FEAR & GREED | Business NewsSean Aylmer and Michael Thompson go head to head on the top business stories of the week, with Fear & Greed colleague Adam Lang adjudicating.
This is the weekend edition of Fear and Greedy, Daily business news for people who make their own decisions. Are Michael Thompson and good morning, Sean.
Aylmer, Good morning, Michael, Sean.
Our weekend show is a great deal of fun. I say that actually without sounding like much fun do I. But the two of us each nominate what we think is the biggest story of the week, the most remarkable business story, a sleeper story, one that's kind of flying under the radar a little bit, and then our favorite story. And it is a competition, which is why it's fun. And so we need a judge to pick a winner. And as always that judge is our Fear and Greed colleague, Fearless Adam Lang Adam, good.
Morning, Good morning, Michael, Good morning, Sean.
Morning Adam, fearless Adam. I like that.
Yeah, he's never afraid to make a bad decision.
That's right, he's our man.
What are you looking for today, Adam? And we'll keep this brief if you can keep it under say twenty seconds.
I would like you to be topical, timely talk about the economic impact of your stories. Give me something that plays the most subjective bias and throw in a sprinkle of melodrama.
Sprinkle smattering, little just to hint. Okay, well let's jump into it. Then now we know roughly kind of what in theory we are looking for.
That's what Adam has just said in the last thirty seconds. Have got anything to.
Do with guidelines and rules?
Yeah?
Right, good, good, good, Get on whether Thompson.
Oh I'm sorry, well, Sean, would you like to go first on the biggest story.
Biggest story of the week by a country mile or politics. The federal government this week secured the support of the Greens and the Independence in the Senate and in some cases of coalition to pass thirty pieces of legislation. We're not marking around. You hit a deadline, way you can get some stuff done. Is this is when politics really hits the households the twenty seven in fact in one on Thursday, twenty seven pieces of legislation was passed after the government did a deal with the Greens and Independent senators David Pocock and Jakie Lamby. We're talking all sorts of things. The Reserve Bank's going to be changed, there's going to be a second board. They'll have two boards, one on monetary policy, one on governance. The thing there is it means that the government will be abled to appoint people to the Monetary Policy Board. Therefore, there's all sorts of claims that it's going to stack it with labor appointees. For example, there's the Future Made in Australia legislation twenty three billion dollars over the next decade to help the transition to net zero. There is the government's housing bills. One of those includes co investing with first home buyers hopefully you know, forty fifty thousand new homes for first home buyers on the back of extra money from the government. There's also tax cuts or tax reductions at least for people investing in housing, the ban on sixteen year olds using social media, changes to migration laws. Some didn't make it through extra tax on earnings from super accounts, with me three million dollars in that didn't make it. Gosh, I'm so excited here, it's all happening.
You sound exit. I think, I actually think you just put your own tongue to sleep.
Then possibly the point here right, there's a stack of them. The Prime Minister Anthony Alberizi has cleared the way for the election. That is the bottom line here. We're supposed to have two weeks of parliament in February. I'm not sure that'll happen. Maybe it will election before May seventeen or by the end of the day on May seventeen. So we are right to go for an election. Thirty pieces of legislation this week, biggest week in parliament for the year. Beat that, Michael, beat that.
When legislation has passed, right, because I mean, it seems to happen so rarely that things actually kind of then get through. Do they bang a gavel or something. I don't actually know what happened, what kind of marks it being passed, because you would imagine that the gavel I would have had R s I in their wrist.
I think the eyes have it. I think that's what it is.
I want to get. I want this.
Maybe maybe there is maybe this speaker has got to gavel. Yeah, the eyes have it off.
We God, that's a that's a furious day of legislation passing on Thursday.
You reckon?
They do you reckon? They all read it, politicians.
Every word, every word.
I'm a believer.
Look, politics was big. Politics was big. It was also very local wasn't it like it's very just just Australian and this is a global podcast. We have listeners everywhere.
