Speculation of rate rises here in Australia don't seem to be deterring eager Australian property buyers. Melbourne's clearance rate is currently sitting at 73% compared to 74% this time last year. And Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Canberra are sitting at 77%, 75%, 94% (WTF!), and 79% respectively.

The Australian superannuation industry is a AU$3.3 trillion market, and is one of the world's most respected schemes. AMP is in the game of superannuation, insurance, and investing. And have been since 1849. The company when public in 1998. Since going public, the company has lost 84.1% of investors' total return. Just let that sink in for a second. You just lost 94% of your capital, and after taking dividends into account, you're still down almost 85% on your investment.

Last week I attended my first in person wealth management symposium since COVID. It was so good to see people in IRL - to chat, query, debate, challenge, and learn. By far by favourite topic was the final leg of the symposium where the presenters discussed the domestic property market their outlook. I'm really curious about this asset class for a number of reasons - I have vested interest in my home, my investments, my developments, and it's such a large exposure for Australian's and the economy.

Earlier this year I bough Bitcoin for the first time. I wrote about it here in June. Since I bought Bitcoin, the price has fallen 50%, and risen again by almost 150%. I wrote at the time:

If you think this inflation thing isn't happening in the land down under? Well, let me assure you it is. Forget monetary inflation, we have time inflation. Everything is just taking so much longer. I waited in line for over 30 minutes at Mad Mex at Chadstone on Sunday afternoon just to place my order. Who would wait over 30 minutes in line for a burrito? Generally I wouldn't either, believe me, but I had 2 whinging kids hanging off me, we just spent 3 hours at Lego Land, and man I was hangry. Forget waiting 30 minutes for a burrito, you want a new Tesla? Forget about it. You're waiting 12 months.

From one grinding halt to another. Supermarkets' empty shelves, labour shortages, cars on back order, rail yards clogged, and ships are unable to dock and unload their cargo. One bottleneck follows another. And these bottlenecks are causing prices to spiral out of control. It's not only the bottlenecks themselves that are causing prices to rise, factories and product/service providers are struggling to keep up with surging consumer demand post pandemic.