People are starting to notice that there has not been much news lately on Mr Morrison’s tough guy crackdown on foreigners breaking our new laws on residential property investment. What new laws did you […]
The Glass Pyramid
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Auction Action: A hint of frost?

Finally the very warm late summer and autumn in Sydney (proudly brought to us by carbon based industrialization) is being softened by a few cooler days. While it is not so […]
Bank Royal Commission: Time for a spotlight on the rotten core.

The announcement by Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bill Shorten that, if elected, his government will establish a Royal Commission into banking has set a cat among the Australian banking pigeons and their […]
Bank Watch: Malcolm needs a bigger bat.

The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s choice of present for the banking sector at the jolly Bank of New South Wales (Westpac) celebrations may have caused a few canapes to become lodged in […]
APRA Watch: Still making excuses and denying “Debt Bubble” paternity

The head of APRA Mr Wayne Byres has come out and admitted in a response to the ABC that APRA was a bit slow off the mark prior to the GFC and […]
RBA/APRA Watch: The debt regulators under the spotlight

NEWS FLASH: The RBA holds – Target rate remains at 2% Last night the 7.30 report included a story on APRA. Macrobusiness commented on this story with some excellent graphs charting the […]
Auction Action: Sydney ‘hops’ away from Easter

One of the ‘mysteries’ of Easter in Sydney is whether the residential auction market will rise from the depths of chocolate narcosis and again bring joy to the many monitoring and depending on […]
Auction Action: A few firm eggs!

As a deeply spiritual city, the Easter Weekend in Sydney is usually a slow time for auctions. Most locals spend this special time of the shopping year with their families performing the sacred […]
RBA Watch: The Wizard loves the curtain
Governor Glenn delivered a speech yesterday to the ASIC Annual Forum 2016 that included the following – emphasis added. “…On the topic of loan quality, the strengthening of lending standards for housing that […]
Auction Action: APRA/RBA .. they shall reign forever and …

Over the last few weeks, the “spooky business” housing market scare campaign by the PM and his “precious” Treasurer has attracted a lot of attention, maybe too much attention, considering its complete lack […]
RBA Watch: Bubble protected & back on the leash

Today the Reserve Bank released the minutes of the last Monetary Policy meeting of the RBA Board. Not very exciting – things went up and things went down and on balance they […]
Auction Action: Still no fear in Sydney

In last week’s slice and dice, the Glass Pyramid enjoyed poking fun at the Negative Gearing / CGT reform “Fear-apalooza” Festival that is travelling Australia at the moment. While the festival is […]
Tony Windsor strikes back – Barnaby in the spotlight

One the great things about the interwebs is that debate rolls in every direction and with some basic tools everyone can take part. Below this article on Macrobusiness a negative gearing debate bubbled […]
Our Neo-liberal “lefties” and Macroprudential

Below are a couple of comments made under the following article at Macrobusiness. click this link. (link may be locked – but there is a free trial available) First this PFH007 Yep – […]
Auction Action: LNP “Negative Gearing” hysteria meltdown

Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison have been struggling the last few weeks. The LNP party room back bench has made it clear that the kind of “reform” they like most is […]
Auction Action: Negative gearing? Why worry!

Alfred E Neuman would be proud! The Sydney auction market yesterday handled the threat by the ALP to end civilisation and bring plague and pestilence to the land – by […]
Negative Gearing: Giving Mr Morrison a Choice
It has been a tough week for Mr Morrison and his Merry Men in the Negative Gearing Defense League (NGDL). The ALP announced a policy of modest negative gearing reforms on the […]
Auction Action: Panic levels rising

The Sydney property market is not immune to the volatile world economy with “Pre-Auction Panic” levels surging and cracking 30% of listed auctions this week. 23% (82) of 358 listed auctions […]
Auction Action: Off the Canvas!

With the RBA giving indications this week of some interest rate “sweet loving” during 2016 – like a Terminator T-800 back from the past and ready to remake the future – the […]
Auction Inaction: The endless summer…

Santa has been and gone, New Year’s Eve (and the hangover) now a distant memory and the Australian flag embossed thongs, beer coolers and boardies are packed away for another year but still […]
Auction Action: Hammer Time hits 30%

As Santa and Rudolph prepare to file a flight plan, the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Property Monitors report there were still a few hundred sellers (300+) in Sydney hoping all their Christmases would […]
Auction Action: 12 December 2015

Another exciting day in Sydney with another thrilling auction report from the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Property Monitors to digest. This week the TGP introduces a few new “characterisations” of the […]
$AUD: Strength is our weakness
There have been a lot of frothy comments over the last few days about the employment statistics and how they indicate that the Australian economy is ‘rebalancing’ and adjusting to the post […]
Auction Action! – Sydney still sagging

One of the great resources that is made available by the Sydney Morning Herald website is the Australian Property Monitors data for residential real estate auctions held in Sydney each week. There is nothing the […]
Bank Watch: Will they feel any pain if homeowners go bust?
“….how long can the banks afford to hold onto empty houses?….” A long time – they are underwritten by the taxpayer and their debt products are supported with great devotion by RBA […]
RBA/APRA Watch: The Puppet Masters still hold the strings
“….both Sydney and Melbourne are primed for a painful correction as soon as the domestic and foreign specufestor interest wanes….” That raises the question of when does the interest of a specufestor […]
RBA Watch: Is Debt Deflation “war gaming” a thing?
It would be very useful to find out what ‘war gaming’ exercises RBA and APRA have conducted to assess what they would do if the demand for debt dropped sufficiently to produce […]
Brazil Watch: What tips on economic management can Australia give?
There is a lot of talk at the moment about the economic difficulties facing Brazil Brazil needs to read more mainstream Australian economic commentary and worry less. If they did they would […]
Capital Flows: Capital flow purists are damaging the National Interest.
One of the “beliefs” of capital free flow purists is that capital flows are like the wind and if they get in the mood to move there is nothing that man nor […]
Robb Watch: Handy Andy tries to save Senator Wong

