Wry & Dry: a cynical and irreverent review of the week in politics, economics and life. For intelligent Readers who disdain the trivial.
Investment Matters
This week Craig reviews 2025, noting five vital themes:
- Liberation Day (i.e. Trump’s tariffs) sell-off: sharp, global and short-lived
- Gold – insurance that paid out
- CBA and 30th June – big caps’ euphoria
- Resources reassert – geopolitics, scarcity and supply discipline
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) – exuberance today, productivity tomorrow
To read Investment Matters, you can still click at the bottom of this week’s Wry & Dry. Or here.
Wry & Dry’s ponderings…
Sunday’s ultimate and devastating outcome of outbreaks of antisemitism plunged a dagger into the hearts of Jews. The sadness is that there were many hands on that dagger. Those complicit include politicians, university elite and journalists.
And it is patently absurd to justify global antisemitism via the narrow lens of some actions of the Israeli prime minister. Protesting against Netanyahu is one thing, torching a synagogue in Melbourne is another.
However, somehow seeking to add some cheer in a week of profound sorrow, this Christmastime issue of Wry and Dry ends with the best of Patrick Cook’s magnificent cartoons from each month of 2025, with an edit of each accompanying article.
No matter which child of Abraham you are, allow God’s loving arms to wrap around you, to comfort and bless you and your family this week.
[A reminder that the comments in Wry & Dry do not necessarily reflect those of First Samuel, its Directors or Associates.]
Bondi’s blood-soaked sand
Albo, on this issue, has been shown to be a weak and ponderous prime minister, and contemptibly lacking in courage. He and his colleagues have viewed the events of 7 October 2023 and since only through a political prism. And are rightly wearing the opprobrium.
However, Albo was correct to say that antisemitism didn’t start in 2022 (when he was elected PM). Had he thought more deeply, his history lesson to the media would have been deeper.
He may have said that of the three great monotheistic faiths – Judaism, Christianity and Islam, only Judaism has kept itself to itself. Neither has it sought to conquer or to wage war, other than in defence of its homeland, its faith and its ethnicity. Jews have been persecuted by Christians and Muslims for hundreds of years. Please leave them alone.
This is the truth. But saying this truth, as Albo knows, would upset too many people.
Readers might reflect that Hanukkah (‘Festival of Lights’) commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the 2nd century BC, after it was defiled by the Seleucid Greeks. The central meaning revolves around three themes, one of which is about ‘light and hope’1.
Lighting the Hanukkiah (a special menorah with nine branches, eight for the days of Hanukkah and the shamash helper candle) symbolises bringing light into darkness, faith in God’s providence, and resilience in adversity.
It is this resilience in adversity that will ensure that those seeking to destroy Israel, Jews and Judaism will never succeed.2
Israel, Jews and Judaism have survived. And will survive this adversity.
1 The other two are victory and freedom: the triumph of the Maccabees over oppression and the restoration of Jewish worship; and also the Miracle of the Oil. According to tradition, when the Temple was purified, there was only enough consecrated oil to keep the menorah burning for one day—but it lasted eight days, which is why Hanukkah is celebrated for eight nights.
2 Old Testament Readers will be aware of Genesis 12:1–3; Genesis 17:7–8; 2 Samuel 7:12–16; Jeremiah 31:35–37; Isaiah 54:17; and Isaiah 54:17.
Wry & Dry’s 2025 Retrospective
The first cartoon and article below were in Wry & Dry’s penultimate edition of 2024. Both were eerily prescient.
1. December 2024 – Australia’s Kristallnacht
Join the dots. A synagogue in a Melbourne suburb gets fire-bombed. And the Victorian police sent out only the arson squad. Really? Yes, really.
This after the weekly blockades of Melbourne’s CBD by protesters flying Hamas’ flag and shouting death to Jews, the picketing of synagogues, the targeting of Jewish schools and businesses, the vandalism of Jewish MP’s electorate offices, the graffitiing and burning of cars in Jewish suburbs, etc.
And on Wednesday the second graffitiing and car-burning in a Jewish Sydney suburb.
A question without notice, Prime Minister: when did this ethnic hatred become not okay?
Last Friday? With the fire-bombing. No, it wasn’t then, there was tennis in Perth. Perhaps the penny dropped on Sunday, when the media reports screamed anti-Semitism.
Until then he and other leaders played politics and votes’ defending. Under either (a) the fashionable guise of not wanting to upset the sensibilities of other ethnic groups; or (b) reluctance, especially by the Premier of Victoria, to consider ‘law & order’ as a legitimate tool of government.
