Michael Janda

And that's why share prices are going down because you need a higher return from those companies to justify paying the price to buy the shares.

It depends how long it plays out.

If you go back in history, the 1970s was the death knell for the big V8 in Australia and in the US as well.

I mean, they've made a comeback in the US and in Australia too with the massive utes and SUVs and so on.

But for a long time, that surge in oil prices in the 1970s saw the rise of the two-litre engine or even smaller

the small hatchback out of Japan really made the Japanese auto industry and crippled this.

It was the beginning of the end for the Australian car industry and the decline of Detroit and the US car industry as well.

So if this lasts years, yes, I think you could see this cementing EVs and overtaking internal combustion.

And again,

the winner geopolitically from that is China, because they make most of the EVs.

Can I afford $150, $200 to fill my tank if I can get fuel at all?

Yeah, well, I spoke to the RBA deputy governor in early January before that inflation data, and that interview was very quickly blown out of the water by subsequent events.

We're currently expecting that the Reuters poll of economists is expecting inflation to stay about where it was for January into February, which was 3.8% year-on-year for the headline number and 3.4% year-on-year for the Reserve Bank's preferred trimmed mean.

That's the one that excludes the most volatile price moves.

Both of those are, of course, well above the 2% to 3% Reserve Bank target and likely to keep the pressure on the board.

And we know there's division on the board, but it will keep the pressure on if those come in at that level for another rate rise in May.

So homeowners would be desperately hoping if they've got a mortgage

that those inflation numbers surprise on the downside.

But even if they do, these are February numbers.

So basically before any of this in the Middle East happened, that started right at the end of February, none of the fuel price impact is captured.