September 21, 2025 • 15 mins
Monday 22 September 2025
US politicians put pressure on the Albanese government over plans to recognise Palestinian statehood.
And more, including:
- The boss of Optus explains what happened last week during the triple zero outage that caused at least three deaths.
- The spring selling season soars.
- Has the government found a buyer for Rex Airlines?
- Australia’s population hits 27.5 million.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Fear and Greed business news you can use today.
US politicians put pressure on the Albanese government over plans
to recognize Palestinian statehood. The boss of Optus explains what
happened last week during the triple zero outage that caused
at least three deaths and the spring selling season saws plus,
has the government found a buyer for Rex Airlines and
(00:27):
Australia's population hits twenty seven point five million. It is Monday,
the twenty second of September twenty twenty five. I'm Michael
Thompson and good morning, Sean Aylmer. Good morning, Michael sewn.
The main story this morning. Prime Minister Anthony Aberanezi is
in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. He's
expected to announce Australia's recognition of the Palestinian state, but
(00:50):
there's already a lot of pressure from US politicians to
not make the announcement.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
A letter co signed by twenty five Republican members of
Congress accused Australia and the countries of legitimizing a Palestinian
terror state and threatening repercussions I quote it. It says,
proceeding with recognition will put your country at odds with
long standing US policy and interests, and may invite punitive measures.
In response, the letter was addressed to Albanisi, as well
(01:17):
as French President Manuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney,
and British Prime Minister Sir Keys Starmer. Copies were sent
to US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
According to the Financial Review, Trump had tried to derail
the recognition process by denying a US visa to Palestinian
Authority President mahmood A Bus and about eighty officials, before
(01:40):
Australia voted in the year end over the weekend with
others to allow a Bus to address the special summit
by video link. The Republican letter accuses Australia, France, Canada
and Britain of setting a dangerous precedent that violence, not diplomacy,
is the most expedient means for terrorist groups like AMAS
to achieve their place claims. It adds that it is
(02:02):
a reckless policy that undermines prospects for peace and will
inflame anti Semitism in their countries.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Now Sean Palestinian recognition is going to be a significant
issue obviously in the journal assembly, but for many Australians
the question really seems to be is Albanezy going to
meet Trump while he's in the US.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yes, I mean there's no guarantee yet. The best indication
that they will meet actually came from Trump last week
when he was berating that ABC journalist John Lynes and said,
your leader is coming over to see me very soon.
I'm going to tell him about you. You said a
very bad tone. That's what we're basing it all on
METI's reporting that it is possible the two will have
an informal catch up on Wednesday morning Australian Time. Albanizi
(02:45):
himself yesterday played down the prospects of meeting Trump, saying
there would be several opportunities in coming months to do so.
If they do meet, defense spending will be an issue. Obviously,
Trump wants Australia and other countries to spend three and
a half percent of GDP on defense. Then there's the
massive Orchest deal, which is being reviewed by the Trump administration.
Last week, it got a bit of a boost when
(03:06):
King Charles the Third emphasized it's important in a speech
in front of Donald Trump. My you Anthony Albanezi. When
it comes to foreign policy, Michael, he's on a bit
of a losing streak at the moment. Last week he
didn't did not sign deals with Papua and New Guinea
and Venawatu. Basically the shadow of China sort of hung
(03:27):
over those deals. What made it even worse was that
as Albanesi flew out of Papua New Guinea, the country's
defense minister was flying to Beijing, So that was a
bad look. Albanesi is hoping for a foreign policy win
this week by at least meeting Trump.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
All right, we are in for a big few days
in politics, I would say. The other big story at
the moment sean pressure is rising on Optus to be
penalized as investigations are promised into an outage linked to
at least three deaths. Optist boss Stephen Rue has apologized
to the community for the company his Triple zero failure
and said early investigations show that established processes were not followed.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So I watched firewall update at twelve thirty am on
Thursday first and Thursday morning blocked hundreds of calls to
Triple zero zero from South Australia, Western Australia and the
Northern Territory. A sixty eight year old woman died in
Adelaide during the fault, along with a seventy four year
old man and a forty nine year old in Perth.
(04:27):
Now South Australian police yesterday said preliminary investigations into the
death of an eight week old boy north of Adelaide
on Thursday suggests that the outage is unlikely to have
contributed to his death. At least two other TRIPLEO calls
from New South Wales failed to get through to an operator.
