The Banking Royal Commission has been dredging up more banking and finance muck than a plumber’s sewer pump, with the government complaining and making excuses every step of the way. Will this […]
Parramatta to Epping Metro: Time for action
No more lame excuses. The NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian must commit to starting work on the Metro to Parramatta (via Epping) this year while the Epping to Chatswood line is shut down […]
Fixing the Parramatta Light Rail fiasco and public transport vandalism.
The proposed Parramatta Light Rail is a complete fiasco. The cost is blowing out to $3.5 B ……which makes blowing $2.5B on rebuilding 3 stadiums sound like good value! A historic pub will […]
The Greens and our Banking “problem”
After watching the speech by Leader of the Greens Richard Di Natale at the National Press Club yesterday it is clear that the Greens understand the importance of fixing our Australian banking […]
APRA and the Oz house price bubble
This morning Macrobusiness neatly contrasted The Australian’s coverage of the evidence of Mr Wayner Byers, head of APRA, to the House Economics Committee, “..Mr Byres said APRA was not responsible for policing much of […]
Debt-ogenics: Why was it harder to get a home loan in the 1980’s?
Why was it harder to get a home loan in the 1980s? Back in the “olden days” there was still a very good understanding of the economic significance of private bank credit […]
The “Private Banking Apologist” Weekend Challenge
Yes it is back !. Last weekend saw some reliable ‘go to’ private banking enthusiasts plunge in and splash around at the shallow end of the pool but with few useful contributions. […]
Australia fixed it’s gun problem: Now it should fix it’s ‘private bank’ problem.
One of the most effective lines peddled by the National Rifle Association ‘NRA’ in the USA in relation to gun regulation is that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. The NRA […]
Renting in Australia: Some signs of health
SQM has. published new data on the level is vacancies in the rental markets across Australia. http://www.sqmresearch.com.au/graph_vacancy.php?region=nsw%3A%3ASydney&type=c&t=q Signs of improvement in Sydney (2.6%) and Brisbane (3.8%) but still tight as ever in […]
Policy paralysis: Capital flows from China.
A lot of people spend a lot of time engaging in the reading of Chinese government tea leaves. It is the modern equivalent of the Cold War exercise of Kreminology where platoons […]
Bank “Junk Food” credit, macroprudential and the Australian Banking Royal Commission
With all the excitement surrounding the announcement of a Royal Commission into Australian banks, a few have asked whether there are less drastic options than those recommended by the Glass Pyramid in […]
Real economic reform starts with a Banking Royal Commission
What a week it has been. The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Treasurer Scott Morrison have been dragged kicking and screaming by the public, the opposition and even members of their […]
Banker Panic ! Why a Royal Commission is so important.
What a week it has been. The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Treasurer Scott Morrison have been dragged kicking and screaming by the public, the opposition and even members of their […]
Fixing politics: How to get rid of political hacks and vote for change in Australia
Are you completely fed up with Australian politics? Fed up with career politicians who can’t even read the constitution and renounce claims to privileges granted to them by foreign powers? Fed up […]
A 3 Step Plan to drain the Australian economic swamp
The Bank of American Merrill Lynch reportedly thinks the RBA monetary policy lever might be broken, while many other are concerned that the rising levels of interest bearing public debt incurred by […]
What do people mean when they say “Sydney is full”
The media in Sydney is currently full to the brim with stories about the fullness of Sydney. Some people like former NSW Premier Mr Bob Carr reckon Sydney was full 20 years […]
A Productive Banking system? A job for RBA and APRA.
Macrobusiness ran a post today about a suggestion that Central Banks like The Reserve Bank of Australia should target nominal GDP growth. The article was critical of the proposal and identified the […]
Mr Pascoe: Only two mistakes…….provided we don’t talk about the big one.
Columns by Mr Pascoe are always entertaining and fun to read, and when the drive to catch eye balls is in harmony with talking sense they can be powerful medicine. In his […]
South Australia pays the price of the LNP obsession with #FakeInvestment
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill correctly rejects a population Ponzi scheme as an economic plan for South Australia’s future. The biggest challenge facing South Australia and other regional parts of Australia is the preferred […]
Premier Gladys: Selling off NSW homes to foreign buyers by the plane load.
25% of all new housing construction in NSW is sold to a foreign buyer. In addition there are many sales of existing houses and apartments to the hundreds of thousands of foreign […]
Socialism with a spine? Is that the only alternative?
In an article published by the Guardian today John Quiggin discusses whether “Socialism” may find new support now that the flaws in neoliberal economics are becoming impossible to ignore. A lively discussion […]
A Big Australia and the problem of #FakeInvestment: A note for Dr Andrew Leigh
Macrobusiness reported the latest ABS release on demographics. “…….The ABS released its Australian demographic statistics for the March quarter of 2017, which revealed that Australia’s overall population growth rate has accelerated led […]
The end of Oz car manufacturing – “Mission Accomplished” by the LNP, RBA and APRA
So the end of Australian car manufacturing has arrived with closures of both the Toyota and Holden plants to take place by the end of October. Next year Australians will buy close […]
Build to Let: The latest non-solution to a problem that should not exist.
The Australian Financial Review has been providing a lot of ‘supportive’ coverage for the promoters of the new “Build to Let” housing model. Now that it appears that Mr Scott Morrison is […]
Is Australia becoming a colony again? And who is the coloniser?
