Ian Verrender

If you listen to increasingly shrill calls, it is time to rebuild our oil industry. While the sentiments might be well-meant, a few unfortunate facts have been overlooked.  

Global stock markets, which for the past month have been remarkably restrained as the Middle East crisis unfolded, have begun to wobble.

Donald Trump appears to be fast running out of exits on his Iran war folly. 

Are Australians about to endure a re-run of the economic pain brought on by the Ukraine war? Or something much worse?

As Reserve Bank board members gather for the second day of meetings this morning, they already would have been peppered with dire warnings about the potential impact of the energy shock.

Australia is one of the biggest energy exporters on the planet, as the world's third-largest exporter of LNG and the biggest seaborne supplier of thermal and metallurgical coal. But when it comes to oil the country is horribly exposed.

"Up the stairs and down the elevator" has been the rule of thumb for decades in financial markets — but apparently it's not the case any longer.

Canberra's decision to sign a bilateral agreement with Canada to join forces on everything to do with critical minerals could prove to be a forerunner of things to come.

The theory goes that if you have just the right amount of workers on the unemployment scrap heap, you can keep inflation in check. The problem is that no-one knows exactly what the magic unemployment rate is.

Fresh warnings of further rate rises have been enough to send shivers up the collective spine of new homeowners, but if there's any comfort to be had, it's this: Don't believe a word of the forecasts.