Steve Keen, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Western Sydney and Australia's most prominent housing bear, has endorsed Prosper Australia's call for a First Home Buyers' Strike. Launched on March 15 on the Campaign Ideas Forum at GetUp!, the "strike" was already the 9th-ranked campaign idea when Dr Keen endorsed it on his blog on March 25. By the evening of March 26, the "strike" had risen to No.6.
While Dr Keen and Prosper Australia have different approaches to the study of the property market — Dr Keen being influenced by Hyman Minsky's theory of financial stability, and Prosper Australia being influenced by Henry George's theory of the economic significance of land — both have long been warning against a speculative bubble in housing.
Comments
Priced out? Not for much longer if we all stand together!
A very timely article! Yes, Get Up is running two campaigns, one to end negative gearing and another calling for a First Home Buyers strike. The FHB strike is already at Number 1 position in the Get Up table and the campaign to end NG is not far behind. You can find full details on how to join in and vote for these campaigns at the link below on the Australian Property Forum:
http://australianpropertyforum.com/topic/8506527
If these campaigns work as planned, house prices will surely fall to sensible levels whereby decent hardworking Australian families can once again afford a home. If we take out the bottom rung (FHBs) then the whole pyramid scheme that is Australian property will collapse! So don't accept this talk of FHBs being priced out. Do something about it. Get on board, join in the discussion at AustralianPropertyForum.com, and get your votes in to the Get Up campaign right now! Priced out? Not for much longer if we all stand together!
Max Carnage.
Shortest path to free publicity through an emotive issue
Be careful absorbing commentary from Steve Keen. There’s nothing this guy loves more than publicity and he knows that the shortest path to free publicity is a negative finding on an emotive issue that screams crisis. Keen claims to be an economist which is a very different profession which requires very different skill sets to that of a property analyst. It was only two and a half years ago that Steve Keen was all over the media making sensational claims that “the property market” in Australia was going to crash by 40% within months. We’re still waiting Steve. The US property market is fundamentally different to ours and it’d be a mistake to draw comparison.
Financial and property education is the key people. Scrutinize all commentary and take advice only from those qualified to be giving it.
I wonder which real estate lobby you work for
Richard,
I wonder which real estate lobby you work for? Economics and property/ land are interlinked at the source. Economics means management of the household. That means you need a house.
You don't need to be a property analyst to tell that Australia's property market is well over-priced. The denialism that is pushed by those with vested interests, that the Economist mag is wrong, Jeremy Grantham has no idea and even Dick Smith, who recently claimed he has made more money out of property in western sydney than he ever has selling electronics....(and that the Australian property market is a giant ponzi scheme)...you can't ignore them all.
Steve Keen made a brave call which at the time could well have occurred. Rudd extended the FHOG at times of record migration and the minerals boom and our cycle has limped on now higher than the US market ever was.
So lets see how productive investing in property is for the real economy as the housing market is now struggling with 50% more property on the market than 12 months ago.