1. Get on board the climate train

The Glasgow climate conference has created an international show-and-tell that will force giant listed companies to disclose their climate-helping policies and actions. The UK this week became the first G20 country to make climate disclosure compulsory for its largest companies and Australia’s biggest accounting body, CPA Australia, has warned that if our Government and regulators do not “get on board”, then major listed companies might find themselves dumped globally, which could adversely affect their share prices.

2. Select workers enticed by pay rises exceeding 20%

The current skilled worker shortage which spreads far beyond the IT sector has seen many companies in Australia now offering 20%+ pay rises for roles such as construction managers, investment bankers, sustainability and risk specialists, lawyers and accountants. According to the AFR, “Australia’s closed international borders and a reluctance by some executives to move interstate, as well as a boom in infrastructure and construction, soaring merger and acquisition activity and a generally strong business environment have led to a surge in demand for skills”. This comes as part of the so-called Great Resignation wave, with workers demanding more flexibility in their roles like working from home arrangements and additional leave entitlements.

3. What? Raise interest rates? No way!

Experts think the Reserve Bank is afraid to raise interest rates because household debt is so big that even small increases could create a recession. And economists are right — the Reserve Bank is afraid to raise interest rates too early because many households have a lot of debt but it has backed away from its belief that the first interest rate rise would be in 2024. The economy is expected to grow strongly next year but until that actually happens, the RBA won’t raise rates. Once we’re all back at work with normal or even higher wages, then they could raise them.

4. Severe shortage of cars

If you’re trying to buy a car right now and looking for a bargain, the experts say to wait six months. The Coronavirus has created global supply chain problems and it’s so bad for cars that some buyers are paying a $10,000 delivery fee to jump the queue. The world’s sixth bigger seller of cars with brands such as Jeep, Fiat and Citroen is short 600,000 vehicles worldwide due to a shortage of semiconductor chips, of which nowadays can require up to 3,000 chips per car! Sometime next year, chipmakers in China and Taiwan will be supplying again like normal and buying a car will be easier and cheaper.

5. Latest Delta outbreak in China most widespread since the virus’ inception in Wuhan

Despite increasingly aggressive measures by Chinese authorities to suppress the rampant Delta variant which broke out at a significant scale last month, more provinces in China are fighting Covid-19 than at any time since the virus first emerged in Wuhan in 2019. “China could go much further in its bid to keep out Covid-19. More than 30,000 people were tested at Shanghai Disneyland on Sunday, with visitors kept inside the park until nearly midnight after one infected person was found to have been there. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of residents in the remote southeastern city of Ruili on the border with high-risk Myanmar have been banned from leaving for months,” Bloomberg reports.