The Boomer Legacy ◊ Commerce

Commerce

The doctrine of market infallibility

We lived during a magnificent time.

When growth was endless and shiny tech unicorns strode the valley. When everyone placed bets on black swans or grey rhinos. When societal choices could only be framed in economic terms.

When everyone rose or fell solely according to their own efforts. When currency was democratised and riches would ~~only usually seldom~~ never be acquired by inheritance, nepotism, hypergamy, corruption, rent-seeking or asset-bubbles.

When monetarism, globalised free trade, deregulation, shareholder value, small government, nimble competition, resilient optimism, flourishing foreign investment, robust micro-economic & productivity-enhancing reforms and — obviously — completely unfettered financial markets would ~~never~~ always determine the fair value of everything, and deliver significant benefits for ~~oligarchs CEOs family-trusts investors stakeholders~~ all.

Sample #2083 — Unintended consequences (Nov 2017)

Topic Images

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Tourism added value

Macro-economic growth models prove that tourism contributes towards complete growth and development of a country: one, by bringing numerous economic value & benefits; and, second, helping in build country's brand value, image & identity (Market Width Blog, 2018)

Christmas Day tourists at the Sydney Opera House [Dec-2001 296KB]

Remarks

The “2001 Black Christmas Fires” had again flared in the Blue Mountains, turning the western sky dark red. Most people at the SOH forecourt were staring at or photographing the smoke-obscured sun, except for this couple who were far more interested in themselves

Delivery apps were so convenient

HungryPanda, ~~Foodora,~~ Uber Eats, DoorDash, EASI, Menulog, ~~Deliveroo~~, Hey You, GrubHub, goPuff, EatNow, Yelp… We imported an underclass of temporary-visa holding self-employed contractors to zip around and deliver authentic pad thai, bubble-tea and burrito bowls to their famished clients

Food delivery rider at Broadway, Sydney [Apr-2020 135KB]

Remarks

Suddenly in 2020 food delivery riders were everywhere. Most were foreign “students”, who would zip along footpaths and plazas at breakneck speeds. During the lockdowns these riders multiplied to an extent where there were more of them hurtling through CBD streets than there were pedestrians trying not to get hit (ABC News, 2020)

Back in the CCCP

The centralised command economy disintegrated almost immediately

Street vendors on the day the Belavezha Accords were signed, Tverskaya St Moscow [Dec-1991 248KB]

Remarks

A lot of patience was required to capture this image. Dozens of people were milling around in front of the vendors, checking out the items being offered. So had to wait a long time (45 minutes in the freezing cold) for the crowd to part just enough to reveal the sellers behind. Found out later that most street sellers had lost their jobs in the post-communist dislocation, and were attempting to hawk their valuables to get some money to live on

Better balance the value exchange

With rates at five-thousand-year lows (until 2022), cheap debt could not be blamed

Used-car yard at Parramatta Road Granville [Apr-2017 206KB]

Remarks

Global interest rates were kept artificially low for decades to encourage economic growth. Finding metaphors for the corresponding deterioration in lending standards + mountain of consumer-debt turned out to be surprisingly easy

Borderline conundrum

Self-service was self-defeating when there was no service to serve

Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, unused self-service check-in and baggage drop facilities at Sydney Airport's T1 International Terminal, Friday afternoon 12:30 pm [Oct-2020 194KB]

Consumer karoshi

A culture had to be created in which self-sacrifice was encouraged

Market Street escalators at Centrepoint, Sydney [Jan-2016 260KB]

Remarks

A side-benefit of being treated for amblyopia as a six year-old was that you learned early to critically look at things. Noticed here that these escalators bore an ironic resemblance to a Japanese Samurai Kabuto

Bubble watch

Rising property prices were carefully manipulated to create more economic winners than losers

Spectators on the steps of the former CBC Bank, Martin Place [Apr-2006 278KB]

Remarks

This image was taken during the 2006 Anzac Day march, when everyone on the bank's steps looked up to watch planes fly over. What made the shot difficult was getting the timing right when using a film-based Hasselblad, mounted onto a monopod and triggered by a mechanical cable release

Franchisee nation

The nature of employment changed. We didn't know what the new jobs would be, but we knew they would surely come

Food cart on 37th Street, NYC [Oct-2017 328KB]

North to Avoska

Before mobile phones, perhaps-bags accompanied us everywhere

Totes diptych at Hornsby and Wynyard, Sydney [Apr-2005 248KB]

Remarks

Behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, people always carried shopping bags in case goods become available. Here in the west there were rarely shortages, but people carried similar bags nonetheless

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 329KB]

The golden hoard

Our cities filled with built-to-flip empty apartments for shrewd investors

The construction boom at Wentworth Point [Sep-2016 286KB]