What's our oddest country, like as a Bijan we have a listener.
Yes, yeah, we do. Well, remember if we Brendan who listens to us occasionally and and does frequently listen from the the bridge of the super it can be anywhere around the world and typically some pretty exotic places. And then he lives in Austria, remember in the mountains of Austria.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so shout out to Brendan. My point is you would send Brendan and mea mug, but we have no idea where to send it to.
Well, you know what, our mea mugs because they are that kind of tin thing. It's probably perfect to have.
On a it would unbreakable. Yeah, you don't need it to fla because you're on the yacht, Michael.
Yeah, but what if you dropped it over the edge. These things happened, Accidents happened all over the place. Sean politics was big. Politics was very local though I'm thinking big picture. I'm a big picture kind of guy because my story has global ramifications. Do I just turned into short global I just turned into you. That's what you do when you say global.
Just because you are making a tool of yourself. You don't have to start blaming me, right, Own it.
Okay, own the tool, got it? Donald Trump M. Trump declared that he would impose a twenty five percent tariff on all products from Mexico and from Canada on his first day in office.
Certainly this isn't local, I'll give you that it is.
Not, but it has wide spreadifications. They come all the way back to Australia, Sean ten percent on goods from China. This is all over illicit drugs and illegal immigration, all these kinds of issues. Right, But think about that, the fact that he was willing to do that on his two closest kind of neighbors geographically in terms of Mexico and Canada, but also Canada is America's really closest ally. It's quite extraordinary, right, It's very very aggressive. It's a very aggressive move from the incoming president. And what did it do. It's scared investors petrified them just like they just were. They were you know what, I'm just watching Sean, and Sean's eyes are darting from side to side, and yeah, I might be over this a little bit. Anyway, markets fell, a range of commodities fell, the US dollar search. The shock waves from this, they just they radiated out around the world extraordinarily, right China, China was the voice of reason in all of this, warning that a trade war helps nobody. Great point China.
The thing is, yeah, Shijing, thing would be delighted to hear that from Michael Thompson. I'm hearing greed.
Let's not forget about, of course, the wine tariffs, or lobsters or Australian bali.
You.
Let's not let the history get in the way of the facts. Here.
We look forward at him, not backwards. Maybe maybe China has learnt, it's lessened now. It's warning that trade wars helped no one. Look, the thing is that this from Donald Trump. It could just be him just kind of setting himself up political posturing, essentially a negotiating position. A tactic here, which is it is a volatile, chaotic tactic. And it's a bit of a warning sign, isn't It's a red flag for kind of what is coming over the next four.
Years because we didn't know up until this week.
I would argue that this is even more chaotic than previously. Like last time, there was almost an element, I'm going to say this, almost an element of restraint to a degree, whereas here it feels like all bets are off. It's just like, you know what, twenty five percent for you, twenty five percent for you, ten percent for you. Everybody gets a tariff. He is the Oprah Winfrey of erratic global politics. Right, local markets not immune at all. This story is going on for too long, and it's.
Because you yeah, no, no, it's not us.
They bounced but local markets. Okay, so local markets were hit as well, Adam, write this down because this is local economic impact. They were also hit. But but but they bounced back, and the records, the records bonanza began again. I talked last week about the records bonanza. More records for the ASX, two hundred, more record highs for the Commonwealth Bank. This has been overall, to wrap things up nice and quickly, a massive week on global markets for local and international investors. And it's never a good sign when the judge's laughing at you when you finish your story with what I thought was actually an appropriate amount of depth and power restraint. Even Donald Trump in his first term.
Okay, so both the politics really aren't they and both very interesting. A lot of posturing from Donald Trump, probably trade positioning. Michael, you've you've given us the butt, the double button, and the triple butt. Yeah, which launched early. I think this has to be a draw. I think both of them are relevant, both of them impacted markets.
That, Adam, is one of the absolute work those decisions you have ever made in your life.
Come on, I think it's pretty good.
It's been claigers.
