In my stress surveys I have been calling out the pressures on renters and property investors, especially in the Centre of Melbourne and other inner-city areas across the country. The math is obvious. Despite rental increases, there is a limit on how much property investors can lift them, as renters are under pressure already. And property investors are also faced with significantly higher interest charges and other costs, to the point that the proportion of investors making cash flow positive returns has dropped to an all time low. Given that capital appreciation, the only other growth lever, is at best anemic, and in some cases non-existent, and the fact that you can now get 5 per cent of more on other investments, including term deposits and bonds, investors are continuing to bail. Inner City apartments are on the front line, as listings grow.
The AFR picked this topic up in an recent article, saying low capital gains and the large increase in holding costs are prompting more residential property investors to bail out of inner Melbourne and Sydney markets, data from CoreLogic shows.
The portion of investor-owned listings has ballooned to 60 per cent across Melbourne city over the three months to the September quarter, up from 56.7 per cent from the previous quarter and a sharp jump from the 50.9 per cent share a year ago.
http://www.martinnorth.com/
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Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
The Australian Government has released an exposure draft of the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023.
This is an attempt to curtail free speech and allow greater Government control over what we think and say – very 1984, as I discuss with Robbie Barwick from the Citizen’s Party.
The Australian Government has released an exposure draft of the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023.
This is an attempt to curtail free speech and allow greater Government control over what we think and say – very 1984, as I discuss with Robbie Barwick from the Citizen’s Party.
The Federal Government has [finally] declared Buy Now Pay Later products as credit products and has outlined a path to regulation in the months ahead, recognizing that the products can harm customers.
Big players like CBA pushed the Government into a more gentle regime than I think is idea,, but at least its a step in the right direction. But two questions, will BNPL appear on credit files, and what about those thousands of customers of these products who are already in over the heads. We note from our surveys significant growth in use of these products as inflation and interest rate rises bite.
This is too little too late!
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog
The Regulation Of “Duck Quacking” Buy Now Pay Later Loans! [Podcast]
The FTX Story continues to run with reports of missing funds and deceptions. In Australia, ASIC appears to have been asleep again, as we find that the local instance of FTX – who owes money to some 30,000 investors – used a back door method of get a local license to operate.
So once again the Financial cop was found wanting!
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AUSTRALIA’S banking regulator APRA is picking and choosing which banks it is allowing to get away with breaking the law by misreporting whether their sites offer cash service provided by a teller according to an important article in The Regional. Kudos once again to Dale Webster for highlighting this important issue.
Errors in hundreds of minor and foreign bank sites included in the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s points of presence data for years, even decades, have been corrected over the past 17 months after being exposed by The Regional in May 2021.
Today is the second IOTP installment in our series of financial crime. In our last episode, Adams and North painted the scene that financial crime inflicts significant financial and human costs on the victims.
We documented recent stories from both the UK and Australia as shown by BBC’s Panorama and the ABC’s Four Corners. We also show from both programs and from another clip that financial regulators such as the SEC, the FCA and ASIC have failed at their jobs to put a stop to financial crime and in particular intervene in the early pre-collapse stages.
Today we are going to be spending more time on the performance of ASIC in responding to reports of alleged misconduct.
If anyone would like to obtain a copy of the ASIC performance data or source documentation discussed in this episode, you can email John Adams at john@adamseconomics.com who can provide you with assistance.
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
The next part of the John Adams quest in which we discuss how people are being ripped off by spurious investment schemes, and how the regulators are consistently asleep at the wheel. This is a problem not just here but in other western economies too. Investors beware!
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
JPMorgan holds tens of billions of dollars in gold in vaults in London, New York and Singapore. It is one of four clearing members of the London market, where global gold prices are set by buying and selling metal held in a few London vaults — including JPMorgan’s and the Bank of England’s.
JPMorgan is the biggest player among a small group of “bullion banks” that dominate the precious metals markets, and thanks to a recent US court case, and the internal documents presented by prosecutors we got a glimpse of just how dominant a role the bank has played and how the Gold market works. In 2010, for example, 40% of all transactions in the gold market were cleared by JPMorgan.
This is important because as I have said many times, the 50 times plus relationship between physical gold holdings and the various derivatives held against it means it is a highly manipulated market, which sits at the heart of the financial system.
So today we will look at the case, and how so called called “spoof” trades — large orders intended to manipulate prices that were quickly canceled works.
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This is an edited version of a live discussion about the current state of economics and politics, with a focus on the busted energy markets with David Llewelln-Smith Chief Strategist at @NucleusWealth and founding publisher and editor for @Macro_business. Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/ Original stream and chat here: https://youtu.be/4AhEaWqOpAU
Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog
DFA Live Q&A HD Replay David Llewelln-Smith: Fixing Energy Now [Podcast]
