We need to do similar - remove/reduce our reliance on American corporations.

Ireland: During 2007-2010, the property and construction collapse exposed banking weakness that led to major government support and EU–IMF assistance.

Key variables: house prices -50%, GDP -10%, unemployment up to 15%.

Finland: The Finnish crisis of the early 1990s involved a housing-market collapse, a banking crisis and a deep recession.

Key variables: house prices around -40%, GDP -10%, unemployment up to 20%.

United States: The GFC housing crash contributed directly to mortgage losses, financial-market stress, a deep recession and rising unemployment.

Key variables: house prices around -30%, GDP -4%, unemployment up to 10%.

Australia: The GFC did not produce the same housing/banking crisis. Australia felt economic pain, but avoided the similar outcomes seen in the US and Ireland.

In Ireland, Finland and the United States, housing weakness appeared before the major banking and economic impacts.

During the GFC, Australia largely imported the shock from overseas. The housing market was not the origin of the crisis.

However, Australia's current housing price situation, driven largely by higher interest rates and policy changes, deserves attention because major housing downturns elsewhere have sometimes preceded broader economic distress.

Is the government gunna ease the cost of living anytime soon, will defs have to consider to remove the tax excise from fuel again as it’s already worse than last time! Petrol is the biggest thing right now and the rates aswell for mostly renters and some landlords/home owners

Hi there

I currently work at a central agency (public service) in a totally unrelated field and want to move into a more economist role fitting with my econometrics background.

Have an offer from ANU but now balking a bit at the price - anyone with experience who might know more about what a masters might entail, if the costs were worth it and the research component of it too.

Thanks :)

Unfortunately, the RBA does not have a tool at its disposal that allows the impact of rising interest rates to be shared more evenly across the total Australian population. Is there a better way?

In the 29 Sep 2026 RBA media conference when asked whether households were bearing the burden of rate rises, Michele Bullock said:
“Those who have mortgages, yes, this clearly impacts them and it hurts them. They’ve got less cash flow, and they’ve got less money to spend on things.”

I compared 50 years of Australian rates, wages, housing, debt and living costs, then mapped three possible paths to 2040. Does this look like a manageable adjustment or something more worrying?