You didn't see. You were reading your notes, and when you said a draw, Michaels went you couldn't believe it. That is genuinely the worst decision you have made since Roe v. Wade. How could you say thirty pieces of legislation in one week? Verse Donald Trump Posturing's a dressed.
To clarify, Adam didn't make the Roe v. Wade decision. Now, Adam made a judgment on the overturning of it and said that it wasn't a big story. Just for context for new listeners.
Anyway, Yeah, we're moving on. That is the worst decision I've ever heard.
Look, not letting no on again.
You talk, Adam, You cannot call that a drawer when the Australian government passes thirty pieces of legislation that affects all of us Donald Trump posturing, which we have had NonStop for eight years.
Yeah, and if.
You don't mind me sayingf me jesus.
There are children listening of fdance for fruit children.
Yes, or flummoxed. I think Sean's flummoxed.
I might actually give up. I'm that upset about that decision.
Go on, Can I just look you know what the last time we saw a dummy spit of this magnitude, Sean walked away from doing economic stories on this podcast. Ye. Because and we are nearly at the end of the year, and so my run of having to do all the economic stories on behalf of Fear and Great, that's coming to an end, which is good because the most remarkable story this week was in fact m economics. It is remarkable, truly remarkable, right, with no melodrama whatsoever, that we just can't get inflation under control in this country.
Why is that remarkable? I'm just angry now, why is that mark?
Because it is? It just is.
Give us some detail, mate, don't just say it just is. Hey dad, Hey, you got mated, Hey, dad, why can't I get out of a night because you can't? Why? Because I told you so? You know that's the line. Yeah, mate, So the trimmed me. Are you just.
The RBA's preferred rate underlying inflation here? Actually, Rose, Rose.
You have turned into shan Oh my god, I have the vowel annunciation has really changed.
I just jealousy is a curse.
No, I think it's I think it's like hero worship. That's what this is.
I'm trying to aniration here of sorts.
Yeah, this is extraordinary.
Don't come sucking back you too. I'm not cutting still it Rose.
Did I mention that it went from three point two percent to three point five percent? It's supposed to be going the other way. It went up. Price pressures. These persistent price pressures are persistent.
Work yeah, persistent price pressures persistent?
Yeah, they are persistent. Indeed, this is not getting better, and the problem is that a lot of people take almost I would argue, false hope from the headline inflation figure that was at two point one percent, and everyone's going eyah, bottom end of the target range for the Reserve Bank. No, no, no, As Sean explained to US admirably through the week, right suck. When you take away the energy rebates and all of these other things, those headline numbers are going to jump again. And the RBA is of course looking for sustained reduction in inflation two quarters here. What does this mean? Bad news, guys, everyone who's taken this false hope. There's no rate cuts anytime soon, not until like at least the middle of next year, and that's going to be after the federal election, don't you reckon? So no help to the Prime Minister to tie it back to Sean's opening story, which could possibly have been good enough to in but didn't. It was a tie. Definitely should not to rub that one back in judging mother looks on the basis it.
Went pretty well I thought first time around.
So yeah, look, so there you go, quick, short, sharp economic story, inflation, persistent price pressures, bang, remarkable shan over to you.
Well, I don't even know if it's worth saying anything because the judging is so appalling. Whatever I say is going to be. I mean, you know, so what was remarkable this week? Oh? I don't know. Superannuation for trillion dollars hit the fortrillion dollar mark for the first time. Oh yes, so what who cares only four trillion dollars? That's what Adam I'd say.
I mean, I'm sniffing the air. I'm sending another tie coming.
No, no, or even defeat.
Well, you probably would defeat this story because obviously it's the most remarkable story. But you know this straying. Financial Regulation Authority came out assets up four percent September quarter. I used that word before, I'm going to use it again. Yeah, that's it all over when the judge starts abusing me. I don't mind Michael abusing Adam. I had respect for you until Rae v. Wade, which is about three years ago.
Yeah.
Do you want me to go on or not.
Very interested?
