflation, particularly in Europe, a situation of high inflation and low growth that afflicted major economies during the 1970s   Brookfield and Mike Cannon-Brookes are still pursuing ambitio...

After S&P Global downgraded Russia’s credit rating to “junk” status, Russian bonds collapsed with investors bracing themselves for the possibility that the latest round of western sanctions on Russia could push Moscow to default on its debt for the first time since 1998. Coles and Dan Murphy’s have joined a boycott of Russian vodka as liquor retailers across Melbourne ditch the drink in a show...

Global stock markets tumbled and crude oil prices surged to $99 per barrel on Tuesday after Russia ordered troops into parts of eastern Ukraine. Investors have shunned cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin as tensions between Russia and Ukraine have escalated, and are instead seeking refuge in the more traditional safe haven of gold. Australia is welcoming travellers as the country reopens its borders...

  Australia Post has defended paying its top executives bonuses averaging more than $160,000, more than a few Cartier watches. Supply shortages have hit super funds, sending them down 2.1%. Westpac warns house prices will fall 14% over 2023 and 2024. Australia's Crown Resorts backs $8.9 bln Blackstone bid, ending Packer era. Gladys Berejiklian is gifted an Optus executive position Follow...

Facebook lost another case. This time against the Australian Information Commissioner over Cambridge Analytica in the full Federal Court. Australia's property prices to fall by 10% in 2023, warns NAB Taxpayers have been paying more than $10,000 a month for George Christensen’s “e-material” in the same period that he racked up an $85,000 Facebook advertising bill for issues including vaccine discri...

Spotify’s market capitalization fell about $2.1 billion over a three-day span this week, coming after folk rocker Neil Young yanked his songs from the audio-streaming giant to protest Joe Rogan’s misinformation-spreading podcast. More than a quarter of female workers at Rio Tinto Group have experienced sexual harassment and almost half of all staff have been victims of bullying, according to a new...

Australian Taxpayers are paying at least $59m for major government advertising campaigns to run in the lead-up to the 2022 election Australian government launches review into who can call themselves a cosmetic surgeon Victoria to become home to Moderna mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility.   Top litigator Gina Cass-Gottlieb has become the first woman to head up the ACCC.  CSL puts $16.4b...

The Reserve Bank and Treasury are considering the feasibility of a central digital currency, under ­reforms aimed at establishing a regulated onshore cryptocurrency industry While other arts sectors have been struggling, the value of film and television production surged to a record $1.9 billion last financial year as Australia became one of the world’s safest places to shoot during the pandemic....

The Omicron variant of COVID-19 adds new measures of uncertainty to the outlook for the global economy,  Westpac admits to charging 11,000 dead customers, ASIC sues for 'widespread' breaches Australia Post is doing festive season parcel runs with the first of 20 electric trucks joining its national fleet, as it edges towards carbon-neutral deliveries With budget moved forward to March 29...

Across financial markets, uncertainty surrounding the COVD-19 pandemic has led to a spike in volatility, dragging equities into bear market territory. Business owners are being told they should set their own rules on whether customers and staff have to be vaccinated, in a message from Prime Minister Scott Morrison that takes on state premiers amid uproar in federal Parliament over vaccine mandates...

Across financial markets, uncertainty surrounding the COVD-19 pandemic has led to a spike in volatility, dragging equities into bear market territory. Business owners are being told they should set their own rules on whether customers and staff have to be vaccinated, in a message from Prime Minister Scott Morrison that takes on state premiers amid uproar in federal Parliament over vaccine mandates...

Scott Morrison declares coal will be used for decades to come, dismissing Boris Johnson’s claim that the COP26 climate summit has sounded a death knell on coal. CEO behaving badly…Chapter XXX. Oil Search sued for bullying female CFO out of a job. Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s warning that interest rates could be higher without the Coalition in power hosed down by Reserve Bank of Australia govern...