Unyielding positivity

On a moonless night the captain raced the ship into an unseen ice-field → While acknowledging there may be evidence of poor optics and regrettable client experiences, we are unable to comment further due to client privacy and confidentiality obligations; The ship then collided with an iceberg → This is a complex and contentious matter and, going forward, even our harshest critics admit there are glimmers of hope and reassuring signs of optimism; The ship rapidly took on water and listed dangerously → As part of our vision to create a non-zero-sum paradigm, it may sometimes be necessary to relinquish ground to guarantee future success; Some passengers ran about screaming → Team members were pro-actively incentivised to facilitate collaborative eminence; Many passengers had to fight their way topside to escape → Partners scaled peak-less mountains to cultivate growth mindsets; There weren't anywhere near enough lifeboats → While focusing on one particular deficiency is unfair, the final number was an on-balance judgement and we are comfortable with where the settings lay; Only a wealthy few could secure a place in the half-empty lifeboats → Personal on-boarding of inexperienced users may have meant there were misaligned, or perhaps even flawed, metrics to evaluate success; The ship sank, no-one came the rescue, hundreds drowned in the freezing water → We take this incident extremely seriously and we can assure everyone that our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved-ones of those who failed to return. Nevertheless, there are always statistical outliers, where unforeseen technical and systems failures may cause processes to fall a little short of expectations

Boutique shop-front redevelopment, Leura [Aug-2021 159KB]

Exit strategy

A golden transit through the ages, with better things yet to come

Fig Street tunnel, Ultimo [Jul-2017 403KB]

Financial kinesiology

Despite all the underlying momentum and near-zero interest rates (until 2022), it appeared we didn't survive the crash

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

A security guard tried to prevent this photograph from being taken “due to copyright reasons”. A detailed and patient lecture on photography-rights disabused him [Jan-2012 135KB]

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 246KB]

A variable schedule of reinforcement

Anyhow…™ we Thought Different™, Opened Happiness™ and Flew the Friendly Skies™ because We Were Worth It™

Wall advertising, Pitt Street Sydney [Mar-2021 349KB]

Reflating the economy

Old debt could be easily retired by taking on new debt

Tumbalong Park attractions, Darling Harbour [Jul-2014 220KB]

Braving the abyss

Despite challenging market conditions, and a negative return for your superannuation this year, we continue to deliver strong long-term returns. […] Significant market falls can be worrying, but staying invested remains vitally important. […] When we invest your super, our approach is focussed on the long term, to help maximise your retirement savings. But it also manages short-term risks in times like these. I want to reassure you, our members, that we remain committed to investing to help you achieve your best retirement outcomes. Bulk email from the CEO of Aware Super, 2022-07-08

Waterrun cliff-side, RNP [Aug-2020 668KB]

Remarks

Waterrun is a dramatic rock-shelf in the Royal National Park. The narrow river valley is surrounded by 50m cliffs, the tops of which allowed an overhead view. Unfortunately you had to climb out to the very edge of these things to get the best shots. Have done it twice, there won't be a third time…

From backpacks to chuggers

Street fundraising earned a poor reputation due to worker exploitation, dishonest begging techniques, and the realisation that most of money ended up being used for “administration”

Australian Red Cross charity collectors at Martin Place, Sydney [Jan-2002 249KB]

Everywhere the glint of gold

Vibrant cities crammed full of soaring casinos, buzzing with energy, innovation and excitement

Microflite City Helipad, Yarra River Melbourne [Apr-2019 371KB]

Volunteer for service

The only thing separating us from the abyss was charity

Anzac Day Red Cross volunteers, Hyde Park Sydney [Apr-2023 888KB]

Tyburn revisited

Decades of infrastructure deals and back-room favours continued unabated

Sydney Metro Project construction site, Martin Place [Jul-2019 286KB]

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 203KB]

No map and a broken compass

Cheap goods and MTV proved to be more effective than détente and ICBMs

Bric-a-brac stall on Tverskaya St, Moscow, beneath a memorial plaque to the soviet artist Pyotr Vasilyev [Dec-1991 244KB]

Remarks

Moscow December 1991, a couple of days before the end of the Soviet Union. The command-economy had collapsed, while early attempts at market capitalism stalled because there was neither investment capital nor enough disposable income for consumers to spend

In a fugue world

Feel the love through the acquisition of merchandise

St Collins Lane shopping arcade, Melbourne [Apr-2019 287KB]

Stake your claim

Neighbourhood micro-businesses flourished when manufacturing moved offshore, creating vigorous employment growth for non-employees

Small business badge window display, Wentworth Street Port Kembla [Sep-2014 598KB]

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)

Unhoused on George Street, Sydney [Aug-2014 463KB]

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 66KB]

Remarks

Port Kembla featured some of the largest coal handling facilities in the world. Unfortunately it was difficult to capture interesting views of generally ugly industrial locations. Sunsets helped, as did telephoto lenses and silhouettes

