BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander has a "very strong warning to first home buyers" that floating mortgage rates in this country could be as high as 8.5% within three or four years.
The expectation in the market place is that the Reserve Bank will start pushing up interest rates from early next year onward.
Alexander told interest.co.nz in an interview that at the start of any cycle of interest rate rises home-owners tend to be resistant to the higher rates, because the vale of their property is rising and they are happy to live with the higher rates on that basis.
“History tells us that initially we just flip the bird to the poor old Reserve Bank and they end up having to take interest rates to a relatively high level. So, for every cycle it is what will be the extremity of interest rates this time around?”
He said that at the end of the last housing boom in the mid-2000s house buyers weren’t deterred till floating rates hit about 10.9%. The cycle before that it was 11.3%.
“I think people should budget on at least 8.5% this cycle – within three-to-four years.
“...There's a lot of guesswork involved in that. This is a very uncertain post-[2008 Global Financial Crisis] world still.”
Interest.co.nz calculations would suggest that based on the average floating mortgage rate of 5.65% at the moment and the average floating mortgage size of NZ$104,000, monthly repayments would go up some 29% from NZ$648 a month to NZ$837 a month if rates did indeed climb to 8.5%
The heat being generated in the housing market, particularly in Auckland, is prompting high-level concern and calls to action. The Reserve Bank is indicating it is prepared to use its freshly developed "macro-prudential tools" against the market. See here for our articles on macro-prudential tools.
The Government is meanwhile pushing through new legislation that will enact a new Housing Accord it has agreed with the Auckland Council aimed at building 39,000 new houses in Auckland over the next three years. See here for our stories on the accord.
Strong indications
In a speech last week RBNZ Governor Graeme Wheeler gave strong indications the central bank would be prepared to unleash the most talked about of the four macro-prudential tools and introduce "speed limits" on high loan to valuation lending, typically where the buyer borrows more than 80% of the value of the house.
“I think you can definitely count on it happening,” Alexander said.
He said, however, the RBNZ was definitely not using the LVR limits to replace increasing the Official Cash Rate - raising interest rates when it wants to slow down inflation overall in the economy.
“This is something focused very much on reducing bank exposure should there be a big decline in house prices down the track.
“...What the Reserve Bank is trying to do is limit the risk of a negative equity situation rather than necessarily cap the speed of price increases.”
First-time buyers hit
Alexander agrees that first-time home buyers are the people likely to be most affected by high LVR lending limits.
“Definitely, this is the problem. For the first home buyer just raising a 10% deposit for the likes of Auckland can be difficult enough. If you’ve got to come up with 20% it is going to be near impossible for a lot of people.”
Alexander reckons, however, that buyers will find still find the money but will just pay more for it.
“It’s going to shift the risk from maybe excessive bank exposure should house prices fall towards simply the individuals are going to be having greater cash outflows at higher interest rates.
“It also maybe means it increases the chances of the sort of unitised developments. Let’s say people are going to be thinking about inner city apartments for instance, you are going to get the developers come along to build the apartments, they will be marketing those apartments to first home buyers and also investors who want something low maintenance, (hopefully they are not going to leak this time around), the bit that’s going to be missing is going to be who’s financing it.
New investment vehicles
“We banks pulled back from a lot of this stuff a generation ago. Previously it was the finance companies. Some new investment vehicle is going to come in there. They are going to have nice attractive people marketing their products, maybe old people walking along the beach, saying you can earn another 1% to 2% here rather than bank term deposits.
“So, the money will start flowing into these new vehicles to finance the developments and so then the developers can say to the young people we can lend you 90% -95% finance because we’ve got the money. So, that I think is what’s going to happen over the next two or three years, partly as a result of the Reserve Bank policy.”
Does he mean therefore that we may see developments again such as the ill-fated Blue Chip companies that saw over 2000 investors left around NZ$84 million out of pocket?
“Well, it could be something like that. Hopefully not. I’ve got no evidence that anything out there at the moment is dodgy, shall we say," Alexander said.
People get desperate
"But history says to us that when people get desperate for their property exposure there are going to be people who come in to provide the financing, one way or another, that they are looking for. And I think that could be one form it will take, further down the track. We are not there yet, but it is a bit further down.
