How incomes, taxes and benefits work out for Australians

From The Conversation. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has just released its latest analysis of the effects of government benefits and taxes on household income. Overall, it shows government spending and taxes reduce income inequality by more than 40% in Australia. Disparities between the richest and poorest states are also greatly reduced. The ABS analysis … Continue reading “How incomes, taxes and benefits work out for Australians”

That’s Not A Fall; THIS Is A Fall – The Property Imperative Weekly – 9th June 2018

Welcome to the Property Imperative weekly to 9th June 2018, our digest of the latest finance and property news with a distinctively Australian flavour. Watch the video, listen to the podcast, or read the transcript.  scrollings=”no”  Today, a story. In the great city of Ghor, all the inhabitants were blind. A king and … Continue reading “That’s Not A Fall; THIS Is A Fall – The Property Imperative Weekly – 9th June 2018”

Housing costs are actually the same as in 1993, but renters still struggle

From The Conversation. Even though house prices have risen substantially over recent decades, housing costs as a share of income have barely shifted in over 20 years. Costs relative to disposable income for housing are largely unchanged, at 17% since 1993, although there has been some increase since 2000. There is no agreed measure for … Continue reading “Housing costs are actually the same as in 1993, but renters still struggle”

RBA Sees Cake Tomorrow

The latest RBA Statement on Monetary Policy moves the dial a little in terms of expectations, but also is still predicting better economic outcomes down the track, if a little further away than originally expected (again). By 2020, GDP could be somewhere between 1 and 5.5% – that should about cover it! They call out … Continue reading “RBA Sees Cake Tomorrow”

Fitch Gives Australia AAA

All is well. Fitch have reconfirmed Australia at ‘AAA’; Outlook Stable! This despite the high debt to GDP, and high household debt, and cooling house prices, and the ongoing impact of the Royal Commission. Fitch forecasts a modest acceleration in GDP growth from 2.3% in 2017 to 2.7% in both 2018 and 2019, above the … Continue reading “Fitch Gives Australia AAA”

The Limits of Interest-Only Lending – RBA

Christopher Kent, Assistant Governor (Financial Markets) spoke at the Housing Industry Association Breakfast. Mortgages on interest-only terms have become an increasingly prominent part of Australian housing finance over the past decade. At their recent peak, they accounted for almost 40 per cent of all mortgages. While interest-only loans have a role to play in Australian mortgage finance, … Continue reading “The Limits of Interest-Only Lending – RBA”

Has The Next Asset Collapse Begun?

From  Econimica After nearly a half century of unlimited dollar creation, multiple bubbles and busts…the current asset reflation has been the most spectacular…but alas, perhaps too successful. The Fed’s answer to control or restrain this present reflation is raising interest rates to stem the flow of business activity, lending, and excessive leverage in financial markets.  But in the Fed’s … Continue reading “Has The Next Asset Collapse Begun?”

The Property Imperative Weekly to 14 April 2018

Welcome to the Property Imperative Weekly to 14 April 2018. We review the latest property and finance news. There is a massive amount to cover in this week’s review of property and finance news, so we will dive straight in. CoreLogic says that final auction results for last week showed that 1,839 residential homes were … Continue reading “The Property Imperative Weekly to 14 April 2018”

Tales From The RBA Chart Pack – April 2018

Today we run through some of the latest charts contained in the RBA’s Monthly Chart Pack, released in early April 2018. Our first chart is of the headline inflation in advanced economies, where we see that inflation is still sitting below the typical target band of 2-3% in the USA, Euro Area and Japan. However, … Continue reading “Tales From The RBA Chart Pack – April 2018”

Latest Household Debt Figures A Worry

The RBA updated their E2 – Selected Household Ratios today to the end of December 2017. This series used data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (which were recently adjusted to remove the impact of  superannuation on the data), plus some RBA supplied data. The series is updated each quarter. We will walk though these … Continue reading “Latest Household Debt Figures A Worry”