Surrogate activities

The illusion of robust economic growth was maintained by creating an archipelago of empty construction sites

Construction hoardings at Green Square [Nov-2018 401KB]

Α Ω

Every last particle of our faith was poured into equities & real-estate

Birrell Street front yard, Bondi Junction [Oct-2018 612KB]

Domain awareness gap

Runaway house prices were regarded as being not only acceptable, but necessary

Toorak Road for-sale sign, Melbourne [Apr-2019 711KB]

Easily within reach

Affordable mortgages were flying out the door (ABC News, 2023)

Art Gallery of NSW window looking east, Sydney [Mar-2019 251KB]

Dog-boxes in the sky

Positive toward the future, positive toward development, positive toward growth

Spacious and exclusively appointed apartments at Broadway, near Central [Jul-2016 226KB]

In Gold We Trust

The financial sector was the bedrock of our entire social structure and facilitated massive cultural progression. Whereas the 1960s were misspent on engineering, aerospace and NASA, the 2010s had financialisation, asset growth and the ISDA

The financial district in eastern Sydney, with the rocket-shaped 1 O'Connell Street in the middle background [Jul-2011 128KB]

Absolutely pure Mellon

Liquidate labour, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. Sell everything, take on more debt and cancel Christmas (NYTimes, 2011)

McEvoy Street pop-up retailer, Alexandria [Mar-2018 240KB]

Faceless ramparts

The city filled with empty offices, yet few had the courage to admit the reason why

Liberty Place, Castlereagh Street Sydney [Jul-2023 518KB]

Conjectures & hearsay

Focus on your own future and how you can provide a good luxurious life for yourselves, your wives, children and your loved ones … (Nassif, 2019)

The defect-riddled Vicinity Apartment block in Canterbury [Oct-2015 357KB]

20/200 vision

Restricted trading hours [✓] Patron number limits [✓] Temperature checks [✓] Sign-in attendance records [✓] Perspex table-shields [✓] 1.5m social distancing [ ]

The Celsius Café at Kirribilli Wharf adapts to business conditions under COVID-19 [Nov-2020 325KB]

Creative Destruction

The most efficient way to boost productivity was by reducing the number of workers

The abandoned White Bay Power Station at Rozelle [Jan-2013 206KB]

Shaking the hidden hand

Everyone was free to choose their own circumstances

Tents for the ~~homeless~~ unhoused at Wentworth Park, Sydney [Jul-2017 604KB]

Forget your past

Architectural awards counted for little when it came to prime development sites

Darling Harbour Conference Centre demolition, Sydney [Apr-2014 238KB]

Remarks

It was ironic to discover that the Darling Harbour buildings which were lauded in the 1980s for their innovative design, should thirty years later become yet more fodder for redevelopment

Driven by unceasing mobility

Remember the physical-distancing rule and only travel when essential

Waiting for the Cronulla Ferry at Bundeena Wharf [Aug-2020 305KB]

Remarks

During the lockdowns we were subjected to frequent messaging about social isolation and avoiding “unnecessary” travel. This image was taken at the end of a 28km Royal Coast Track walk, and the commuters' weariness mirrored the photographer's fatigue

Investment vehicle

Many argued that housing affordability wasn't the real problem we had to face

“Tiny House” on wheels, Enmore Park [May-2023 775KB]

An intricate system of inefficiency

Our elites focused more upon growing the economic pie than dividing it

Darling Harbour Marina [Jan-2017 139KB]

The customer was king

Everything you could ever possibly want, at your fingertips

Supermarket checkout, Nepean Village Penrith [Apr-2003 119KB]

Remarks

Taking candid photographs inside supermarkets was not easy. You were constantly monitored by staff and management, who were worried about you trying to steal information about their pricing and product displays. Consequently, a special candid rig had to be developed which, although it had my rangefinder camera clearly visible, looked like it was merely carrying the camera instead of taking photographs

Curate your educational passport

Studies have shown that the uncapping of university places accomplished exactly what it set out to achieve: that tertiary education become a market-oriented enterprise with academics as service-providers to their student customers

University of Sydney main quadrangle [Oct-2017 507KB]

Depression in anything but name

Streets full of shuttered businesses; Rampant online gambling; Wholesale grocery theft… But jobs & GDP kept growing, so everything was okay

Shuttered takeaway outlet, Regent Street Redfern [Jul-2023 88KB]

Thrusting for yield

The ubiquity of synchronised growth led social experiments imposed from above

Construction cranes at Australian Technology Park [Mar-2018 259KB]

Strength through joy

Everyone denounced the enemies of growth

Suburban Toorak, Melbourne [Apr-2019 245KB]

