I'm not suprised by the situation described in this article, but it doesn't make it any easy to read. What a candid description of what is happening at the moment. " I don't understand why households with a mortgage are forced to do the heavy lifting in reducing inflation for everyone."
I don't understand either.
Some says the RBA has no choice, or no instructment, to reduce inflation apart from the "blunt" tool of raising interest rate. Well, may be we need to have a look at the system, or the tools that are actually available. May be the RBA should be given access to those tools that are currently beyond its reach. Just like in any crisis, for it to be war, COVID lockdowns, it is the orindary people, the citizen Joe, that suffers.
You really can't blame him for taking out a mortgage of 750K in 2019, it was just around the median house price in Melbourne at the time. He has a decent income, well above the median income according to the ATO. So, what has gone wrong??
What a start to 2023 - in Sydney for my sister-in-law's wedding, then almost a week in Gold Coast, did 3 theme parks in 3 days. By the end of Janurary I think we were quite glad to be 'home'.
The world, or at least in Australia, has seemingly moved into the "post COVID" era. No big new headlines in January.. yet very little has changed. The war in Ukarine continues to consume the minds of civilians there. The geopolitics of an increasingly assertive and authoritarian China. What will the next 11 months be like?
For whatever reason, things are always a bit more complicated when you get older. I remember seeing the "crown jewels" in my first ever visit to London as a 13 year old. Really had no idea about the history of it all. Now reading this piece, it reminds me again that most things do have a back story to it, and it is often not pretty.
What a time to live.
We did it! Four of us, 20km, rain a bit in the beginning, the kids boxed on. Great effort, so much fun and we all get a medal! I have never done anything similar before.. I'm living the dream thanks to my family!
May be another year or two of 20km and we can all give 50km a go!
First overseas trip in the COVID era.. I wouldn't say "post-COVID era" as we are still very much living in it. It's nice to have life somewhat back to normal. SSA Christchuch is what we need, to reconnect with others, after two truely quite horrid years.
Just like you can get a sense of what the driver is like by the car they drive.. you get a glimpse of what the attitudes of the nation is by their uniform in Olympics or, in this case, the Commonwealth Games.
Paying homage to the working-class heritage of the host city, the designer said "We wanted to create clothing that would have a life after the games, and a uniform that expresses something about hte athletes as individuals.."
How confident, how fitting, especially in these economically challenging times.
You also can't help to notice there are no "COVID-free" zone setup for these games.. well, it's probably not entirely fair to compare the Beijing games earlier this year with the Commmonwealth Games give how quickly things change these dys. But let's not forget China is probably among the handful of places left where you need to quarantine on arrival... still.
What is leadership? What are the qualities of a leader? These are not mere interview quesitons, but relevant in our everyday life. Compare this from Macron:
“We are side by side today with Chancellor Scholz. One hundred years ago, we were at war and allies helped France win. France committed a historic mistake. It lost the peace because it wanted to humiliate Germany. The question of humiliation I always placed in a context to come, not the current context,”
to this from Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president, the current deputy head of the Kremlin Security Council:
“Again they promised EU membership and old howitzers, slammed down some vodka and, like 100 years ago, took the train home,” he tweeted. “And that’s all good. It’s just that this doesn’t bring Ukraine any closer to peace. And the clock is ticking. … ”
Seriously.. who is more inspiring?