Colonialism is often in the news and as a ‘former’ colony Australians might have some sympathy for the Indian perspective presented by Shashi Tharoor for the affirmative side of this debate “Does […]
APRA and credit creation regulation: Economic secret business
It is that day of the month when the RBA board meets to pluck some wings off bats, boil them with eyes of newt and distil the resulting mixture down to an […]
Australia’s sick housing markets: Why we need a vacancy rate target of 4-5%
The latest “instant noodle” solution to Australia’s housing affordability crisis is “Build to rent”. Rather than have “normal” people be able to buy a block of land in one of the largest […]
Ending the era of speculation – An economic reform plan for the ALP and Australia
So the Turnbull government is blowing itself up day by day and poll by poll. It seems as though fanatics in the government cannot wait for the policy ‘purity’ opportunities of being […]
Population Pressures: Why isn’t decentralisation working in Australia?
Decentralisation is only a pipe dream whilst we are running an economic model and strategy that has centralisation baked in. Bernard Salt and George Megalogenous continually ignore what is driving the population […]
Fed Watch: Asset Swap myths, legends and other bulldust
A report in Bloomberg states that there is talk that the US Federal Reserve ‘might’ start reducing its $7 Trillion dollar mountain of mortgage backed securities. This rumour concerns one of the […]
APRA Watch: Bank regulation by smoke and mirrors
Today on Macrobusiness.com.au another excellent Deep T journey down through the house of mirrors that is APRA’s regulation of Australian private bank credit creation. Unquestionably absurd. If a casual observer thought this APRA […]
Balanced Budgets: What drives that mania?
The “balanced budget paradox” is an interesting paradox as the implications of it are obvious but many remain oblivious to them. It would seem that hiding in plain sight remains an excellent […]
Australian Banks : The bit Anna Bligh does NOT talk about
Anna Bligh, in her new role in political retirement as spruiker in chief for the interests of the Australian private banks, gave a speech yesterday at the Australian Press club in Canberra. […]
Banking Royal Commission: Bowen says do the job right!
Mr Bowen, the Shadow Treasurer, has given a speech in which he is reported to have made clear that a Royal Commission into banking must be thorough and carefully look at the banking […]
Bligh and Baird: Brazen private bank spruikers.
Nothing like an industrial grade testing of the gag reflex first thing on a Monday morning! A flock of recently retired senior politicians from the major parties are out and about, with […]
The Greens: Can they avoid the fate of the Australian Democrats?
Are the Greens on a slide that ends in oblivion or just suffering a loss of direction? Across the land many are wondering. Everyday, the Greens become more and more like the […]
Usury – Always bad or only sometimes?
Over the weekend regular MB commenter “footsore” linked to an article regarding usury (charging of interest) and how and why it become ‘respectable’ (**cough cough**) after a long history of prohibition, restriction and […]
Bankers Attack: South Australia must stand firm on Bank Levy
This morning on Macrobusiness there was a call for the state governments across Australia to work together to support a Bank Levy that is distributed to the states and not Canberra. “..The […]
Westconnex – For Western Sydney the great toll rip-off starts in August.
Only 6 weeks to go before Western Sydney drivers find their wallets feel a lot lighter each week as the NSW government turns on those new toll readers over the M4 near […]
Decentralising Australian cities. Why the dream is as far away as ever.
Decentralisation? The dream throughout Australia’s history and a key driver for the creation of Canberra and the government investment in Albury Wodonga in the 1970s. Today the dream lives on as […]
APRA Watch: Non-bank lenders? “LOOK SQUIRREL!”
Michael Pascoe spent some time last week arguing that having APRA do something useful for a change, i.e. restrict unproductive credit creation by our big 5 taxpayer guaranteed banks, was a bad […]
Bank Royal Commission: The wisdom of Ben Chifley in 1937
Although the Turnbull government recently decided to impose a small Bank Levy on the taxpayer protected five large private banks, it remains a very “banker friendly” government and it has been insistent […]
Privatisation of Public Money – The first and worst privatisation
Macrobusiness this morning really got stuck into the rotten state of Australian political economy. Hurrah! The Glass Pyramid made the following contribution to the ensuing debate.
NSWOSR Watch – Gladys keeps foreign buyer data top secret
The March data on Stamp Duty paid in NSW has been released by the NSW Office of State Revenue and still the Gladys foreign buyer “Secret Business” continues. As noted in past […]
Budget Watch: Good debt, bad debt, jubilees and helicopter cash
Footsore Cheers for that. It was an interesting interview and well worth the time. Prof. Steve Keen on private debt and his solution people’s QE Though I am surprised that Steve Keen […]
Foreign Debt – Gittins gets it wrong….again
It has been a busy week at the Glass Pyramid as a cloud of confusing and obfuscating commentary on “Foreign Debt” has again descended on the nation. Never have so few worked […]
Scott Morrison’s job killing Foreign Debt addiction
We don’t hear too much about “foreign debt” these days. Neither the foreign debts owed by our private companies and private banks nor the foreign debts owed by our governments especially the […]
Australian Debt: A “Watcher’s” guide
The following comment was made in response to a comment at Macrobusiness EP, “..The slightest withdrawal of the economic stimulant (debt) plunges an economy into depressive conditions…” “..There are other forms of […]
Dig Deeper! – Release foreign ownership data for housing in NSW
It was good to see the ALP making an effort this week to extract data from a reluctant NSW Government about the level of foreign citizen buying of housing and land in […]
Australian Banana Republic: How to fix it before it is too late!
It always sounds odd to argue that we need a lower $AUD but the ‘value’ of the $AUD is very important in determining whether or not Australia becomes a Banana Republic. People […]
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