No, that's it. I'm out four trillion dollars, simple, that's it. Huge, honeypot money, all that stuff. You know, good returns, eleven and a half percent, wages each week, going to super two point five million retiring over the next decade. Yeah, remarkable, but you wouldn't think so that's it.
Taken us time for a rethink of superannuation.
Sean, don't go sucking up to me, mate, don't try and get serious on me. I was going to give the whole shabang about you know, the Kenning Hawk is what a wonderful system we have, but it's so big now, government tipping themselves into it, trying to get the super funds to get into housing all that. Maybe we need to reform it. Yeah, I was going to go that, but I've had it. I'm absolutely out. We need a break. Make your decision, Adam, it'll be a bad one, and then let's go to the break.
It'll be the longest break we've ever had. We come back in two and a half weeks.
Underlying inflation persists. Wins.
Well done, Michael, Thanks Adam, I've never been so scared of a victory before. We will take a quick break. Sean's going to step outside the studio for a moment and we'll see whether he comes back. All right, we are looking for a sleeper story of the week, and very good news. Sean Almer has returned, bright and cheery and chipper and I think all is forgiven. So it just one and a half to half a point. That is my way. I am winning, and let's do the sleeper storry. What have you got for a Sean?
Well, first, they just like to make a quick correction. Nothing is forgiven. But let's go go on to the sleeper story.
Quite right, deal Michael, Deals.
Of back, Deals of Back we found out out this week, certainly at the lower end of the market. This week we had private equity group Specific Equity Partners bidding for SG Fleet Group, the leasing company. It's an its share price up more than twenty percent, about a one point two billion dollar bid. We had IAG buying the business of Royal Automobile Club of Queensland. That's about eight nine hundred million dollars. Basically, IAG has NRMA in New South Wales, RACV in Victoria, a r ACQ from Queensland. Twenty five year deal, one point seven million members. Big deal for IAG. Its share price jumped about four percent on the day. Another deal was American real estate giant Proprium Capital Partners. The highlight of this deal was Michael trying to say the word Proprium. Proprium Capital Partners bidding three hundred and seventy five million dollars by Av Jennings.
Hang on, I didn't think you ess I got I thought I got through ailed through that without any kind of problem. But I got to and I was like, oh, I'm assuming it's proprium and not proprium proprium. So I just kind of just peazed my way through it. And Sean didn't say a word. Been sitting on that one, haven't you?
Did?
She wait?
Did you know that? Do you remember the ads for AV Jennings? Yes, makes me a very proud old builder that one. Oh no, that's a bit older than me, right Anyway, AV Jenny's share price jump ninety percent on the offer. AV Jennings like it's a great company. It's about twenty bucks of shares today it's about sixty two cents a share. So it hasn't been so good in Australia in the ASEX at a record high. Companies like pro Medicus shooting the lights out one of the great Australian companies over the past couple of years. Pro Medicus that to me, what category are we in? Sleeper? Well? Why is it a sleeper story? Because Adam has focused on a bunch of gar bit like Donald Trump posturing there's been so much politics going on, we seem to forget that all these deals are back over the year. Michael, Look, I did my best to be enthusiastic about this show. After the break, I really went out. I had a cup of Team Hit. The whole lot came back in. Do you two? My mood just dropped again.
Is there any one of us in particular? So I feel like I shouldn't have sledged you about the AV the AV Jennings ad, Right, The one that I remember is the It's like the It's the song remember like the dreams Can Come True and a V. Jennings build them for you. Yeah, that was the one I thought you were going to refer to, and then you busted out something that was from like the Silent movie days, from the early talkies, the sleeper story for me this week South Wales dodged a bullet through the week, right, it's not and this is having.
A year gone from global to local, local, local.
