Toyota drops smart keys. When will supply chain disruptions end?

Adam: [00:00:25] Hello and welcome to comedian versus economist. We demystify the world of money and help you get a handle on the bigger picture. My name's Adam and we're joined, as always, by my little older brother and real life economist. Thomas. Hi, Thomas. 

Thomas: [00:00:39] Good, adam. How are you going? 

Adam: [00:00:41] Doing pretty well. Thank you. I managed to survive Emily's birthday party on the weekend. Happy birthday, Amy. She turned seven. Daddy loves you very much. Not such a fan of your friends. They are far too noisy, but good times anyway. And Halloween today as we record. So if. If I have to duck ever sick, it's because we're getting trick or treated again by a massive show coming up Thomas. When the chips are down, down in production, that is, Toyota has turned back to the good old car key. New South Wales plans to make pokies cashless just like the majority of people who play them. Also a story straight out of the news. So, you know, it's going to be amazing. There's been a robbery involving Steve Irwin, John Farnham and an hour from home and away. You know, you're going to want to stay around to hear about that one. But first, Thomas, inflation data was out last week. Have we peaked where we are? 

Thomas: [00:01:38] No, we haven't peaked. No. No, there was no good news about inflation. Data came in. Hotter than expected. Economists are expecting 1.6%. We got 1.8. That's a fair whack, higher annual inflation. They're running at 7.3%. That's a very high number. To give you some context, it's high.

Adam: [00:02:01] That's a high number.

Thomas: [00:02:03] Really. The key measure is the trimmed mean which looks at it gets close to the RBA's measure of core inflation that's running at 6.1% year on year. That's the highest level since 1998. Remember the RBA's target, a target band of 2 to 3%, so at 6.1% we're more than double the upper bound of the target band. So yeah, nothing, nothing in there to suggest that we want the RBA to be sitting on its hands on Tuesday.

Adam: [00:02:33] Right. So we're recording Monday and the RBA meets tomorrow. Got their monthly, monthly rate rise meeting where they're not going to not rate rise are they. 

Thomas: [00:02:45] No, no. 

Adam: [00:02:46] Not with ease. Not, not with these high numbers going around. 

Thomas: [00:02:49] No, no. They look in that go oh that's high. 

Adam: [00:02:55] Yeah. I mean the low numbers feel we need low numbers. All right. 

Thomas: [00:03:00] That's the board's going to be pressing on him. 

Adam: [00:03:05] Too, I feel going to get them down as five no lower. 

Thomas: [00:03:15] So it creates an interesting situation. And remember last month RBA came out and surprised everyone by hiking by 25 basis points, so they tempered back their rate hikes. They had been doing 50 then we got four days in a row. They then dropped that back to 25 and that surprised everyone in the markets. Everyone was like, oh, because everyone was expecting 50. And at the time the RBA noted that they were taking a little bit of a gamble being the first bank in the developed world to taper back the rate hike. Hmm.

Adam: [00:03:52] That's how it feels. That feels weird. How so? He's not a follower. He's a leader. 

Thomas: [00:03:57] Yeah. So now he. Got out of front of that one and potentially got ahead of the curve because now inflation's come in a lot hotter than expected. So if we don't get 25 basis points on another 25 basis points on Tuesday, the only other scenario that markets are entertaining is another 50. 

Adam: [00:04:16] Right. 

Thomas: [00:04:18] Which would look pretty stupid. 

Adam: [00:04:21] And this is again wheelhouse this is water off a duck's back looking stupid at the RBA. Yeah.

Thomas: [00:04:37] Like you come out and you're leading the world yet with we're getting ahead of the curve we think there's a lot of rate hikes already in the system. They're going to have an effect. They're going to drop inflation. And then you go, ooh, actually, we got one data point that suggests that wasn't true, and now we're back to the fifties. So I feel like it would look like chaos. And so I just don't think the extra impact of having that extra 25 basis points is worth looking that stupid for.

Adam: [00:05:07] Right? 

Thomas: [00:05:08] So yeah, I'm, I'm backing 25 basis points. But CBA, we're saying it's a 5050 it's a twin cost whether you get 25 or 20 points on Tuesday. 

Adam: [00:05:18] All right. So if we think about inflation then so. Is inflation everywhere? Is it kind of just we're just looking at widespread inflation now? 

