The Boomer Legacy

Consumer kaizen: We needed to create a culture in which our customers were prepared to kill

High Street bus-stop, Penrith   (Feb 2017)

Futuregate: At the end of the day, everyone was talking about how to shape the narrative in a world full of user-generated content

Mainstream media at the Sydney Opera House   (Jul 2014)

The golden hoard: We built stacks of empty apartments for short-term yield-desperate “investors”

The construction boom at Wentworth Point   (Sep 2016)

On the road to higher values: We spent big on infrastructure to accommodate growing populations

Re-tiling the Sydney Opera House forecourt   (Jul 2014)

Down from the mountain: … and into the markdowns

Leura antique store   (Oct 2018)

Forging a new deal: The transition from manufacturing to a service-based economy proved to be seamless

Derelict Ford truck at The Grounds of Alexandria   (Apr 2018)

In Goldman, Sachs We Trust: The financial sector was the bedrock of our entire social structure and enabled massive cultural progression — whereas the 1960s were misspent on aerospace and NASA, the 2000s had growing wealth via cheap debt and the ISDA

The financial district in eastern Sydney, with the rocket-shaped 1 O'Connell Street in the middle background   (Jul 2011)

Practical streetwise living: Stretch out in hygge comfort and throw on an extra blanket

Pitt Street Mall food-court entrance, Sydney   (Jan 2019)

Dutch disease done right: Not to worry. If the economy works the way the textbook says, the gain to miners should flow through to the economy, causing higher wages and tax payments (Gittins, 2017)

Remnants of the 2000's resources boom at Lithgow   (Aug 2012)

Empty Nesters: The price of an abandoned house increased by more each day than most workers could earn in a week (REA Group, 2017)

Irelands Road in Blacktown, western Sydney   (Dec 2012)

Alpha Omega: We poured every last ounce of our faith in property

Birrell Street front yard, Bondi Junction   (Oct 2018)

What this little black rock could do: We have to make sure this economy works. We have to export dollars. We have to realise we have a moral responsibility to other people in other nations to keep their lights on (Joyce, 2017)

The steelworks and coal loader at Port Kembla harbour   (Sep 2014)

Everywhere the glint of gold: Vibrant cities full of gleaming casinos, buzzing with energy and excitement

Microflite City Helipad, Yarra River Melbourne   (Apr 2019)

Fumbling the revolution: We threw off the shackles of a command economy to enjoy the benefits of privatisation

Street vendors 200m from the Kremlin on Tverskaya St, Moscow   (Dec 1991)

Twilight's last gleaming: We slid down the Phillips Curve until we reached the Minsky Moment

Construction hoarding at Barangaroo, Sydney   (Sep 2016)

A million jobs Mr Speaker: Offshoring brought huge economic benefits which were equally shared

Shepherd Street factory yard, at Marrickville   (Sep 2012)

Bubble watching: Given the large increases in housing prices in some cities, and ongoing strength in lending to investors in housing assets, members also agreed that developments in the housing market would bear careful monitoring (RBA, 2015)

Spectators on the steps of the former CBC Bank, Martin Place   (Apr 2006)

Waiting for the great leap forward: From brewery to Kowloon, the third-world was just around the corner

Central Park development, at Broadway in Sydney   (Jul 2012)

Knowledge-based service industries: The only way to counter economic headwinds was by being more nimble than the market

Finance workers at Australia Square   (Dec 2004)

Just visiting: Full speed ahead for the money-laundering high-rollers in the sky (L&GNSW Inquiry, 2020)

Crown casino construction, Barangaroo   (Jan 2020)

Consumer karoshi: We needed to create a culture in which our customers were prepared to die

Market Street escalators at Centrepoint, Sydney   (Jan 2016)

A licence to kill: There was nothing on your dinner table that wasn't put there by conscientious transport professionals

The “roo bar” of a prime-mover at Kings Langley, near Blacktown   (Aug 2015)

