Unconventional Economist

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also Chief Economist and co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.

The self-immolation of the Australian Greens

Bob Brown and Drew Hutton jointly founded the Australian Greens party in 1992.

Aussie household income remains in deep hole

Real per capita household disposable income is arguably the single best measure of per capita living standards.

Kiss goodbye to another rate cut

Financial markets have extinguished hopes of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) delivering a rate cut at the September monetary policy meeting. Their pessimism is warranted given the stronger-than-expected recent run of data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Australia’s GDP rebound masks deeper economic problem

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Wednesday released the national accounts for Q2 2025, which revealed stronger-than-expected growth.

Crime wave sweeps GTA Melbourne

Last week, my local WhatsApp group exploded with footage of an attempted daylight carjacking a few hundred metres from my home in Ashburton.

Welcome to Albo’s Ministry of Truth

Australia is starting to resemble 1984’s Ministry of Truth.

Australia’s population growth rebounds

Australia requires genuinely skilled migrants, not Uber drivers

This week, the Albanese government announced that the permanent migrant intake would remain at 185,000 places in 2025-26, with 132,200 places set aside for ‘skilled migrants’.

Australia will remain a productivity laggard

The following chart from Justin Fabo at Antipodean Macro shows that Australia’s productivity growth has lagged other advanced nations since 2018.

Why Australian politicians pump house prices

The 2025 federal election campaign saw both sides of politics cynically propose policies to pump homebuyer demand and prices.

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