00:00Well, an outsider might have won the Melbourne Cup, but the favourite won the rate cut stakes
00:06half an hour earlier.
00:08As usual, there were three horses in that race.
00:10Cut, hike and hold.
00:11Cut and hike threw off their riders at the start and then ran the other way.
00:14But it didn't matter because no one had any money on them.
00:17All the money was on hold.
00:19So the Aussie dollar is steady tonight at 66 US cents.
00:23Here's 30 years of the RBA cash rate, and while it's up a long way from 0.1% in two
00:28and a half years, it's only just above average.
00:31But of course, the household debt upon which interest is paid is anything but average.
00:36In those 40 years, it's gone from 70% of income to 190% of income.
00:42The RBA also released its quarterly statement on monetary policy today with its annual confession
00:47of forecasting hits and misses.
00:50The big miss has been productivity since COVID.
00:53The RBA thought it would increase, but it collapsed instead.
00:57Big mistake, because as Paul Krugman said, productivity isn't everything, but in the
01:01long run, it's almost everything.
01:03I would add that that especially applies to its effect on interest rates.
01:08On the share market, Domino's Pizza got burnt after announcing that Chief Executive Don
01:11Mage will be retiring.
01:13Now, he's 55 and he's been working for Domino's for 37 years.
01:17So he started at 18 and he became CEO at 33.
01:21He listed Domino's in 2005 with a value of $135 million, and it's now worth $3 billion,
01:28selling pizzas around the globe.
01:30The market finished 0.4% lower.
01:34Shares fell in New York last night, but rose strongly in Japan and China today.
01:37And on commodity markets, iron, oil, copper and oil all went up between 1% and 2% while
01:42gold eased.
01:44And that's finance.
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