Binding energy: Just a spoon full of HFCS helped the processed food go down (Hyman, 2014)

Candle wax at a Kent Street wine-bar, near Town Hall   (Jan 2014)

Mobility as a service: We imported an underclass of independent contractors to spice up the economy and zip around delivering burrito bowls, pork buns and bubble teas (ABC News, 2020)

Online delivery rider at Haymarket, near Chinatown   (Apr 2020)

Forget your past: The house is gone and the yard excavated so deep that every trace of your childhood was meticulously obliterated

What was once 12 Kensington Street in Kogarah   (Apr 2011)

A working harbour: We moored our luxury craft where people once worked for a living

Pier 21 at Jones Bay Wharf, in Pyrmont   (Jan 2013)

Bargains unlimited: We got you both coming and going

Post Christmas sales at the QVB basement, Sydney   (Jan 2018)

Zero sum game: The link between free trade and rising global prosperity was obvious: designed in the USA → marketed from the UK → manufactured in the PRC → shipped via Panama → channelled through a Singaporean marketing-hub → transfer-priced through Luxembourg → laundered in Moldova → banked in the Cayman Islands → stashed in a Geneva Freeport vault → trinkets for trophy homes, super-yachts, racing cars, helicopters, private school fees, mistresses, divorce lawyers, drugs and bribes… in New York, Beijing, Bucharest, Latvia, Lagos, Monaco and Riyadh

Shipping container facility at Tempe, near Sydney Airport   (Sep 2012)

In the circle of FIRE: We made so much money from fees & rents & short-term leases & collateralised debt & margin-accounts & franked dividends & big-dog meetings & good-vibes & arbitrage & fintech & hedge funds & mutual funds & sovereign wealth funds & wealthy families & short-selling & bear-raids & wash-trades & spoofing & chop stocks & cold calling & put-calls & cash-burning & Basel 1 & moving bits & buy-to-let & interest-only loans & reverse-factoring & rider discounts & driver bonuses & liar loans & pay-day lending & gaming & wagering & money-laundering & cash-for-visas patronage & child-pornography & terrorism financing & Saudi diversification & Japanese reinvestment & Russian divestment & offshore accounts & repatriated tax losses & consultancies & casinos & cryptocurrencies & asset management & asset concealment & asset stripping & short-term sub-leasing & inflated prospectuses & flowery rhetoric & team-enabling & wealth-effects & advance-fee scams & offshore call-centre scams & sham labour-hire companies & DPRK sanction-running & petro-dollars & narco-dollars & loans to offshore shell companies & forex micro-trades & shiny tech unicorns & black-swans & grey-rhinos & fantastical profit projections & 300-year visions & swaps & options & swaptions & binary options & discretionary trusts & family trusts & untaxed superannuation income & CDOs & COMOs & FOREX & FICCs & REITs & FAANGs & BATs & ETFs & FOMO & FONGO & hugely successful bets & insider knowledge & blood-testing & insurance fraud & lying to corporate regulators & rewriting independent reports & unenforced enforceable-undertakings & repeal of Glass-Steagall & bank bill swap reference rates & LIBOR rigging & mirror trades & data mining & manipulating KPIs & faking customer referrals & forging client signatures & secretly re-writing insurance policies & shredding customer files & charging deceased estates for unauthorised transactions & duping the homeless to be dummy directors & liquidator hush-money & shelf companies & transfer pricing & efficiency dividends & cost-cutting & out-placing & workplace shadowing & wage theft & leader boards & team loyalty & engaged fellowships & bystander effects & buyouts & buybacks & takeovers & spin-offs & spin-outs & IPOs & LBOs & split-strikes & spread-bets & mergers & demergers & demutualisation & strategic litigation & Wagyu-beef-washed-down-with-finest-shiraz judgements & golden parachutes & bonuses & voluntary administration & insolvency & bankruptcies & foreclosures & liquidation & phoenixing & political donations & influence peddling & door-opening & hiring ex-ministers & exceptionalism & impunity spells & bailouts & deregulation & rezoning & privatisation & tax-planning & tax-evasion & conjuring ever more abstruse financial products to ensure money kept raining in torrents from the sky, that there was little point in doing anything else

