Lots of market moves in the economy this week. I have been keeping an eye on the USD/AUD as it directly impacts us.

  1. The Labor government in Australia is considering halving the Capital Gains Tax discount and restricting the Negative Gearing provisions around properties. Two good moves which would assist housing affordability by keeping investors at bay. Turns out they put those feelers out the same week that Gary Stevenson was in town (here’s his interview with ABC’s The Business).

  2. The AFR wrote about the market turmoil last weekend. Then the Citrini Research paper came out and spurred a lot of market moves. And "Ed had guest Josh Brown on the Prof G podcast to repudiate the market moves (they were moving based on a work of fiction, not fundamentals).

  3. Jack Dorsey at Block announced extensive layoffs. All told around 40% of their team, or 4,000 people, will be let go. Presumably due to a massive hiring spree during COVID when they went from 3,000 to 10,000 people in a short period of time. I worked for Jack for a short time at Twitter before returning to Australia, and his predecessor Dick Costollo before him. Jack presided over layoffs at Twitter, yet it was still an overweight team - it seemed as though there were few constraints around hiring or expenditure in 2012-2015.

  4. Finally, the US and Israel attacked Iran. Regieme change. What will that do for markets when they reopen on Monday? What will it do for the folks on the ground? Like Venezuela who takes care of things on day 2?