1. As second wave infections rise again in France, Spain and the UK, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to avoid another full national lockdown. She has a three-step plan indicating that she might have learnt something from Gladys Berejiklian and what NSW is doing.

“The underlying strategy is still to keep infections low enough so that the tracing of infection chains remains possible, which is vital if schools and the economy are to remain open,” JPMorgan euro area economist Greg Fuzesi noted Tuesday and reported by CNBC. He noted that the strategy has “three elements”: A refocusing on existing hygiene and distancing rules, the test-and-trace system and an enhancement of “the hotspot strategy.”

That sounds like what our Gladys is doing, with great success.

2. Our stock market was up until Donald Trump and Joe Biden showed us how debating should be done — not! Inexplicably, our stock market sold off and media outlets argued it was a consequence of the debate. However, the Dow Jones Index spiked 329 points or 1.2% following the debate, which says a lot about the different expectations that Australians have about leaders and their debates compared to our US cousins.

3. The death of Helen Reddy should encourage Australians to check out the I Am Woman movie on Stan. It’s worth a free trial just to see how big she was in the US. Her songs were big hits and you will be surprised how many she had. But more importantly, it underlies her as one of the great entertaining performers to ever come out of the land of Oz. In an interview on the ABC, at the height of her career in the 1970s, she was asked what advice she’d give someone who aspired to achieve like her. She said “get out of Australia” and ignore those who say you will never make it!

4. They are learning down south as the SMH tells us today: “The Victorian government hastily stood down private security in the state’s remodelled hotel quarantine program yesterday and sent in police to guard people infected with coronavirus after concerns were raised about poor infection control.” It might be a case of slow learning but at least the virus-fighting team in the Victorian Government have learnt their lesson.

5. On Wall Street overnight, the three major indexes gave back some of their gains during the session after an anticipated stimulus package deal was not reached. All three still ended the day higher, with the S&P 500 rising 0.83% to 3,363.00 and the Nasdaq lifting 0.74% to 11,167.51. As noted above, the Dow Jones was also up 1.2% to 27,781.70.