But I'm expanding it to a nationally relevant story which is part of a global movement. Sean, really, I think, of all, it's not even summer yet, but Sydney recorded a very very very hot day through the week. In fact, it was its hottest November day in four years and it was quite extraordinary. The premiere, Chris Mins had to call for people to turn off their air conditioners, their dishwashers, their pool pumps, basically anything that was kind of using a bit of power. There was this surgeon consumption right alongside and this is key outages at four units along the East Coast in terms of power production units coal powered, culified power plants, so those kind of things, and that meant supply was very, very very tight. The Australian Energy Market Operator said they were insufficient reserves in terms of generation across the day. This story is what we call it is a rare double sleeper.
Two the audience to sleep no.
End you too as well. Yes, two things that are going to be bigger issues down the track. A double fuse has been lit and it is kind of fizzing off in different directions. Number one. Number one, it is going to be a hot summer act. They just realized as this is not very sleepery because it's people probably aware that someone is going to be hot. But this may just be the beginning of these call outs. This will not be the last time that the people, the good people of New South Wales have these requests coming from their premiere. And I would argue that the same thing's going to happen to the good people of Victoria, and the good people of Queensland, and the good people of Tasmania. Maybe South Australia. I don't really know. I'm not an expert on the South Australian electricity grid. But but, but, but the quad butt It is just the beginning of these call outs to shut down electrical items. Right, Okay, that's point one. Let's park that park that number two. This is the big one. This is the big one. Don't you don't you say anything. I can see you. Just sulan. This has revealed and Adam write every word of this down because this is critical. Nostradamis over here is predicting the future. This has revealed exactly how precarious our power supply and the generation of electricity in Australia is, and it illustrates just how big the challenge will be to transition to renewable energy when the most basic need, the most fundamental requirement of the grid is just to keep the lights on, and not even that.
Which category, which category are we in?
This is a sleeper story, because this is a bigger story coming down the track. But the fuse was lit this week with those call outs from the New South Wales premiere. It is ill. Don't shake your head, Adam.
That is I just, I just I want to get this right. So this week we found out that the country could have blackouse because of the transition to renewable power.
Indeed, it was illustrated this week.
Sean illustrated so that the fuse wasn't lit has such?
Yes it was. It was lit by the the awesome power of the sun. On was it Wednesday?
Right?
Like a magnifying glass. The fuse sparked to life and fizzed all the way into our future.
Okay, is that it?
I think?
So?
You know it was an unorthodox close, you know, as the concluding arguments going, Yes, look that did all happen in New South Wales this week, Michael, and think about it all, jeez, you know the struggle of humanity. Please you'll have to turn off your pul pumps, your dishwashers and your air conditioners temporarily.
Oh dear air conditioners though, like that is like you where did.
You go up Michael?
You jes where did you grow up in Heny? Where's that in between Wogger and Albury?
Did it ever get hot down there?
It got rather toasty.
Did you have an air condition down there growing up?
I'm thinking particularly of schools, right, and if these instructions and these requests are going out to schools to turn off air conditions, why did somebody think of the children?
Adam, Adam, Let's just get on with it.
So I look, Sean Wins.
Yeah, fair enough that earlier.
The deals and the Australian companies involved Sensational Week. And I thought, Sean, as you began that story about forgiving and forgetting a little motto for fear and greed, how about this never forgotten, sometimes forgiven?
No, I don't know, well well, neither forgive nor forget.
It's sometimes too optimistic.
Sometimes it's overreaching. I think.
Sean, with sleeper category, it.
Has taken me, It has taken me, honestly, fifteen minutes to get over that first decision.
It'll take you a lot longer than that.
It's why I made my sleeper story extra long, to give you little bit of extra recovery time. Shall we Shall we finish on a high? Would you like to go first?
Sure? So my favorite story is a topic which came to the for the week, which I love. It's the world of subca cables.
Now, how did you get that one? That must have been a battle between the two.
Of you, because I was talking about my mate.
Yeah, better known as Bed your old flatmate, wasn't he.
Yeah, he used to sit on the back of a boat and literally go thousands of kilometers and just unfurl the cable and just watch it hit the water and then have to splice new cable on a little fantastic story.
