At a conference in October 1975 at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, UK, Margaret Thatcher critiqued socialism.  Despite her insights 51 years ago, left-leaning leaders today still try and fail to make socialism work.

From Canada under Justin Trudeau, and New Zealand under Jacinda Ardern, to the U.K under Keir Starmer, and even the U.S. under Biden, nations have elected officials to enact ideological promises with disastrous fiscal, economic and social consequences.

While no one’s policies are perfect and many were flawed, let Margaret Thatcher’s criticism of the socialist agenda 51 years ago be a reminder to our voters today that we can’t tax our way to prosperity.  Prosperity requires financial discipline, enterprise, affordable energy, productivity, and investment. Continue…

by Roger Montgomery Posted in Market commentary.

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In this video, I discuss Computershare (ASX: CPU), a global provider of share registry and shareholder administration services, and why it caught our attention during the year. I explain how the company’s decision to sell lower-returning businesses and refocus on its core operations has improved the quality of the business, while a significant fall in the share price presented a more attractive valuation. Together, these factors led us to establish a position in Computershare. Continue…

by Sean Sequeira Posted in Companies, Editor's Pick, Feature Article, Financial Services, Insightful Insights, Manufacturing, Market commentary, Market Valuation, Stocks We Like, Video Insights.

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Australia’s housing crisis has reached a tipping point, but listening to the federal government, you’d be forgiven for thinking everything is running smoothly and under control!

2026 would have to be the first year the budget is still in the headlines three months after it was delivered. And that’s because it is proving to be an unmitigated disaster for the economy, investors, and homeowners, and now renters.

At the centre of the latest policy storm is the Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Housing Minister Clare O’Neil’s insistence – backed by Treasury ‘modelling’ – that recent tax adjustments impacting property investors will lead to a mere $2-a-week rent increase.

As an aside, we have to remember the almost universal failure of all modelling Labor has relied on, from electricity bill reductions of $275 by 2025 to house prices rising by a gentle two per cent. Continue…

by Roger Montgomery Posted in Economics, Property.

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Well into the penultimate quarter of the calendar year, institutional and private investors face the paradox that record infrastructure capital expenditure, particularly by AI hyperscalers, coexists with heightened geopolitical risk, sticky inflation, and an apparent structural shift to the relationship between equities and bonds.

And if institutions are changing their asset allocations to reflect these shifts, should private investors do the same? Continue…

by Roger Montgomery Posted in Economics, Editor's Pick, Feature Article, Insightful Insights, Investing Education.

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If you haven’t noticed already, allow me to point out that investment discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) frequently devolve into almost insulting debates between AI evangelists, who cite massive total addressable markets (TAM) and explosive user growth, and sceptics, pointing to trillions of dollars in capital expenditure (capex), a buildout based on speculation, exorbitant compute costs, and an unclear path to profitability.

Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern professor and widely respected value investor, believes this debate has largely gone off the rails, noting in a recent post, “The debate about AI, in my view, has gone off the track with advocates and sceptics often talking past each other”. Optimists cherry-pick usage metrics, while pessimists focus on heavy spending, with both sides ignoring the rigorous business analysis that needs to take place in the middle. Continue…

by Roger Montgomery Posted in Economics, Manufacturing, Market commentary, Market Valuation, Technology & Telecommunications.

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In public finance, there is a simple truth that ideologues spend years trying to evade: Eventually, the numbers catch up with you.

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when I was studying at University in Melbourne, the economic mismanagement of the Kane and Kirner Labor governments reduced what was then called the Garden State to an economic basket case.

Decades later and Labor has done it again, hitting Victoria hard.

When Labor came to power there in 2014, the state’s debt was $21.8 billion. Today, it exceeds $160 billion and is rapidly approaching $200 billion, making Victoria one of Australia’s heaviest financial ball-and-chains. Continue…

by Roger Montgomery Posted in Economics, Insightful Insights, Market commentary.

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In my article for The Australian, I look at why many Australians are feeling worse off despite the economy continuing to grow. Rising living costs, expensive housing and weak productivity are making it increasingly difficult for households to get ahead.

I also discuss how government decisions around housing, taxation and spending may be adding to these pressures, with younger Australians in particular facing higher rents, falling affordability and greater financial strain.

Download the article here: Labor’s economics making us all poorer Continue…

by Roger Montgomery Posted in Economics, Editor's Pick, In the Press, Market commentary.

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There’s a consistent view of the consumer emerging from Australia’s Financial year 2026 (FY26) retail reporting season.

Households haven’t stopped spending, but they’ve become more selective, more value-conscious and increasingly willing to postpone discretionary purchases or wait for promotions and sales.

The pressure is most evident in big-ticket categories like furniture, appliances, and homewares. Nick Scali (ASX:NCK) noted a significant decline in store traffic late in the year; JB Hi-Fi (ASX:JBH) mentioned that customers are focusing their purchases around major sales; and Temple & Webster (ASX:TPW) said that while browsing continues, customers are delaying their buying decisions. Continue…

by Roger Montgomery Posted in Companies, Consumer discretionary, Economics, Editor's Pick, Manufacturing, Market commentary, Market Valuation.

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