Attainder by process

The most efficient way to neutralise dissent was by levelling the playing-field

Philip Lodge Motel demolition at Haberfield [Jun-2016 552KB]

Twilight's last gleaming

We slid down the Phillips Curve until we reached the Minsky Moment

Construction hoarding at Barangaroo, Sydney [Sep-2016 163KB]

The retail ziggurat

The ideological apex of our economy was the domestic-consumption model

Shopping trolleys huddle beneath the mobile-phone towers on top of Marketplace Leichhardt [Sep-2010 374KB]

Quality by design

Exclusively appointed apartments riddled with gross structural defects

Nevada Apartments remediation at Darling Point [Dec-2018 278KB]

The emporium struck back

Department stores battled heroically against an invisible enemy

Storm-troopers at the David Jones lift-well [Jan-2019 71KB]

Learn to love your job

Part-time Tree-surfing Instructor; Diversity & Inclusion Officer; Thought Leader; Intimacy Co-ordinator; Trans-activist & Gender Consultant; Death Doula; Change Management Coach; Jumping Castle Franchisee; Firewall Officer; Waste Data Handler; Freelance Restaurant Critic; Emerging Pastry Chef; Latte Artist; Chief Resilience Officer; Campaign Advancer; Senior Curatorial Assistant; Eyebrow Sculptress; Unicorn Wrangler; Stunt Curator; Trainee Personal Trainer; Chief Brand and Impact Officer; Innovation Sherpa; Product Placement Jedi; Experience Designer; Interim Social Media & Engagement Producer; Relieving Elation Officer

Market Street escalators at Centrepoint, Sydney [Aug-2018 368KB]

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 414KB]

Rent not Enterprise

[…] we here highly resolve that these mortgagors shall not have borrowed in vain — that this realm, under Banks, shall have a new birth of fiefdom — and that government of the landlords, by the landlords, for the landlords, shall not perish from the earth

Vacant commercial land at Lawson in the Blue Mountains [Jan-2012 56KB]

Jobs & Growth

Social cohesion was a luxury we could no longer afford

Wall markings behind Parramatta Road, Strathfield [Jul-2014 772KB]

Happy Hour

Paul Strand took a walk down Collins Street and discovered a rich harvest for publicans to reap

Devonshire Street, Surry Hills [Jul-2023 309KB]

One country, two systems

There was endless argument about Income Inequality, but careful silence about Wealth Redistribution

Woodcroft housing estate versus Harris Street Ultimo [Jan-2013 177KB]

The engine of growth

It was axiomatic that markets could remain irrational for longer than investors could stay solvent

The window-display for Central Autohaus in Alexandria [Jun-2015 180KB]

Canyons of gold

The decision to pour billions of dollars into commercial property turned out to be spectacular

Castlereagh Street buildings, Sydney [Jan-2019 128KB]

Practising our future

There was always plenty of money for whatever appealed to our sense of adventure

Abandoned front yard yacht, Kirribilli [Jan-2020 718KB]

Down from the mountain

… and into the markdowns

Leura antique store [Oct-2018 198KB]

Unintended consequences

Our intellectual pursuits reflected our deepest convictions

Edgecliff Railway station newsagent [Nov-2017 307KB]

A pattern of abundance

Machine-learning was the next stage in our collaborative journey

NTP Forklifts (since relocated), at Woodville Road Granville [Apr-2017 237KB]

Stakeholder

One could either use General Relativity equations to derive the Schwarzschild metric in n-dimensions, or else go shopping

Supermarket freezer aisle, Katoomba [Dec-2003 98KB]

Remarks

Again a custom Leica candid rig had to be used, with the added complication of having a supermarket employee discreetly following me around to ensure I wasn't photographing trade-secrets

Ford to city: Drop Dead

The acolytes of Moses & Le Corbusier enjoyed the fruits of Socialism In One Class

The southern ramp to the Anzac Bridge expressway, at Pyrmont in Sydney [Jan-2013 150KB]

Zero sum game

The link between free trade and rising global prosperity was self-evident: designed in the USA → marketed from the UK → manufactured by Uyghur forced-labour → shipped via Panama → channelled through a Singaporean marketing-hub → transfer-priced through Luxembourg → laundered in a Melbourne casino → banked in the Cayman Islands → stashed away in a Geneva Freeport vault → splurged on trophy homes, superyachts, private jets, racing cars, helicopters, private school fees, parties, mistresses, divorce lawyers, bribes and political favours… in New York, Beijing, Bucharest, Riyadh, Lagos, Monaco, Sydney and Londongrad

Shipping container facility at Tempe, near Sydney Airport [Sep-2012 286KB]

Unearthing the past

The house is gone and the yard excavated so deep that every childhood trace was obliterated

What was once 12 Kensington Street, Kogarah [Apr-2011 424KB]