So subsea cable bad if you accidentally dropped the cable. Oh no, that's like one and a half kilometers down right.
Now, all right, there's one point five million kilometers of subc cable around the world, and if you don't know what it does, they basically contain fiber optic cables, and they are that didn't apin the entire global Internet and the modern information age. Fiber optic meaning that they carry light, so the speed of light. That's why we have such quick Internet because we're actually talking about the speed of light. They're unfiled. There's an amplifier every kilometer, every seventy kilometers or so. The Maria cable is the longest one sixty six hundred kilometers. They're only about like a hose. That's a thickness as a hose. They have all this protective stuff on them, so they're about double that size, and they are throughout the world and they are actually what allows society to communicate. They are that important. This week we found out the tech giant Google's back to something called Australia Connect. It's a subse cable between mainland capital cities and Christmas Island. The first cable to run between Darwen and Christmas Island, second one between Melbourne and Perth. That's great be consorting him in that next DC the data center provider Telco Group vocus Google obviously, so that was all pretty cool, Pretty happy about that. But another story we've been following which had an incredible well not quite outcome, but turn this week. Remember we're talking about a cable between Finland and Germany being severed. Anyway, what we found out this week is that a Chinese ship is suspecting of severing two Internet cables in the Baltic Sea in an act of sabotage. It's supposed to be orchestrated by Russia, or at least that's what people are saying. The Yipang three, which is a Chinese registered bolt carrier dragged its anchor along the Baltic Sea bed for more than one hundred and sixty kilometers. Now, a senior European investigator tell the Wall Street Journal, I like this quote. It's extremely unlikely that the captain would not have noticed that his ship dropped and dragged its anchor, losing speed for hours and cutting cables on the way. They call it hybrid warfare. So the idea that these subsea cables are so important to the world's communications, and the Russians and the Chinese working in Khutz to sever the communications, why an' increditable story.
I like how subdued the delivery was.
Yeah, I'm not over it. I'm not over it.
You don't say I don't hold onto things never look. It's a good story, and I love how many I don't know whether you mentioned this in the middle of that, because I wasn't listening. No, I was listening. I was listening, But I just can't remember about the percentage of the Earth's undersea cables that are either owned or controlled by austroler.
I didn't.
Yeah, it's nearly like twenty five percent or so, just because of the position of where we are obviously, and the fact that we need so much cable to get everything else out. I thought that was amazing.
Yeah for that, that's my main bear sitting on the back of the bar. Good job, Bear, eh go Bear.
Laying cables across the seabed. Well done, bere.
Michael, your favorite story. Please Look.
I always did this story as my sleeper story.
Be good then, isn't it?
No?
No, no no, But it was too good to just to burn really in that wasteland of a category. So I bumped it up to the big time my favorite story of the week. And I owe a significant significant amount of gratitude to a listener, Danny, who contacted us via the Fear and Greed website for the first time this week. He's never made contacts before, and he did it to give me a tip, because Danny knows the passion that I have, the deeply held passion that I have for tax reform, and so we thought that I would enjoy enjoy this story. And it was right, because this is about a green paper that did not get much attention this month because there was just so much other stuff going on in Parliament. But the thing about this ooh, Adam, why are you looking at me so skeptically?
See, parliament doesn't matter. Remember, it's irrelevant. It's about as equal as Donald Trump posturing anyway.
Go on, oh golly, ecra or lesser than oh god, they're sticking the boot in. Okay, Look the thing about this green paper, there was a few things that made this different. It came from an independent right for one thing, So that's a little bit different. A leg aspender, now, miss spender spent eighteen months, eighteen long months, right holding meetings with all kinds of people with tax experts, business experts, business groups, kind of academics and unions, normal people everyday regular Joe's and.
Then an academic that's a normal person.
No I'm saying that. And normal people, oh so like they had to be split out into an entirely separate category that keep them away from the academics.
Apologies to your academics out there.
