Austerity By Design: Who’s Taking The BIS? With Elisa Barwick

In this show we look at the technocrats at the Bank for International Settlements, how they came to hold so much power, and what that means for us today. Timely, given the Jackson Hole bankers “love-in” happening this week.

This builds on my earlier show “Who Killed The Australian Dream?” recorded with Elisa Barwick from the Australian Citizens Party, see the link here. https://youtu.be/9YbCc9NxBfs

Links to Elisa’s research:

https://citizensparty.org.au/sites/default/files/2024-07/neoliberalism-home-ownership.pdf

https://citizensparty.org.au/sites/default/files/2024-05/hijacking-australian-banking.pdf

https://citizensparty.org.au/sites/default/files/2024-04/kennett-austerity.pdf

https://citizensparty.org.au/sites/default/files/2024-01/austerity_series-sm.pdf

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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

Is Melbourne The Property Problem Child?

You may recall that I often say, there is not one property market but many micro markets that behave in quite different ways. But at the capital city level, Melbourne appears to be in some strife in terms of price falls at the moment.

Overall, it certainly looks like the combined impact of state policy, higher interest rates, and also bad planning decisions, combined with significant interstate migration away from Melbourne, which is offsetting still too high net overseas migration, is translating into property weakness. That said, of course property still remains over expensive relative to income to a stupid amount, while the restriction of international studies this year will weaken demand for rental property, so while the currently rental growth is still 7.8% over the part year according to CoreLogic, it may well begin to weaken ahead, putting more pressure on property investors in the area.

It does indeed look like for now Melbourne is a property problem child, but it also to me highlights the exposure that Perth has given the risks to mining demand from a weaker China. And as the RBA minutes reinforced yesterday, its not likely we will see rate cuts anytime soon.

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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

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

If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.

Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.

Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.

Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.

Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.

Its Edwin’s Monday Evening Property Rant!

In tonight’s show our Property Insider Edwin Almeida and I chuckle at the “innovative” policy for first home buyers being mooted in the USA (no, these do not work: see Australia!), look at price growth in Perth, and a horror story in Logan City, Brisbane, as well as the normal deep dive in the numbers. And at the end a really useful tip, as usual!

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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

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

If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.

Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.

Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.

Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.

Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.

The Narrow Path Is Beset With Uncertainty!

On Friday, RBA Governor Michele Bullock and her new look team were questioned by the House Economics Committee in Canberra for most of the morning. And I watched it all, so you don’t have to! There was very little new at one level, because the bank had recently released its statement on monetary policy and rate `decision.

Recall that the Reserve Bank left the key rate at a 12-year high of 4.35% and maintained its hawkish rhetoric. Money markets and economists still reckon the RBA’s next move will be a cut, though they’re split on the timing. Traders are betting December will be the beginning of the easing cycle, while the consensus of economists is it will only start sometime in 2025.

It’s clear from Governor Bullocks opening statement, that Australia’s central bank remains some way off easing monetary policy because inflation is proving persistent and will only return back to the target range late next year.
“The board remains vigilant to upside risks to inflation,” Bullock said in her opening statement to a parliamentary panel in Canberra on Friday. “It is premature to be thinking about rate cuts.”

Supporting the RBA’s caution, data this week showed Australia’s labor market continued to add jobs at a solid pace while wage growth remains elevated. See my earlier show “When things don’t add up at the RBA. Separate figures pointed to a small rebound in consumer sentiment and business confidence is holding up.

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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

Kiwis Get A Rate Cut As The Reserve Bank Pivots!

Interesting question, who you believe more the markets, or Central Bankers. Of course those in Central Bank land, will claim data dependence, and moving targets, and as RBA Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser warned recently it’s a risk to listen to “false prophets” on interest rates; and yet after several false dawns, New Zealand’s central bank cut interest rates, embarking on an easing cycle much sooner than previously indicated as The Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee lowered the Official Cash Rate by a quarter percentage point to 5.25% Wednesday in Wellington.