There is still some hope for the ALP even though PM Turnbull is treading very carefully and producing sky high approval ratings. The hope comes from the increasingly vigorous re-emergence of policy […]
LNP NSW Sell Off – Hurlstone Ag ‘harvested’ by Mr Baird

The great NSW LNP “garage sale” continues with news that the state government plans to continue its “asset recycling” program by flogging off land in South Western Sydney to undertake new capital […]
ALP Watch: ALP wants to sell off Australia even faster than Mr Robb – or is it simply losing the plot.

According to a report in the Canberra Times by the talented Mr Mark Kenny , the ALP intend to try to outflank Mr Robb from the economic neo-liberal ideological fringes with an even […]
Low inflation (aka looming deflation) – The new excuse for even more juicy RBA bait rates.

Nothing makes a bank economist and FIRE sector spruiker happier than the ongoing deflationary pressures generated by a mountain of debt around the globe and the masses of mal-investment driven by the […]
Do Howard and Costello regret creating Household Debt Mountain?
This morning the Sydney Morning Herald published an article by Peter Martin discussing the responsibility of the Howard government for the current absurd state of affairs with regard to the price of […]
Treasurer Watch: Mr Morrison can save Australia – a 3 Step Plan
Due to the sudden ascension of Mr Morrison into the position of “Treasurer of Australia”, the Glass Pyramid has been forced over the last week or so to recycle some briefing papers […]
ChAFTA Watch: The principles for assessing “Good” Free Trade Agreements.
There is oodles of debate in the media about whether ChAFTA is a dud deal or in the national interest. To assist the debate the Glass Pyramid has released “fresh from the […]
Film Night at TGP: Central Banking from the Black Lagoon
The Glass Pyramid film lounge is pleased to present (i.e. found it on Youtube) for your viewing enjoyment Professor Richard Werner’s “Princes of the Yen“. Grab a Pina Colada and settle back! […]
Prices shoot up! “Aussie bond-age” tells a story of national shame.
Macrobusiness reported today that yields on Australian Government Bonds were sinking and therefore bond prices were rising. No surprise that a TGP operative immediately dropped the Kale and Quinoa pie that HoR […]
$AUS Watch – The reason Australia cannot compete remains in the “Too hard basket”
Glass Pyramid Head of Research slipped a cold and flu tablet in one of the TGP operatives cup of bonox this morning. The result was a flurry of comments on the economic blog […]
APRA Watch – We can do so much better than Macroprudential
Macrobusiness today noted that the “property industry” whinging has started as APRA finally emerges from hibernation and attempts to throw some macroprudential water on the crackling and sizzling property markets in Sydney and […]
China Yuan “devaluation” is nothing more than getting ready for Mr Robb’s ChAFTA sell-out.
There is a lot of excitement about recent changes in the approach of the Chinese government to the ‘peg’ between the $US and the Yuan. The question is simple: 1. How much of […]
Income tax cuts paid for by a Commonwealth Land Tax beats raising the GST
Cutting personal income taxes is definitely a good idea – especially at the lower end – as anything that encourages people to get up and earn a buck has merit. Lift the […]
China FTA: Mr Robb sells out Australia at a bargain bin price
Yesterday Mr Robb rose from his sick bed to celebrate the latest “Aussie sell out” deal with one of our trade ‘partners’. These agreements are not about trade they are about unproductive […]
Land Supply Action: At last something we can all agree on!
It has been great to hear Mr Hockey explain that the real problem of housing affordability is a lack of supply. Fantastic to hear the Prime Minister Tony Abbott say the same […]
Econ Weasel Words: “Affordable” Housing
One of the most popular weasel words in the housing debate is “affordable” as it allows the weasel word user to duck the issue of whether housing / land is expensive. A new […]
Mr Hockey – Stop talking and show some leadership on housing supply
Joe Hockey says the housing affordability problem is about a lack of housing supply and that is a state problem. Time to show some national leadership Joe if you want to be […]
Land rights! – More freedom of choice with a dash of sensible taxation
An interesting article in the conversation raised the possibility of auctioning off rezonings in order to ensure that some of the windfall that rezonings can produce is secured by the public authority […]
House Prices: Mr Abbott sprinkles poisoned cheese for the ALP
There is lots of talk about Mr Abbott’s high praise for the joys of ever rising house prices. Some are suggesting that Mr Abbott is insensitive to the fact that house prices […]
An iron ore National Export Volume Auction (NEVA) is the best way to protect national income

Over the last few weeks the airwaves have been buzzing about the falling national income (and the problems for Mr Hockey’s budget) due to the rapid decline in the price of iron ore and […]
Iron Ore Watch: Guess who wants to buy Twiggy?
To read the original version of this comment in the original context at Macrobusiness.com.au click this link. (link maybe locked – but there is a free trial available). News reports in the […]