Beware the dangers of central planning.
The job of good government is to provide macro settings that nudge markets around to maximise the benefit to society.
Bad government is to distort macro settings to deliver on politically charged targets to get re-elected and damn the lifeboats.
This is bad government.
Jim Chalmers has instructed financial regulators to soften home-lending rules for millions of Australians with university debts and developers who can’t guarantee “100 per cent pre-sold apartments”, in a pre-election move to help achieve Labor’s 1.2 million new homes target and woo younger voters.
After the rare intervention by the Treasurer ahead of the election, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and Australian Securities & Investments Commission will immediately launch consultations and implement changes to help “unlock more finance from the banks”.
In short, another generation will be pawned into the diminishing returns of debt.
Only for them, it won’t bring beautiful homes and lifestyle TV.
It will be invisible debt that still has to be repaid, enabling larger mortgages secured against shipping containers masquerading as houses.
Welcome to Chicken Chalmer’s shanty towns ghettoes future for Aussie kids.
A living standards downshift imported directly from the slum cities of Asia, South America and Africa.
Along with the workforce, that is the major reason for the housing shortage!
Scratch “bad government”. This is disastrous government.