The RBNZ’s pivot to easing is a rapid change of tune after it said in May it considered raising rates and wouldn’t cut them until the second half of 2025. The bank’s concerns over sticky domestic inflation are being alleviated as the economy teeters on the brink of its third recession in less than two years and unemployment rises. The RBNZ’s new forecasts show the OCR falling further in the fourth quarter and by about 100 basis points by the middle of next year.

So will the RBNZ’s move influence Australian interest rates. Probably not because inflation in Australia is way worse, and Government spending and support significantly higher. RBA governor Michele Bullock last week ruled out the prospect of rate cuts this year. But the RBA’s significant lag in monetary policy will catch up to the Australian economy as it has done in New Zealand.

Generally, I think Australia will see rates higher for longer because of poor Government policy, as I discussed in yesterdays live show with Leith van Onselen. But the rate trend will be lower ahead, but not back to close to zero, which was in its own right a policy error and helped to fire up inflation in the first place. At least Kiwi’s can breath a little easier, though you can probably thank lower migration for that – Australia please note!

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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

DFA Live Q&A HD Replay: Property Sandcastles And Other Myths: With Leith van Onselen

This is an edited version of a live discussion with Leith van Onselen, Chief Economist at Nucleus Wealth and Co-founder of Macrobusiness as we pick apart the latest economic myths across property and the economy.

Original show is here: https://youtube.com/live/bT-hxYrjJ1A

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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

Its Edwin’s Monday Evening Property Rant!

This week our property insider Edwin Almeida and I explore the impact of the RBA decision, with voices from various parts of the Sydney market, look at the tussle between REA and Domain and deep dive into the circus which is property and politics.

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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

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

If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.

Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.

Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.

Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.

Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.

The Sham Build To Rent Property Solution…

Demand for a place to live remains very high, driven by population growth from mega-high migration and low but perhaps improving vacancy rates in the rental sector. We know that roughly one third of households own their own property, outright, one third own with a mortgage, and one third rent. Those in the last two categories are expanding, while those who own outright are shrinking as a proportion of the total – though with some state variations.

Over recent decades, the Government has effectively outsourced the provision of rental housing to the private sector, via mum and dad investors, who get considerable tax breaks to hold property for rent, and more recently though the rise of the so-called build to rent sector, which is being held out as a solution to the lack of property for rent.

The critical question is do we want to go further into the mire of neo-liberalism and let big international investors build homes to rent in Australia, with rents that according to Cameron Murray are typically higher than local providers, while offering even more tax breaks, to corporates, or should the Government get back into the home building game, (see my discussion with Elisa Barwick yesterday) through a public bank, and also dial back migration to a sustainable level. Ideology apart the answer seems obvious, and yet… they still want more migrations to pump GDP and more build to rent to meet a housing target which was built in fairy land.

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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

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

Who Killed The Australian Dream? With Elisa Barwick

In today’s deep dive, Elisa Barwick from the Australian Citizens Party shares her research on why housing has become so expensive, and what can be done about it. But this is not the normal discussion of high migration or currently government policy, rather it sheets the cause to a chapter of history dominated by neo-liberalists, austerity and the rise of technocrats who still now dominate our lives.

Links to Elisa’s research:

https://citizensparty.org.au/sites/default/files/2024-07/neoliberalism-home-ownership.pdf

https://citizensparty.org.au/sites/default/files/2024-05/hijacking-australian-banking.pdf

https://citizensparty.org.au/sites/default/files/2024-04/kennett-austerity.pdf

https://citizensparty.org.au/sites/default/files/2024-01/austerity_series-sm.pdf

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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

DFA Live Q&A HD Replay: Time For A Financial Revolution: With Robbie Barwick

This is an edited version of a live discussion with Robbie Barwick from the Australian Citizens Party, as we explore the current status of the war on cash, regional banking, post offices, and the need to revolutionize the financial system for ordinary people.

https://citizensparty.org.au

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Original version here: https://youtube.com/live/R8iykUULjA4

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