The Boomer Legacy

Forget your past: The role of property developers is to systematically obliterate every last trace of your childhood

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

Segregation now, tomorrow and forever: You do not have an inalienable right to live in your own city

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

The engine of growth: Our generation has reaffirmed the notion that markets can remain irrational for a lot longer than investors can stay solvent

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

A licence to kill: There is nothing on your dinner table that hasn't been put there by some drug-addled truckwit a hard-working and conscientious transport worker

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

A foot on the ladder: With 1 151 565 reasons to smile, we can all get richer by merely buying and selling homes at ever-increasing prices

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

Fumbling the revolution: Women hawk their wares 200m from the Kremlin: many were wives of smugglers and truck drivers offloading stolen goods, many others were destitute ex-state employees

Vendors on Tverskaya St, Moscow   (Dec 1991)

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

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

Public Private Partnerships: Marxism without the dialectic; Socialism in One Class

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

Wealth always trickles down: Our system works because enough of the electorate believe they still have a chance to become rich (Citigroup, 2005)

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

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

Irelands Road in Blacktown, western Sydney   (Nov 2012)

Too big to fail: It took decades to construct a perfectly balanced equilibrium of collateralised debt and rising property prices

Barangaroo office construction, Millers Point   (Aug 2016)

Futuregate: How can you continue to shape the narrative in a world full of citizen-generated content, where even the president denounces you as enemies of the people?

Mainstream media at the Sydney Opera House   (Jul 2014)

Luxury is a 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)

Quantitative kinesiology: Despite all the confidence, sound fundamentals, record-low interest rates and green-shoots, it appears 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)

A rising tide lifts all super-yachts: We should all be celebrating the broad diversity of our jobs and incomes

Darling Harbour Marina   (Jan 2017)

All snakes, no ladders: We are sticking to the plan, even though we keep changing it

Subterranean utilities footpath markings outside the QVB   (Apr 2015)

In Goldman, Sachs We Trust: The financial sector is the bedrock of our entire social structure and enables massive cultural progression — whereas the 1960s were wasted on frivolous nonsense like aerospace and NASA, we now have growing wealth via debt securitisation and the ISDA

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

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

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

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

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

Jobs & Growth: Social cohesion is a luxury we can no longer afford

Wall markings behind Parramatta Road, Strathfield   (Jul 2014)

The retail ziggurat: The consumer economy is the ultimate pyramid scheme

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

Consumer karoshi: You need to create a culture in which your customers are prepared to die

Market Street escalators at Centrepoint, Sydney   (Jan 2016)

Prosperity is just around the corner: You need to understand that all the restructuring and rationalisation and outplacement and reconnecting and realignment and right-sizing and off-boarding and change-initiatives and innovation and growth-projects and rebalancing and rewiring and rebranding and streamlining and casualisation and sub-contracting and independent supplying and flexible contracts and efficiency and traineeships and synergies and outsourcing and supplier agreements and internships and 6-month trials and wage-moderation and team-building and disintermediation and disruption and cost-cutting and freelancing and gig-economies and zero-hours and unpaid overtime and 457-visas and productivity-gains will benefit everyone — eventually

Red flags at the Circular Quay promenade   (Jul 1992)

Keen to defend the interests of those above: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that the Wealthy are job creators; that the benefits of Economic Growth are shared equally; that Equality of Opportunity matters more than Equality of Outcomes

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

Creative Destruction: The best way to neutralise dissent is by levelling the playing-field

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

Creating value: The grass will grow in the streets of a hundred cities (Hoover, 1932)

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

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)

Agile entrepreneurs: Surveillance cameras [✓]  Motion-activated floodlights [✓]  Canvas-covered windows [✓]  3m high fencing [✓]  Steel chains on the front gates [✓]  Threatening no-trespass signs [✓]  A resourceful SME serving a niche-market [✓]

Domestic bliss on Neville Street in Marrickville   (Sep 2012)

The boom without end: There is no disconnect between the prosperity we enjoy and the systematic initiatives we took to achieve them

Philip Lodge Motel demolition at Haberfield   (Jun 2016)

A 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)

The FIRE economy: We made so much money in fees & rents & loans & margin-accounts & arbitrage & hedge-funds & short-selling & bear-raids & Basel 1 & money-laundering & offshore accounts & discretionary trusts & IPOs & LBOs & mergers & demergers & litigation & bailouts & bonuses & foreclosures & rezoning & deregulation & privatisation & tax-evasion & conjuring ever more abstruse financial instruments, that there was little point in doing anything else

The Elizabeth street facade of the Commonwealth Bank Building   (Jan 2014)

Double your money in 7–10 years: Dr Wilson says Sydney is likely to have a $2 million median house price by 2030 and a $3 million median by 2038

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

The wealth effect: We spent decades playing in teams to score goals with your money

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

The working harbour: Luxury craft languidly moor where people once earned a living

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

Everywhere the glint of gold: Casino-chip investment vehicles for international high-rollers

The construction boom at Wentworth Point   (Sep 2016)

The cranes are 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)

Flags of convenience: Our vision is to create a better everyday life by getting our customers to do all the work

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

The Cargo Cult: We march about in crudely made uniforms, carefully pressing buttons on small screens… waiting patiently for the day He will return, bearing great gifts

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

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

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

Growth by numbers: Rapid population growth → more dynamic consumers → greater aggregate demand → increased GDP → more vigour & competitiveness → increasing home values → more mortgages → healthier banks → more deregulation & tax-cuts → more infrastructure → more construction & services → more jobs → greater average income → more money in your hip pocket

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

Let them eat cakes: Just a spoon full of high-fructose corn-syrup helps the processed food go down

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

What this little black rock can do: I'm going to be a complete economic pragmatist. We have to make sure this economy works. We have to export dollars. One of our largest exports is coal. 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)

Offshoring has brought huge economic gains: The beautiful thing about our Global Economy is that there is no corresponding Global Tax System

Shepherd Street factory yard, at Marrickville   (Sep 2012)

The road to zero: A globalised market where all tastes are equal and each of us vote with our dollars

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

Fixing Inequality: While the gender pay gap is mostly a myth, the radial pay gap (income as a function of distance from the CBD) is not

Woodcroft housing estate versus Harris Street Ultimo   (Jan 2013)

Zero sum game: The link between free trade and rising global prosperity is obvious: designed in the USA → marketed from the UK → manufactured in the PRC → shipped via Panama → channelled through a Singapore marketing-hub → transfer-priced through Luxembourg → laundered in Moldova → banked in the Cayman Islands → trinkets for trophy homes, super-yachts, mistresses and bribes in New York, Beijing, Bucharest, Latvia, Monaco and Riyadh

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

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)

Cheap goods better than bullets: Relishing the spoils of privatisation

Stall on Tverskaya St, Moscow   (Dec 1991)

We are übering everywhere: Because the Sharing Economy sounds so much nicer than Government Regulation Evading Extractive Capitalism (NYTimes, 2017)

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

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)

Wave your paddle: It's not a bubble but a sign of briskly growing wealth: in the past twenty years house prices have barely risen 1½ percent a month, whereas median incomes have ballooned at 250 basis points every single year

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

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

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

Consumer kaizen: You need to create a culture in which your customers are prepared to kill

High Street bus-stop, Penrith   (Feb 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)

Keeping interest rates low: Whatever happens, deregulated cheap credit cannot be blamed

Fiona the mannequin's car-yard, at Parramatta Road Granville   (Apr 2017)

A pattern of abundance: The new stage in our collaborative journey

NTP Forklifts, at Woodville Road Granville   (Apr 2017)