The Elizabeth street facade of the Commonwealth Bank Building   (Oct 2020)

Ponzimonium: We ran a Koretz immigration scheme to prop up the Madoff property market to keep the Mavrodi banks flush

Wedding Cake rock, RNP   (Jul 2019)

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Market Street escalators at Centrepoint, Sydney   (Aug 2018)

Jobs & Growth: Social cohesion was a luxury we could no longer afford

Wall markings behind Parramatta Road, Strathfield   (Jul 2014)

Working with key stakeholders: We could either use General Relativity equations to derive the Schwarzschild metric in n-dimensions, or we could go shopping

Supermarket freezer aisle, Katoomba   (Dec 2003)

Back-to-back meetings: It was as if we knew the lockdown was coming

Queen Street office building at night, Melbourne   (Apr 2019)

Financial kinesiology: Despite all the green-shoots, confidence, sound fundamentals and near-zero interest rates, it appeared we didn't survive the crash

Outside the Sydney branch of the Deutsche Bank in Hunter Street.

A bank security guard tried to prevent me from taking this photograph due to copyright reasons. I hope he enjoyed my detailed and patient lecture on photography-rights   (Jan 2012)

Too big to fail: It took a long time to establish a perfectly balanced equilibrium of collateralised debt and rising property values

Barangaroo office construction, Millers Point   (Aug 2016)

A bull market in everything: This time it really was different

Charging bull statue, NYC   (Oct 2017)

Creating value: Ghost offices; zombie flats; vacant leases

Weeds grew on an abandoned eight-storey office-block used for land-banking, at Clarence Street in Sydney   (Oct 2012)

Defenestrate your livelihood: We mortgaged the future and bet it all on there not being one

The Coal Loader wharf, Waverton   (Jul 2017)

Genuine underlying growth: 150-year old graves and the Property Bubble

The Futton Street cemetery at Penrith, behind St Stephens Anglican Church   (Dec 2010)

A foot on the ladder: We all got rich by flogging real estate to each other at ever-increasing prices

Renovator's ladder in Stanmore, in Sydney's east   (Sep 2012)

Internal exodus: When people and businesses leave a regional community to take up better opportunities elsewhere, this often generates greater value and so increases the overall well-being of the population as a whole. […] It is a trend that cannot, nor should be, thwarted (Productivity Commission Report, 2017)

Parramatta Rd, Strathfield   (Apr 2015)

Potemkin Prosperity: The central irony of the financial crisis was that while it was caused by too much confidence, too much borrowing & lending and too much spending — it could only be resolved with more confidence, more borrowing & lending, and more spending (Summers, 2011)

Green shoots at the Westpac plaza in Sydney   (Jan 2014)

Exuberant expectations: Great success and performance created its own reality (Pfeffer, 2015)

Church Street car dealership, Parramatta   (Apr 2017)

Frictionless intermediation: Because the Sharing Economy sounded much nicer than Government Regulation Evading Extractive Capitalism (NYTimes, 2017)

Subterranean ingress and egress aperture cover at Watsons Bay   (Dec 2014)

Thrusting for yield: The ubiquity of synchronised growth led to social and urban density experiments imposed from above

Construction cranes at Australian Technology Park   (Mar 2018)

Rent not Enterprise: Anyone can become a property tycoon, but they have not got the guts or they have not got the money (Triguboff, 2014)

Vacant commercial land at Lawson in the Blue Mountains   (Jan 2012)

Rise and fall: The market faithfully rewarded those who took a long-term view

Luna Park Hair Raiser ride, in the rain   (Jan 2019)

Franchisee nation: The nature of employment changed. We didn't know what the new jobs would be, but we were convinced they would come

Food cart on 37th Street, NYC   (Oct 2017)

