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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, the twenty eighth of November twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed,

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Speaker 1: where we give you the top five business stories you

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Speaker 1: need to know in just five minutes. Are Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and Good Morning, Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: Five stories, five minutes. Let's go story number one. Underlying

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Speaker 1: inflation in Australia remains stubbornly high, well above the Reserve

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Speaker 1: Banks preferred level, meaning unfortunately rate cuts are off the agenda,

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Speaker 1: at least for the time being.

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Speaker 2: Yes, the trimmed mean inflation, which is the Reserve Bank's

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Speaker 2: preferred rate, rose last month, rose from three point two

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Speaker 2: percent to three point five percent. We actually want it.

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Speaker 2: Falling price pressures are being felt across a broad range

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Speaker 2: of consumer goods and services. The headline inflation is actually

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Speaker 2: really good. It's two point one percent. The difference between

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Speaker 2: headline two point one and trimmed mean three and a

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Speaker 2: half percent is mostly the energy rebates that the federal

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Speaker 2: government is giving and in some states are giving, like Queensland.

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Speaker 2: It actually artificially lowers the real state of price rises

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Speaker 2: in the country. They're goin to win, so the Reserve

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Speaker 2: Bank basically ignores it there it's interested in this underlying

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Speaker 2: rate and that is way too high. Rents r up

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Speaker 2: sharply over the past year due to tightness in the market.

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Speaker 2: Fruit and veggie prices were also much higher. Underlying inflation

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Speaker 2: has now been above the two to three percent target

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Speaker 2: for three years, way too long. Why is that? Supply constraints,

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Speaker 2: also a persistent demand from post pandemic spending and a

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Speaker 2: strong labor market.

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Speaker 1: Sean, it looks like the economic cycle might not marry

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Speaker 1: up with the political cycle, at least if you're the

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Speaker 1: prime minister.

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Speaker 2: Very true. The election is due in the middle of

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Speaker 2: May next year. It's unlikely to happen after a rate cut,

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Speaker 2: as in a rate cut won't occurrent to l after

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Speaker 2: the next election. The Reserve Bank has said it once

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Speaker 2: two quarters of lower inflation before moving on rates, which

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Speaker 2: are at twelve year highs. Also, there's been budget analysis

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Speaker 2: from Deloit Access Economics over the past couple of days

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Speaker 2: that suggests that there's a much bigger budget deficit than

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Speaker 2: expected or then actually forecast by the government. That's not

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Speaker 2: a good thing when you're trying to get reelected. Then

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Speaker 2: there's a Trump factor. All in all, the political and

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Speaker 2: economic cycles are not lining up for Anthony Albanezy.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, story number two. The pot of gold that is

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Speaker 1: superannuation in Australia has climbed above four trillion dollars for

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Speaker 1: the first time.

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Speaker 2: Let's have a party. The Australian Financial Regulation Authority said

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Speaker 2: that tunnel assets in the September quarter we're up three

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Speaker 2: point seven percent to four point one trillion dollars. A

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Speaker 2: couple of reasons for that higher contributions. The superannuation guarantee

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Speaker 2: jumped from eleven percent to eleven and a half percent

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Speaker 2: on July one. Therefore, more money in your superfund. Also,

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Speaker 2: strong market returns both the ASEX and Wall Street are

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Speaker 2: at record levels. So four trillion dollars in total super funds,

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Speaker 2: about a quarter of that at trillion dollars, are in

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Speaker 2: self managed super funds. There's a lot of industry pressure going.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of pressure on that industry at the

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Speaker 2: moment on the back of links with the union move

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Speaker 2: and how they spend money and performance. But it's a

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Speaker 2: sector that just keeps growing still will blow the housing

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Speaker 2: market in Australia that's worth about eleven trillion dollars.

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Speaker 1: Story number three Showan Harvey Norman held its annual general

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Speaker 1: meeting yesterday and chair Jerry Harvey said Australia is heading

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Speaker 1: into a great, big black hole of government debt. He

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Speaker 1: does not mince words.