“...The challenge for the Reserve Bank here is that last time they did not monitor adequately the finance companies. This time they’ve actually had a sentence in something they released a just few days ago, indicating they will be keeping an eye out for any new sort of financiers that do appear maybe offering top-up finance. So, I think they are determined to get on top of it this time around. But like I say, when you are talking about maybe an individual project and the finance available for that project I’m not necessarily convinced that they will have much of a role there.”
On the proposed Auckland Housing Accord and its targeted 39,000 new homes, Alexander said it was "definitely a good target to have", given the estimates of a current housing shortage in Auckland of up to 30,000 homes.
No resources
“My point is that the resources are not going to be there – the carpenters, the electricians, the council inspectors, the engineers, the architects. We’ve had five years of very weak construction in New Zealand, so there is a lot of catch-up to be done.
“Especially in the context of the rebuilding of Christchurch the resources won’t be available.”
But Alexander said that assuming Auckland building activity now does ramp up, this will produce a squeeze on available labour and building materials down the track. This will “most definitely” lead to concerns about inflation.
He said there were four different problems associated with the housing market:
- Affordability. Can I afford to buy a house in Auckland etc.
- Physical availability of low cost accommodation for the low income people.
- Bank exposure to riskier lending.
- And then, mainly from the exporters angle, the prospect of the currency going through the roof when the Interest rates go through the roof because the inflation goes through the roof because the construction prices rise.
“My view is the resources for the construction to rise massively won’t be there, that simply means the prices go up, the wage rates, the materials costs etc. You get the inflation, you get the interest rates going up potentially strongly in the next three years and you get the currency going back up again as well.”
Alexander questioned whether even if a lot of land was freed up in Auckland and a fall in section prices resulted, would that be good interest rates and exchange rates?
Even more demand
“If the sections are cheaper we are going to look to build more houses, there’ll be even more demand for materials and people. The costs, the wages go up even further and THAT is the driver of inflation not the rise in the house price itself, because that isn’t in the inflation measure. All of these things are and therefore you actually get a worse interest rate response eventually from the Reserve Bank. It’s a perverse world.”
Anecdotally, one driver of higher house prices, particularly in Auckland, has been an influx of foreign buyers - many based offshore. Alexander has attempted to quantify the extent of such activity through the BNZ's monthly housing survey done in conjunction with the Real Estate Institute. The specific questions relating to the geographic origins of buyers were included in the March and May BNZ-REINZ surveys, producing a figure of just 3.6% of buyers nationwide from overseas and not intending to live in New Zealand.
Commenters on the interest.co.nz website have tended to be very sceptical about the results from those surveys. But Alexander's not budging on his view.
“Well, I say bring on YOUR results. Not a single person has come to me with anything other than some sort of sprawling anecdote about the Chinese taking over the world. Come to me with your survey. It only has to be Auckland for instance, showing the proportion of house sales that are going to people overseas. Chinese, poms or whatever.”
“...I think one of the issues here is that we’ve got a lot of panicked people in the housing market now,” Alexander said.
He said he had been telling people back in 2009 that it was a good time to be buying a house, but many people were put off by talk of falling prices.
Stacked-up investors
“What you’ve got now is at least four years worth of people stacked up on each other all scrambling to make a purchase and of course if are looking to buy a thing you are hoping that some other buyers will go away. You are looking at who else is out there at the auctions etc.
“And I think that what people are hoping is that some legislative change could be made to scare away maybe some of the foreign buyers because they are in this panic trying to catch up on buying they maybe should have done one, two, three, or even four, years ago.”
Alexander re-iterated previous comments he has made, however, that whatever the current reality of Chinese buyers in New Zealand there will only be more in future, given our increasing trading links with the country and its burgeoning middle-class, meaning more investment money is available.
“I am a strong supporter of the Government in fact putting in place legislation, which would limit the purchase of houses in New Zealand by foreigners.”
He said a starting point would be the Australian rules, that say, in essence that overseas-based foreign investors can only buy new houses, not existing ones.
“I personally think that is what we need to move to in New Zealand.”
63 Comments
Funds coming out of US bond market and into stocks recently has seen 30-year fixed move from a low of about 3.6 to about 4.15% right now. These notes do exist, as long as your credit file is clean and your earnings are such that PITI is no more than 45% of your gross. There is a catch though; to get those rates you have to pay an out-of-pocket origination fee being larger with a lower rate, so most people end up with a slightly higher rate than lowest advertised.