Double your money in 7–10 years: Dr Wilson said that Sydney was likely to have a $2 million median house price by 2030 and a $3 million median by 2038 (Daily Telegraph, 2018)

Hopscotch squares at the Woodcroft housing estate, in Blacktown   (Dec 2012)

The best that money can buy: Of particular interest to ICAC has been the planning decisions along Canterbury Road and Charles Street, which saw some Liberal and Labor councillors voting together to approve developments which council's planning staff had previously rejected due to non compliance (SMH, 2017)

Apartment construction at Charles Str, Canterbury   (Oct 2015)

Progress ever upward: From warehouses to office blocks to short-term lease apartments

Motorways and the former Caltex building, Sydney   (Sep 2016)

Segregation now, tomorrow & forever: Few could afford the inalienable right to live in their own city

Distillery Drive cutting at Jacksons Landing, in Pyrmont   (Jan 2013)

Spare capacity: The more you spent, the greater the love

St Collins Lane shopping arcade, Melbourne   (Apr 2019)

Cargo Culte: We lounged about in ill-fitting uniforms, languidly pressing buttons on small screens… waiting patiently for the day He would return, bearing great gifts

Palm tree outside the abandoned St Mary & St Mina's Coptic Orthodox Church at Sydenham, near Sydney airport   (Sep 2012)

Perestroika revisited: Reaping the benefits of end-stage capitalism

Lansdowne Street, Parramatta   (Apr 2017)

The rising tide lifted all super-yachts: No matter how bad things looked, income inequality did not get worse (Morrison, 2017)

Darling Harbour Marina   (Jan 2017)

The Chosen One: Trump-bashing became an global sport which every activist posing as a reporter could play (NYTimes, 2019)

Broadway Donny Trump, NYC   (Oct 2017)

Clip service: Legacy media could always look forward to a future overfilled with promise

Testaroossa Sammy-Santino Mens Hairstylist, Double Bay   (Jan 2019)

Creative Destruction: The only way to neutralise dissent was by levelling the playing-field

The abandoned White Bay Power Station at Rozelle   (Jan 2013)

Only a tap away: With interest rates at 5000-year lows, affordable mortgages were flying out the door

Art Gallery of NSW window looking east, Sydney   (Mar 2019)

Kriegsende 1989: Cheap goods turned out to be better than bullets

Stall on Tverskaya St, Moscow   (Dec 1991)

Have a go to get a go: We lived modestly and well within our means. We worked hard and made wise investments. We deserved to keep more of what we earned

Hopetoun Road Toorak, Melbourne   (Apr 2019)

Boom without end: There was no disconnect between the prosperity we enjoyed and the systematic initiatives we took to achieve them

Philip Lodge Motel demolition at Haberfield   (Jun 2016)

City of forgotten men: There's class warfare all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war and we're winning (Buffet, 2006)

Homeless opposite the Queen Victoria Building, Sydney   (Aug 2014)

Exit strategy: With a strong economy and well-paying jobs that we could easily change; with free education, healthcare and inexpensive housing; with strong social cohesion and connectedness; with an innate sense of purpose and belonging — how could we have been anything other than healthy, prosperous and optimistic?

Fig Street tunnel, Ultimo   (Jul 2017)

Quality by design: Exclusively appointed apartments with no builders' warranty and riddled with gross structural defects

Nevada Apartments remediation at Darling Point   (Dec 2018)

Unintended consequences: The truth was there for all to see

Edgecliff Railway station newsagent   (Nov 2017)

Not a house of cards then: People's jobs depend on confidence and trust in the financial and banking system. And I can assure [everyone] that, despite the very disturbing and, indeed, shocking revelations we have seen in the Royal Commission, particularly of late, that these issues, while as abhorrent as they are, are completely separate from any question about the stability and strength of [our] banking and financial system. (Morrison, 2018)

Pedestrian footbridge at Barangaroo   (Apr 2016)

