Dear All,
Below is the press release from the Centre for Policy Development for the launch of my “mini-book” on debt. Please pass the news on, and I hope to meet some of you at the launch.
You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt”
(Merle Travis, 1946)
I expect–and hope–that the tenor of discussion at this month’s RBA Board meeting will be very different to last month’s. In August, I imagine, the community members of the Board listened sagely as the RBA’s economists explained why the risk of future inflation had risen, why this justified a “pre-emptive strike” of raising interest rates, and then reluctantly agreed to the rise.
The biggest lender in the USA is looking the most vulnerable, and this article gives good background as to why. Well worth a read!
The 7.30 Report is making good use of the web with its extended interview feature. These are the edited highlights of the major interviews it does for stories, at best ten per cent of which sees the light of day in the final story.
Those of you who missed last night’s 7.30 Report (like myself–I was playing tennis at the time!) should check the link below:
 American mortgage shock waves hit Australia
Apologies again for a tardy update cycle on this blog, but as you can imagine, I’m busy as hell right now. When the dust settles–in early October–I hope to bring everything up to date.
To its credit, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration decided to hold an “Inquiry into home loan lending practices and processes“, in the form of a one-day round-table discussion with interested parties.
Oh dear. When Nassim Khadim from The Age asked me to comment yesterdy on the electoral assertion being made by the Liberal Party–that rising State debt was putting upward pressure on interest rates–I responded that the assertion was:
“Total, total bullshit. It’s like saying that somebody dropped a pebble into the ocean and that caused a tsunami. And you can quote me on that.”
Named in mock honour of America’s greatest swindler, a Ponzi Scheme is a financial ruse that, for a time, generates apparently great returns from an investment that in fact produces nothing. Ponzi Schemes initially appear to work because the promoters pay early entrants seemingly fantastic returns, by the simple expedient of giving them money deposited by later entrants. So long as the Scheme continues to grow, it can appear successful–and indeed individuals who get in and out before the Scheme collapses can become fabulously wealthy.
As you may know, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration has arranged an Inquiry into home loan lending practices and processes, to which I have been invited. The submissions have just been released; click on the link to access them.
I have now posted the PDFs of my June and July reports; hopefully in the next week or so I’ll get a chance to post the text to the blog as well. Apologies again for the slowness here, but conferences and the sudden press coverage on debt worries!
