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Keywords: Reserve Bank

  • AUSTRALIA

    The RBA's man with the hammer

    • James Massola
    • 13 June 2023
    2 Comments

    In a year defined by surging living expenses, RBA Governor Philip Lowe finds himself the object of public ire, his failed rate predictions and aggressive anti-inflation measures becoming a litmus test for the enduring effects of a global crisis. Will the Labor party dare sever ties with Lowe, or will they allow him to continue wielding the hammer, regardless of the mounting human cost?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Recognition of Aboriginal rights: A contemporary Australian perspective

    • Frank Brennan
    • 05 June 2023
    19 Comments

    The wording of the proposed change to the Australian Constitution to enshrine a First Nations Voice might not be perfect. But whatever the imperfections and the risk of future complications, it is high time that Australia’s First Peoples were recognised in the Constitution in a manner sought and approved by a broad cross-section of Indigenous leaders.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Labor takes ownership: What to expect from Chalmers' second budget

    • James Massola
    • 04 May 2023
    2 Comments

    Jim Chalmers’ second budget marks the moment the federal Labor government takes full ownership of the national economy. This budget shapes as a more ambitious document and a more authentically Labor one, too. Chalmers is seeking to look after those who are less well-off, while balancing that against the need to avoid overspending. 

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  • ECONOMICS

    The debt crisis we all saw coming

    • David James
    • 03 April 2023

    As the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Credit Suisse poses a renewed threat to the global financial system, the question arises: how can we manage out-of-control debt? With global debt exceeding 230 per cent of GDP, could nationalising banks be the solution to the ongoing crisis, or will the debt merry-go-round continue to spin out of control?

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  • ECONOMICS

    Ballooning risks of finance fictions

    • David James
    • 14 March 2023

    Was Russia's removal from the SWIFT system the moment when the global financial system detached itself from reality? The financial system is at risk from unpayable debt and the delusion that money can be created out of money itself, and wider trust underpinning finance is steadily evaporating.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Russia sanctions reveal growing split in the global financial system

    • David James
    • 14 December 2022

    What the failed attempt to crush Russia’s economy has revealed is that America’s and Europe’s dominance of the global financial system is something of an illusion; more like money changing hands in a giant casino rather than actual wealth. 

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  • ECONOMICS

    In finance, story matters most

    • David James
    • 16 November 2022
    1 Comment

    Financial markets are made up of human beings and human beings have always been storytellers — long before science, or modern finance, or accounting even existed. Accordingly, the main skill of successful analysts, advisers, financial gurus and commentators is the construction of compelling narratives. They are, if not exactly creators of fairy stories, not too far removed from it. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Matters of interest

    • David Halliday
    • 14 November 2022

    How much financial strain can a system tolerate? With families simultaneously staring down the four horsemen of wage stagnation, higher prices of goods, higher bills, and higher mortgage repayments, something’s got to give.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Real world problems can’t be solved by finance fictions

    • David James
    • 18 October 2022
    3 Comments

    The world is facing cross-currents: a collapsing financial system that is balanced by the benefits of massive, long term improvements in production efficiencies, mainly because of technological advances. It is a bad news/good news story that can only be seen accurately if the intractable errors of contemporary economics are jettisoned. We are in a battle between finance fictions and reality. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The price of mistrust

    • Julian Butler
    • 29 August 2022

    The absence of trust undermines our ability to meet basic human need, to feel supported, to share resources and to effectively divide responsibilities. Mistrust imposes its own ‘price’ on every ‘transaction’, every engagement with others becomes more costly as we need to account for the perceived insincerity and unreliability of others.  

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  • ECONOMICS

    Why debt forgiveness may be inevitable

    • David James
    • 25 July 2022
    3 Comments

    Monetary authorities are caught in an impossible situation. Inflation is rising: it is over 5 per cent in Australia and over 9 per cent in the United States. Inflation is often seen as a way out of excessive debt because it erodes the real value of money and therefore the real value of the debt. But what is increasingly being discussed are ways to cancel the debt.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Rising interest rates point to a larger problem

    • David James
    • 28 June 2022
    3 Comments

    The question that should be posed is how effective has the Reserve Bank been at ‘managing’ the economy and financial system? ‘Not very’, has to be the answer. Not that the RBA is alone. The same pattern has been seen across the developed world. Central banks have one weapon at their disposal, the cost of money (the interest rate), and there is not much evidence they have used this tool to make their systems sustainable. Mostly, they have made matters worse. 

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