The cranes were flying: In October 2016 there were more apartment construction cranes on the Australian eastern seaboard than in all the major cities in the USA

Apartment construction cranes at Lewisham   (Sep 2015)

One country, two systems: Income versus Wealth Inequality — we interminably argued about the former while carefully ignoring the latter

Woodcroft housing estate versus Harris Street Ultimo   (Jan 2013)

Supporting the Plutonomy: The non-rich only accounted for surprisingly small bites of the national pie (Citigroup, 2005)

Power utility pole opposite the railway station in Warrimoo   (Feb 2011)

The road to zero: A globalised market where all tastes were equal and each of us voted only with our dollars

William Street beverage hoarding (since rebuilt) at Kings Cross   (Oct 2012)

The shadow state: Our top-down, monolithic, globalist system will endure forever

North from the Empire State Building   (Oct 2017)

Wave your paddle: Not a bubble but a sign of growing wealth: house prices barely rose 1½ percent a month, whereas incomes ballooned 250 basis points every single year

Stop/ Go drive-way traffic lights at Longworth Ave, in Point Piper   (Sep 2012)

Roses of Picardy: The marriage industry flourished despite the cynicism and malaise

Private wedding ceremony at St Marys Cathedral   (Mar 2019)

Filled with delight: Non-inclusive apartment developments on the site of what was once Mortlake gasworks

Breakfast Point apartments, Sydney   (Jul 2014)

Keeping interest rates low: Whatever happened, cheap debt could not be blamed

Used car-yard at Parramatta Road Granville   (Apr 2017)

Curate an educational passport: The uncapping of university places achieved precisely what it set out to do

University of Sydney main quadrangle   (Oct 2017)

Luxury is a fundamental human right: Stand on principle on the way up and you'll miss the stampede; stand on principle on the way down and you'll be run over

Even the pigeons live in style at Hogben Street in Kogarah   (Apr 2011)

Reflating the economy: We proved that old debt could be easily retired by taking on new debt

Tumbalong Park attractions, Darling Harbour   (Jul 2014)

Practising our future: We poured resources into whatever appealed to our sense of adventure

Abandoned front yard yacht, Kirribilli   (Jan 2020)

Surrogate activities: The illusion of economic activity was maintained by creating an archipelago of empty construction sites

Green Square hoardings at Zetland   (Nov 2018)

Living in a film-set: A world of shuttered restaurants, taped-off food-courts and bewildered diners

Deserted food court, Centrepoint Sydney   (Apr 2020)

The boom in retailing: Sell everything and cancel Christmas

82 McEvoy Street, Alexandria   (Mar 2018)

The emporium struck back: Department stores battled frantically against irrelevance

Storm-troopers at the David Jones lift-well   (Jan 2019)

The retail ziggurat: Our domestic consumption based economy was the ultimate pyramid scheme

Shopping trolleys huddle beneath the mobile-phone towers on top of Marketplace Leichhardt   (Sep 2010)

Knowledge-based economy: If you could no longer make a profit by making things, then you could profitably spend your time making things up

The interior of the Queen Victoria Building, near Sydney Town Hall   (Jan 2012)

Unpack & declutter: We created challenging and evolving retail markets

Abandoned docks, Cresswell & Devon Str Dunedin, NZ   (Dec 2017)

Stake your claim: A plethora of micro-businesses arose when the factories shut down, resulting in strong employment growth among non-employees

Small business badge window display, Wentworth Street Port Kembla   (Sep 2014)

The engine of growth: Our generation reaffirmed the notion that markets could remain irrational for far longer than investors could stay solvent

The window-display for Central Autohaus in Alexandria   (Jun 2015)

Future growth model: A bustling economy filled with baristas, bloggers and unpaid interns

Lower Baldwin Street, Dunedin NZ   (Nov 2017)

Scaffolding everywhere: In order to better embrace the future, we turned our lives into a series of transactions

One Circular Quay construction site, Sydney   (Jan 2018)

