I always get sad thinking of all the wasted concrete and steel...

I always get sad thinking of all the wasted concrete and steel that goes into their ghost cities. Yet the Western Governments want to stop fertiliser use and levy carbon tax on its citizens? Fun fact - fertiliser no longer being used is why Sri Lanka collapsed. European farmers are still protesting gung ho, which gets very little media coverage. The bureaucratic elites are playing with fire, here.

I digress. Read an interesting analysis that Blackrock and Vanguard were deliberately set up and laundered trillions of (printed) dollars as the new 'plunge protection team' for real estate. We all know that they are purchasing RE like crazy, especially single family homes. The analysis states that this isn't for tyrannical reasons (that's a fringe benefit) but because they would serve as 'diamond hands' in a plunging market, to level things out amongst defaults and bankruptcies.

Personally, I find that to be plausible yet disgusting as a fraction of the effort could have been used to avoid a bubble and/or boom bust cycle in the first place.

Also, friendly reminder that any inflation print that is NOT negative is STILL INCREASING year on year, just at a slower mark. If we do not have a large deflation period, we will "EAT" all these years of inflation and the cost of living will be permanently higher, even if MoM inflation returns to target going forward.

Second friendly reminder that income tax thresholds have remained unchanged for years. The 2018 Government budgeted some adjustments (over nearly 10 years) and our incumbent Government not only brought these changes forward, but even reduced the threshold adjustment for many Australians. I suppose this only applies to Australians lucky enough to have a wage rise... but everyone should be up in arms, because either through luck, diligence or inflation, they too will be a 'high income earner' if those thresholds aren't proactively changed.