Who Pays When the Punchline Is Someone's Tent

The most reassuring sentence in Australian finance this year was never said by anyone at the Reserve Bank. It was written by a comedy site, and it promises that the central bank will stop raising interest rates as soon as the economy collapses.That's the headline of a Shovel piece from the end of September. In the fake version, RBA chief Michele Bullock urges people not to worry about the latest rate rise. It is only a temporary measure, according to the article, "that will be addressed once everyone is living in a tent."I laughed, and then I did the thing you do after laughing at a good joke about money. I checked my own budget, quietly, like someone peeking under a bandage.A Promise With a Tent in ItThe joke works because it is built like a real central bank statement. It has the calm tone, the reassurance, and the promise of a future fix. Only the fix is absurd. A real central bank statement carries its own hidden clause: we will stop when the damage is done, and we will tell you…