Escape

It's ok

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Australia’s life dissatisfaction levels double as ‘wellbeing poverty’ reaches new highs

ABS data show one in 10 people are not satisfied with life – but community cohesion and trust lift happiness scores

Government-sponsored wealth redistribution for real estate parasites to control an ever-increasing portion of the economic prosperity pie. CHECK.

Dismantling of domestic manufacturing in pursuit of globalisation, placing the country at risk of supply chain shock and economic disruption caused by wars we aren't even involved in. CHECK.

Tax policies that punish workers and reward asset-holders thereby crippling aggregate economic demand and helping to destroy the arts. CHECK.

Shifting from a smart, self-sufficient economy of the 1960s, to a dumb economy focused only on exporting dirt and hydrocarbons. Allowing commonwealth resources to be extracted and exported with no royalties that could fund social housing / social programs / general welfare. CHECK.

Successive governments pushing immigration into hyperdrive insisting "we need to grow! look at our plummeting birth rates, never mind people can't afford kids!" in order to suppress wages and prop up the only remaining pole in this pathetic economic tent (the real estate bubble) all in an attempt to paper over the recession. CHECK.

Result:

The entire population of Australia knows we're on the wrong track and believes it's only going to get worse as companies cut costs, cut staff, and embrace AI with variable results.

As the haves and have-nots become more polarized, the population starts turning to far-right and far-left political parties in higher and higher numbers. The middle class falls apart, and Australia ends up looking a lot like South Africa.

Pathetic.

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Major capital cities record worst housing auction clearance rates in years

Sydney and Melbourne record their weakest auction results in years, with fewer than half of all homes going under the hammer finding a buyer

This current government should be clamoring to take credit for the buyer revolt, instead of downplaying the price falls.

We should all be elated that buyers are demanding lower prices and walking away from auctions where they can't get a satisfactory price.

This is thanks to the latest tweaks to the horrendous tax code that previously empowered parasitic speculators to inflate the Australian real estate market to the moon.

The press appears overeager in claiming that the tax tweaks will result in price reductions between 5-9% and that alone signals the end of times (!!) lol - but that reduction would only account for the price inflation over the past few years.

In reality, we need double digit price reductions in the 30-50% range across all markets just to get back to where house prices were in the early part of the 21st century.

Falling prices in light of the tax tweaks is just evidence that the previous tax code was enabling speculative parasites to inflate real estate across Australia.

Now if only the government would hit the stop button on the immigration hyperdrive that it's pursued since 2023.

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Dodgy real estate agents face six-figure fines in major crackdown

Practices such as underquoting and false bidding will be more heavily punished under new laws.

The NSW government, in a bid to lift industry standards, will increase the fine for underquoting from $22,000 to $110,000, or three times the culpable agent’s commission - whichever is greater.

Businesses that engage in dummy bidding at auctions will have their penalties doubled from $55,000 to $110,000.

A price or price guide will be mandatory on all advertising to better advise prospective buyers.

Buyers, sellers, renters and landlords are encouraged to use the NSW Fair Trading Name and Shame Register to check the status and history of the real estate agent and strata manager they are engaging with.

NSW Fair Trading Name and Shame Register

The NSW Fair Trading Name and Shame Register helps owners, renters, buyers and sellers make informed choices when selecting a property agent

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Australian citizen working as spy for Iran ‘orchestrated’ Bondi firebombing, Asio boss says

Mike Burgess’s annual threat assessment warns social media is ‘amplifying’ an erosion of trust in institutions, promoting discord and height

...The world’s security environment had degraded and social media was “amplifying and accelerating” an erosion of trust in institutions, promoting discord and heightening polarisation.

“Whether online or in the real world, when intolerance is tolerated, when violent language and violent acts are left unchecked, they become normalised, reinforcing the impression they are acceptable and compounding the likelihood of further violence,” Burgess said.

These manipulation platforms are the breeding grounds for fringe movements to rise up and go mainstream. Rage sells. Hate is monetised. And Society suffers as a result.

End. All. Manipulation. Platforms.