One wonders if the govt will engineer a pullback in stocks, to get interest rates back below the 4 handle, as desirable US housing is looking real bubbly again, a'la 2006. Undesirable areas, not so much. This perhaps demonstrates that monied or connected people have access to lots of Bernanke money. Most everybody else is struggling.
I fail to see how this is possible given that the rest of the world is still largely in financial collapse and our own economy, while not in the toilet, is stumbling along going nowhere.
I don't understand how NZ's place in the world would survive when we're offering 8%+ on money here when the rest of our trading partners are at <2%. That's FOUR TIMES disparity!
The NZ$ would end up at about US $1.60 and all of a sudden we'd not be able to export a damned thing, and once again our economy would crash.
Oh the message that wont die.....havnt we been hearing this for 5 years now?
Sure quite possible our RB will have an idealogcal burp and briefly raise rates a little if things stay fairly stagnent....which is the best case. Then of course they will have to back track fast as the rest of the economy ie the productive bit shudders and slows down.
regards
He might be right. He might be wrong. Toss a coin. Anybody who thinks they know for sure what interest rates will do is kidding themselves. Timing the interest rate market is a mugs game.
The only safety is in reducing debt, and if rates are cheap now (supposedly) then now is the golden opportunity to do that. Equity gives you power and choices.
Is your average the mean, median or mode?
"Interest.co.nz calculations would suggest that based on the average floating mortgage rate of 5.65% at the moment and the average floating mortgage size of NZ$104,000, monthly repayments would go up some 29% from NZ$648 a month to NZ$837 a month if rates did indeed climb to 8.5%"
Which measure of average tendency is more useful in this context? I would suggest the mean is likely to be least useful and the median and mode measures will give more insight.
Phew! Properties are selling even before the first open home!
1/13 Knight Ave sold after only 1 day on the market.
Several offers were presented to the vendor on Wednesday night by no less than THREE different agents including two offers from the listing agent Bruce Murtagh and one offer (the winning offer) from Repeka Lelaulu
SOLD unconditionally for more than the asking price! Obviously very happy vendors!
Here's what Mish is reporting
"A full scale housing bust is underway in Australia".
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/#KzbgcSHtkh8V33dv.99
Forget about the interest rate outlook- I think we should all be more concerned about how long David Hargreaves is going to continue to try and channel Michael Douglas's slicked-backed hair look from Wall Street. I think it's time to give the 80s back its street cred.
Commentators can warn as often as they like but the average first buyer is looking ahead for 12 months at most because they just want to get settled into a reasonable life after renting..
The real problem is the high values that have been aggravated by issues not acted on as yet and in particular investors both local and overseas who can easily afford to buy right now. It will truly be interesting to see the result of interest cost increases an if they happen to coincide with some action that sees overseas investors pinged, it will be even more fun to watch.
Currently the market is shifting profits to the older generation at the expense of the younger ones. That may only be changed when the winners die off in their expensive rest homes and have enough to leave to the next in line who in most cases will already be well endowed.
There are votes for the political party who can grasp the nettle and tell the young that they will need to vote for their own future rather than give up by heading overseas.
USA borrowing cost have definitely been on the rise so this indicates to me that rates will be on the rise. I can see 8 - 8.5 % floating rates in 3 years, and more likely if everyone fixes mortgage rates rather than floating and also bank downgrading which mean higher borrowing costs.
Yes, well National have been a bit weak at times. Their "change at a pace kiwis can go along with" is frustratingly slow. I am amazed they have had the luxury of time to make changes. Usually events take over and things fall apart (housing in Spain, Ireland and parts of the US). During the last recession I found it extraordinary that only the private sector was hit - basically anyone working for central or local government got a free pass. Instead of senior civil servants and political appointees getting a pay cut or the sack for sitting and twiddling in the good times they all gave each other a pay rise!
Then it turns out the times had only been good because we had been deluded into thinking that it was a good thing to borrow more from overseas to buy our existing houses off each other while the economists and officials looked on approvingly. When will the madness end?
and what pray could they have been stronger or faster at?
Sure things fall apart and lets be clear the right have had 30 years to do better and uh produced this mess, so....what could National have been stonger and faster at again?
For this recession I think you'll find, if you looked that indeed there has been some hits in the public sector but given demand for public services hasnt fallen away its somewhat hard to see just how you dont do things when they are wanted....
The last para I do agree with, but how this gells with your first para eludes me as they seem mutually exclusive. Areyou suggesting National would stop the debt crazyness? cant see it...they are growth merchants, and thats their only string....
