Prof. Ross Garnaut gave the Hamer Oration at Melbourne University on Thursday. He pointed out that Australia has not experienced a recession for 17 years, a record for The Lucky Country. Such a period of unbroken growth is not just an Australian record, it is a world record. But one-way tickets have built-in risks for [...]
photo credit: Dru! A survey of property investors in The Age today by Colemar Brunton shows sentiment delicately poised between those who see the market flat or falling and those anticipating further rises. This is not the bursting of The Great Australian Property Bubble that Prosper and many other commentators like Jeremy Grantham and [...]
photo credit: looseends Saturday mornings at the Richmond market. I hear a fruit stall worker calling his wares: “Last of the carrots! A dollar a bunch! AND THERE’S NO MORE!” Of course, he has carrots by the boxful under the table, but his solemn warning means he sells out every day. Shameless lying by [...]
photo credit: loungerie The Henry Tax Review recommended a resource rent tax to the Australian government, carefully designed to maintain incentives and reward risk. The miners responded with apoplexy and a campaign of deliberate misinformation that has left the economically literate gobsmacked. Let’s get a few things straight. Searching for ore-bodies is not done by [...]
photo credit: robertivanc The great property speculation game is over in America and Europe. The music has stopped. Forty years of steadily increasing pressure has been released. Houses are worth a fraction of what people paid in better times, while the giant mortgages they took on remain. Meanwhile, Australia parties on. We play the [...]
photo credit: midlander1231 For too long, the media eagerly reported the property spruikers’ claim ‘prices only go higher’. This ‘truth’ turned homeowners into speculators and led a whole generation of first home buyers to commit to enormous mortgages they will only pay off after thirty years of unrelenting sacrifice. This week the public story [...]
photo credit: Congratulations Citizens! The Economist says your home is the most expensive among the advanced countries we generally compare ourselves with. Before you puff out your chest in pride, consider what this means. Mortgage repayments are the heaviest in the world, leaving the least disposable income for food, clothing and transport. This is a [...]
The Australian Tax Office has released figures on the extent of negative gearing in Australia ahead of the Henry Tax Review. This is no accident. They are preparing the ground for Ken Henry’s changes. The picture drawn is not pretty: it shows the nation’s ‘aspirational’ landlords, heavily weighted with borrowings, perched on a twig, [...]
photo credit: eb0la An interesting read in today’s Age: Palatial Spreads Kept Empty? That’s Rich Ghost mansions and land banks are sometimes held by those planning a tennis court or swimming pool. Other people are waiting for their children to grow up. Many are speculating that the price of Toorak land will only rise. “Some [...]
photo credit: pyjama People often grasp our message through simple examples. Imagine a friend buys one of these pictured beach boxes for $12,000 in 1994. Meanwhile, you work hard, doing overtime, saving money, being a solid citizen. During the middle of Victoria’s worst day on record (last Saturday reached 46 degrees celcius) your friend decides [...]