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4 December 2025
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Despite being richer, surveyed measures of happiness have been flat to falling in Australia. Some suggest we should focus less on GDP and more on broader measures of wellbeing, though there are pros and cons to that approach.
News nowadays seems to have become even more negative with constant stories of disasters, conflict, wrongdoing, grievance and loss. These risks can’t be ignored yet the history of investing suggests that pessimism doesn’t pay.
Investing is often portrayed as unapproachably complex. Can it be distilled into nine tips? An economist with 35 years of experience through numerous market cycles and events has given it a shot.
A budget windfall has allowed both more spending and lower budget deficits. But relying on nominal economic growth to reduce the deficit runs the risk that it could take a very long time to get debt levels back down.
Stockmarkets have fallen in recent weeks on the back of worries about inflation, monetary tightening, Omicron disruption and the risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. It’s too early to say markets have bottomed.
Key factors to watch in 2021 are coronavirus cases and deaths, global business conditions, unemployment, inflation, bond yields and the gap between earnings yields and the US dollar. Where are we now?
In an interview with Firstlinks, CEO Mark Freeman discusses how speculative ASX stocks have crushed blue chips this year, companies he likes now, and why he’s confident AFIC’s NTA discount will reverse.
The ASX's performance this year has again highlighted a persistent riddle facing investors – how to approach an index reliant on a few sectors and handful of stocks. Here are some ideas on how to build a durable portfolio.
Despite three years of the retirement income covenant, regulators warn a widening gap between leading and lagging super funds, with weak member insights and patchy outcomes measurement threatening retirees’ financial futures.
From soaring government deficits to the rise of network giants, equity markets are marked by persistent imbalance and rapid structural change. In this environment, opportunity favours those willing to look beyond the obvious.
OpenAI’s business appears commoditized and the model is not sustainable in the long run. If markets catch on, the company could face higher borrowing costs, or worse, and that would have major spillover effects.
‘Hyperscalers’ including Google, Meta and Microsoft are fuelling an unprecedented surge in equity and debt issuance to bankroll massive AI-driven capital expenditure. History shows this isn't without risk.
Leveraged ETFs seek to deliver some multiple of an underlying index or reference asset’s return over a day. Yet, they aren’t even delivering the target return on an average day as they’re meant to do.