In 2009, economist Steve Keen walked from Canberra to Mount Kosciuszko after losing a bet that the Australian housing market would crash 40% after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). However, he had been one of the few economists who actually predicted the coming of the GFC. And he still maintains that a crash in the Australian housing market is coming.
housing bubble
Chairperson of the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) Wayne Byres recently said that he would not use the to describe the housing market, preferring instead to use 鈥渉eightened risk鈥 rather than housing bubble.
When neoliberal economics was being established as a hegemonic position in Australia in the late 1980s, 1.2 million workers were employed in the manufacturing industry 鈥 15% of the workforce.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics鈥 (ABS) latest employment analysis shows that 25,000 jobs were lost in manufacturing last year, bringing the total employed down to 920,000 鈥 7.8% of the workforce.
It is a trend that will only continue with the winding-down of the vehicle production industry and its related vehicle components sector.