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Speaker 2: He doesn't the veteran retailer been doing it for sixty years,

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Speaker 2: that Australia will be in a much worse position in

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Speaker 2: five years time if we keep going the way we're going.

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Speaker 2: According to report in The Australian, he said rising costs

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Speaker 2: for health, the NDIS, aged care and social services would

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Speaker 2: push us into that big, great, big black hole of

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Speaker 2: government debt. He doesn't think interest rates will be significantly

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Speaker 2: lower for another twelve months. Although the Australian economy is

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Speaker 2: doing okay. Same store sales were up over the last

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Speaker 2: three months ago. He doesn't seem too worried about online retailing.

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Speaker 2: Where Harvey Norman are doing particularly well is in large

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Speaker 2: format home and lifestyle stores and communities with and I quote,

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Speaker 2: supportive economy, strategic regional planning, and efficient transport and logistics systems.

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Speaker 2: Its share price closed up three percent yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Story number four A bit of good news Sean Israeli

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Speaker 1: and Lebanese leaders have accepted a US broken ceasefire deal,

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Speaker 1: raising hopes at last of an end to the year

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Speaker 1: long hostilities between Israel's forces and HESBELA.

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Speaker 2: It came into effect at lunchtime yesterday Australian time after

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Speaker 2: it was approved by Israel's security Cabinet. It author had

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Speaker 2: to be approved by Lebanon's caretaker government. US President Joe

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Speaker 2: Biden to The deal was designed to be a permanent

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Speaker 2: cessation of hostilities. Israeli defense forces will gradually withdraw from

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Speaker 2: Lebanon over a period of sixty days, be replaced by

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Speaker 2: the Lebanese Army. HESBLA. The Lebanese militant group will be

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Speaker 2: barred from rebuilding its infrastructure in southern parts of the country.

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Speaker 2: Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong welcome the announcement, saying

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Speaker 2: she hopes it's a catalyst for a broader ceasefire.

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Speaker 1: Last one story number five, How about this? US retailer

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Speaker 1: Macy's has delayed the release of quarterly results after it

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Speaker 1: revealed an employee had hidden, but not stolen, at least

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Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty two million US dollars worth of

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Speaker 1: expenses related to customer deliveries over the past three years.

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Speaker 2: No idea, why you do this? The loane employee, who

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Speaker 2: had responsibility for small package delivery expense accounting, had intentionally

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Speaker 2: made erinus accounting a cruel entries to hide between one

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Speaker 2: hundred and thirty two and one hundred and fifty four

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Speaker 2: million US dollars of cumulative expenses over the past three

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Speaker 2: years or so, according to Macy's. Now Macy's owns its

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Speaker 2: namesake chain of department stores, along with upmarket Bloomingdale's and

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Speaker 2: the Blue Mercury cosmetics chain, hasn't had a good time

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Speaker 2: of recently, share price down twenty percent this year. According

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Speaker 2: to The Financial Times, Macy's did not disclose the name

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Speaker 2: or alleged motives of the employee. Love to know what

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Speaker 2: the motives were, Mirkael, He said, they said the person

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Speaker 2: had left the company. No surprises there. The alleged amount

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Speaker 2: concealed was a fraction of the four point three six

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Speaker 2: billion dollars in delivery expenses that the company recognized during

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Speaker 2: the period. Still, why did he do it?

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Speaker 1: That story is just bizarre. That's also a good way

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Speaker 1: to finish off. It is the top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes.

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Speaker 2: Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Thursday, the twenty eighth of November twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: Remember to hit follow on the podcast and five minutes

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Speaker 1: isn't enough. You can find our longer daily show called

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Speaker 1: Fear and Greed where if you listen to podcasts. I'm

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Speaker 1: Michael Thompson and that was the fast five Business news

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Speaker 1: by Fear and Greed. Have a great day.