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Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, the twenty fifth of September 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 get cracking. Story number one.

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Speaker 1: The Reserve Bank has left interest rates on hold, meaning

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Speaker 1: home loan and other lending rates will remain around twelve

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Speaker 1: year highs, and the bankers provided little optimism about rates

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Speaker 1: actually falling anytime soon.

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Speaker 2: The Reserve Bank Board met out of the past couple

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Speaker 2: of days and in short, they know the economy is slowing,

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Speaker 2: they know people are hurting, but there are still inflationary pressures,

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Speaker 2: primarily from more people coming into the country, particularly students

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Speaker 2: and tourists, and also from a tight labor market that

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Speaker 2: means anyone who wants a job can pretty much get one,

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Speaker 2: and that's putting inflationary pressure into the economy. There was

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Speaker 2: no talk of rate cuts in the official announcement, and

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Speaker 2: I hint about rate rises if necessary. Governor Michelle Bullock,

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Speaker 2: speaking of press confidence, said there was no explicit discussion

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Speaker 2: about lifting rates In the board meeting, the bank said

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Speaker 2: underlying inflation not The headline rate is the most indicative

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Speaker 2: of inflation momentum, and at three point nine percent it

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Speaker 2: is too high. The Reserve Bank doesn't see inflation returning

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Speaker 2: sustainably till target until twenty twenty six. Read between the lines,

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Speaker 2: no rate cut anytime soon.

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Speaker 1: What about the fact that other economies are cutting rates

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Speaker 1: around the world? Does this factor into discussions?

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Speaker 2: What Governor Bullock said was that other economies were different

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Speaker 2: to Australia. Many countries' official interest rates went up further

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Speaker 2: than Australia's and so the starting point for eight cuts

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Speaker 2: is higher. For example, the ossie benchmark is four point

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Speaker 2: three five percent. The US benchmark after last week's fifty

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Speaker 2: bases point cut is five percent above ours. Same deal

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Speaker 2: in the UK. While the Reserve Bank's interested in what's

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Speaker 2: happening overseas, particularly how it impacts exchange rate, ultimately it

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Speaker 2: comes down to what the Reserve Bank thinks about the

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Speaker 2: local outlook. A bullet was asked about the political furor

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Speaker 2: surrounding the Central Bank's board played a straight back to

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Speaker 2: that one same deal about the ahriable c allegations on

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Speaker 2: Woolies and carls.

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Speaker 1: Sean story number two. The federal government has called on

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Speaker 1: Australians in Lebanon to leave, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong

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Speaker 1: saying she's deeply concerned about the dramatic escalation intensions in

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Speaker 1: the Middle East.

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Speaker 2: Senator One called for an end to the hostilities and

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Speaker 2: urged Australians and dual nationals and Lebanon to leave the

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Speaker 2: country while they ken and while commercial air fights are

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Speaker 2: still entering Lebanon. The crisis is at tipping point after

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Speaker 2: a wave of Israeli air strikes yesterday morning killed nearly

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Speaker 2: five hundred people and wounded more than sixteen hundred, and

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Speaker 2: the deadly day of conflicts since the two thousand and

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Speaker 2: six Israel Hesbla war. The Israeli Defense Force launched more

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Speaker 2: than sixteen hundred strikes using cruise missiles, short range rockets

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Speaker 2: and drones. It triggered chaos and Lebanon highways out of

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Speaker 2: cities were jammed with cars as families desperately tried to

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Speaker 2: escape the devastation across southern Lebanon. Israel claims it has

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Speaker 2: evidence of Hezbela weapons being hidden inside Lebanine's homes, prompting

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Speaker 2: the attack back home.

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Speaker 1: Now for story number three from Canberra, the Prime Minister

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Speaker 1: Anthony Abernezi says it's no wonder people are angry at

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Speaker 1: Coal's and Woolworth's, and says they have a right to be.

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Speaker 2: He said customers who see a sign saying a product

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Speaker 2: is on special expects it to be cheaper, not more expensive.