Optus was unaware of the outage until being notified by
(04:47):
a customer at about one point thirty pm, so that's
twelve thirty am through to one thirty pm, thirteen hours.
That's according to Optic's chief executive Stephen Rue yesterday. He
said call center workers who received plans from Optus customers
on Thursday morning didn't escalate the issue up the chain
to senior staff. That was the problem. So once optists
(05:09):
realize that there was an outage, the emergency line was
restored the update was canceled. Of course, it is the
second failure in less than two years. An outage failure
that's resulted in op just customers not being able to
contact Triple O. Last time round, it was fined twelve
million dollars for that outage. It was a nationwide outage.
(05:30):
I'm not sure that it had quite the dire consequences
that this one did. So what do you say about this, Michael?
It it just should never happen.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, I don't know what you can say, really. I
think there was Optus has had a pretty terrible run
in recent years, and there was some hope that maybe
it was back on track now, and tragically it does
appear that that's not the case. Okay, let's have a
look at local markets. What can we expect today from
the local bors when it opened?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Fusures for the S and PASX two hundred index suggests
a pretty good start to the week for the local bars.
It's expected to rise about zero point three percent on opening.
That follows a rally on Wall Street where tech stocks
lead the market to get another record high. That's in
the back of hopes for more interest rate cuts in
the world's largest economy. The local market closed up slightly
on Friday, that was down about one percent for the week.
(06:21):
It's actually had three weeks in a row of negative
returns the ASX two hundred. Much of the focus in
coming weeks will be on interest rates in Australia, with
most of the economic news over the past fortnite suggesting
there will be a rate cut when the Reserve Bank
Board next meets in early November. Inflation figures for August
due for release on Wednesday that will way into the debate,
(06:41):
and just before we leave markets back to Wall Street,
the four major indices, the S and P five hundred, NA,
TAK one hundred, DAL Jones and small cap Russell two
thousand index all closed at record highs late last week
for the first time since November twenty twenty one. Wall
Street is on a teamh.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Certainly is okay. We'll be back in a moment with
the rest of the day's business news.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Sean.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
The spring selling season is hot, with preliminary clearance rates
over the past week hitting a four year high, with
Melbourne leading the way.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
There are almost twenty seven hundred auctions held over the
past week, up about eleven percent on a week ago.
The preliminary clearance rate michael seventy seven point nine percent
across combined capital cities last time we had that was
October twenty twenty one, when there was a boom going
on in the market. It looks pretty hot to me.
At the moment. Melbourne held almost half of all auctions
across the country. It's clear and straight. Came in at
(07:41):
seventy eight point six percent. That's its highest rate for
four years. Sydney was just under seventy eight percent, Adelaide
was about eighty six percent, Brisbane at sixty six percent.
It just seems that all this debate about interest rate
cuts in Australia has really supercharged the local housing market.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Sean, We've been talking about Regional Express REX the airline
for a long time. Ever since it well collapsed, hasn't
found a buyer.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Nicely put, maybe maybe The Financial Reviews reporting that Nasdaq
listed aircraft operator airt Aiart has put together an offer
that might get across the line. The deal, of course,
needs to be approved by the government, including the Prime Minister,
who just those who remember he was Transport Minister Anthony
Albanezi so it knows a little bit about this sort
(08:32):
of stuff. The fin is reporting that the deal might
be announced as soon as today. Airtea is an air
operator currently running cargo flights, including for FedEx in the
United States. It also provides commercial aircraft trading and leasing,
sells jet engine parts, airframes, avionics and logistics to the
aviation industry. Not sure how much commercial flying it does.
(08:54):
And I would imagine that the government would want Regional
Express to remain as a commercial AIRCRAF have to wait
and see on this one.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, you'd imagine. So you think it's been a lot
of uncertainty because that's July of last year that it
went into administration. That is that is quite some time
and at least it has been kind of propped up
to continue operating and connecting regional areas. But need some
certainty for the future. And I think you're right, it
will need to maintain the passenger services as well. Now
(09:23):
seawan one for the I was going to say one
for the nerds, but that's not right because I find
this interesting and here's the point there we go, Oh okay,
Australia's population has hit twenty seven point five million people.
That is four hundred and twenty three thousand more than
a year ago. It's been a big.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Year, it has. I find this quite interesting too. The
ABS stats, which measure the population as at every March
shows there was a natural increase of one hundred and
seven thousand that's births minus deaths, while immigration added three
hundred and sixteen thousand. I give you one guess the
fastest growing state, Michael. You've got one in six chance.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Victoria. Hmmm, did you hear the panic in my voices?