Otherwise yes it will end, but i dont think in the way you mean. We have reached the limits of growth and so must contract, hence its going to end pretty soon, not past 2020 Id think.
regards
Great comment Hugh. There's a supply problem, so, fix the supply. Simple.
There was a good article the other day (sorry no link) regarding land bankers in south east Auckland, specifically one group holding 100s of hectares of land in Flat Bush. They bought for $800k (ish) in 1995 and it's now worth 100m+. But they're refusing to sell for less than 120m! I do wonder whether the govn could seize that land, using the same legislation that allows them to designate private land fo roads, and force them to sell for market rates.
Indeed, and you hit the nail on the head, and the fatal flaw in HughP's rezoning proposal. ie as per they want $120million, that makes the plots un-realistically expensive and hence so called affordable housing isnt going to happen on that land.
The only way to get competition and hence real price drops is to indeed do compulsory land purchase at its fair agricultural value and then re-zone it residential and sell it off at more or less that cost, nothing else IMHO would change the problem we have now. not just this one spot of course but enough to drop the land prices to a fraction.
Personally I think the compulsory land purchases will happen, the pollies will see the writing on the wall and do it....now if there is another way, Im all ears....
regards
Hugh, real estate agents will always try to convince property owners now is the best time to sell. Of course 5 minutes later they will try to convince a potential buyer now is the best time to buy.
Investors are more likely to be buying than selling at the moment, especially as rents are up so significantly and fixed interest rates are so low. I'm still buying, and have been constantly no matter what the markets doing, because buying right is just as important as buying at the right time.
OCR is the tool the RBNZ uses.
The Government could and should use the tax system to lower any inflationary effects that might arise.
They could and should lower GST or other tax rates. And for those who will jump all over this and assume that the Government gets less think again and do your math and think about what higher production and efficiencies can achieve.
Tony is wrong about the production of housing.
The labour force is there in the un employed, building a house is not difficult, one experienced supervisor can over see the construction of a litlle residential house, design and materials repeat themselves - floors walls, roof & fitout. you'll know what your doing after a couple and a right pro at number 39,000.
Competition and volume well drive down prices, importing materials may be cheaper.
Right on, 2 toothy.
Just glance at the types of staff who are actually building houses right now (the hammer hands, gibbers, plasterers, roofies, etc). Then ask yerself one question.
How hard Is this stuff?
In Christchurch, at the minute, much of this sorta work is being done by Filipinos and other new entrants, quite literally off the boat (or airbus). And with quite a bit more attention to detail than many kiwis....
The real expertise lies in the foundation set-out and pour, and the certified trades: sparkies, plumbers and drainlayers, brickies and the like. Plus the factories which put together the walls, trusses, manufactured beams, windows, doors and steelwork, but you're talking proper QC there as part of the deal..
The rest can be picked up......although this is not a popular viewpoint at Mobie.....who need lotsa bitsa paper to prove that, yes, you too can Weathertighterate a Window.
Exactly Waymad - even an industrial sized 3D printer might do the trick!
The houses well only be variants of the same theme. Pre-consented, quck to build and little waste.
The same trade team moving from site to site with next trade team following directly. Slab guys, Wall guys, roof guys etc. Before you know it they'll be knocking out several houses a day
Service trade guys are only putting in basic simple stuff a loo, shower, switchboard.. that most can do. Low skilled labour can do the hard graft; skilled labour can do the technical stuff and supervising.
Weather tightness is easy to get right, main thing is the house gets independantly checked at the key stages of construction.
We have been threatened with rising interest rates for several years now, but now with the dollar on the way down there may be room for a move upwards, so maybe not "crying wolf" again.
ASB is doing fixed home loans for 5 years for 6.25%, so it would seem that 8% could be some way off
I don't think Alexander's warnings of 8.5 % rates within 3-4 years are credible whatsoever.
Unless the govt intervenes and starts building houses there is going to be minimal increases in inflation-generating house building. For a start the Unitary Plan won't be operative for at least another 3 years.
And what else is going to get the economy and inflation humming? Sure the ChCh rebuild might pick up a bit...
Most analysts would argue world growth is going to be mediocre in the coming 3-4 years. A weaker Aus means less of an employment safety net for NZ, unemployment is unlikely to drop much and might increase, creating more fiscal pressure and less inflationary pressure.
