Category: Economics and Banking

The Biggest Drop In Living Standards In Many Decades…

A quick market update and a deep dive in the UK’s budget announcement, which was as political as it gets! The headline is households will go backwards, as unemployment rises, and a 2-year recession is likely. Worse, personal income tax bands are frozen, so the total tax take will be bigger than ever!

Investment allowances have been cut, and the future Government spending cuts have been pushed out beyond the next election.

The cost of debt to the Government rises.

This scenario is one we should expect to see playing out in other economies too. Living standards will drop.

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Local Communities Strangled By Loss Of In-Person Banking – And What You Can Do About It!

We (Dale Webster and I) have written to the Senate Standing Committee on Regional and Rural Affairs and Transport about the economic fallout from the removal of in person banking services across Australia. Today I discuss this with Robbie Barwick from The Australian Citizens Party and the need to lobby Senate members on this important issue.

Our submission is available to view here and download : https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/loss-of-in-person-banking-letter-to-rarat-committee/

And a list of Senators by state is available here: https://citizensparty.org.au/aus-senate

If you care about the economic future of our regional towns and suburbs, then please contact your local Senators and tell them that they should support the initiative, ideally over the next few days, so as to create maximum impact in the final sitting weeks of the year.

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

Loss Of In-person Banking: Letter To RARAT Committee

Here is a downloadable version of the letter Dale Webster (The Regional) and I sent to the member of the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport about the economic impact of in-person banking being systematically removed across the country.

Letter-to-RARAT-committee-on-need-for-new-regional-banking-inquiry-NSDownload

The Crypto Story Gets Even Worse!

More bad news from the fallout from FTX, with derivatives and lending now under questions. Genesis, derivative business has a hole and Gemini is also under pressure. The industry is tied in knots, and the links back to major players means risks are stacked on risks, totally unregulated!

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

FINAL REMINDER DFA Live: Crypto Vs CBDC With Adams Stokes 8pm Sydney Tonight

Join us at 8pm Sydney time for our regular live event this week we will be looking at the latest ructions in Crypto, and what we can learn from it, as well as how Central Bank Digital Currencies are playing into the argument.

If one Bitcoin always worth one Bitcoin, how does the concept of “trust” play into the evolution of digital finance?

Another Topsy Turvy Day!

Monday ended up a down day on Wall Street ‘s main indexes ended lower on Monday, as investors digested comments from U.S. Federal Reserve officials about plans for interest rate hikes.

Losses accelerated toward the end of the up-and-down session, with focus turning to Tuesday’s producer price index report and markets highly sensitive to inflation data. real estate and discretionary sectors leading broad declines.

The Fed Outings included Christopher Waller on Sunday who said the Fed may consider slowing the pace of increases at its next meeting but that should not be seen as a “softening” in its commitment to lower inflation. Monetary policy tightening “isn’t ending in the next meeting or two”, and Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard who signalled that the central bank would likely soon slow its interest rates hikes but added that there still was “additional work to do on raising rates.”

“There is still a sensitivity to Fed speak… One was a little hawkish, one was a little dovish,” said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp.

Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.

In The World Of Crypto: Who You Gonna Trust?

As the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange ricochets through the industry, this has not been a good week for Bitcoin and the Crypto community more generally.

And now we are beginning to see arguments emerging suggesting first that Bitcoin is not the same a Crypto, and second, we see Digital asset exchanges rushing to reassure clients that their funds are safe.

For example, Coinbase sent an email to customers explaining “how Coinbase’s business is different and ultimately better protects” customer accounts and assets. Yet the biggest crypto exchange Binance’s chief executive warned last week of the potential for a “cascading” crisis in the crypto sector in the wake of FTX’s failure, which he said could resemble the 2008 global financial crisis.

The total value of Crypto including Bitcoin fell again to around $940 billion US dollars, compared with a peak of over 3 trillion dollars. So Crypto is under the microscope as never before.

https://youtu.be/lOjdw5l_Ngg – DFA Live Tuesday 15th Nov 2022

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

Getting Better Economic Outcomes: With Senator Gerard Rennick

I caught up with Senator Rennick (LNP Queensland) after his recent outings in Senate Estimates and his speech on Superannuation. We explored the broader economic issues which we face, and why we need some different approaches from our regulators and the RBA.

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

Why We Should Care About Bank Branch Closures; And What We Can Do About It!

We look at the latest bank branch closures, which are accelerating, thanks to Dale Webster’s analysis at The Regional.

https://www.theregional.com.au/

She recently published an open letter to The Attorney General Mark Dreyfus about the scandal of APRA’s Points of Presence Database.

https://www.theregional.com.au/post/open-letter-to-the-attorney-general-mark-dreyfus

And we discuss an alternative to the Major Banks who are closing outlets to secure profits for shareholders – the Customer Owned Banks. There are nearly 60 across the country focused on their members (customers) offering lower risk, more competitive banking services, including local branches.

https://www.customerownedbanking.asn.au/

You can find a list of local members here: https://www.customerownedbanking.asn.au/about-coba/list-of-our-members

So, I recommend switching to these community banks, away from the Majors. Funnily enough often the COBA banks offer better rates, and service than the others, and have the highest customer satisfaction!

Finally, digital is fine until the power goes out, and cash is still needed to maintain viable and dynamic local communities!

The latest edition of our finance and property news digest with a distinctively Australian flavour.

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/