Jason Murphy

3 weeks ago | crikey.com.au | Jason Murphy

Most analysis in this election will focus on marginal seats. But safe seats are the backbone of our electoral system. What makes them safe? Let’s dive in!Check out these two streets. One street is from one of the most Labor-voting seats in the country. The other sits in the heart of one of the safest Liberal seats in the country. But can you even tell the difference? The two cul-de-sacs certainly look similar from the air. The houses are medium-sized, and there is a sprinkling of pools.

3 weeks ago | crikey.com.au | Jason Murphy

This election, the electoral roll is bigger than ever before. As usual, on the way to scoffing a sausage, we will fold up our ballot papers and put them in those big cardboard boxes. But when it comes time for some of those votes to be counted, they will instead be chucked out. Why? Because we can’t vote. Not properly. As the next chart shows, in the 2025 election we can expect about 5% of votes to be “informal” — they didn’t follow the rules. That equates to about a million votes headed for the bin.

1 month ago | news.com.au | Jason Murphy

Markets are collapsing. This is like one of those times where they tell you there’s a chance of minor earthquakes and then you see the entire neighbourhood collapsing into a cloud of dust. What should you do? The ASX 200 began the week by going into absolute free-fall. I gasped when I cracked open the numbers on Monday morning. The market open was catastrophic, like the darkest days of early in the pandemic, or the 2008 Global Financial Crisis when banks were going broke left and right.

1 month ago | news.com.au | Jason Murphy

COMMENTAustralia has been hit with a 10 per cent tariff as Donald Trump’s chaotic “liberation day” tries to tear down the global economy. Mr Trump held up a sign as he announced the tariff, a sign that accused Australia of putting a 10 per cent tariff on the US. Of course, under our Free Trade Agreement with the United States of America, we can do no such thing. He said tariffs were in response to running a trade surplus with America (selling them more than we buy).

1 month ago | ebi.co.uk | Jason Murphy

March Economic Background • Europe sets out defence spending plan as the U.S. pulls back its military aid • UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers the Spring Statement • Trump’s tariffs rattle global markets Source: Morningstar (Morningstar Global Markets; Bloomberg Global Aggregate) Market Review Defence Spending: A high-stakes meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump at the Oval Office on Friday 28th February took a tense turn as the two leaders...