Breakfast briefing: Bad news brings rate hikes

US housing market tanks; US Fed speakers worried; Japanese PPI surge remains; high India inflation returns; Aussie inflation expectations stay very high; UST 10yr at 5.11%; Nvidia boss quits; gold falls and oil dips; AU$1 = 68.1 USc

Scott Bessent's risky short-termism

Barry Eichengreen warns that the US Treasury secretary's debt-issuance strategy could be penny-wise and pound-foolish

Today's changes to interest rates

Here are the changes the main banks have made to retail interest rates on Thursday, November 12, 2026

ASIC warns you may be missing out on savings interest

ASIC moves against complex or difficult to decipher savings account conditions that can mean customers may miss out on interest they could otherwise be earning

Housing markets set to weaken further after RBA hikes, says Cotality

The housing market is in for a tough time. Restrictive rates will continue to impact the confidence and financial capacity of potential buyers and it is expected that housing values and turnover to continue trending lower

The tech brotherhood wants sovereignty

Katharina Pistor sees a new form of governance increasingly overriding the nation-state and the will of the people

My first money presentation was in 2018. Here's what I'd say differently now

Lynda Moore points out that everyone's relationship with money changes over time even if some bedrock principles remain the same

Trump’s tariff fiasco could save free trade

Anne Krueger thinks the US president's costly tariff policy could give future leaders a powerful incentive to embrace openness

Higher again, with little sign it is reining in the inflation impulse

The RBA hikes as expected to a globally high level as prices keep rising quickly and the inflation target gets further away and harder to achieve

Housing downturn broadens as Brisbane and Perth lead the decline

Cotality says national home values fell for a seventh consecutive month as weaker demand weighed on sales and selling conditions

Mortgages 'at risk' set to rise

Roy Morgan surveys show the September 2026 risk of mortgage stress was 31.8%; up a large 7.9% points since January

Open mouth operations

Luci Ellis says the RBA does not want to promise what it will do, but it is increasingly trying to tell us what it thinks

Is a Chinese implosion looming?

Navneeraj Sharma & Arvind Subramanian identify political, economic, and fiscal weaknesses in China that could turn into a perfect storm

The catch for buyers as house prices tumble nationwide

House prices have recorded their steepest decline on record, with all eight capital cities experiencing a fall in the September quarter

Rising sovereign yields raise the fiscal stakes

Higher borrowing costs are adding to fiscal pressures at a time of high debt, making credible consolidation more urgent, says the IMF

When reality gets revised

Economic data are often revised. Sometimes the revisions change the story; sometimes they do not. Either way, Westpac's Luci Ellis says they argue for humility when using data in policy debates

Superannuation drives growth in household wealth

Household wealth now at $19.4 tln, driven by superannuation, but now held back by recently falling housing values