🗞️ Corporate captives

Good morning. Yesterday we asked you if you thought the 4-day work week was a good idea.

With a resounding 84% of you voting yes, we can assume that the remaining 16% are either business owners, c-suite or have no faith that people will work any extra hours within the 4 days.

In a PSA to the 84%, we suggest you don't work for Minerals Australia whose Managing Director came out with this gem about his 5,600 staff last week, “I want to hold them captive all day long, I don’t want them leaving the building. I don’t want them walking down the road for a cup of coffee. We kind of figured out a few years ago how much that cost.”

Enjoy your coffee break today.

All the headlines and more below...

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Apartments boost housing approvals

• A surge in approvals for apartments and townhouses in July pushed housing approvals to their highest level in 18 months. LINK

• Australia's legal market has seen a significant increase in female lawyers joining partnerships, with women now making up 31% of all equity partners. LINK

• More homeowners are taking on flatmates, effectively adding 106,000 homes to the market. LINK

• Australian house prices continued to rise in August, with the median home value reaching $802,357. LINK

• Canberra's housing market is showing signs of stabilisation, with the median house value just shy of $968,000, though unit prices continue to decline. LINK

• A cost-of-living survey in WA found that 37% of respondents would struggle to cover an unexpected $500 bill. LINK

• Solar farm owners in south eastern Australia were forced to cut up to 80% of their output as wild winds and abundant rooftop solar generation caused an oversupply. LINK

• Wild winds across NSW, Victoria and Tasmania caused major power outages, flight cancellations and property damage, affecting over 100,000 residents and leading to at least one fatality. LINK

GLOBAL NEWS

Crypto owners are more likely to have psychopathic traits, study says

• A study suggests that cryptocurrency owners are more likely to exhibit "dark" personality traits such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy and sadism. LINK

• China's economic growth is faltering as factory activity contracts for the 4th consecutive month. LINK

COMPANY NEWS

Star Entertainment's shares suspended on failing to submit financial results on time

• Star Entertainment's shares were suspended after the company failed to submit its financial results on time. LINK

• Amazon Prime Video is closing in on Netflix as Australia's most popular streaming service, with cost-of-living pressures leading 1.5 million Australians to downgrade to ad-supported plans. LINK

• Bapcor's new CEO is dismantling a McKinsey-driven overhaul program after it failed to meet targets and led to a profit decline. LINK

• Bendigo and Adelaide Bank's new CEO has announced a leadership overhaul to focused on digital banking and customer growth. LINK

• CBA is looking to sell its ultra-high-net-worth financial advice business. LINK

• City Chic Collective has significantly reduced its loss to $8.4M and impressed investors with better inventory management. LINK

• Intel is set to trim down the company, potentially including the sale of its Altera programmable chip unit and cuts to capital spending. LINK

• Macquarie expanded its home loan business 5 times faster than its major bank rivals in July. LINK

• Michael Hill reported higher costs and low consumer confidence squeezed the jewellery retailer's margins. LINK

• Nescafé's "Now's Good" advertising campaign successfully reversed product decline and boosted volume share by 2.5%. LINK

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has sold another $845M worth of Bank of America shares. LINK

• Woolworths to exit its remaining 4.1% stake in Endeavour Group, generating $383M from the sale. LINK

THE ODD PICK

Austrian surgeon 'let teenage daughter drill hole in patient's skull'

TOGETHER WITH

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Get access to THE BEST offshore talent and a Platinum certified HubSpot CRM partner to streamline operations and elevate your customer experience - connect with our expert team today.

CHART OF THE DAY

Small Origins Produce over a Third of the World’s Coffee

TRIVIA

Google Chrome’s 16th Birthday

On this day in 2008, Google Chrome was released. According to Statista, Chrome holds 65% of the market share.

Can you name the remaining 4 internet browsers that make up the top 5 most popular? Bonus 100 points if you get them in order of market share.

Answers below

OUR SOCIALS

ANSWERS

1. Safari
2. Edge
3. Firefox
4. Samsung (If you got this, we are very impressed!)

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