Not so much in Australia. We have two or three of everything. Three supermarkets, three consumer electronics stores, two large general merchandisers, two booksellers (or is it only one now?).
It's funny that people think they can stop this deflationary wave by voting to leave a customs union or for some idiot with the world's worst comb-over as their president. Insular Australians have been shielded somewhat from this by the tyranny of distance, transfer payment subsidies to certain industries, archaic protectionist regulation and brutal zoning laws to protect entrenched oligopolies against competition.
True, but the alternative would also be devastating for the economy. Australia is now little more than a petro-state, and look what deflationary pressures are doing to Saudi Arabia.
The Australian character is defined by masochism. The suburbanites feel better about themselves when they are being reamed. That's why they vote for it.
OK, you're referring to FMCG and CPG prices, whereas "consumer prices" also includes services. Yes, the suburbanites are reamed on the prices of "goods" and we don't have the benefits that countries such as the U.S. and Japan have had to influence the cost of producer inputs. The oligopolisitc nature of the retail market is obviously a detriment (no opportunity for Dollar Tree or Daiso in our world). The point is that the U.S. and Japan are not there by choice: they are there by necessity. The consumer is tapped out.
It's also important to think about prices that people pay for services. Our suburbanites are likely to pay relatively more and some can only really afford dental work on periodic sojourns to countries such as Thailand.
Your point about Saudi Arabia is good. I hear that things are getting hard for the average citizen there, particularly on the employment front. After many years of taking everything for granted, that has not made them particularly resourceful or adaptable in providing for themselves or making a crust. We do have a similar problem now: The dreams of 100k p.a. for cleaning toilets for a mining company are diminished. The used market is awash with jused jet skis.
If this was true, why wasn't the RBA cutting back when the dollar was on it's way to, and then over $US parity? Interest rates are lower now by a large margin with the dollar at ~$US0.75c. So the evidence of what actually happens does not back up your statement.
Rufus us correct - RBA has complete control over the overnight cash rate, and therefore the short term end of the interest rate curve to a large extent. They set it to what they think it should be based on a range of factors, with the goal of controlling (well let's say influencing maybe) inflation primarily and employment / GDP growth as well. The market set's longer the longer term end of the curve - but this is still heavily influenced by the RBA set base rates, and the rate of new money creation the results from this setting.
So what you are saying is that if the US Fed raises rates to (say) 10%, the RBA still has complete control over Australian interest rates?
Matthew, 30 Jan 2016, 09:21 AM Your simplistic view is so flawed it is not worth debating. The current oversupply will be swallowed in 12 months. By the time dumb shits like you realise this prices will already be rising.
So what you are saying is that if the US Fed raises rates to (say) 10%, the RBA still has complete control over Australian interest rates?
It doesn't even need to be that extreme. Even a rise to 2% would see capital flight from here that would push the AUD below 50c, and would serve as a severe economic shock as consumer spending sharply contracted, pushing unemployment into the high 9s or low 10s
Of course in the US, that rise would pop the reflated housing bubble, and the credit card bubble, and the auto loan bubble and the student loan bubble, all at the same time. So it aint gunna happen.
It is funny though, watching these chumps strut about in their illusion of control.
Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. Ambrose Bierce
Matthew, 30 Jan 2016, 09:21 AM Your simplistic view is so flawed it is not worth debating. The current oversupply will be swallowed in 12 months. By the time dumb shits like you realise this prices will already be rising.
What happens if we found out the moon is made of cheese?
One wonders why, when you are crouched over your laptop in the basement of your mums house, your mind suddenly thinks of cheesy smells?
Strange boy.
Matthew, 30 Jan 2016, 09:21 AM Your simplistic view is so flawed it is not worth debating. The current oversupply will be swallowed in 12 months. By the time dumb shits like you realise this prices will already be rising.
It's a bullshit theory debunking tool I choose to use now and again.
Take their theory to the max and ask the question.
Like.
If money can be printed at will with no negative impact, why collect taxes?
If the RBA has complete control over Australian interest rates, what happens if the US Fed raises rates to 10% (or 5% or 2%)?
Sure, it's just the illusion of control. Plant and maintain the illusion to shape behaviour.
People are livestock, but the professional middle class create all the new wealth. If they emigrate to where the new wealth is being created, you lose the opportunity to bleed them dry.
So you feed them a mythology they can believe, to keep their faith in the system that ultimately enslaves them for the benefit of the few.
I often wonder if we will evolve out of this before we blow each other up. Gene Roddenberry sure hoped so.
Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. Ambrose Bierce
Sure, it's just the illusion of control. Plant and maintain the illusion to shape behaviour.
People are livestock, but the professional middle class create all the new wealth. If they emigrate to where the new wealth is being created, you lose the opportunity to bleed them dry.
So you feed them a mythology they can believe, to keep their faith in the system that ultimately enslaves them for the benefit of the few.
I often wonder if we will evolve out of this before we blow each other up. Gene Roddenberry sure hoped so.
Yes sure John, only the clever property bears who despite getting the whipping of a life time, are on to it.
You and roddy could form a club, something about unappreciated genius.
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