The Moneyland luxe vibe

Prestige brands rode out the pandemic rather well

Luxury goods store entrance, George Street Sydney [Nov-2020 252KB]

Back-to-back meetings

Corporate employment turned into a highly-paid system of forming ad hoc committees, preparing for seminars, speculating about proposed guidelines, collaborating on talking-points, planning frameworks for future acquisitions and confirming dot-points for the next keynote address

Queen Street office building at night, Melbourne [Apr-2019 147KB]

Structural Ugliness

Ironically regress the trend curve to make the feeds pop

Orthopaedic sandals at the QVB Arcade, Sydney [Nov-2020 351KB]

The next big thing

Shove all your fiat-money into the slot and enjoy a lifetime of passive income (Investopedia, 2023)

Bitcoin ATM, Katoomba [Jun-2023 159KB]

The road to zero

A globalist market where all tastes were equal and we voted only with our dollars

William Street beverage hoarding (since rebuilt) at Kings Cross [Oct-2012 326KB]

Look back in covfefe

Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away, and move on to something that's more productive (Trump, 1987)

Trump impersonator on Broadway, NYC [Oct-2017 335KB]

Remarks

The election of the 45th US President in 2016 unleashed a torrent of invective from progressive activists, news-workers and academics. Many railed against “Trumpism” for years, as if all the op-eds and impeachment attempts and special counsels and house select committees and pussyhats and politically-timed indictments could reverse everything

More people makes us richer

Keep doubling the population every 35 years → boosted aggregate demand → vigorous GDP growth → buoyant budget outcomes → more apartment pre-sales → snowballing property values → windfall capital gains → wealthier property-investors → bustling streets → more toll-roads & shopping malls → more bathhouses, nail-salons & shisha lounges → less dirty industry → more construction & business services → more mortgages → more prosperous banks → more stamp-duties → more negative gearing on property investments → more wealth-effects → more tourism & international students → more university & private college enrolments → more waiters, maids, au-pairs, fruit-pickers, concierges, nail-artists, migration agents & community-liaison officers → more subclass-482 & spousal visas → increasing remittances to family & sponsors overseas → potentially higher rates of workforce participation → projected supply-side potential → likely productivity benefits → forecast greater aggregate income → more money in everyone's hip pocket

Front-yard garden gnomes in Summer Hill, Sydney [Oct-2016 569KB]

A little touch of Bucharest

All that we gained, all that we lost

Rose Street terraces, Chippendale [May-2023 632KB]

Espresso Kultur

The al fresco revolution gave tantalising significance to our busy lives

Outdoor café seating at Little Eveleigh street, Redfern [Sep-2020 394KB]

Defenestrate your livelihood

We mortgaged the future and bet it all on there not being one

Waverton Coal Loader wharf [Feb-2022 789KB]

Remarks

Although epic ruin porn is a photography cliché, sometimes you cannot ignore it. Here a barbed wire fence had to be scaled to obtain the overhead shot. The 19mm ELMARIT (11329) lens appears to suffer from pincushion distortion, but the foreground planks show that everything is as straight as it should be

Have a go to get a go

Our financial success was entirely self-made. We married poor, worked hard, scrimped & saved, spent cautiously and made prudent investments. So we deserved to keep more of our hard-earned money

Hopetoun Road Toorak, Melbourne [Apr-2019 275KB]

Living in a film-set

Months spent wandering through a terrain filled with shuttered restaurants and disoriented diners

Deserted food court, Centrepoint Sydney [Apr-2020 175KB]

Mega-dollar slums

Disintegrating verandahs + cracks big enough to fit both hands + Aspergillus from foundations to eaves = The bones of the property seem pretty decent and it's got a fair bit of character. With some elbow-grease and a lick of paint, this diamond of a home, buried deep in the rough, could be turned into the envy of all your friends!

Ex seminary on Forbes Street, Newtown [May-2022 691KB]

Trickle the wealth

Our system endured for so long because enough of the electorate believed they still had some chance of getting rich (Citigroup, 2005)

Begging for loose change near Sydney Town Hall [Sep-2016 421KB]

Play the Tradie's Game

Contract for a knock-down-rebuild and then endure years of excuses as to why it took so long to construct a simple suburban house

Debris removal at Warrimoo. The original house was demolished in April 2020 and the replacement was still unfinished two years later… [Apr-2020 760KB]

Bury the lede

What better way to house embattled bureaucrats than in an anonymous four-storey bunker?