Then it's either Wa or Queensland.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, well it's w a Okay, so that was good
number one two point three percent. Victoria and Queensland are next,
good Okay. Slowest growth, Tim Burrows won't be happy.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Oh Tasmania, he lives.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, okay, slowest growth in the last twelve months. According
to the World Domita, Australia is the fifty fifth that
I mean, what a great name. It the fifty fifth
largest country in terms of populations, the most populous country,
slightly bigger than North Korea but smaller than Niger in Africa.
(10:51):
Kind of puts a bit of perspective around how much
we think of what we think about Australia, doesn't it.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, it also sounds like you just made up According
to the World omits, I'm just like, oh, I need
something to attribute this to I know World Ometer.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Lom India's most populous country one point four six billion,
then China, then the US, then Indonesia and then Pakistan.
I just didn't I knew Indonesia was a hugely populous country.
I didn't knowize it's most the fourth most populous country
in the world. Surely there's opportunity for us here in
Australia there, Michael, you.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Would think so. I mean, the World Ometer says that's
a world dometer. I question your credibility here showing the
World Ometer. Turning to international news and still on the
topic of immigration, Donald Trump is adding a one hundred
thousand dollars fee to applications for H one B visas
in a major overhaul of the visa system for highly
(11:46):
skilled foreign workers. That is a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
It's a lot of money, and the tech companies won't
be happy. Trump on Friday signed a proclamation intended to
curb the number of applicants for the work permits, which
are favored by US tech companies. According to the FT,
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik said that no more will
with these big tech companies or other big companies train
foreign workers to fix the six figure application fee, which
(12:11):
Lutnik actually said would have to be paid every year,
marks a big departure for the government, which currently charges
two hundred and fifteen dollars to register for an H
one B visa lottery and an additional seven hundred and
eighty dollars for employers that sponsored visa applicants. Later, there
was a clarification from the White House saying it was
actually a one off fee. Alongside the H one B visa,
(12:33):
Trump side and executive order on Friday to create a
gold card visa scheme for individuals willing to pay one
million dollars to the US Treasury or companies willing to
spend two million dollars to sponsor an employee. That way,
if you spend that money, you can basically go and
work in the US. Now, our silicon value relies heavily
on these H one B visas to hire engineers, scientists,
(12:54):
coders from overseas. They're widely used by specialist industries including
accurdancy firms and healthcare companies. None of them are very
happy with Donald Trump at the moment.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, I can't imagine they would be one more from
the U s Seawan FedEx expects a one billion dollar
hit from trade volatility this year, highlighting the impact of
Donald Trump's tariffs and the loss of a key exemption
for low value goods, which we've been talking about before.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
That's right, So, masch of the drop reflects lower volumes
from China to the US, and about three hundred million
dollars is due to the higher cost of clearing goods
through customs, hurting the companies that package is worth less
than eight hundred US dollars are no longer able to
enter the US duty free. FedEx typically seen as a
predictor of where the larger economy is headed because of
(13:39):
its connections to businesses across the consumer and industrial sectors.
As the all important holiday shop shopping and shipping season approaches,
the curious expectations are an indicator of how the economy
will finish out the year. And it isn't that good.
Having said that, the group's results pushed to share by
some more than five percent over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Okay, Now, next is Fear and Greed Q and A.
It is the week ahead with our resident economist Stephen
Kucoulis looking really at the monthly inflation figures coming out
this week. Also the Governor of the Reserve Banker is
heading to Canberra. What we can expect to but to
see there. And I look back at last week's comment
by the Reserve Bank Chief economist about almost the Australian
(14:22):
economy being in that goldilocks zone. We kind of dig
into that one a little bit. It's coming up next
to the Fear and Greed playlist on your podcast platform
or at Fearangreed dot com dot au, which is where
I sign up for our free daily newsletter. A quick
little shout out Sean if I can. I hosted a
trivia night on Friday night, and as one of the
questions I asked a question about podcasts and gave a
(14:44):
bonus point to anybody who signed up to listen to
Fear and Greed then and there on the on the
spot bonus points galore. So to anybody who did sign
up at this trivia night on Friday, welcome, good morning,
thank you for joining us, and well done on that
bonus point. Thanks very much, Sean.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Thanks Michael.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It is Monday, the twenty second of September twenty twenty five.
