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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the Saturday edition of Fear and Greed, business news you can use. I'm Michael Thompson and good morning, Sean Aylmer. Good morning, Michael Thompson.
Sean, our Saturday show is all about the two of us, each nominating what we think is the biggest business news story of the week, the most remarkable business news story, a mystery category that we change every week just to keep things exciting, our favourite story as well. It is a competition between the two of us and in a competition you need a judge to
And that judge is our fear and greed colleague, Adam Lang. Adam, good morning. Hi, Sean. Hi, Michael. Can we start with a special shout out to everybody at the Kirrawee Library this morning, currently sitting in my How to Make a Podcast workshop, who's being forced to listen to the start of this episode as an example of how to start a podcast. Good morning. Good morning.
Good morning to you all. And fortunately, this is a podcast, not a vlog, because you wouldn't be able to see what Michael's wearing this morning.
Chapter 2: What are the biggest business news stories of the week?
And he has this hoodie, I suppose. Is it a hoodie? Yeah, it's a hoodie, Sean. Yeah. And the inside material, is that pro-America? Is that? No, it's not. It's the red, white and blue, but it's very much the kind of the winter twill or something like that.
Yes. I don't think I've ever had so much of a critique on my clothing. Usually it's, let's have a crack at Adam because he's wearing a suit on a Saturday morning, that kind of thing. You've gone with fireside chic. Yes, that's exactly it, Adam. Fireside chic.
Fireside chic is well done.
Perfect. Nicely done. I think it works. Look, I'm happy with it and I shan't be changing it based on what the two of you think. Let us go with the episode. The criteria, Adam, if you would tell us what you're looking for in the next four categories of stories.
Okay, got to be newsy, timely and topical. And the big one for us, of course, economic impact. There's always a bit of subjective bias for my reform. Got to be honest about that. And really, Michael, your special suit, particularly given what you're wearing, melodrama. Sell it, Michael.
It is just a jumper. It is a polar fleece hoodie. It is. Polar fleece hoodie.
Yeah.
Yeah. I like it. Through the week we were talking about, um, through the week, Sean, you and I were talking on the show about, uh, KMD brands and Katmandu. Remember how we're talking about that? One of the problems for Katmandu was that, uh, their clothes were almost too reliable and they didn't fall apart. Uh,
And I just wanted to share that at the same time that I bought the jacket that I've been wearing now for 11 years, I bought this same jumper as well. And now it has lasted me 11 years. And so all of my wardrobe is from the mid 20 teens.
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Chapter 3: How did inflation rates change this week?
Let's get onto the most remarkable story, shall we? Oh, yes. Go for it. Even though there was an element of remarkability now, as we've discussed to the biggest story of the week, but remarkable. How about this one, Adam? The federal government suing 3M, the Wall Street giant, for more than $2 billion. Now, this all comes back to forever chemicals, PFAS, these chemicals that have been used by
for decades by the Department of Defense, particularly in firefighting foam. And there's been thousands of homes contaminated and drinking water and food supplies. And it's already cost defense a billion dollars so far to clean up along the way. Now the government's going after 3M in what is the largest legal claim ever brought by the Commonwealth.
And Attorney General Michelle Rowland didn't hold back When she was speaking about it through the week, she alleged that 3M withheld information about the toxic effects of the chemicals. A massive, massive settlement a couple of years ago in the US. A similar case against 3M. Settlement was about $19 billion in the end to clean up. a similar contamination across a bunch of sites in the US.
We are potentially heading down that same path. This is a massive story. It's just remarkable because of the scale and because it is the biggest one ever taken on by the Commonwealth on behalf of Australia against a company out of the States.
Sean? It is remarkable, right? But such a long way to play. It's just like a headline number. Who knows what's going to happen? Do you know what is remarkable? Yes. With economic impact, with reform, without any melodrama needed. Maybe you should add a little bit. The fact that... Please, add a little bit, please.
The fact that we are all going to be paying less for energy in the next quarter, whether we're a consumer, a small or medium-sized business. The Australian Energy Regulator lowered the default market offer price. By up to 11%, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia. Victoria does it a bit different, but up to 5% lower there. Small businesses will experience even bigger reductions.
Now, depending on your specific offer price, some small businesses in New South Wales could end up paying 21% less. What this is, this is the default market offer price. The retailer, so the person that you buy electricity off, now it's up to them to pass it through. But it's a fairly competitive market, so it will be passed through.
Adding to all this good news, we're all going to get three access, or households will get access, to free power for three hours in the middle of the day under what they call a solar sharer product, which was announced in March. Why is all this happening? Well, renewables is a big part of it. They're adding to supply. Plenty of wind. When there's plenty of wind, we get more renewables.
Battery storage is much better. We've already talked about- Plenty of wind in the studio right now. Good Lord. We've already- Oh, Adam. Adam. Oh, Adam.
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