NSW Rail Operations Centre, Mandible Street Alexandria [Jul-2023 371KB]

Frictionless intermediation

Because The Sharing Economy sounded nicer than Government Regulation Evading Neoliberal Extractive Capitalism (NYTimes, 2017)

Subterranean ingress and egress aperture cover at Watsons Bay [Dec-2014 902KB]

Roses of Picardy

The marriage industry flourished despite the cynicism, malaise and lockdowns

Private wedding ceremony at St Marys Cathedral [Mar-2019 371KB]

Well-oiled plans

There was big business in eating vast amounts of nutriment

Winter Magic Festival doughnut stall, Katoomba [Jun-2023 289KB]

Practical streetwise living

Stretch out in hygge comfort and swaddle beneath an extra blanket

Pitt Street Mall food-court entrance, Sydney [Jan-2019 590KB]

Financial ouroboros

Australian banks are very exposed to the housing market. Around 60 per cent of their lending is for housing. And housing is also common collateral for loans to small and medium businesses. A decline in housing prices impacts the value of that collateral but of itself does not necessarily lead to losses. (RBA, 2021)

Ex-bank branch waiting to be re-purposed, Newtown [Jan-2022 289KB]

The one sure bet

One of the interesting things about the years 1982—2024 was that markets always boomed, no matter what

Financial reporter at the Sydney ASX [Oct-2018 152KB]

Remarks

The original intention was to get photos of the predicted stock-market collapse for that day — presumably the same reason the financial reporter was there. Unsurprisingly the crash didn't happen and the market rallied yet again

Practise social distancing

So we stayed home, most of the time

Townhall Arcade foot court [Jul-2021 219KB]

Good sports with your money

Thursday night drinks in the firm with the GPS lads; City lights twinkle far below; Fetch whole legs of ham from the kitchen to hang in the partners' dining room, then stash the original artworks in the ladies toilet a few floors down; Piggyback steeplechase around the associates' floor, making hurdles of upended desks; Grab an old jockey cap from a senior-partner's office and use our neck-ties as whips; And then whooping and hollering and running and falling all over the place and pissing ourselves like it was the best night of our lives…

The ghosts of corporate lawyering at Martin Place [Oct-2014 876KB]

Ponzimonium

Jeffrey Keith Skilling (Enron Corp); Walter Forbes (Cendant Corp); Richard Fuld (Lehman Brothers); Bernard Lawrence Madoff (Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC); Satoshi Nakamoto (Bitcoin); Ruja Ignatova (OneCoin); Markus Braun (Wirecard); Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX); Kwon Do-Hyung (Terraform Labs); Changpeng Zhao (Binance); Sergei Panteleevich Mavrodi (MMM Global); Elizabeth Anne Holmes (Theranos Inc.)

Wedding Cake Rock, RNP [Jul-2019 211KB]

Remarks

Wedding Cake Rock was a social-media hotspot at the northern end of the Royal National Park. Standard barriers were erected to stop people from posing on the rock's edge, not only to prevent them from falling to their deaths (there had been a few), but also to preserve the geological structure for as long as possible. The irony was that despite the fence, many selfie-lovers were still climbing over and through the obstructions to get their snaps. So a few months later a higher, reinforced, cliff-edge to cliff-edge impenetrable mesh wall was installed

Rocks & Crops

Diggers and drillers drew heartfelt inspiration from the island paradise of Naru

The Port Kembla coal terminal (PKCT) [Sep-2014 380KB]

Positive growth model

A modern 24-hour economy filled with baristas, bloggers, interns and cash-in-hand hospitality workers pouring espresso and painting nails

Lower Baldwin Street, Dunedin NZ [Nov-2017 294KB]

All snakes, no ladders

We stuck to the plan, even though we kept changing it

Subterranean utilities footpath markings outside the QVB [Apr-2015 773KB]

Incentives to succeed

It was self-evident that the Rich were job creators and property booms an efficient way to redistribute wealth

The rear of a Korean restaurant, in a Pitt Street Lane near Town Hall [Oct-2012 324KB]

Segregation now, tomorrow & forever

Only the most privileged could afford to live in their own city

Distillery Drive cutting at Jacksons Landing, in Pyrmont [Jan-2013 321KB]

Custodians of the status quo

Stand on principle on the way up and you miss the stampede; stand on principle on the way down and you would be run over

Even the pigeons lived in style at Hogben Street in Kogarah [Apr-2011 98KB]

Tulips in the rough

Tax laws were rewritten to ensure the price of land-banked property could increase by more each day than most people could earn in a week

Irelands Road in Blacktown, western Sydney [Dec-2012 532KB]

Consumer kaizen

A culture had to be created in which our customers were driven to self-actualise

High Street bus-stop, Penrith [Feb-2017 556KB]

Crisis misdirection

Much talk about the “rental crisis” ignored the plight of mum & dad property-investors

Elizabeth Street block of flats, Surry Hills [Jul-2023 386KB]

Filled with delight

Non-inclusive apartment developments on the site of an old gasworks

Breakfast Point apartments (formerly Mortlake Gasworks), Sydney [Jul-2014 316KB]

The user-pays model

We rejected the “generational bargain” because we couldn't see any reason to pay for things we would never live to use