His insistence that he and his government have “consistently called-out anti-Semitism” is classically vapid. Upgrade Albo: having called it out, you have to do something about it. That’s what leaders do. Don’t faff around with international virtue signalling.
Upgrade-Albo’s naivete of history (Germany 1933-45) is unforgivable. And his unwillingness to show leadership, until now, against the terrorising of Jewish Australians who have no say in Israel’s policies marks him as spineless.
Wednesday’s words are too late, Albo, now. It’s too late.
2. January – Trumpster channels Napoleon
The coronation of the Trumpster had many of the features of that of Napoleon:
In the end, Napoleon’s ambition and arrogance cost plenty. His good deeds were a poor match for his bad.
The Trumpster’s legacy remains to be seen. Wry & Dry wonders what will be his Waterloo? Perhaps his large mouth…
3. February – Emperor Eleven wants an island
The Cook Islands has a population of only 15,000. But its prime minister wants to join the big league. In front of what country could he better place his name (Mark Brown) than Emperor Eleven’s Empire?
And so it came to pass that Mr. Brown goes to Beijing this week to “seek a partnership in national development, including infrastructure, trade and the economy.”
What can the Cook Islands offer Emperor Eleven in return for being tied hand and foot by loans? Well, the islands of the Cook Islands are tiny, just 15 islands totaling 240 km2. But they cover an Exclusive Economic Zone of over 2.2m km2, about the size of Western Australia.
Imagine those long-line Chinese fishing fleets scraping fish of all types from the Pacific.
4. March – Top Gun Pete
The first circumnavigation of Australia since that by Matthews Flinders in 1802 was well underway last week. A fleet armada flotilla of two of Emperor Eleven’s armed tugboats and a mobile 7-Eleven ship were last spotted off south-western Australia.
The media wet their collective beds: “the barbarians are at the gate!” was the wailing. Well, 300 kilometres from the gate. The seeming barbaric threat, momentarily, forced Trumpster’s latest follies onto page two. Uncle Albo was lost for words and Uncle Fester Top Gun Pete Dutton gushed, err, gushiness.
Top Gun Pete’s response to the naval threat was aerial: to promise $3bn to buy 28 new F-35 fighter jets. Which would reverse Uncle Albo’s decision last year to scrap the purchase of those same 28 F-35 jets. But doubtless cost-of-living pressure would have pushed up the price of the jets at the checkout. $4bn, perhaps. Who knows?
Top Gun Pete is the new Maverick.
5. April – Trumpster’s tariffs
Trumpster’s administration is the new Renaissance; the new black of narcissistic incompetence. Not since Stalin implemented the Soviet Union’s disastrous collectivisation of agriculture has megalomaniacal government and idiotic economics been blended so successfully.
Optimists have been searching for a consistent logic behind Trumpster’s impressive facade of chaos. Surely, there must be a cunning strategy? But this week the curtain has been drawn back to reveal that there is no tariff strategy beyond his whims.
Trumpster delights in keeping the entire world on its toes, whilst his acolytes fawn like bemedalled North Korean generals before Kim Jong-Un.
‘Reciprocal’ tariffs on 75 countries being paused for 90 days is window dressing. Trade negotiators are masters at delay and bureaucracy. Success comes to the patient. Trumpster is not patient.
But no pause for Emperor Eleven Empire. In a sand-pit fight with Trumpster, his empire is now facing 145% tariffs on exports to the US, whilst imposing 82% on imports from the US.
6. May – Uncle Albo’s Place in History
Good grief. It was a 55/45 win for Uncle Albo (the polls had 52/48), to whom Wry & Dry dips his lid. This is a vindication of Uncle Albo’s campaign, he stuck to the script and successfully played the avuncular (i.e. wise uncle) leader. But less so of his policies. The age of dependence has begun.
And it’s a damning indictment of a tired, out-of-touch political party (Liberal) led by an unimaginative, mono-culture focussed leader (Dutton). Whose leader was given the DCM by his local voters. As was the leader of the Greens, who in a fit of leadership idiocy forgot that his party was one of environmental leadership. And not antisemitism.
The Liberal carcass is still warm in the grave. And yet those few Liberals not in the queue at Centrelink are now seeking media attention for their leadership preference, disguised as policy ideas.
Meanwhile, in Albo-heaven, the policy of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion got the heave-ho. Uncle Albo meekly bowed to the pressure of Labor’s factions. And gave the DCM to Cabinet’s only Muslim (Ed Husic) and its only Jew (Mark Dreyfus).
7. June – The 12-Day War – All the Players
Netanyahu showed he knows how to get inside Trumpster’s capacious brain. He got a weekend rent of seven B-2 bombers, 14 GBU-57 bunker buster bombs and 118 fighter jets. Readers will remember that Ukraine (remember Ukraine) had to sign away 50% of its mineral wealth to get future US military aid. Netanyahu paid nix for his.