Australian business is really going through some change, working currently with an organisation that has grown 10% pa for the last five years..now flat lined..the inhouse stress and managements ability to react to such a change is proving a challange.
Re: Inflation...It will not take much for building materials to change in pricing..as they are in Christchurch...although activity is still slow at present..more activity sure..little cashflow to show for it and inflation in labour markets is limited.
Rightly or wrongly, I always take Tony Alexander's opinions with a pinch of salt as I think he pitches the story for his employer's benefit. He does appear to be talking up the housing market and maybe trying to encourage people to fix for long periods. A 8.5% interest rate implies a housing boom and a Reserve Bank unconcerned about the effect of increasing rates on the NZ$. Alternatively, rates can go up dramatically if bank overseas sources of credit dry up like it so nearly did in the GFC.
Having just bought a house this week, it is amazing what bank deals can be done, even for someone seeking a floating rate. Floaters can leave at any time so offering money and TVs doesn't make sense to me but I won't complain. One thing that worked in my favour was liquidating shares earned much more money that I anticipated, there really has been a bull run on the share market.
My game plan is to pay the mortgage off very quickly because I see lots of uncertainty ahead. Everyone goes on about the Auckland and Christchurch market but in the regional centres, the housing market is dead. Negotiating is difficult because vendors don't want to lose any capital but there are almos no buyers out there. IMHO, house prices could tumble very quickly in a financial shock. It is a shame that our open market does not lead to businesses shifting out of Auckland to where housing costs are lower, employees end up with much higher disposable income.
Tony Alexander here is some of the Data you have asked someone to "Bring On"
The below file is a list 400+ Houses purchased on Auckland's North Shore in the last 6 months with the addresses and owners names
http://www.filedropper.com/propertymailexport
It is very high level data, but can we determine anything from it? At a quick glance it perhaps shows over a 3rd of purchasers are of Asian descent. But as he points out in his report there are many ways to read this so I am highlighting this to generate comment. But I would be interested in what data people think we need to prove or disprove what Tony claims?
Banks make more money from floating rates, as thier cost of funding increases or decreases they just move the rate up or down and preserve thier margins. Fixed rates historically provide a worse return for the banks as they, like the rest of us, cannot accurately predict exactly where rates are going. Furthermore competition to grab new customers and retain existing often gets played out in the fixed mortgage market, i.e. they offer great rates to capture customers.
Maybe, just maybe, Tony is calling it as he sees it...
Pity we cant strip the political blinkers out of such comments, which also cant of course be proven. Even if money is being trandsferred for those states what then all the other states? ie where the price of petrol is similar...
So a policy expert who cant see the cost of fuel is related to the cost of extraction and high demand...and how that will effect the economy.
As someone I watched last night said, in the the USA everything you do involves using a car and hence fuel, ergo when the fuel gets too expensive or even rationed less will happen.
In the 70s the Europeans put up petrol taxes and this high price caused a move to smaller and more efficient vehicles, this means the EU can probably sustain a petrol price of twice what the US can....where no such policy happened.
regards
The usual trolls, making the same comments, all from their respective angles. If it supports them, it's 'important'. If it doesn't, it - or they - is/are denigrated.
Can we raise the debate, and widenthe scope, perchance?
Alexander works for a system that had to fataly hemhorrage at some predictable point. Others view the world as if that system will go forever.
All are wrong.
Money, issued as debt, spun into existence out of nowhere, partially-backed by equity in? Real Estate. So the relativity is that of bootlaces to upper-leathers. So a need to do ever-more work (production/consumption) to 'pay' for the rental of the fiat issuance. That would have to be increased, at 3%-odd, to keep the system going.
Unfortunately, the planet can't even systain that growth, indulged in by a small percentage of the total population. The exponential demand, has hit the ceiling. Energy-supply to the system being the key ingredient.
So we have concurrent problems: an inability to service ongoing mortgages, even at zero interest. An inability to charge interest. An increasing shortage of fossil fuels available to both do the work, and provide much of the feedstock.
No amount of referencing to hucksters, promoters, bigots, deniers or dreamers, will change that fact. No amount of repeating mantra, will change that fact. Things in over-demand will be bid-up (shelter, food, water top of the list) the rest will be dropped. Interest can't be charged, unless it sucks others dry in compensation: a process which ends sooner rather than later.
go figure - which obviously a lot of folk aren't.