Government hoarding at Westpac Plaza, Barangaroo [Aug-2016 492KB]

Rust belt potential

Our suburbs were rife with agility, propagation and replacement

Lett Lane, Lithgow [Jun-2019 483KB]

Life in the Bunkercene

Harsh economic times forced everyone to cocoon just that little bit extra

Martin Place hoardings, Sydney [Mar-2019 277KB]

Cargo Culte

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

Palm tree outside the abandoned St Mary & St Mina's Coptic Orthodox Church at Sydenham. Five years later it was damaged by fire in May 2017 and subsequently demolished [Sep-2012 355KB]

Remarks

It required a lot of patience to capture this Hasselblad image. This was mainly due to the timing and positioning of the aeroplane(s), which would often approach from different angles and spoil the composition. Or else you would get a small turboprop when what you wanted was a thundering 747, or sometimes for long periods there wouldn't be any planes at all. Either way, when shooting digital with a high FPS shutter it isn't an issue, but with A12 film backs you only had a dozen manually-wound shots to get it right

Forging a new deal

The transition from manufacturing to a financialised economy was completely seamless

Derelict Ford truck at The Grounds of Alexandria. Revisited in July 2023 and by then the Ford was mostly overgrown [Apr-2018 761KB]

Remarks

How do you depict the systematic dismantling of industries, with their associated high-quality jobs for working-class people, without being tediously didactic?

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)

Fields of green shoots at the Westpac plaza in Sydney [Jan-2014 520KB]

Remarks

This image is a photomontage of two shots joined via a false horizon. Although always fascinated by the glibness of the expression green shoots, it required a lot of exploration to find a corporate environment which actually had them

Non-pharmaceutical interventions

A command economy emerged in everything but name

Taped off seating, Sydney Centrepoint [Apr-2020 203KB]

This weight of calorific delights

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 284KB]

In the circle of FIRE

There were such vast sums of money to be made from rents & fees & short-stay leases & collateralised debt & asset ~~bubbles~~ growth & asset ~~stripping~~ recycling & short-selling & bear-raids & related-party transactions & trading commercial acceptance bills & spoofing & layering & democratising currency & crypto-mining & Hummingbots & whale-trades & mergers & demergers & ~~gambling~~ wagering & grey-rhinos & black-swans & shiny tech unicorns & central bank stimulus & beanie babies & 1000% bearbricks & ~~overcooked~~ ambitious profit projections & 300-year visions & peer-to-peer lending & off-balance-sheet funding & ~~liar~~ sub-prime loans & ~~narco-state money-laundering~~ emerging markets & ~~terrorism financing~~ emerging markets & government consultancies & flipping cities to ride-share & tax ~~evasion~~ planning & family trusts & anonymous offshore trusts & Shanghai aged-care schemes & German cum-ex trading schemes & St. Kitts and Nevis Golden Visas & ~~concealing~~ reinvesting petrostate billions & cloud mining tokens & golden moons & Worldcoin iris scanning & cash-for-visas & ~~child-pornography~~ adult entertainment & coal mining leases & insurance ~~fraud~~ optimisation & ~~lying~~ factual misstatements to corporate regulators & ~~rewriting~~ updating independent reports & unenforced enforceable-undertakings & ~~dismantling~~ reforming Bretton Woods & ~~quashing~~ reforming Glass-Steagall & hiring ex-ministers as senior regional advisers & hiring the premier's son and vice-chancellor's daughter as summer-interns & ~~influence peddling~~ lobbying & ~~door-opening~~ lobbying & ~~impunity spells~~ lobbying & ~~moral-hazard exceptions~~ lobbying & ~~guaranteed bailouts~~ lobbying & ~~suspending customer withdrawals~~ bank holidays & using courts to reject insurance claims & friendly Wagyu-beef-washed-down-with-finest-shiraz judgements & swaps & options & swaptions & binary options & unregulated crypto-loans & coaxing punters to “buy the dips” & “growth phase” IPOs & CDOs & CMOs & CDFs & LDIs & FICCs & REITs & FAANGs & SPACs & BATs & ELPs & PGUCs & P2Es & NFTs & BAYCs & BNPL & NFSC & FOMO & FONGO & ~~concocting~~ developing ever more ~~arcane~~ sophisticated financial instruments to ~~conjure “assets” out of nothing to ensure money kept raining in torrents from the sky~~ build wealth, that there was little point in doing anything else

The Elizabeth street facade of the Commonwealth Bank Building [Oct-2020 433KB]

The cranes were flying

At one stage there were more construction cranes along the Australian eastern seaboard than in all the major cities in the USA (ABC News, 2016)

Tower crane jibs at Lewisham [Sep-2015 177KB]

