Breakfast briefing: A big China puzzle

US Fed minutes show expected divisions, likely 2026 rate cuts; regional surveys negative; Korean data dips; China moves on local support; UST 10yr at 4.13%; precious metals recover some; oil stays low; AU$1 = 67 USc

What if we taxed what people spend, not what they earn?

Thinking outside the box: Marcelo Santos suggests replacing the progressive income tax with a progressive consumption tax could bring a range of extra benefits, especially if multi-year averaging was adopted too

Will US Dollar dominance survive digital money?

Silvia Sgherri thinks the US needs to help build an open, interoperable, standards-based monetary order for the 21st century

Four hidden financial habits that strengthen relationships

Lynda Moore finds a subtler side to money in relationships, the unspoken habits, the little interactions, and the ways we emotionally connect (or disconnect) around finances. If nurtured, these can strengthen your relationship and reduce money stress

Rogue hegemons are sabotaging the global economy

Arvind Subramanian explains how both the United States and China are making life harder for developing countries

A special opportunity

interest.com.au needs an experienced, business or economics journalist to cover the Australian economy

The AI diffusion challenge

Michael Spence points out that the returns on today's investments depend on economy-wide adoption, not frontier development

Expect turbulent asset markets in 2026

Kenneth Rogoff highlights the risks created by policy uncertainty, geopolitical instability, and weak fundamentals

Is gold's appeal fading on rising volatility?

Gold's volatility rose in 2025 but from a low base, back to normal levels. Despite the rise, adding gold to a diversified portfolio continues to help reduce overall risk

Regulators act on risk management deficiencies at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank

APRA says is is worried about significant gaps in the risk management at Bendigo Bank that need to be addressed urgently. It has imposed additional risk capital until they are resolved

More banks move to stay in touch with Macbank

Two more banks have raised term deposit rates as they come under competitive pressure. They have starkly different approaches to the challenge

Fixed home loan rates are on the move - up

Westpac is the latest, and largest bank to raised fixed mortgage rates and by as much as +35 bps. They follow a slew of challenger banks. Despite that a fixed rate loan retains some clear advantages

Commbank tries to stay in touch

Our largest bank is front-footing Macquarie's household deposit challenge with yet another hike in their term deposit rate offers

Competition for one year term deposits is heating up

Even though most of the top ten banks have raised their interest rate offers, and two more have now just done so, most are struggling to defend the raid on household deposits by Macbank

For Macbank, the only direction is 'up'

Macquarie raises its fixed home loan rates across the board, with some increases quite large. This comes after aggressive rate offers to savers

Macbank keeps pressure on its rivals with a new market-leading one year TD rate

Moving fast, Macquarie extends its appeal to household savers, adding a new very competitive term deposit rate to an already competitive savings rate set

Teaching their rivals a lesson, some of them an increasingly painful one

Macquarie Bank has gained an extra $19 bln in household deposits over and above the market growth of +10.5%. And no rival seems to be able to do anything about their momentum