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The banks rip us off with impunity
Given how far Australian and international rates have been falling, mortgage rates ought to be an awful lot lower than they are.
Given how far Australian and international rates have been falling, mortgage rates ought to be an awful lot lower than they are.
Women's participation in the workforce may have increased over the past 20 years, but entrenched stereotypes about where women can work haven't.
If borrowers haven't received the full 50 points of the cash rate reductions, it's because they haven't asked for them
Australians have high exectations that property assets will fund their retirement. Too high, says banking giant HSBC.
It's a far cry from five years ago when the nation's benchmark rate was a developed-world high and the Aussie was worth more than the greenback with the mining bonanza in full swing.
Our biggest banks move fast. Either that, or they collude. At 2.37 pm on Tuesday within minutes of the Reserve Bank cutting its cash rate to an all-time low, the Commonwealth Bank announced a completely different way of responding. Instead of passing on some of all of the cut, it would only pass on half and hand some of the rest out to customers as higher term deposit rates.
The Commonwealth and National Australia Banks have short-changed their mortgage holders by passing on only a fraction of the Reserve Bank's 0.25 per cent cut in interest rates, choosing instead to reward depositors by lifting the rate they offer on term deposits.
Sorry if I sound wide-eyed, but I was mightily impressed when I visited China as a guest of the Australia-China Relations Institute. Those guys are going places.
The RBA has cut the official cash rate to a historic low of 1.5 per cent but home loan customers will received only part of the benefit.
Australia's trade balance remained in the red with a deficit of $3.1 billion in June, while approvals for the construction of new homes fell.
Global economic growth is accelerating sharply after months in the doldrums, confounding predictions of a worldwide recession following Britain's Brexit vote.
It's hard to say that trimming the cash rate to 1.5 per cent on Tuesday will make any positive difference to economic growth or inflation.
Apparent strong house price growth in Sydney and Melbourne is unlikely to dissuade the Reserve Bank from cutting interest rates on Tuesday, in part because it's not what it seems.
Apartment building is set to to collapse 50 per cent over the next four years, according to forecaster BIS Shrapnel, with only Sydney bucking the trend.
US economic growth unexpectedly remained tepid in the second quarter as inventories fell for the first time in nearly five years and business investment weakened further, offsetting robust consumer spending.
On the prospects for China's economy, it's easy to be wrong. We analyse unfamiliar things by comparing them with things we understand, but China is one of a kind.
Australia's $2 trillion pool of superannuation money is looking for a home. So are renters.
Australia must look to the educated, productive nations of Asia, not the empires of the old world.
Australia's cooling population growth may get a Brexit-driven boost as London becomes less attractive to Aussies and those already there get homesick.
Never keen about cutting rates unless it's an emergency, Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens been able to escape one last cut, until Wednesday.
Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens is considering cutting interest rates in one of his last acts in the job following news that Australia's official inflation rate has fallen to just 1 per cent.
Hillary Clinton would renegotiate the US free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico if she were elected president, a union leader has claimed.
Annual inflation has fallen to its lowest level in 17 years, opening the door for a potential interest rate cut when the Reserve Bank board meets next week.
It is time to dispense with a relic lingering at the core of our economy: the male breadwinner.
What is the driving force that has thrusted Donald Trump and Pauline Hanson into the limelight? Fear.
Sale signs are almost permanent fixtures in shop fronts in Sydney, but customers are still wary of spending
The country's south eastern states are continuing to power the national economy as it 'rebalances' away from the mining states of Queensland and Western Australia after the end of the 'once in a century' mining boom.
We pick the cream of the crop but Australia still has some way to go to make the most of its migrant community.
Economic growth is quite robust and the jobless rate is falling. But price pressures are abating. How can that be?
If there's one thing worse than being unemployed, it's being unemployed and old.
Local businesses have become creative in winning new customers through this fad.
When governments want to increase taxes they often hide their true intention.
A free independent guide from SMH with expert information.
A free independent guide from SMH with expert information.