Here’s what you need to know today

• Precious metals are on a run as investors worry about a return of inflation. Gold is up 4% in the past week and reached an all-time high, breaking US$3,500. Meanwhile silver is up more than 5% in the past week and broke US$40 for the first time since October 2011.
  
  

• The Trump family is $6 billion richer after the crypto project World Liberty Financial launched yesterday. The Trump family own just under one-quarter of the project’s tokens and President Trump is listed as “Co-Founder Emeritus” and Barron Trump is listed as "DeFi visionary”. (WSJ)
  
  

• The Australian government continues to manage the fallout from the weekend’s anti-immigration protests. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned against demonising everyone who participated in the protests, saying it risked pushing people down an extremism “rabbit hole”, while at the same time confirming his government will not be changing Australia’s immigration target of 185,000 permanent migrants this financial year. (AFR)
  
  

• ANZ is preparing to cut up to 5,000 jobs. New CEO Nuno Matos is focused on trimming the bank’s retail division which employs 13,000 people compared to NAB’s 8,000 person retail workforce. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Days after taking over Australian property listing platform Domain, the CoStar team have hit the ground running. It was reported that CoStar CEO Andy Florance took key Domain staff through a 4-hour, 580-slide presentation on how CoStar plans to change the company it just acquired for $3 billion. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• The French government may collapse for the third time in a year. A no-confidence vote for Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government is scheduled for 8 September. The European Central Bank’s President Christine Lagarde has acknowledged it is “worrying” but has ruled out asking for a bailout from the IMF. (Politico)
  
  

• The French no-confidence vote centres on Prime Minister François Bayrou’s proposed €44 billion deficit-reduction plan. French government debt is projected to hit 120% of GDP by 2026 and France’s interest payments on its debt (€66 billion) already exceed spending on education and defence. (Le Monde)
  
  

• Australia is one step closer to implementing its ban on under-16’s using social media. Scheduled to come into effect in December, the government has released a report on using software that analyses a user’s ‘selfie’ to verify age. The report found the software was broadly accurate (with a margin of error of two to three years) and could be used by tech platforms to verify age. (Reuters)

  
  

• The American consumer appears to be holding up okay, with US consumer spending in July seeing its largest gain in four months. This would suggest that America doesn’t need a full percentage point rate cut, as President Trump is demanding. (Quartz)
  
  

• Protests in Indonesia continue escalating with the home of the Indonesian finance minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, ransacked by protesters. Indonesian President Prabowo has reversed a number of the perks given to Parliamentarians that sparked the protests last week. (ABC News)

What the…?

The Economist has released their new “McWages” index, measuring how many Big Macs workers around the world can afford. 

Rather than relying on exchange rates, it compares salaries through the lens of a standardised global product, the Big Mac, offering a simple look at purchasing power.

U.S. workers top the list, able to buy about 13,600 a year, while Danes lead on an hourly basis with 8.5 burgers per hour. Australia ranks strongly, coming in fourth on both measures. (Economist)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Demographics are destiny

This is an extract from the Basis Points podcast episode titled ‘The India opportunity: 10x growth and what comes next - Mugunthan Siva’ (Apple | Spotify | YouTube)

What are the key drivers behind India’s projected 10% nominal GDP growth over the next 20 years?

Demographics. I know that's a simple and easy word to use, but look at the numbers: 1.4 - 1.5 billion people, average age 29. By the end of this decade, 25% of the people working globally will be Indian.

So if the average age in India is 29, and most of the western world is over 40, it makes sense that most of the people between 15 and 65 are going to be Indian.

There is a measure called the dependency ratio: everyone under 15 or over 65, divided by everyone of working age. The lower your ratio, the better, because you have fewer dependents. China’s ratio hit a low of around 35% in 2010, the same time its growth peaked at 12%. Since then, growth has slowed as the dependency ratio has risen. India still has about 15 years before it hits its bottom. That is what is going to drive its growth: demographics.

Want to check out the full episode? All Equity Mates Investing episodes are now released on their own YouTube channel: 

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