Media worth consuming – December 2024

Top Five Articles

After being absent from work for six months, a member of Congress was found living at an aged care facility.

Australia’s housing minister wants house prices to grow, rather than falling and becoming affordable for the majority.

Matt Barrie’s hour long speech ripping into Australian politicians for implementing policies that degrade Australia’s prosperity.

A small Canadian town has been fined and two staff have been forced to attend human rights training after the town didn’t fly a flag for Pride Month, even though the town doesn’t have a flag pole.

Christmas carols for economists.

Finance

Five reasons stocks have powered on in 2024. When permabears are throwing in the towel, a market top is more likely. Some financial crisis stories and reflections from a former CDO researcher. Lower interest coverage ratios and a higher proportion of PIK deals points to private corporate debt having higher default rates in the medium term.

US office vacancy rates are back to their peak levels following the Financial Crisis. After initially listing for $29 million in 2012, Michael Jordan’s Chicago mansion has just sold for $9.5 million. Extending loan terms from 30 years to 40 years does nothing to fix Australia’s lack of affordable housing.

Politics & culture

America’s mainstream media says it is now ready to return to sceptical reporting of the President after ignoring the obvious signs of Joe Biden’s mental decline for four years. ABC America’s decision to settle with Donald Trump for $15 million is generous but arguably pragmatic, protecting the network and its star journalist from a potentially embarrassing discovery process. Joe Biden has pardoned his son Hunter, claiming that his prosecution was unfair. Finnish commandos have boarded a suspected Russian shadow fleet vessel alleged to have deliberately damaged five undersea cables.

An American national spelling bee now accepts “womyn” as an acceptable spelling for “woman”. A German government minister is threatening criminal charges after a publisher promoted a parody meme which showed her holding a sign saying “I hate free speech”.

Economics & work

US government interest payments now consume 37.8% of tax receipts, a figure expected to grow as large deficits continue and the average interest rate rises. US Presidents have long “impounded” government spending they deem excessive, with Donald Trump threatening to reintroduce the practice. Ten bizarre research projects funded by the US Government.

Washington state is likely to implement a wealth tax, with wealthy residents already planning to leave, taking their taxes and investment elsewhere. Most voters want a bigger welfare state, provided they don’t have to pay for it.

After some upward revisions, US inflation indicators have pushed higher. The Swiss National Bank has reduced its overnight rate from 1.00% to 0.50%, as CPI has fallen to 0.7%. Australia’s recent miserly economic growth is being driven by population growth whilst healthier US economic growth is driven by productivity gains.

Miscellaneous

AI search engines have invented defamatory allegations, with the humans operating the search engines shutting down any searches related to the defamed individuals to avoid lawsuits. High profile American musicians likely wasted billions of taxpayer funds received from ill-conceived Covid grants.