Tag boom-bust

Nobody wants a mortgage

11 July 2012 ABS Housing Finance data out today shows a 7.3 per cent fall in commitments to buy new-built houses in a singe month. This follows a 9.3 per cent fall the month before. “Established house price are now…

Weak Construction gets Weaker

Dwelling construction continues to fall, according to the AIG-HIA Performance of Construction Index for May. Commercial construction and house building activity weakened to 34.7, where anything below 50.0 represents contraction. In parallel, the ABS Building Approvals graph looks like a…

Tidal Race

Tidal Race. Definition: a stream of exceptionally fast tidal flow created when the tide is forced through a constriction. Australians are saving like mad and quickly paying down debt. But we stand in a Tidal Race, where the water rises…

Understanding Cause and Effect

Reposted from Bryan Kavanagh’s thedepression.org.au, an excellent source of dissident economic analysis. It helps that he is correct. If you jump off the top of a tall building, you’ll go splat at the bottom: that’s simple physics. We are told…

Muck in Marrickville

Today’s Sydney Morning Herald has a breathless article about a flipper couple who bought, renovated and have for sale a Marrickville terrace. The underlying message: there’s profit in the renovation game. My back-of-envelope calculations based on the article’s figures show…