Make sure you're following the podcast and join us online
on LinkedIn. Instagram, x TikTok and Facebook. I'm Michael Thompson,
and that was fear and greed. Have a great day.
Welcome to Fear and Greed business news you can use today.
US politicians put pressure on the Albanese government over plans
to recognize Palestinian statehood. The boss of Optus explains what
happened last week during the triple zero outage that caused
at least three deaths and the spring selling season saws plus,
has the government found a buyer for Rex Airlines and
(00:27):
Australia's population hits twenty seven point five million. It is Monday,
the twenty second of September twenty twenty five. I'm Michael
Thompson and good morning, Sean Aylmer. Good morning, Michael sewn.
The main story this morning. Prime Minister Anthony Aberanezi is
in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. He's
expected to announce Australia's recognition of the Palestinian state, but
(00:50):
there's already a lot of pressure from US politicians to
not make the announcement.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
A letter co signed by twenty five Republican members of
Congress accused Australia and the countries of legitimizing a Palestinian
terror state and threatening repercussions I quote it. It says,
proceeding with recognition will put your country at odds with
long standing US policy and interests, and may invite punitive measures.
In response, the letter was addressed to Albanisi, as well
(01:17):
as French President Manuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney,
and British Prime Minister Sir Keys Starmer. Copies were sent
to US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
According to the Financial Review, Trump had tried to derail
the recognition process by denying a US visa to Palestinian
Authority President mahmood A Bus and about eighty officials, before
(01:40):
Australia voted in the year end over the weekend with
others to allow a Bus to address the special summit
by video link. The Republican letter accuses Australia, France, Canada
and Britain of setting a dangerous precedent that violence, not diplomacy,
is the most expedient means for terrorist groups like AMAS
to achieve their place claims. It adds that it is
(02:02):
a reckless policy that undermines prospects for peace and will
inflame anti Semitism in their countries.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Now Sean Palestinian recognition is going to be a significant
issue obviously in the journal assembly, but for many Australians
the question really seems to be is Albanezy going to
meet Trump while he's in the US.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yes, I mean there's no guarantee yet. The best indication
that they will meet actually came from Trump last week
when he was berating that ABC journalist John Lynes and said,
your leader is coming over to see me very soon.
I'm going to tell him about you. You said a
very bad tone. That's what we're basing it all on
METI's reporting that it is possible the two will have
an informal catch up on Wednesday morning Australian Time. Albanizi
(02:45):
himself yesterday played down the prospects of meeting Trump, saying
there would be several opportunities in coming months to do so.
If they do meet, defense spending will be an issue. Obviously,
Trump wants Australia and other countries to spend three and
a half percent of GDP on defense. Then there's the
massive Orchest deal, which is being reviewed by the Trump administration.
Last week, it got a bit of a boost when
(03:06):
King Charles the Third emphasized it's important in a speech
in front of Donald Trump. My you Anthony Albanezi. When
it comes to foreign policy, Michael, he's on a bit
of a losing streak at the moment. Last week he
didn't did not sign deals with Papua and New Guinea
and Venawatu. Basically the shadow of China sort of hung
(03:27):
over those deals. What made it even worse was that
as Albanesi flew out of Papua New Guinea, the country's
defense minister was flying to Beijing, So that was a
bad look. Albanesi is hoping for a foreign policy win
this week by at least meeting Trump.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
All right, we are in for a big few days
in politics, I would say. The other big story at
the moment sean pressure is rising on Optus to be
penalized as investigations are promised into an outage linked to
at least three deaths. Optist boss Stephen Rue has apologized
to the community for the company his Triple zero failure
and said early investigations show that established processes were not followed.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So I watched firewall update at twelve thirty am on
Thursday first and Thursday morning blocked hundreds of calls to
Triple zero zero from South Australia, Western Australia and the
Northern Territory. A sixty eight year old woman died in
Adelaide during the fault, along with a seventy four year
old man and a forty nine year old in Perth.
(04:27):
Now South Australian police yesterday said preliminary investigations into the
death of an eight week old boy north of Adelaide
on Thursday suggests that the outage is unlikely to have
contributed to his death. At least two other TRIPLEO calls
from New South Wales failed to get through to an operator.
Optus was unaware of the outage until being notified by
(04:47):
a customer at about one point thirty pm, so that's
twelve thirty am through to one thirty pm, thirteen hours.
