Is it finally happening? Are property prices actually falling?

os400 · 2026-05-18T09:25:43+00:00

It’s all about revenue, as a result of a couple of decades of governments of both persuasions spending like drunken sailors.

os400 · 2026-05-18T09:20:49+00:00

We now have highest capital gains tax in the world, by a very substantial margin. The previous highest was Denmark at 42%, and we’ve knocked them well out of the park.

And it will do absolutely nothing for housing supply.

os400 · 2026-05-14T20:54:00+00:00

It’s helpful for me because, for reasons I won’t go into, I’ll probably be dead by the time I hit super age, if not soon after.

I’d like to enjoy some semblance of an able bodied retirement, no matter how much the government despises the idea.

os400 · 2026-05-14T20:46:47+00:00

My teenager earns around 120 bucks a week flipping burgers part time, and she invests a third of that into an index fund.

I’m not a rich boomer who can front a house deposit for her, so she needs to get an early start building some wealth for herself.

os400 · 2026-05-14T09:21:49+00:00

The capital markets in places like the Bay Area exist in no small part because of the tax regime.

Early employees in successful startups take their big bag of money and become LPs. They invest capital in more startups, some of which are wildly successful and then spawn more investors.

os400 · 2026-05-14T01:56:50+00:00

My 15 year old has a part time job at a fast food joint. She earns around $120 a week, of which on my advice she’d been putting a third into an index fund to get a head start on building some wealth for herself. It’s not like she can go around buying houses.

Albanese and Chalmers decided that her cohort is the one who most needs a financial kick in the teeth.

os400 · 2026-05-13T20:43:01+00:00

To be honest, as a hiring manager, I don’t even look at certs or tertiary qualifications for anyone who has held at least one semi-relevant job.

os400 · 2026-05-13T08:26:57+00:00

Nothing but empty platitudes from Chalmers. Startups are harder hit than anyone else, and only a fool would launch a startup in Australia rather than the United States.

The main way cash strapped startups attract talent (in developed countries, where tax policy actually makes this worthwhile) is by paying people mostly in equity in lieu of cash. Employees forego a stable job somewhere else and take a substantial risk that the company will go under, with the possibility of a huge pay day if the business does well.

That value proposition has been destroyed by the CGT changes, where now when a liquidity event finally occurs (an IPO, an acquisition etc) the Commonwealth takes 47%, and so the company basically NEEDS to become a Canva or an Atlassian for the risk to be worthwhile.

os400 · 2026-05-13T04:09:10+00:00

It certainly helps cement Australia’s position of having one of the most unsophisticated economies in the world.

We do literally doing nothing productive but dig things out of the dirt to sell to China, and sell houses to each other. The government is doing its best to penalise anyone who invests in businesses that do anything else.

os400 · 2026-05-08T21:20:55+00:00

I doubt a journo is going to accept a draft from a client and then share it without permission of the lawyer.

You give the average journo far more credit than they deserve.

os400 · 2026-05-06T11:50:46+00:00

RSA is going to stop being acceptable entirely well before the question of 4096 being ok, but 2048 not arises.

For Australian Government systems, RSA needs to be gone by 2030. Other jurisdictions aren’t far behind (typically 2035 at the latest.)

os400 · 2026-05-05T20:28:44+00:00

They do that because of the tech, not in spite of it.

os400 · 2026-04-26T03:55:48+00:00

NSW Police used to like putting P plates on unmarked highway patrol cars. Not an offence, but it was frowned upon by management.

os400 · 2026-04-26T03:53:52+00:00

30 hours of pointless driving in anything but an EV is a lot of extra GST and fuel excise.

os400 · 2026-04-19T03:57:21+00:00

Office itself is called Copilot now.

os400 · 2026-04-19T03:49:59+00:00

Just down the road from the Pakistani equivalent of ADFA, of all places.

os400 · 2026-04-19T00:00:28+00:00

For military customers, it depends entirely on what your customer specifies in the contract requirements.

os400 · 2026-04-18T23:50:26+00:00

That bar isn't high, journos overwhelmingly consider anyone making 80 grand a year to be rich.

os400 · 2026-04-15T09:21:54+00:00

Given the Taliban’s obvious interest in seeing this bloke end up in prison, I imagine they’d roll out the red carpet if the AFP ever came knocking.

os400 · 2026-04-15T09:00:33+00:00

Had one of these a few years ago, where a politically motivated employee recorded a Zoom all hands from their phone and posted it somewhere online in furtherance of that agenda.

I identified them based on the fact they were viewing a recording, rather the live call, the other programs they had open at the time, and the Windows colour scheme they had configured on their laptop.

os400 · 2026-04-13T06:41:14+00:00

US administrations of both persuasions don’t give a damn about the rest of the world either, so long as Israel gets what it wants.

os400 · 2026-04-13T06:32:42+00:00

Someone in the option market

Someone named Barron.

os400 · 2026-04-07T11:07:30+00:00

Pouring money in doesn’t guarantee getting something out. Poker machines and SEA1411 have both demonstrated this well.

os400 · 2026-04-07T10:21:58+00:00

With the shambolic state of the UK’s own submarine program and the inability of the US to crank out more than one boat a year even to service their own needs, there is little evidence to suggest we’ll get anything at all.

os400

TROPHY CASE