Thomas: [00:05:29] It's fairly widespread. Like you look at non discretionary inflation versus discretionary inflation. That's one of the breakdowns the ABC gives us. So essentials are running at 8.4% inflation. So that's really hot discretionary at 5.5. But so that means you can't duck it if you're out of your household. There's no escaping inflation. It's eating your essentials and it's running hot in your essentials. So that's having it. So it's having a bigger impact on household budgets than the headline data suggest. But the other thing, if you look at look at if you break it down, goods inflation, we get we can break down goods versus services inflation. So goods account for three quarters of the rise. That's 7.3% over the year. So three quarters of that is coming from goods and that tells us that we're still largely an imported weather related COVID supply chain shock kind of story. 

Adam: [00:06:27] Certainly, it could still be transitory for years. It turns out it was just a really long, transitory period of inflation. Yeah. 

Thomas: [00:06:40] Yeah. Well, I mean, that's that's kind of what it's saying. So you've got it's it's not feeding through into the broader economy. You'd note you'd know that's done that once it's in the services sector. That's the argument there. Like if it was in service then you think, okay, yep, it's everywhere, but it's but it's not. So it's sort of mostly in goods and that's largely the sort of shock related. So it's not that I remember that sort of demand versus supply framework, it still seems to be a supply shock. 

Adam: [00:07:10] Yes. No. Well, yeah. 

Thomas: [00:07:13] So it still seems to be supply driven, supply shock driven rather than demand driven, which is also unfortunate because hiking interest rates affects demand. It doesn't help anything with the supply side. So it's not even clear that rate hikes are the right tool for the job in the current setting. But that's what we've got. And so you've got to do it. The other really interesting thing I think is you can break it down side by side. Hmm. Guess which cities got the highest inflation numbers in the country?

Adam: [00:07:43] Perth.

Thomas: [00:07:44] Oh, no. 

Adam: [00:07:46] No, I. That was, I was totally uneducated and uneducated. Guess it was only because I was watching the cricket last night and they were playing in Perth. So Perth was front of mind. 

Thomas: [00:07:59] Yeah. Good. I'm going to stop asking you.

Adam: [00:08:06] Which one you like, if I can read for a second. It's disappointing. How many games of the T20 World Cup have been played in Perth? Wonderful stadium, but stadium earlier. Like you've got 90% of your television audience on the east coast of Australia. I can't stay up to watch. I forget who was playing last night. Yeah, but I would love to watch the end of India, South Africa, love towards the end of that. But I finish it like I am something, right? Yeah, right. Right.

Thomas: [00:08:33] And yeah, no Adelaide.

Adam: [00:08:35] No, this podcast is very exciting. But when you go to platforms, I was.

Thomas: [00:08:43] Pressing the big issues. 

Adam: [00:08:44] You can really be.

Thomas: [00:08:45] Go economist talking truth to power. 

Adam: [00:08:49] Just start the cricket earlier. Who needs to hear this? If you are in the finance and investing sector, you know people in the broadcast community maybe only got some because of their contacts at Cricket Australia in New Zealand anyway. What city has the highest place in. 

Thomas: [00:09:12] Adelaide and running?

Adam: [00:09:14] That's even worse. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thomas: [00:09:19] So Adelaide is running at 2.6%, all the other capitals are running around that 2% mark. This is quarter by quarter except for one capital. Lois, do you want to take a stab?

Adam: [00:09:32] Hobart? 

Thomas: [00:09:32] No, it's Perth. Oh. Trust your first instincts. 

Adam: [00:09:41] I couldn't go back to the well again. I mean, I've tried but failed. I learnt my lesson. Oh, no, no, no, dummy. Yeah. No. 

Thomas: [00:09:50] So Perth, Perth actually had deflation in the September quarter, so yeah, negative point 5%. What Perth got. The rest of the country doesn't have light. Has a light like cricket. 

Adam: [00:10:02] And mining. 

Thomas: [00:10:06] And mining and domestic gas reservation. 

Adam: [00:10:09] Yes. Right, right. Oh that's, that's right. They were kind of self-sufficient for gas, like when the gas was going crazy on the East Coast and energy prices were through the roof. Perth was like we're not good here. 

Thomas: [00:10:23] Yeah, yeah. Now.

Adam: [00:10:25] Australia.