That's according to Optic's chief executive Stephen Rue yesterday. He
said call center workers who received plans from Optus customers
on Thursday morning didn't escalate the issue up the chain
to senior staff. That was the problem. So once optists
(05:09):
realize that there was an outage, the emergency line was
restored the update was canceled. Of course, it is the
second failure in less than two years. An outage failure
that's resulted in op just customers not being able to
contact Triple O. Last time round, it was fined twelve
million dollars for that outage. It was a nationwide outage.
(05:30):
I'm not sure that it had quite the dire consequences
that this one did. So what do you say about this, Michael?
It it just should never happen.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, I don't know what you can say, really. I
think there was Optus has had a pretty terrible run
in recent years, and there was some hope that maybe
it was back on track now, and tragically it does
appear that that's not the case. Okay, let's have a
look at local markets. What can we expect today from
the local bors when it opened?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Fusures for the S and PASX two hundred index suggests
a pretty good start to the week for the local bars.
It's expected to rise about zero point three percent on opening.
That follows a rally on Wall Street where tech stocks
lead the market to get another record high. That's in
the back of hopes for more interest rate cuts in
the world's largest economy. The local market closed up slightly
on Friday, that was down about one percent for the week.
(06:21):
It's actually had three weeks in a row of negative
returns the ASX two hundred. Much of the focus in
coming weeks will be on interest rates in Australia, with
most of the economic news over the past fortnite suggesting
there will be a rate cut when the Reserve Bank
Board next meets in early November. Inflation figures for August
due for release on Wednesday that will way into the debate,
(06:41):
and just before we leave markets back to Wall Street,
the four major indices, the S and P five hundred, NA,
TAK one hundred, DAL Jones and small cap Russell two
thousand index all closed at record highs late last week
for the first time since November twenty twenty one. Wall
Street is on a teamh.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Certainly is okay. We'll be back in a moment with
the rest of the day's business news.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Sean.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
The spring selling season is hot, with preliminary clearance rates
over the past week hitting a four year high, with
Melbourne leading the way.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
There are almost twenty seven hundred auctions held over the
past week, up about eleven percent on a week ago.
The preliminary clearance rate michael seventy seven point nine percent
across combined capital cities last time we had that was
October twenty twenty one, when there was a boom going
on in the market. It looks pretty hot to me.
At the moment. Melbourne held almost half of all auctions
across the country. It's clear and straight. Came in at
(07:41):
seventy eight point six percent. That's its highest rate for
four years. Sydney was just under seventy eight percent, Adelaide
was about eighty six percent, Brisbane at sixty six percent.
It just seems that all this debate about interest rate
cuts in Australia has really supercharged the local housing market.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Sean, We've been talking about Regional Express REX the airline
for a long time. Ever since it well collapsed, hasn't
found a buyer.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Nicely put, maybe maybe The Financial Reviews reporting that Nasdaq
listed aircraft operator airt Aiart has put together an offer
that might get across the line. The deal, of course,
needs to be approved by the government, including the Prime Minister,
who just those who remember he was Transport Minister Anthony
Albanezi so it knows a little bit about this sort
(08:32):
of stuff. The fin is reporting that the deal might
be announced as soon as today. Airtea is an air
operator currently running cargo flights, including for FedEx in the
United States. It also provides commercial aircraft trading and leasing,
sells jet engine parts, airframes, avionics and logistics to the
aviation industry. Not sure how much commercial flying it does.
(08:54):
And I would imagine that the government would want Regional
Express to remain as a commercial AIRCRAF have to wait
and see on this one.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, you'd imagine. So you think it's been a lot
of uncertainty because that's July of last year that it
went into administration. That is that is quite some time
and at least it has been kind of propped up
to continue operating and connecting regional areas. But need some
certainty for the future. And I think you're right, it
will need to maintain the passenger services as well. Now
(09:23):
seawan one for the I was going to say one
for the nerds, but that's not right because I find
this interesting and here's the point there we go, Oh okay,
Australia's population has hit twenty seven point five million people.
That is four hundred and twenty three thousand more than
a year ago. It's been a big.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Year, it has. I find this quite interesting too. The
ABS stats, which measure the population as at every March
shows there was a natural increase of one hundred and
seven thousand that's births minus deaths, while immigration added three
hundred and sixteen thousand. I give you one guess the
fastest growing state, Michael. You've got one in six chance.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Victoria. Hmmm, did you hear the panic in my voices?
