Propaganda's high cost

Way back in the olden days, when David Lange was prime minister and Roger Douglas his whizz-kid finance minister, I bought my first house. Mortgage interest rates were approaching an eye-watering 20% and I was sweating. The cost of living was appallingly high and wages dismally low. It was tough.

- BILL RALSTON

A decade or more passed, the economy was torn apart and painfully rebuilt and the interest-rate burden eventually eased. Like many others, I survived. Just.

Four decades on, I’m getting the feeling, in the words of US baseball player Yogi Berra, that “it’s déjà vu all over again”.

The Reserve Bank has lifted the official cash rate 50 basis points to 1.5%, the first double rate hike in 20 years. Our mortgages are on the way up again, with analysts warning bank interest rates will hit 6% in the coming months. From there, they could go even higher.

Food prices are up an annual 7.6%, the biggest escalation in more than a decade. The cost of fruit and veges has risen an astonishing 18%. Why?