Taming animal spirits: There is something more systematic about the way people behave irrationally, especially during periods of economic stress (Greenspan, 2013)

Lunchtime in a George Street amusement arcade, Sydney   (Sep 2003)

Uncomfortable at times: Events were still on, motels were still open, restaurants were still serving food and pubs were still pouring beer (Ayers, 2020)

Tour group at the Sydney Opera House forecourt during the summer bushfires   (Jan 2020)

Flags of convenience: Our vision was to create a better everyday life by getting our customers to work for free

The united nations of IKEA, at Tempe   (Sep 2012)

The customer was king: Everything you could ever possibly want, at your fingertips

Supermarket checkout, Nepean Village Penrith   (Apr 2003)

Agile entrepreneurs: Surveillance cameras [✓]  Motion-activated floodlights [✓]  Canvas-covered windows [✓]  3m high fencing [✓]  Steel chained front gates [✓]  Threatening no-trespass signs [✓]  Resourceful SMEs serving a niche-market [✓]

Domestic bliss on Neville Street in Marrickville   (Sep 2012)

Incentives to succeed: We held these truths to be self-evident: that the Wealthy were job creators and that benefits of Economic Growth were distributed equally

The rear of a Korean restaurant, in a Pitt Street Lane near Town Hall   (Oct 2012)

Wealth always trickled down: Our system worked so well because enough of the electorate believed they still had some chance to get rich (Citigroup, 2005)

Begging for loose change near Sydney Town Hall   (Sep 2016)

Squad goals: We played in teams, found the back of the net, and were good sports with your money

Vitamin pill promotion at Martin Place in Sydney   (Oct 2014)

Public Private Partnerships: Marxism without the dialectic, Socialism in one class

The southern ramp to the Anzac Bridge, at Pyrmont in Sydney   (Jan 2013)

A pattern of abundance: Full automation was the next stage in our collaborative journey

NTP Forklifts, at Woodville Road Granville   (Apr 2017)

Decades of irrational exuberance: No matter what happened, the market always rebounded

Financial reporter at the Sydney ASX   (Oct 2018)

Quantitative legerdemain: We solved mass unemployment by redefining what it meant to be “employed”

Red flags at the Circular Quay promenade   (Jul 1992)

All snakes, no ladders: We stuck to the plan, even though we kept changing it

Subterranean utilities footpath markings outside the QVB   (Apr 2015)

This Land Is Our Land: Keep doubling the population every 35 years → larger markets → more dynamic consumers → increased aggregate demand → greater aggregate GDP → stronger budget outcomes → accelerating property values → windfall capital gains & property taxes → bustling streets → congestion tax bonanza → more toll-roads, apartment blocks & shopping malls → more bathhouses & shisha lounges → more restaurants, backyard pools & barbeques → more bubble-tea & sushi shops → more hanging ducks → more tax-free franking-credit refunds → more negative gearing on property investments → wealthier property-investors → reduced inequality → more mortgages → more prosperous banks → more lobbying & political donations → more rezoning, deregulation & tax-reform → boosted supply-side potential → more vigour, flexibility, dynamism & competition → more construction & business services → more resources & infrastructure → more stamp-duties → more management & seminars → more legislation, lawyers, litigation & prisons → more drought-breaking rain → more arable land, potable water & bumper harvests → cheaper air-travel & greater security → more tourism & international students → more university & private college enrolments → greater returns on business investment → more volunteers & charities → more activists, community leaders and part-time outreach volunteers → more skills → increasing innovation → more waiters, maids, chauffeurs & au pairs → more caddies, masseurs and taxi drivers → more online delivery rider partners → more gigs & internships → more yoga instructors, artisans, musicians & small labels → potentially higher rates of workforce participation → likely productivity benefits → projected greater aggregate income → greater happiness within reunited communities → increasing remittances to family & sponsors overseas → more money in everyone's hip pocket

Front-yard garden gnomes in Summer Hill, Sydney   (Oct 2016)