Fierce, Wonderful & Closed

What little trade there was slowly bled out

Café shop-front during a level-four lockdown, Katoomba NSW. Eighteen months later it went out of business during another extended lockdown [Apr-2020 318KB]

Agile entrepreneurs

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

Domestic security on Neville Street in Marrickville [Sep-2012 422KB]

Extremely well serviced

Only the wealthiest suburbs could afford regular bus, rail and ferry services

The F5 Neutral Bay ferry leaves Kirribilli wharf [Nov-2020 192KB]

Scaffolding to pierce the sky

To better embrace necessary change, our cities were framed within a matrix of sidewalk sheds

One Circular Quay construction site, Sydney [Jan-2018 213KB]

Keep doubling your money every 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 491KB]

Exuberant expectations

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

Church Street car dealership, Parramatta [Apr-2017 278KB]

Forever in Golconda

This time it really was different

Charging bull statue, NYC [Oct-2017 252KB]

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 receipts (Gittins, 2017)

Remnants of the 2000's resources boom at Lithgow [Aug-2012 304KB]

Back to the Futuregate

Needless to say, we were all staring down the barrel of a perfect storm. Or will there be an embarrassment of riches with a fairytale ending for the history books?

Media-workers at the Sydney Opera House [Jul-2014 328KB]

Creating value

From warehouses to office blocks to strategically empty short-stay accommodation

Motorways and the former Caltex building, Sydney [Sep-2016 122KB]

The shadow state

Our top-down globalist system will endure forever

North from the Empire State Building [Oct-2017 474KB]

Flags of convenience

Our vision was to create a better everyday life, by getting our customers to do all the work

The united nations of IKEA, at Tempe [Sep-2012 147KB]

Epistemic insouciance

Full speed ahead for transient high-rollers from the sky (ABC News, 2020)

Crown casino construction, Barangaroo [Jan-2020 212KB]

Remarks

Taken during the erection of Packer's Pecker. It's difficult to exaggerate the thrall in which ~~gambling~~ wagering was held by politicians, most of the general public and the advertising-revenue-hungry media

Click and collect

Socially responsible trading during yet another level-four lockdown

George Street boutique, Sydney — which closed within a year [Jul-2021 199KB]

From blue to fluoro collar

Vast sums were borrowed to create a cornucopia of employment opportunities

Re-tiling the Sydney Opera House forecourt [Jul-2014 159KB]

Business service industries

The only way to counter economic headwinds was by being more nimble than the market

Finance workers at Australia Square [Dec-2004 280KB]

Ghosts of the CBD

The C-Suite resorted to upbeat-slogans, pleading and coercion to get employees to return to their city offices

Commuters at the new Central station northern concourse [Jul-2023 352KB]

Remarks

Candid people photography became a much riskier business than it was last century. Luckily people are so accustomed to seeing mobile phones used that when they see someone with an actual camera, then they assume it's only for shooting mundane things like flowers or birds or grandchildren

The carnival is over

The market faithfully rewarded those who took a long-term view

Luna Park Hair Raiser ride, in the rain [Jan-2019 126KB]

Remarks

Night photography is difficult, especially in the rain. Here it was persistent enough for water to seep into my 35mm LUX (11337) lens, necessitating a round-the-world trip to have it disassembled, cleaned and recalibrated

Clip service

Media-workers could always revert to nostalgia for a past brimming with promise

Elbon Arcade Testarossa Sammy-Santino men's hairstylist (since moved), Double Bay [Jan-2019 364KB]

A million jobs Mr Speaker

Decades of financialisation provided tremendous benefits for all to see

Shepherd Street factory yard, at Marrickville [Sep-2012 337KB]

Go for growth mate

We'll get an army of casuals to collect our night-soil, just like a hundred years ago

Outdoor toilet and “dunny lane”, Lithgow NSW [Jun-2019 588KB]

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, demolished a few years later [Sep-2003 326KB]

Remarks

Having worked in the 1990s in high-pressure corporate environments, it proved difficult to find suitable metaphors outside. But then sometimes you got lucky

Waiting for the great leap forward

From blue-collar heroes to the Kings of Kowloon, the third-world was just around the corner

Central Park development, at Broadway in Sydney [Jul-2012 160KB]

Both feet on the ladder

Everyone became multi-millionaires by flipping inherited properties originally bought for pennies

Renovations in suburban Stanmore [Sep-2012 119KB]

The shadow workforce

The solution to mass unemployment was as simple as redefining what was meant by “employed”

Red flags at the Circular Quay promenade [Jul-1992 475KB]

Remarks

Taken from the Cahill Expressway, looking down at the paving at Circular Quay. What appears to be a huge knife was actually the shadow of a banner flapping in the wind

Too big to fail

It took a long time to establish a balanced equilibrium between collateralised debt and rising property values

Barangaroo office construction, Millers Point [Aug-2016 364KB]