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Migration dips as Coalition accuses government of failing to meet targets

Net overseas migration remained above 300,000 last year, fuelling opposition claims Labor has locked in an unsustainable new normal despite

Major parties are finally acknowledging the connection between migration and housing demand which has pushed the Australian housing market into hyperdrive since COVID. House prices have skyrocketed beyond any measure of rationality in this timeframe.

Pathetic that it took them this long, but here we are.

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The SpaceX IPO made Musk a trillionaire. The old rules of capitalism no longer apply | Robert Reich

The economic principles taught in school aren’t as relevant as hype, connections and total, arbitrary control

Musk will have total control over SpaceX. Shareholders won’t have any voice whatsoever. Each share held by Musk will have 10 times the voting power of a share offered to the public. SpaceX’s board of directors will engage in a pantomime. They’ll have no meaningful authority.

None of this would be of particular cause for concern if investors could decide for themselves whether the downside risks and potential upside gains from buying SpaceX stock were worth the price. That’s called a “market”. Caveat emptor.

But many of us, if not most of us, with any savings parked in major stock indices (yours truly included) won’t have any choice. We’ll invest in SpaceX whether we want to or not. That’s because the major indices have been rigged.

Normally, major stock indices have a waiting period before they plow their investors’ money into a newly formed company, in order to test whether that company is worth it. But SpaceX has lobbied index funds to change the rules.

On 1 May, for example, the Nasdaq 100 implemented a new “fast entry” rule that will include companies among the top 40 most highly valued companies – which will almost certainly include SpaceX just days from now.

Presto! A big chunk of Americans’ retirement savings and pensions (as well as university endowments) will automatically be tied to SpaceX’s market value. At the same time, all that automatic infusion of investment will artificially jack up the value of SpaceX, at least in the short term.

After SpaceX’s huge IPO, Americans’ financial future will be bound to AIRead more

But here’s the real kicker. SpaceX insiders will be able to sell their shares sooner than is usually the case with an IPO, because that’s the way the SpaceX IPO has been organized.

This means they can enjoy the stocks’ upward tide as the major indices force millions of investors to buy it, and then they can exit SpaceX before the tide goes out.

Musk is now a trillionaire, but a lot of innocent people could be shafted by this IPO, perhaps without their even noticing. It could be a huge redistribution from most of us to Elon and his buddies.

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No “big top” yet in risk assets, BofA says despite elevated sentiment

Investing.com -- Investor sentiment has surged to near-peak levels but has not yet reached the threshold that historically signals a major m

BofA calling for a top at 7100 for 2026

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Great interview - esp the final 40 minutes.

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The desperate measures young people are taking as they try to secure rentals

Young Australians are taking desperate measures to secure rental homes in an over-saturated market, which is leaving "more homeless than eve

This is the result of 20+ years of prioritising parasitic investors over basic human needs. Government needs to buy, buy, buy - commercial buildings and residential buildings and make them available as affordable social housing.

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‘They’ve taken all my stuff’: councils across Australia threaten homeless people with fines and confiscation of belongings

As homelessness surges, councils have been thrust to the frontline of managing the crisis

"Half of councils in the country said they will move people on or clean up belongings. But enforcement doesn’t fix the issue...

“If you’re moving people on, it just moves the problem around,” Clarke said.

“Then you get this kind of domino effect amongst councils where when one does it, it puts pressure on surrounding councils to follow suit.”

Enforcement just entrenches homelessness because you’re disconnecting people from support services, creating mistrust between rough sleepers and authorities and causing psychological harm, he said.

“It increases stress, marginalisation and stigma, which can deteriorate health, which makes it harder to exit homelessness.”

Haywood said the Moreton Bay council has not ended the practice of moving people on, but it has slowed down – and it hasn’t repeated the same large-scale tent city clearance since.

The homeless population today is larger than it was 18 months ago, and some in the community still want them gone. So he believes it’s inevitable that it will happen again.

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This is the direct result of Australia failing to invest in social and affordable housing over the past 50 years. Australia stopped investing in public housing when it decided it wanted to run a Ponzi-scheme, neo-feudal economy prioritising landlords and other bottom feeding parasites.

Take care of your people Australia.