Maybe we need a function to ask for foolish statements to be flagged. That sure was one, Kimy.
I champion solar energy, have served in various roles in Solar Action, run off it myself for 2/3 of our power, But I also do the math, in a non-prejudiced way. As this nuclear physicist does:
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/10/the-energy-trap/
Compare that treatise (you won't even look at it, but you'll soon repeat the glib nonsense above, is my bet) with your unthought-through offering. Folk who do bother to read, and to think, can make up their own minds which one did the thinking.
:)
So the RB is in the business of reducing negative equity risk for the banks? So that's why the banks are happy to take "huge" risks lending to a radically over-inflated housing market. Maybe if the banks knew that no-one would be covering their asses, they wouldn't then have provided the financial fuel for the inflation?
By the way: There are huge long-terms risks relating to the value of people's homes. You also have to think in terms of technological movements in this funny little world of ours.
http://andrewatkin.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/new-zealand-short-and-long-term-threats.html
Sooner or later, this country is going to get a very rude awakening on the true vulnerability of the value of their primary asset.
nz's economy is at a very interesting juncture. the reserve bank are bringing in lvr's because they finally realise a continued escalation of the current mini boom could be disastrous,and they don't want to go on a sustained ocr rate increase because that would also be disastrous.problems are compounded by the lack of new housing supply.
now with aus weakening fewer kiwis will migrate,and this will put more pressure on rental prices AND On the dole.adding both fiscal and monetary policy pressures.the obvious solutions are not forthcoming for both ideological and competence reasons.
something must give.
Not much point at all, since no-one argues with me any more.
A few points I suppose.
1. Property is the only game in town atm 'perfect storm' much as dislike that metaphor. It was always going to be like this and it would be hilarious to dredge up some of the threads of last year/year before on the coming property armageddon.
As pleasing as that is, more importantly:
2. Rich keep getting richer, underclass keeps growing. I'm not a fan of gated community living.
3. The left are coming, and if they do form a govt - it will be much harder left than I've ever been alive to witness.
4. Labour/Greens/Mana/Len Brown. Think about that.
1. In some towns, yes, others no. I looked at a place recently with a GV of 1.2million and a reserve that wasnt met of $800k.
2. Well south africa is a good example of that not working to well.
3. I dont believe you are that young...
;]
I dont think it will be that hard left. It will I think be more green and a bit more left, the Green's at 11% (and quite possibly more) will want some hefty changes off Labour. We do however still see the swing vote is about the centre, appear to be too far left and they are toast.
4. Im hoping for it because what we have here is clearly a mess and getting worse. I assume then you intend to sell up before the election and jump off to OZ or somewhere?
I'm very happy to see you do seem to have some care for your fellow man and society after all
I will admit I was wrong on prices (noting I didn't predict a crash, only a general flatlining). Of course, if the nats had shown the sort of urgency they are showing now some 4-5 years ago, as I expected and as I advocated for, then I probably would have been right.
they have acted far too late and the consequences are grim
I for one have under-estimated the human factor (herd instinct/ lemming behavior and greed) and its short term effect. Be that as it may that human factor hasnt solved the issues, its just can kicked them and can kicking them shorter and shorter distances into the future each time. Every other bubble has popped (and not flat lined)....can we really believe this time it will be different?
Cant see how.
regards
Good to see some of you finally admitting the point. I made a comment here last week that it is unhelpful for people like you to constantly predict a property crash as it says "don't bother doing anything, it'll crash soon anyway".
Auckland has a major supply shortage and prices will continue to go up until that is solved, demand side measures could stop prices going up but will decrease affordability.
For the record I've been picking significant Auckland price rises for years now (see comment history) and been spot on, not cause it's what I want to happen but what I think will happen.
SK - and others; - the Left, and the current Green echelon, are as wrong as the Right.
:)
Even folk like Tim Flannery, James Lovelock and Lester Brown, fail to grasp that the problem is ever-increasing resource cousumption, and that the current system cannot be maintained. Nuclear power and equality don't solve that issue, and it's several orders of magnitude bigger than the whether/which of housing.Those who blither on about left vs right are so missing the big picture.
The sentiments expressed by Alexander are very similar to his counterparts from the other Banks who have tried to talk up interest hikes in the last three years - wake me up, there is nothing of significance to support this, apart from unsubstantiated conjecture
Good try - but come back again in another year or two, this time under another guise
cha cha
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