![]() ![]() Remember that only about a third of households have a mortgage and most of those have either built up a buffer or substantially paid it down.īut the psychological impact of the first rate rise in a dozen years is broader than the number of people who will feel it in their wallets.Īll the headlines get noticed, the idea of people cutting back on spending spreads around. The irony is that tightening monetary policy actually can’t result in much spending being reduced.Īs the Australian Bureau of Statistics explained, most of the inflation we’re feeling is in non-discretionary spending – we still have to pay the rent, buy food and fuel, meet necessary health costs, even people with big mortgages. Politically, lying about debt and deficit and interest rates for nine years will make it hard for the Coalition to suddenly have credibility in telling the truth that rising rates are a sign of a strong economy, that falling and extremely low rates are not necessarily healthy. The bigger problem is explaining how living standards are continuing to fall with no sign of the wages price index getting ahead of inflation, never mind the real, after-tax story."We have experienced some modest impact from these headwinds to date. The majority of the impact lies in front of us," Wehner said. He specifically noted changes made by Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google, which have both announced new restrictions on browser cookies used to track users online.įacebook, the world's second-biggest seller of online ads, has been under fierce scrutiny worldwide in recent years over its privacy practices. It is also facing heat over how its services have been manipulated to spread misinformation. The company addressed those issues starting in mid-2018 following repeated scandals, causing growth in expenses to surge by more than 100% for several quarters as it hired privacy staff and invested in content moderation. That investment began declining last year, leading analysts to believe Facebook was largely finished building out its new systems and beginning to find efficiencies that could whittle costs further.īut the company reported total costs and expenses increased 34% to $12.22 billion in the fourth quarter, more than double the 14% that analysts had forecast and dragging down operating margins to 42% from 46% a year earlier. It also announced it had reached a $550 million settlement in principle of an Illinois lawsuit that claimed it illegally collected and stored biometric data for millions of users without their consent. The fourth-quarter revenue growth of 25% did beat analysts' expectations of a dip to 23%. But it is the company's fourth straight quarter of revenue growth less than 30%, playing to concerns that Facebook is struggling to restore its pre-2018 momentum when sales regularly grew upwards of 40%. Still, Facebook's shares rose more than 50% over the last year, raising pressure for a strong performance. "FB stock had made a big run-up in anticipation of the report. so the room for error was low," said Daniel Morgan, a portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co. The company continued to add users, beating estimates. ![]() Monthly users of Facebook's core social network climbed 8% to 2.5 billion, while 2.9 billion people used one of its apps - Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger - each month. ![]()
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