Mike's Minute: The OCR rise clearly shows our economy is failing

The Mike Hosking Breakfast - A podcast by Newstalk ZB - Wednesdays

So here's the first realisation that we face out of the Reserve Bank's 50 basis point rise - it was 50 points. It proves, yet again, no one seems to really have a handle on what's going on. Secondly, and most worryingly, is it was 50 points. While Australia sees no need to move at all, we are still in the large end of the spectrum. The Americans moved by 25 points, but we moved by 50 because of the size of our hole. And with the cash rate at 5.25% it is surely more than fair to suggest that the top out at 5.5% is real and the banks suggesting that 5.25% was it finished, are wrong. It's also fair to suggest that something north of 5.5% is surely not out of the question, which then leads to the question - when does it end? How bad does it have to get before we see some sort of light? Australia doesn’t move and those who do move, move 25 points at the max. Those economies see inflation dropping. Do you think we see inflation dropping? Yes, we see signs that things are tightening and spending is not what it was. But through a combination of things unique to us we have taken a bad scenario and completely cocked it up. My great hope is this is finally starting to sink in for those who have dismissed it all as just the cost of Covid. We printed more per head of the population than anyone outside America, the Government spent like there was no tomorrow and we are missing our debt targets because tax take is down, despite tax rates going up. Our debt is getting ever more expensive. The Government continues to hand out more and more money, 1.4 million of us got more just last Saturday. We are in recession yet wages are still going up, we don’t have enough people arriving so, as the Reserve Bank says, the labour market is beyond capacity, the immigration settings are insane and, even if they were loosened, there is now a real question as to how many actually want to come. We are in trouble. Yes, everyone was in trouble post Covid. But as the decisions are laid bare, as the consequences present themselves, as our Reserve Bank does what it does, it is increasingly obvious that we have cocked this up and are in way worse shape than most others. We have been economically upended by incompetents and incompetence. 50 basis points is an indisputable sign of abject failure.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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