What. A. Breakout. Hope the degens have an exit plan.

Winning as a parent? When your daughters line up in suburban Melbourne to get a one-off #KateBush album as part of Record Store Day...

Five practical ways to turbocharge competition in Australia (from for PC chairman Peter Harris) #auspol #auseco #auslaw #ausbiz afr.com/policy/economy…

AOFM reports govt debt at $926.6 billion:
Only a puny $800m borrowing next week & that is a short dated 2026 bond.
Budget in pretty good shape it would appear.
Note $35.9b April 2024 bond matures in a couple of days - reducing gross debt by that amount. Debt sub-$900b next week

Govt gross debt at a record $926.6b this week. But still may be short of what was expected to be the peak this financial year. Tipping the May budget will push back the '$1 trillion debt' Labor has been running since pre-2022 election.

For horse lovers, the ABS says there were about 2.5 million horses in the country in 1919. Has been downhill ever since to fewer than 260,000 today.

ABS has released ag data going back to the early 1800s. Here's there graphs on wheat production and sheep numbers (including our peak flock of almost 180m)...

The RBA's job is to hold inflation between 2-3% - something it's achieved just 10% of the time over the past decade. A coach with that winning ratio would have been sacked. But the bank has to continue on ... smh.com.au/politics/feder…

Having spent the weekend making quince jam (and sharing it widely), some good points on this fruit...

From Adam Tooze, who picked this out of the IMF's world economic outlook. Just how unusual Australia is when it comes to fixed rate mortgages. Only two countries with a lower share..

'Economic models bring rigour to policy. Unfortunately, they also bring mortis.'

Great line from Andy Haldane

bit.ly/4aWyN9q

I'm so glad someone has finally said it; stop hating on developers, the very people that we need to rely on in order to solve the housing crisis.
The problems lie with our broken planning system.
smh.com.au/national/hate-…

‘I’m not trying to own the past, I want us to own the future’: Chalmers attempts to escape Keating’s shadow. Piece by Shane Wright and me. smh.com.au/politics/feder…

Something a little different ... a review of Andrew Leigh new book. From ancient Babylon to the singularity (but with a gap around Carthage) ... smh.com.au/culture/books/…

There's been a lot of questionable stuff written/said about Australia's large migrant intake. Here's my take on how migrants have helped the economy - and where they're living ... theage.com.au/politics/feder…

RBA pushes out research boss as Bullock overhauls operations afr.com/policy/economy…