1. Are Albo & Chalmers breaking the tax cuts promise?

The Albanese Government has U-turned on breaking a promise on tax cuts in the upcoming October 25 Budget. Last week we heard that Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers was bowing to pressure from the unions, the Greens and the left of his own Labor party to ditch Coalition- promised tax cuts that favoured higher income Australians. Now the Prime Minister says his pre-election promise to honour the tax cuts hasn’t changed, while others think he’s simply deferring the decision. Time and the health of the economy will tell.

2. Our market set to drop this week

After a great week for stocks last week, local investors are bracing for another big sell-off. And we can blame the irrepressible positivity of Americans, who despite one half-a-percent and three three-quarter percent interest rate rises this year, haven’t been scared into an economic slowdown. On Friday, unemployment fell from 3.7% to 3.5% and jobs created were 263,000 in September and the US stock market slumped 2.8%. Our market will play follow the leader today.

3. Will next US inflation number stop our stocks falling?

Is there anything this week that might pull stocks out of this virtual death spiral? Yes, and it happens on Thursday when the Yanks get their latest inflation number. If it’s a 7% number, stocks could rise. But if it’s higher or around the August reading of 8.3%, stocks will dive. Inflation is driving the US central bank to raise interest rates and rising rates KO stock prices.

4. Governments spend more on ads than Maccas!

That’s the Grattan Institute’s and the AFR’s calculation and it says of the $200 million spent by the Federal Government each year, about 25% or $50 million is for “overtly politicised campaigns. According to the AFR: “For dollars spent, the federal government is followed by the Victorian government, which spent $93 million on advertising campaigns over the past five years on average (inflation adjusted). NSW spent $76 million over the same period.”

5. There’s money in selling cotton!

Meet the guy who founded Cotton On and takes home $56 million a year for his work. Nigel Austin is a billionaire and started Cotton On in 1991 in Geelong. According to Wikipedia, in 2020, it had over 1,500 stores in 18 countries employing 22,000 people across seven brands: Cotton On, Cotton On Kids, Cotton On Body, Factorie, Typo, Rubi, Supré, and Cotton On Foundation. Last year’s earnings were $501m!