Australian Economics

[keehah]

Two good channels from Australia that cover Economic News.

The first, CEC Australia, from Eastern Australia I have been watching for years. This video discusses the housing and social situation in Mandurah (Western Australia) that lead the real-estate price boom in Australia but prices are now 30% off peak and they also discuss the stress on the Australian banking system. i.e. @15:10 they give an example of how Australian banks cook the books.

19 July 2019 - The CEC Report - Politicians freak at economic truths / 50th anniversary of Apollo 11


The second is a similar channel from Western Australia, In the Interests of the People. This video is an interview with the author of the book Credit Code Red - Dr. Peter Brain. They discuss the Australian foreign debt bubble, how it is over 50% GDP, the range where historically international bankers worry about the ability to be paid back and stop automatically rolling over the debt. They discuss possible senarios for Australia, from Iceland to Greece, and discuss the American debt situation @28:30.

Australia's Foreign Debt Bubble Means There Is No Escaping Armageddon

[ziero0]

Culpa est immiscere se rei ad se non pertinenti. It is a fault to meddle with what does not belong to or does not concern you.

Of course if you concern yourself with economic news then there is no fault. Economy is the science of managing SHORTAGES.

[keehah]

Ken O'Keefe Exposes the Financial System

[keehah]

Morrison is banning cash so Australians can’t escape bail-in, negative interest rates
cecaust.com.au/media-releases, July 30, 2019

The fight against “bail-in” is on! The Morrison government has released for consultation a new law that bans cash transactions over $10,000. The pretext for this law is to crack down on money laundering and tax evasion in the “black economy”. This is a shameless lie! The formal recommendation to ban cash comes from “big four” global accounting firm KPMG, which is an accomplice of the world’s biggest money launderers and tax evaders. The real purpose for the cash ban is to trap Australians in the banking system, so they cannot escape negative interest rates or having their bank deposits “bailed in”

Scott Morrison first announced this measure in the 2018 budget, originally to come into force this month, but now scheduled for January 2020. It was recommended in the October 2017 Black Economy Taskforce Report by Michael Andrew AO (who died last month), a former chief of global accounting giant KPMG. The report revealed that the strategy is to: “Move people and businesses out of cash and into the banking system, which makes economic activity more visible, auditable and efficient.” (Emphasis added.) It gives the game away by noting that it may benefit “financial stability and the effectiveness of monetary policy”—code for policies like bail-in and negative interest rates. To achieve this it recommended: “Moving to a near cash free economy. A $10,000 economy-wide cash limit should be introduced.” But $10,000 is just the beginning: in June 2018, just after Morrison announced it, KPMG was already lobbying Treasury to lower the limit to $5,000 or even $2,000.

Deception and stealth

When Morrison released the exposure draft of his bail-in law in 2017, he did so on a Friday afternoon when there would be no media attention. Only a sharp-eyed CEC staffer spotted it and recognised it as bail-in, enabling the CEC to mobilise a massive nationwide campaign against it which continues to this day. The government is being equally sneaky with this law. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg quietly released the exposure draft of the legislation, called the Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019, last Friday afternoon, 26 July, and has allowed only two weeks for public comment.

The exposure draft of the bill has two notable features:

It bans ALL cash transactions over $10,000, enforced with a penalty of two years jail;
Division 2 is blank, containing only the words “To be inserted”.
What is the government hiding by releasing an incomplete draft, on a Friday afternoon, and allowing only two weeks for public consultation?

The deception doesn’t end there. In its explanation of the law, the government has sought to make it palatable by emphasising that there will be exemptions to the cash ban, including depositing and withdrawing cash in banks, and, curiously, most consumer-to-consumer transactions, such as for a second-hand car. However, the exemptions are not in the legislation. They are in a separate regulatory instrument to be issued by the Minister after the legislation is passed. This means that they are not permanent, but that in the future, the Minister will be able to scrap the exemptions without requiring new legislation....[cont'd]

At the 26 minute of this youtube video IOTP highlight the Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 defining cash as including crypto-currency.

IMF Working Paper: Asia and Pacific DepartmentEnabling Deep Negative Rates to Fight Recessions: A Guide*Prepared by Ruchir Agarwal and Miles S. KimballAuthorized for distribution by Tarhan Feyzioglu April 2019

Abstract: The experience of the Great Recession and its aftermath revealed that a lower bound on interest rates can be a serious obstacle for fighting recessions. However, the zero lower bound is not a law of nature; it is a policy choice. The central message of this paper is that with readily available tools a central bank can enable deep negative rates whenever needed—thus maintaining the power of monetary policy in the future to end recessions within a short time. This paper demonstrates that a subset of these tools can have a big effect in enabling deep negative rates with administratively small actions on the part of the central bank. To that end, w e (i) survey approaches to enable deep negative rates discussed in the literature and present new approaches; (ii) establish how a subset of these approaches allows enabling negative rates while remaining at a minimum distance from the current paper currency policy and minimizing the political costs; (iii) discuss why standard transmission mechanisms from interest rates to aggregate demand are likely to remain unchanged in deep negative rate territory; and (iv) present communication tools that central banks can use both now and in the event to facilitate broader political acceptance of negative interest rate policy at the onset of the next serious recession.

[keehah]

Financial Review Sept.13, 2019

The plan is opposed by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, CPA Australia and the Australian Taxpayers Alliance, which regards it as an infringement of civil liberties.But the most aggressive resistance – and possibly the most effective – has come from a notorious far-right political party, the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia, which has worked with a high-profile property pundit and an obscure economist to promote the idea that the anti-money-laundering measure is a profit-and-power grab by banks.

"It has drawn out the conspiracy theorists," says independent MP Andrew Wilkie. "There is a view that it's part of the grand conspiracy to control every aspect of your life, including transactions."

The campaign doesn't look likely to succeed. The Labor opposition says it is will probably support the law, which includes two-year jail penalties. With Labor support it would sail through the Senate.

But the policy has become a useful attention-grabbing tool for activists on the fringes of public life to promote extreme theories to eager audiences in the unregulated world of social media.

Correction needs to be made the the Financial Review report-the Treasury had decided not to release any of the 4,000 submissions received from the public according to the report below.

The Bill was introduced to The Australian House of Representatives but (6:50) the Labour opposition party demanded an extended inquiry so the government can not start the cash ban as they planned to in January.

20 September 2019 - The CEC Report - A victory against the cash-ban / Derivatives bubble danger

[keehah]

ABC News 25-10-19: Cash-ban law under review as MPs argue it would push people into 'clutches of the banks', restrict freedom

A controversial bill to ban cash payments of $10,000 and impose two-year jail sentences for people using cash for purchases above that limit, has passed the Lower House, but will not become law until after a Senate inquiry looks into the proposed laws.

The Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019 passed the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The proposed law would force Australians to use electronic transactions or cheques over cash for payments above $10,000 and impose two-year jail sentences and fines of up to $25,200 if they don't...

A number of politicians speaking before Parliament on Thursday about the proposed law noted significant community opposition, including fears the laws could restrict freedom and give authorities greater control.

The proposed law would apply to all payments made to businesses with an ABN for goods or services, affecting major purchases like cars, boats, housing and building renovations.

The Government has said the measure would not apply to individual-to-individual transactions, such as private sales where the seller does not have an ABN, or cash payments to financial institutions.