Coal-Fired Power Plant

The Top Stories This Week From A Young Australian’s Perspective. (6/12)      1. The Reserve Bank of Australia raised the cash rate to 0.85%.  What does this mean for young Australians? A higher cash means a higher interest rate. And a higher interest rate is good for savers, but bad for borrowers.  Think of interest as the fee the borrower pays to the lender for borrowing their money. If you’re a borrower and the interest rate goes up, then your interest repayments (or ‘fees’) goes up. But if you’re a lender and the interest rate goes up, then you get a larger ‘fee’. So if you have a mortgage or personal loan, this means that you’ll be paying more interest to your banks. Which means less discretionary spending for you. But if you have a high-interest savings account, then the bank will pay you more for having your money in the savings account. The Reserve Bank of Australia raised the cash rate in order to lower inflation. Read how interest rates and inflation are linked here.        2. Reliable Coal-Fired Power Plants Not So Reliable. What does this mean for young Australians? On Wednesday, AGL turned off a unit at its Bayswater power station for repairs. Then on Thursday, another unit at the coal-fired facility went offline due to breakdowns.  There’s already an energy crisis in the eastern states, and this is only making the problem worse. The deteriorating breakdowns at one of the country’s biggest electricity generators is sending electricity prices soaring through the roof, and also raising the prices for coal’s main alternative: gas. This is putting a lot of pressure on households to stay warm and businesses to operate during the colder months.  It’s going to be a long, cold, and very, very expensive winter. Here are some tips to reduce your power bill this winter.         3. Price Of Lettuce Skyrocketed To $12 What does this mean for young Australians? It means that you’ll probably no longer be eating lettuce anytime soon! Seriously, $12 per head of lettuce?!?!?!? And it’s probably not the only vegetable on the rise in recent months, with capsicum, spinach, and onion all increasing in price as well. The reason for the significant increase in price is due to the lack of supply. The devastating floods in Queensland earlier this year wiped out around 80% of lettuce crops, creating the lettuce shortage we have now. The major growing region for lettuce this time of the year is in the Gatton region in Brisbane, which was affected by floods in both February and May.  If you still want salad but can’t afford to pay $12, try replacing the recipe with cabbage. After all, that’s what KFC is doing.