It goes without saying that I’m a Cassandra amongst the Pollyannas crowing about Australia’s current economic performance data. Low inflation, low unemployment, and no sign of a wages breakout, are the usually-quoted sweet economic indicators (admittedly with some strange bedfellows, including a relatively slow rate of economic growth for these conditions, and a huge balance [...]
Debtwatch May 2007: Booming on Borrowed Money
Public Talk at UTS today 1pm
I’m speaking at Reality Check, as part of the ALP Fringe Conference program, which runs parallel to the national conference and provides NGOs and other groups with an interest in influencing ALP policy with a platform to host discussions and seminars.
I’m one of three speakers and we have only one hour, so it will be rushed: [...]
Hell’s Belles
This post has nothing–well, almost nothing–to do with debt. But this is a blog, right? So I can post whatever I want.
And what I want is for you to see a new play called Hell’s Belles–or at least spread the word about it. It’s a comedy with the underlying theme of “Be careful what you wish for”: [...]
Shared Equity Loans Update
I’ve slightly revised my analysis of shared equity loans. I am now awaiting feedback on this from the developers before I publish it here.
Debtwatch April 2007: Who’s having a housing crisis then?
Who’s having a housing crisis then?
Global economic attention has been focused on the sub-prime lending crisis in the United States recently, and many local analysts have made soothing noises to reassure Australians that “it couldn’t happen here”.
The USA’s sub-prime market is indeed a peculiarly American phenomenon; but the level of Australian household debt (the sum [...]
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Blogroll
- 20070308: Bad debts on the rise in mortgage belt
- 20070309: Late-paid mortgages show pain in suburbs
- 20070314: LateLine on the US Sub-Prime Crisis - Video of Tom Iggulden’s report on New Century’s woes and arguments (including mine) about its relevance for Australia
- 20070314: Warning on ’silly’ loans - The Age covers the new ’shared equity loans’ being offered by Adelaide Bank and St George
- 20070317: Onward rolls the sub-prime story in the USA
- 20070725 New York Times “‘Lender Sees Mortgage Woes for ‘Good’ Risks”
- 20070725 New York Times Op Ed “‘Stopping the Subprime Crisis”
- 20070815: 7.30 Report “American mortgage shock waves hit Australia” - Profile of the Cooks case and views on the likely collapse of the mortgage market in Australia
- 20070826 New York Times: Inside the Countrywide Lending Spree - Inside the Countrywide Lending Spree
- 20070917: How bad debt infected the world - Excellent Sunday Telegraph feature on CDOs
- 7.30 Report - Many Baby Boomers will retire in debt–and I’m probably one of them!
- ABC PM on US Subprime Crisis - Stephen Long covers the USA Subprime crisis and local angles with interviews of Steve Keen, Ian Rogers (The Sheet) and David Tennant (Care ACT)
- Bear Stearns: Turmoil in sub-prime mortgages
- Beware of Exploding Mortgages (New York Times June 10 2007)
- Can the mortgage crisis swallow a town? - New York Times chilling description of the mortgage crisis’s impact on one town in Ohio
- Centre for Policy Development - The policy portal that evolved out og the New Matilda
- Credit derivatives: At the risky end of finance - The Economist on derivatives
- Debtwatch Podcast - Debtwatch’s Monthly Podcast with Stuart Cameron (www.cameronmedia.com.au)
- Debunking Economics - My Debunking Economics website. A wealth of lectures and papers, and a poverty of organisation!
- Doug Noland - Doug Noland’s Credit Bubble Bulletin: the best analysis of America’s Speculative Bubble
- First home payments hit $3000 per month
- FN Arena: Mortgage crunch in Australia too? - FN Arena covers my March Debtwatch and more optimistic (or Panglossian?) takes on the situation from Macquarie Bank, etc.
- Global House Price Crash
- Housing Affordability
- iTulip - One of the best commentary sites on the Internet Bubble has been reborn amid the USA’s mortgage binge
- NZ Reserve Bank on Regulation: PM May 9th 2007 - Interview on the Budget, Inflation, and New Zealand’s Reserve Bank’s shift on regulation
- Our economic managers - Non Sequitur’s brilliant take on those who think the “status quo” will last forever
- RBA 2003 Conference on Asset Prices and Monetary Policy - This is an excellent set of papers on the dangers of leveraged speculation, and the capacity of the market for irrational behaviour.
- RBA Bulletin Statistical Tables - The good people at RBA Statistics have recently added a Zipped file that contains all their XLS files–many thanks!
- RBA Speech March 16th - One economic indicator not considered in Dr Edey’s presentation was the level of private debt…
- Shared Equity Loans - Well-researched article on the pitfalls of shared equity mortgages
- The New Matilda - Intelligent alternative thought on social and economic issues in Australia
- True rate of home defaults hidden - Repossessions may be four times higher than reported figures
- Two Depressions, One Banking Collapse - An excellent comparison of the 1890 to the 1930 Depression, by Chay Fisher & Christopher Kent, which shows how much more severe the 1890 downturn was for Australia, and the role of debt and housing speculation in that crisis
- US Federal Reserve Historical Statistics - I use the Zipped “tabs” files from this page; check the bottom of the page for an explanation of the data structure
- US Housing Crash Blog