A street of power poles that cost $3 billion.
asserted
that → cost → billion
The likelihood of the economy getting tighter.
asserted
economy → get → ?
You've got questions about what 2027 will feel like?
asserted
2027 → get → what
You don't need to wait, we've got economic dislocation and fear in stark view.
asserted
we → need → view
Take one for the team
Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Michele Bullock is one of the most highly paid people in Australia.
asserted
Bullock → take → Australia
In 2025-2026, she received total remuneration of $1.22 million.
asserted
she → receive → million
Her salary increased by 2.4 per cent and is set by the independent Remuneration Tribunal.
asserted
salary → increase → Tribunal
Bullock is vastly experienced, manages 2,039 staff in 11 offices and has so much money to manage she needs to carefully enunciate her "b"s and "m"s so that all the illions don't get mixed up.
But she wants her staff to take, effectively, a pay cut.
asserted
staff → manage → cut
Last week, RBA staff again rejected a pay offer that would see their real wages, the growth in wages minus the impact of inflation, fall immediately.
asserted
wages → reject → inflation
In the rejected three-year deal, staff would have got a 3.7 per cent increase in the first year, then 3 per cent in 2028 and 2.8 per cent for the subsequent year.
asserted
staff → reject → year
The consumer price index (CPI), which measures the speed of price rises, says costs are going up 4 per cent a year.
asserted
costs → measure → rises
This means the deal would be a cut to their purchasing power, an erosion of real wages.
asserted
deal → mean → wages
In its own words, the bank acknowledges its people would be going backwards at a high speed.
asserted
people → acknowledge → speed
"Underlying inflation is expected to remain above 3 per cent until mid-2027, before declining to the midpoint of the 2-3 per cent target range in 2028," the bank's statement on monetary policy declared in August, before inflation kicked up another gear.
asserted
inflation → expect → gear
The bank prefers to use a measure of "underlying" inflation called the trimmed mean, and who can blame them.
asserted
who → prefer → them
The trimmed mean reduces the spiking impact on inflation of volatile items, like the rocketing oil price, which makes filling up vehicles more expensive.
asserted
which → trim → vehicles
People don't have that luxury.
asserted
People → have → luxury
When fuel goes up they can't simply exclude it.
asserted
they → go → it
They wear it.
asserted
They → wear → it
Fragile AI eco-system
Sanderson Street in Yarraville, in Melbourne's inner west, has a creek up one end, a cemetery at the other and now a curious mantle: greatest destroyer of capital on the stock exchange by a single street this year.
asserted
Street → have → street
Residents saw the march of industrial-sized concrete power poles heading towards NEXTDC's mammoth data centre, near their homes.
asserted
march → see → homes
When they parked cars in the street to stall the installation they set in train events that focused attention on the fragility of the trillion-dollar build-out of AI infrastructure.
asserted
that → park → infrastructure
In a small act of civil disobedience, they wiped $4 billion off the value of one of our biggest listed companies.
asserted
they → wipe → companies
With bolshie residents in the streets and a furious local member of parliament on the phone, electricity distributor Jemena did a swift reverse ferret, filling in the already-drilled holes and announcing the commencement of "engag(ing) with the local community".
asserted
Jemena → do → community
In the tightly leveraged world of AI and data centre financing, this delay shook the company to its core.
asserted
delay → leverage → core
Forget its score of existing and proposed centres across the nation, in an announcement to the market NEXTDC revealed projected revenue would drop by one-third, it would stop building some centres and consider selling land-banked sites it held.
asserted
it → forget → sites
All of which explains why NEXTDC started the week as a $7 billion company and ended it valued at closer to $4.1 billion.
asserted
NEXTDC → explain → billion
What it doesn't explain, yet, is how fragile the entire eco-system of AI-powered companies appear to be.
asserted
system → explain → companies
As a multi-trillion-dollar hyper-scaler race goes on here, in the US and around the world, there could be other suburban streets that inadvertently crush what's seen as the future of capitalism.
uncertain
what → go → capitalism
LoadingNAB's job cuts not not about AI
Into this deepening chasm between people and capital strolls NAB, the third most valuable company in the nation (after BHP and Commonwealth Bank).
asserted
NAB → deepen → BHP
It revealed it would cut 2,500 jobs, most by Christmas, as well as an unknown number of consultants and contractors, to "simplify its operating model".
asserted
it → reveal → model
There was no direct reference to AI in what NAB told the market, although it did refer to "rapid technological change".
asserted
it → be → change
Staff being pushed out were more direct about why they were cut.
asserted
they → push → ?
As Swinburne University of Technology governance expert Helen Bird told me: "What the bank fails to explain to its investors is how it is going to achieve these cited benefits.
asserted
it → tell → benefits
"
As if you need more scaring, senior NASA engineer and manager Jeevan Perera told ABC's The Business that every human is pretty doomed anyway.
asserted
human → need → Business
"With the capabilities I've seen in AI and automation, I can't think of a position or a job that can't eventually go away to full automation," he said.
asserted
he → see → automation
And that's all before we careen into the next meeting of the Reserve Bank's monetary policy board, better known as "the people who set interest rates".
asserted
who → careen → rates
A rise in the rate on Melbourne Cup Day is now a coin flip, with the coin weighted towards a rise.
asserted
rise → weight → rise
If the board chooses to lift rates it makes money more expensive.
asserted
money → choose → rates
People can borrow less and those with debts face bigger repayments.
asserted
those → borrow → repayments
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