Then it's either Wa or Queensland.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, well it's w a Okay, so that was good
number one two point three percent. Victoria and Queensland are next,
good Okay. Slowest growth, Tim Burrows won't be happy.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Oh Tasmania, he lives.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, okay, slowest growth in the last twelve months. According
to the World Domita, Australia is the fifty fifth that
I mean, what a great name. It the fifty fifth
largest country in terms of populations, the most populous country,
slightly bigger than North Korea but smaller than Niger in Africa.
(10:51):
Kind of puts a bit of perspective around how much
we think of what we think about Australia, doesn't it.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, it also sounds like you just made up According
to the World omits, I'm just like, oh, I need
something to attribute this to I know World Ometer.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Lom India's most populous country one point four six billion,
then China, then the US, then Indonesia and then Pakistan.
I just didn't I knew Indonesia was a hugely populous country.
I didn't knowize it's most the fourth most populous country
in the world. Surely there's opportunity for us here in
Australia there, Michael, you.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Would think so. I mean, the World Ometer says that's
a world dometer. I question your credibility here showing the
World Ometer. Turning to international news and still on the
topic of immigration, Donald Trump is adding a one hundred
thousand dollars fee to applications for H one B visas
in a major overhaul of the visa system for highly
(11:46):
skilled foreign workers. That is a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
It's a lot of money, and the tech companies won't
be happy. Trump on Friday signed a proclamation intended to
curb the number of applicants for the work permits, which
are favored by US tech companies. According to the FT,
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik said that no more will
with these big tech companies or other big companies train
foreign workers to fix the six figure application fee, which
(12:11):
Lutnik actually said would have to be paid every year,
marks a big departure for the government, which currently charges
two hundred and fifteen dollars to register for an H
one B visa lottery and an additional seven hundred and
eighty dollars for employers that sponsored visa applicants. Later, there
was a clarification from the White House saying it was
actually a one off fee. Alongside the H one B visa,
(12:33):
Trump side and executive order on Friday to create a
gold card visa scheme for individuals willing to pay one
million dollars to the US Treasury or companies willing to
spend two million dollars to sponsor an employee. That way,
if you spend that money, you can basically go and
work in the US. Now, our silicon value relies heavily
on these H one B visas to hire engineers, scientists,
(12:54):
coders from overseas. They're widely used by specialist industries including
accurdancy firms and healthcare companies. None of them are very
happy with Donald Trump at the moment.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, I can't imagine they would be one more from
the U s Seawan FedEx expects a one billion dollar
hit from trade volatility this year, highlighting the impact of
Donald Trump's tariffs and the loss of a key exemption
for low value goods, which we've been talking about before.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
That's right, So, masch of the drop reflects lower volumes
from China to the US, and about three hundred million
dollars is due to the higher cost of clearing goods
through customs, hurting the companies that package is worth less
than eight hundred US dollars are no longer able to
enter the US duty free. FedEx typically seen as a
predictor of where the larger economy is headed because of
(13:39):
its connections to businesses across the consumer and industrial sectors.
As the all important holiday shop shopping and shipping season approaches,
the curious expectations are an indicator of how the economy
will finish out the year. And it isn't that good.
Having said that, the group's results pushed to share by
some more than five percent over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Okay, Now, next is Fear and Greed Q and A.
It is the week ahead with our resident economist Stephen
Kucoulis looking really at the monthly inflation figures coming out
this week. Also the Governor of the Reserve Banker is
heading to Canberra. What we can expect to but to
see there. And I look back at last week's comment
by the Reserve Bank Chief economist about almost the Australian
(14:22):
economy being in that goldilocks zone. We kind of dig
into that one a little bit. It's coming up next
to the Fear and Greed playlist on your podcast platform
or at Fearangreed dot com dot au, which is where
I sign up for our free daily newsletter. A quick
little shout out Sean if I can. I hosted a
trivia night on Friday night, and as one of the
questions I asked a question about podcasts and gave a
(14:44):
bonus point to anybody who signed up to listen to
Fear and Greed then and there on the on the
spot bonus points galore. So to anybody who did sign
up at this trivia night on Friday, welcome, good morning,
thank you for joining us, and well done on that
bonus point. Thanks very much, Sean.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Thanks Michael.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It is Monday, the twenty second of September twenty twenty five.
Make sure you're following the podcast and join us online
on LinkedIn. Instagram, x TikTok and Facebook. I'm Michael Thompson,
and that was fear and greed. Have a great day.
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