Ali Khamenei says that his leadership meant that Iran survived a nasty attack from the Great Satan. He also said that he was willing to be martyred for the cause. Thousands of Iranians went onto to social media urging him to do so.
Bed-wetters and hand-wringers came out in force. This is Armageddon. The Apocalyptic end of the world as we know it. How dare anyone do such nasty things to the very nice Islamic Revolutionary Guard?
Lawyers, both barrack-room and qualified, wrote letters to the editors. The bombing was illegal, of course. Take it to the Supreme Court or the ICJ. But nothing was said about Hamas, Hezbollah, or Houthis. Or Syria. Not to mention domestic theocratic torture.
The media salivated at the opportunity to fill spaces between ads with maps, diagrams, charts, and Q&As. But all the maps didn’t help Middle America, who still think that Iran is near Taiwan.
Uncle Albo’s incisive contribution was to show year-7 English alliterative ability and call on whomever were involved, whomever it were, and they know who they were, to show “de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy”. Had he not already been dead, Henry Kissinger would have died laughing at such a puerile comment from a nation’s leader.
8. July – Uncle Albo Goes the Full Tourist
Even in black and white photos, Uncle Albo blushed, as the Chinese media gushed. Photos of the Great Wall walk will make the front pages of the glossy magazines. Uncle Albo was well fed, well flattered and well photographed. He met Emperor Eleven. He had a grand lunch with Emperor Eleven.
There were no surprises about his questions. Nor the answers he received. The only thing missing was three rounds of ‘Kumbaya’. Oh, yes the trade outlook was pumped up (as it should be). And the right noises made. High fives all round.
Realists know that China’s Potemkin welcome of Uncle Albo will not change the transactional nature of the relationship. Emperor Eleven put on a happy face, but he is a ruthless autocrat. Chinese warships will circumnavigate Australia so often one will be named the Matthew Flinders.
It is folly to think that Emperor Eleven’s relationship with Australia is any more than a mercantile one.
9. August – Two-day Workers From Home Unite
The good folk of Victoria had been hoping since Chairman Dan put himself out to pasture to graze upon the rich bounty of government appointments, that a sense of commonsense would wash over his successor.
But no. The dogs bark. But the idiotic caravan moves on. In a policy announcement of idiocy to match Top Gun Pete’s policy to prohibit government workers from WFH, Premier Allen has announced her Two-Day Plan. She will legislate that workers in Victoria have ‘an entitlement’ to WFH two days every week.
Aside from the inconvenient truth that she doesn’t have the power to enact her Two-Day Plan, this is all about ‘wedging’ the Liberal opposition. The latter is a collective of rotary-dialling-brained people in a digital world, whose first instinct in primal: to survive. But like the Polish cavalry facing Hitler’s tanks, the chances are, well, slim.
Unless someone shows a bit of ticker and a smarter approach. The signs are not good. Opposition Leader Brad Battin said that he would “wait for legislative details” of the Two-Day Plan.
Wry & Dry wonders if he would ‘wait for details’ if Premier Allen decided to cut the road toll by introducing a modern Red Flag Act. The world would rather he got on the front foot.
Victorians should lash themselves to the mast of pain expectation, as there will be more of this nonsense until the November 2026 election.
10. September – Cringing in Beijing
Former Chairman Dan’s wife probably hoped he would ride off into the sunset of post-politics’ retirement, where the low-hanging fruit of repayment of past favours could be quietly picked. And savoured.
But the temptation of relevance was too great for him. As Mrs. Dan added a couple of spare black North Face puffer jackets to his carry-on luggage, he justifyingly cried, “Imagine me not only being in the company of past, present and emerging megalomaniacs but also to have the photo to prove I was really one of them.”
But, wait. Even more than the company he would keep, what better way to share a celebration of the falsified history of the Chinese Communist Party’s role in defeating the Japanese than genuflection to Emperor Eleven? Or was it veneration?
It was weird, though. Emperor Eleven didn’t look happy at all as Chairman Dan prostrated himself. Whether it was constipation or the outworking of a dodgy vindaloo for dinner the previous night with the Indian Prime Minister will never be revealed. Or maybe he was thinking, “Who is this bloke? He doesn’t look like a prime minister or president. And what’s with the North Face puffer jacket?”
When announcing his retirement as premier of the Bankrupt State of Victoria he said that his greatest achievement was that he “had made the big calls.”
History is now showing how those big calls have turned out. And history will also show that his biggest call was the vanity of wanting to share a global stage with such a rogue’s gallery of oppressive leaders. A gallery into which he perfectly fitted.
