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.

Donald Trump usurps Canadian election

The Trump Administration is the best thing that has happened to the incumbent Liberal government of Canada.

Australia’s housing shortage nears 300,000

Online behemoths usurp Aussie retailers

Aussie retail sales have been structurally weak, falling in per capita terms over the past two years.

Soaring insurance premiums compound cost of living pressures

The Climate Council claims that Australians are paying $30 billion more on insurance than they were a decade ago, while premiums have risen at more than twice the average rate of inflation over that time.

Ban international students from bringing their families

ABC rolls out the housing liars

The latest monthly permanent and long-term arrivals data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that 155,000 net permanent and long-term arrivals landed in Australia in January and February 2025.

EV tax lurks worsen budget deficit

Electric vehicles (EVs) are massively subsidised in Australia. First, more than $550 million of tax revenue is estimated to be lost annually due to the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption for battery EVs and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs); however, the FBT exemptions for PHEVs ended on 1 April 2025.

Another housing market joins the million dollar club

CoreLogic’s latest monthly chart pack estimated that the value of Australia’s housing stock hit a record high of $11.3 trillion in March, spread across 11.3 million dwellings.

Victoria drives into productivity slow lane

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) annual state accounts, Victoria’s per capita GDP fell by 1.2% in 2023-04 and has only risen by 10.4% since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008.

Australia’s media finds a new housing scapegoat

I have read some poor housing analyses in my time, but few are as awful as the Daily Telegraph’s Taylor Troeth, who blamed “stubborn empty nesters” for fueling NSW’s housing crisis.

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