Today, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced that its policy rate will rise by 0.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent. This will push mortgage rates well above 7 per cent. Every time the RBA lifts its rate by 0.25 per cent, the average mortgage holder is $A46 a month worse off. Since this tightening cycle began in October 2009 there have been 6 such rises which makes the average mortgage holder $A276 per month worse off than they were in September 2009. Most will be even worse off given that the commercial banks have been gouging larger proportional increases over this period. The decision also comes in the same week that the Final Report of the Australia’s Future Tax System Review was released. The Government has rejected certain recommendations from that Review which were aimed at providing a fiscal redress to the tightening housing market and by implication reducing the need for monetary policy tightening. What this tells me is that the neo-liberal economic policy dominance that pushed the world into the current crisis remains firmly in place. The result will be entrenched labour underutilisation, rising housing stress and ultimately another economic crisis. Maybe the next crisis will see the demise of this nonsensical approach to macroeconomic policy making.