Australians’ household debt levels are world leading. We pay about five-six times our household disposable incomes for our average dream home. This won’t end well.
Articles by Adam Schwab 
Lobbyists, US big hitter slam ATO over private equity tax row
The private equity tax row continues as lobbyists and one of the richest men in the US lash the Australian Taxation Office’s attempts to levy income tax on certain private equity profits.
Aussie bankers doing fee-nominally well
Executives at our biggest banks continue to enjoy a myriad benefits, the Big Four being among the most generous remunerators of executives in business. But lower-paid workers have not been so lucky.
State governments get a handle on housing boom addiction
The adoption of commercial incentive tactics has lead to state governments in Australia becoming addicted to property taxes, collecting big on stamp duty and offering very little in return.
Variety is the space of life for big-spending ANZ
NZ shareholders will be hoping that their $500,000 boardroom table is a better investment than a$1400 rubbish bin
Shareholders miss out in CAMAC report
The Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee’s latest report on Schemes of Arrangement does little to strengthen the rights of minority shareholders, and is unlikely to upset many lawyers or bankers.
Bubble, or no bubble: that is the question
Residential property in Australia is obscenely overpriced. Whether or not this is the result of a price bubble, or the influence of first home buyers and wealthy investors, is yet to be seen.
Residential property: bubble, bubble, toil and trouble
Property is a slowly moving beast, but as Japanese and American home owners found it, is can be quite a terrifying one as well.
Improved Volcker plan still doesn’t go hard enough
With the mooting of the Volcker Rule, it appears that finally the Obama Administration is taking the long-awaited stick to Wall Street.
Rentals do have a say in residential property prices
The rental market is critical to residential property prices — many who claim that property prices never fall should look closely at the rental sector before believing real estate propaganda over facts.
China 2: bubble a benchmark in capital spending
While the China bubble could continue for months or years to come — a planned economy not known for human rights and continuing to defy gravity would also need to defy history, writes Adam Schwab.
Housing boom: where the shortage myth is relevant
The days of endless capital growth in housing must come to an end. If rental yields don’t increase substantially, the current level of housing is unsustainable.
Executive pay: gravy train still stopping all stations
Until company directors start to realise that money doesn’t necessarily buy quality executives, don’t expect the gravy train to dry up any time soon.
Economy gets a free kick by not holding the bull
It has been a very good year to be a bull, with share markets across the world rebounding with incredible haste. The US market is all the more astonishing when compared to 1982, the last significant economic slump.
Why the property boom? Simple. We’re borrowing more
Assets prices inflated by excessive leverage are not sustainable, leading to a gross misallocation of scarce resources. It is a lesson that Australian property buyers appear slow to learn.
Productivity Commission strikes out on curbing runaway exec pay
While the Productivity Commission report was not without merit, when it comes to actually curbing runaway pay, it will be of little or no effect, writes Adam Schwab.
First homes: young buyers continue to flock to the market
Those who thought that the gradual reduction in the first home-owner’s grant in September would cool the first home-buyer market have, for the time being, been proved mistaken.
Crikey’s Business Awards of the Year: organisations
Crikey names the businesses who made a splash in 2009 — for all the right and wrong reasons.
Crikey’s Business Awards of the Year: people
While Australian stock markets rebounded with vigor, and property prices continued to bubble away, Crikey celebrates those who made it all possible, and made 2009 truly a year to remember.
Goldman employees make hay: 500-grand-a-head kind of hay
Goldman would be crazy to not make as much hay as it can while the sun continues to shine. And by “making hay”, we mean “paying its very smart employees billions of dollars to take calculated risks with shareholder and taxpayer money”.
EMI deal a pain in the (al)bum for private-equity big hitter
The catastrophic failure of record label EMI once again proves that many of the feted masters of the universe are mostly show and very little substance.
Big lie theory explains how the bubble inflates
Why are seemingly rational people paying so much more for property than they did even as recently at 10 years ago? They fall for the “property lie”: the myth that property “never falls in value” and will be “more expensive next year”.
ATO decision to tax TPG on Myer is on the money
Despite the claims of self-interested private equiteers and their hired help, the ATO’s decision to tax TPG’s billion-dollar Myer windfall was the right one.
Bankers’ value to society? You’ve gotta be kidding
Investment bankers can aid economy growth, but it’s difficult to determine any real value that the average banker provides to society. Especially in comparison to their rampant pay packets.