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Speaker 2: The HBC has alleged that Willis in Coals misled customers

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Speaker 2: and more than two hundred products each by upping prices

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Speaker 2: and then after a short period of time, reducing them

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Speaker 2: by a lesser amount than claiming they were discounted. He

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Speaker 2: said the supermarkets will receive a bit more than a

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Speaker 2: slap on the wrist if the Australian Competition and Consumer

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Speaker 2: Commission lawsuit is successful. AHABC Chairjen cost Gadley said the

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Speaker 2: regulator will be seeking significant penalties.

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Speaker 1: Story number four. The fallout from the PwC tax scandal continues,

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Speaker 1: with revenue for the firm down eight hundred and twenty

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Speaker 1: million dollars in the year to June.

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Speaker 2: It's the worst slump on record on total revenue. Last

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Speaker 2: financial year came in at two point three five billion dollars.

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Speaker 2: PwC is now in third place in revenue terms, behind

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Speaker 2: Deloitte Australia and EY Australia. Four from Grace for the

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Speaker 2: one time market leader and market Darling for that matter.

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Speaker 2: PWC's profit fell by twenty four percent last financial year.

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Speaker 2: Average partner income was down about thirteen percent. According to

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Speaker 2: the fin Review, Average partner income at PwC is now

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Speaker 2: about seven hundred and sixty five thousand dollars at EY,

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Speaker 2: It's eight hundred and fourteen thousand dollars, six hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars at KPMG and around four hundred and

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Speaker 2: seventy thousand dollars at Deloitte. Last year's tax scandal at

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Speaker 2: PwC involved a former partner sharing with other partners confidential

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Speaker 2: details about federal tax changes designed to combat multinational tax avoidance.

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Speaker 2: Those partners then used that information to win new clients.

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Speaker 1: Last one story number five, and this one is quite remarkable.

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Speaker 1: Sean US university rankings have been released, and given that

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Speaker 1: that country houses the largest number of prestigious learning institutions,

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Speaker 1: the list is considered a bit of a bible and

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Speaker 1: significantly a potential cash wind fall for universities, So.

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Speaker 2: The US News and World Report puts Print instand at

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Speaker 2: number one, followed by MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Stanford, Yle,

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Speaker 2: than a bunch of others. What's more interesting is the

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Speaker 2: economics behind what's going on. US News hasn't printed a

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Speaker 2: magazine since twenty ten, but it just kept ranking the universities.

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Speaker 2: Our universities pay US News millions of dollars each year

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Speaker 2: in licensing fees to promote how they fared, according to

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Speaker 2: report in the New York Times. New York News insists

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Speaker 2: it's business relationships with schools do not affect rankings, and

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Speaker 2: its site attracts at least one hundred million News is

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Speaker 2: a year. The first tab on their website it's Best Colleges,

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Speaker 2: so clearly their rankings are a big attraction to students

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Speaker 2: and their parents. The rankings can be tools for narrowing

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Speaker 2: college searches. Certainly, status symbols surrounding admissions to certain schools

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Speaker 2: are made by these rankings, and they can ultimately be

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Speaker 2: worth hundreds of millions of dollars to universities over the

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Speaker 2: lifetime of students. Quite an amazing business model, though that

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Speaker 2: they don't print magazines, So just do rankings.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, there we go the top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes. Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael. It

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Speaker 1: is Wednesday, the twenty fifth of September twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 1: remembered hit follow on the podcast and if 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 wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't

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Speaker 1: forget Wednesday means there is a new episode of our

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Speaker 1: sister podcast, How Do They Afford That out today, all

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Speaker 1: about making your money work a little bit harder for you.

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Speaker 1: Today's episode is called Help. I'm an overspender and that

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Speaker 1: probably tells you everything you need to know about it.

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Speaker 1: I'll put a link in today's show notes. I'm Michael

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Speaker 1: Thompson and that was the fast fire business news by

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Speaker 1: Fear and Greed. Had a great day.