11. October – Hasty Hastie
Some weeks ago, Wry & Dry wrote that Andrew Hastie was the most ambitious politician since Julius Caesar. So it came to pass that Hastie could wait no longer. And last weekend quit the Liberal Party front bench.
He swore blind that his decision had nothing to do with the Sussan Ley’s leadership. Really?
Hastie’s views on immigration (“slash it”) and climate change (“the climate has been changing for millions of years”) are well known. Of lesser awareness is his view that Australia should have a car manufacturing industry. Holey moley!
Yes, the wannabe prime minister wants to wind back the clock to the days when the government subsidised those needy companies: Ford, General Motors and Toyota. Billions were spent propping up those inefficient industries. Until the Liberal government scrapped the nonsense in 2017.
Watch out for more populist rantings now that Hastie is on the back bench, where he will be encouraged by the right-wing echo chamber. Yesterday’s Australian newspaper is a case in point.
By the way, Monday’s Newspoll had Labor leading the Coalition 58/42.
12. November – Trumpster’s New Rival for Narcissism
Well, it’s taken the best part of 2025, but at last Trumpster has a competitor for the most self-satisfied narcissist on the planet: Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen.
As part of the deal to avoid the $2bn cost of running the next COP climate change conference in Adelaide, Uncle Albo wisely yielded to the inevitable and pulled out of the beauty parade, ensuring that Turkey got the gig.
This is a win-win for Australia: Mr. Bowen will now be out of Australia for most of next year. And the $2bn that is now available can be spent to subsidise the power bills of Australians, elevated by Mr. Bowen’s energy policies.
13. December – Full support of the board
…are words no football coach/ manager wants to hear. Which brings Wry & Dry to UK PM Starmer. In his only happy moment this month, yesterday he found himself seated next to Claudia Schiffer at a State Banquet for the German President.
Credit: BCA via PA via Canva.com
Which would have taken his mind off his unhappy moment, when he was earlier forced to express his “full support” for his hapless Chancellor of the Exchequer (Treasurer), Rachel Reeves.
Y’see, Ms Reeves has been, err, economical with the truth. She had warned of a £20-30bn budget shortfall, but Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) later revealed Reeves had been informed as early as September that the gap was much smaller and by October there was actually a £4.2bn surplus.
Snippets from all over
Trumpster orders blockade
President Trump on Tuesday ordered a “total and complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, in a major escalation of his pressure campaign against the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro. (Wall Street Journal)
Wry & Dry comments: This is a slow burning fuse to a large bomb.
UK police to arrest ‘intifada’ protesters
Two of Britain’s biggest police forces have pledged to arrest protesters who chant “globalise the intifada” after recent terrorist attacks. Activists caught chanting the slogan will face prosecution because the “context has changed” following the Bondi beach attack, the heads of the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester police (GMP) said. (The Times)
Wry & Dry comments: Too little, too late.
Hong Kong protest leader guilty. Of course.
Hong Kong’s most famous media mogul and prisoner, Jimmy Lai, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit foreign collusion and sedition at the end of a national-security trial that lasted more than two years. (UK Telegraph)
Wry & Dry comments: Emperor Eleven has spoken. Mr Lai might die in jail, from a mystery ailment.
Ford’s EV business hits the rocks
Ford Motor said Monday it expected to take about $19.5 billion in charges, mainly tied to its electric-vehicle business, a massive hit as the automaker retrenches in the face of sinking EV demand. (Wall Street Journal)
Wry & Dry comments: It’s all about the shift to hybrids.
Trumpster lawyers-up
Donald Trump is set to file a lawsuit against the BBC, accusing the broadcaster of defamation. The US president said his lawyers were preparing to file court papers in Florida on Monday or Tuesday over a doctored speech which made it appear he encouraged the Capitol Hill riot. (UK Telegraph)
Wry & Dry comments: Sue, baby, sue.
It figures
- 4.6%: USA – Unemployment rate, up from 4.4% in September and the highest in four years.
- 3.2%: UK – Inflation, down from 3.6% in October.
And to soothe your troubled mind…
“He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness.”
Trumpster, speaking after the murder of film director (Harry met Sally, etc) and Democrat supporter.
Wry & Dry comments: “…the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness.” Trumpster himself has surpassed all goal and expectations of narcissism.
Summer schedule
Wry & Dry will quiver his quill for summer. This will be the final Wry & Dry for 2025. The first for 2026 will be on Friday 6 February, unless there is an intervening event.
Disclaimer
The comments in Wry & Dry do not necessarily reflect those of First Samuel, its Directors or Associates.
Cheers!