If you've bought a house lately - or tried to - then you'd know the price advertised for properties in the big cities are, more often than not, way below what they sell for.

But we've never really had a handle on how widespread underquoting is. Until now.

In a new investigation that analysed tens of thousands of property sales in Sydney and Melbourne, our mastheads have uncovered an extraodinary level of misinformation and deception faced by property buyers.

In today's episode, reporters Aisha Dow and Lucy Macken take us through the results of this investigation and how dodgy price estimates are an open secret in Australia's property market.

To read all the stories in the 'Bidding Blind' series, go to: https://www.theage.com.au/national/bidding-blind-melbourne-20250724-p5mhkc.html

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This week on the pod we are going to delve into what we are calling Canberra’s Coachella - AKA the Productivity Summit, which is happening the week after next.

What is the point of it? And what is productivity anyway?

Here to discuss, we have Chief Political Correspondent, Paul Sakkal as usual, and special guest star and productivity king, Senior Economics Correspondent Shane Wright.

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If you heard the news that Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday and responded with a shrug, you probably weren’t alone. How do or die are monthly jobs statistics? And wasn’t this just another instance of Trump attacking someone whose findings he didn’t like?

Not according to experts from across the political aisle, who have raised the alarm that this move represents a different threat, altogether. Even for Donald Trump.

Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher, on what history tells us happens once a country’s leader starts controlling facts.

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