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‘Largest house price correction in 40 years’: Morgan Stanley

Budget tax changes to negative gearing and capital gains will “fundamentally change the asset allocation decision for Australian households”

Investors, Morgan Stanley’s estimates, will require price falls of between 15 per cent and 20 per cent to make the economics of investing stack up again.

“We estimate that housing prices would need to fall 5 per cent to adjust to the tax changes (with a permanent reduction in investor demand share), but taking into account the soft starting point for housing with RBA rate hikes, we see a 5-10 per cent drop in national prices as likely – one of the largest price corrections over the past 40 years,” the analysts wrote.

Prices in Sydney and Melbourne have fallen 0.9 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively over the past three months, although they are still rising in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. Nationally, prices were up 1.6 per cent in the past three months.

STILL WAITING FOR A BIGGER CORRECTION.

Remember: house prices (inflation adjusted) have risen 30% since 2016, and 120% since 1996.

Bring on the correction!

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Melbourne psychiatrist refuses new patients who don’t consent to AI note-taking

Registration form informs patients that if they do not wish AI to be used, they will need their referring doctor to refer them to a differen

“Regulators and legislators need to step-up and provide Australians with a legally enshrined right to refuse AI systems without facing repercussions to our health,” he said.

The patient said people should be able to opt out of scribes and suggested they were not confident the notes made would be accurate. [OR SECURE]

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I ditched Google and installed the privacy-focused GrapheneOS on my Pixel

GrapheneOS offers a host of privacy and security benefits over stock Android, but is it worth the hassle? We tested it. Here's what we learn

NB: Only supported on Google Pixel phones for now.

GrapheneOS says Google is making life harder for rival operating systems and devices

GrapheneOS claims Google's security systems make it harder for alternative operating systems and devices to access apps and online services.

“Control over reCAPTCHA puts Google in a position where they can require having either iOS or a certified Android device to use an enormous amount of the web,” the platform wrote.

GrapheneOS also says governments and banks are increasingly adopting these verification systems for things like payments, digital ID apps, and age verification services.

“Instead of governments stopping Apple and Google from engaging in egregiously anti-competitive behavior, they’re directly participating in locking out competition via their own services,” Graphene said.

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We Haven’t Seen the Worst of What Gambling and Prediction Markets Will Do to America

I don’t think people have thought hard enough about how bad this could get.

Pathetic.

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Useful visualizer.

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Short-stay Street: in some parts of Sydney, Airbnb guests outnumber residents

Councillors are pushing for a ban on short-term rentals, particularly in inner-city suburbs – where vacancy rates can be as low as 1%

Platforms like Stayz and Airbnb offered society an experiment. The results are in. There are negative consequences.

The next experiment to run: Ban them and then monitor the results. If the results are positive. Keep the ban.

Companies like Stayz and Airbnb love to bang on about how they're innovators: disrupting and breaking norms. Yet when society pushes back, they complain and say it's unfair they're being targeted.

Guess what? Society wants a turn at disrupting and breaking something - namely your shit business model.

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How Did We Get Here, Really? The Fifty-Year Coup Nobody Wanted You to Notice

Let’s start with a question most people are too polite or too exhausted to ask out loud.

The goal was never smaller government. The goal was captured government.

Not less power in Washington. More power in fewer hands. Their hands.

The Heritage Foundation spent $22 million preparing staffing recommendations for the 2025 government. Not on television ads. Not on voter outreach. On placing specific human beings inside the federal bureaucracy. The Presidential Administration Academy trained thousands of ideologically vetted potential appointees to be ready on Day One. The Mandate for Leadership laid out, in 900 pages of detail, exactly what should be dismantled, what should be restructured, and who should lose their jobs.

They built this over fifty years. They built it while most of us were doing something else, raising children, working, worrying about things that felt more immediately real than the slow institutional capture of a democracy. They built it with a patience that democracies almost never muster, because democracies operate on four-year cycles and this project operated on generational ones.

Gorbachev complained in the 1980s that Reagan was too influenced by Heritage. The Wall Street Journal reported it. Reagan, told of the complaint, said simply: “I read it and liked it.”