And they were talking about tax, Adam. Can you imagine if in searching for people to talk to about tax, she was picking people at random and she picked up the phone and it was like Adam Lang speaking and she would have been in for like four weeks straight. And another thing have you considered.
This from eighteen months to two years?
Yep, that's right, in six months. And that was just Adam. And as as Shane Wright wrote in the Nine Newspapers, the verdict of this Green paper, of all of this consultation, of all of this extensive discussion and research into tax the verdict was that our tax system is broken, That it is damaging the property market, the business investment is failing, that poor productivity is rife. And the paper doesn't just point out the problem. This is the thing. It proposes solutions reform in six key areas, six six key areas, from lowering income taxes to reshaping the whole taxi and basically so that the revenue base remains more stable as the population ages. This is detailed stuff, right, And Adam, I'm just I'm not even going to look at Sean. This is a direct appeal to you. How good right that there is somebody in Australia, in federal Parliament who is willing to look at the bigger picture, who's willing to kind of, I don't know, take a shot of putting something unpopular out there because tax reform, unfortunately for you, unfortunately for me, it is unpopular politically right. But but there is someone there who is willing to do this research, to put the time into this, to take a risk, knowing that maybe, just maybe that this will light a spark under the bonfire of the debate that we so badly need to have, the debate about tax reform in Australia. It is my favorite story of the week, Adam.
The sad thing about this, the absolute gard is that came out of your mouth, that this is going to be Adam's favorite story of the week too. Like he may give it to me for the undersea cable stuff. He may give it to me. I'm not saying that, but actually, deep down in his heart, right in his heart, tax reform. Nothing beats it.
Deep down. You know that the moment he walks out of the studio, he is googling this green paper and downloaded, reading it.
Entire and probably getting in touch with the legal spinner saying why and.
You talk to me, you missed a few things. I've got some more ideas.
This is the mobile number.
Call any time, oh dear, deliver your judgment please, and before you do, one and a half to one and a half, Adam, that's where we are now.
We are, indeed and outrageously.
Look the green paper. I love it if there's anything in there that's new. But that's why I just can't be my favorite store. And maybe my heart's turned a little black from the lack of reform, the fatigue at the end of a long year. I'm starting to lose hope, Michael. It's not dead, but I'm starting to lose hope about the lack of courage and political will. So well done, a legal spender, but it just doesn't count.
I'm a lack of political will.
Thirty pieces of legislation this week. Out of thirty pieces, that's political will, Adam.
I never thought i'd say this when it comes to tax reform. You're part of the solution, part of the problem.
Oh look the.
Subseed cables, the international espionage, just being accused. The necessity it is for the well, the necessity we have that this communication channel remains open and grows.
We need it.
It's a spectacular technology that we don't really see in our daily lives, but we need it.
I love it. That's my favorite story for the week.
Thank you.
So I hang on after the biggest.
I don't know if I should accept your thanks.
The biggest dummy spit in history. You have snatched a victory two and a half to one and a half.
Yeah, there's method in the madness that, Mike.
Yeah, Yeah, you've got it.
You got to play with Adam's good nature. Really, you really do have to play on the fact that he feels bad when he upsets someone.
You secured pity points. That's what you got.
That's what I went on to write.
What was the what was the score? Then the point score? Adam?
Oh, Michael, you eighty six, Sean eighty nine.
I reckon at least three pity points.
Oh no, I'm impervious to emotional attack.
You also hate tax reform. Things have changed this week. I don't know who you are anymore, Adam, but this has entirely changed my approach for future weeks. All Right, we better wrap things up. Thank you very much, Adam.
Thank you, Michael, and thank you Sean.
Thank you Michael and a half. Thank you to you, Adam.
Thank you Sean for the I expected.
Actually it's three quarters. Thank you. There's only one category that was disgrace.
Oh god, thank you Sean for the emotional rollercoaster you have subjected us all to over the last half hour or so. Make sure you are following the podcast, and please join us online on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X Michael Thompson And that was here and Greed have a great weekend.