Thomas: [00:10:25] Western Australia. That's right. So Western Australia said a domestic gas reservation, which says that 15% of all gas production must be reserved for the local market. So it's not even that much 15%, it's not huge, but that's enough to drop prices. So where the East Coast is currently paying $30 a gigajoule for gas. Yeah. In Western Australia they're paying 5.50. 

Adam: [00:10:51] Wow.

Thomas: [00:10:52] So yeah. So it's like yeah. Just drop it by sort of 80% reduction in gas prices which feeds directly into electricity prices. Electricity prices being a cornerstone commodity feeds through to the rest of the economy. So you drop gas prices and you have a massive effect on your inflation numbers. They've got deflation in Perth. Yeah, right. So yeah. 

Adam: [00:11:16] So and then that supports because we buy, we buy electricity and gas on the sort of international market like outside of Perth. So that supports the theory that it's all sort of supply cost.

Thomas: [00:11:28] Yeah, that's right. I mean, a connection. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Like the East Coast we're exporting gas with no domestic reservation, so we end up paying global prices so that $30 that's in line with global prices. Right. Western Australia talks of that completely. They've got their own price, $5.50. They're laughing and it's probably going to hold around $5.50, but the rest of the country is going to keep heading north and they're talking about electricity. We've had a strong ramp up in electricity prices. Is probably going to double from here. Seems to be the best guess. So that's not going to bring down inflation. 

Adam: [00:12:04] It makes perfect sense that Perth is the only place that can afford to keep the lights on. It's late into the night. Yeah, it's. 

Thomas: [00:12:18] Just a massive flex. 

Adam: [00:12:20] Whenever you look at us with the bright lights again. 

Thomas: [00:12:25] We're not even going to turn them off. They're going to be. 

Adam: [00:12:31] All right, Thomas, what's going on with Toyota? They are going old school.

Thomas: [00:12:35] Yeah, yeah, they're going back to analogue keys, mechanical keys for cars for their customers in Japan. Not all of them. So if you buy a car in Japan, you get two keys. Hmm. Normally, they're smart keys, digital keys. But there's a semiconductor chip shortage. Mm hmm. And so Toyota is kind of saying, look, we're going to give you two keys. We give you one smart key and one mechanical key, and then we'll fix you up with that second smart key when we get them in. But we don't know when that's going to be. 

Adam: [00:13:12] You know, very. 

Thomas: [00:13:12] Safe with. 

Adam: [00:13:13] Inconvenience. Right. Yeah. Isn't this a isn't this a security risk? Like if. Is it? Well. I don't know. Like the fact that you can still start a car with a, like a dumb key, which are obviously dumb key didn't make it into the Toyota marketing material, but if you can still start the car with the dumb key, doesn't that mean potentially you could still start it with like a screwdriver or something? I thought the whole point about smart keys was that they, um, meant that they would become more sort of tamper resistant because you needed something like a cryptographic exchange between the smart key and your car before the car would stop. 

Thomas: [00:13:55] Doesn't it doesn't work like a credit card, though. Like, I reckon like my keys. 

Adam: [00:14:00] Like opening your car with your credit card. 

Thomas: [00:14:02] Definitely. Yeah. And I just got a directive. 

Adam: [00:14:06] Back and type. Yes.

Thomas: [00:14:10] Nano but there's not there's not a chip in, in the key itself. There's like a chip in the car that's not impaired. 

Adam: [00:14:17] Yeah. So, I got into home automation for a while and I was trying to automate everything in my house. And what I wanted to do was like, at 10:00 at night, if I was at home, then lock the car. If I was at home, the car was in the driveway and was out driving for the cars in the driveway. I'm at home, but I'm obviously not going to go out. Well, you know, I'm a father of two. I'm not going anywhere after 10:00 at night generally. So lock the car just because I often forget to lock the car. And there was no automation I could find because of the way. Because you can get you can buy RF, infra-red, whatever transmitters, but you couldn't get anything that would do your car because of I think because it sends an email CV at Equity Mates dot com if I'm wrong because I'd love to be able to do this, but I think because it's like a because the key is coded to the car, you can't just you can't get like you can't get a universal remote, for example, to unlock your car, basically. 

Thomas: [00:15:27] Yeah, but I'm not, I'm not talking about a remote like I'm talking about like my, my actual key has something that communicates with the car. The letter. No, it's the right key. So if you lose the thing, I don't have a little beep remote thing on their on their key but it's still communicating. And if, if I lose the black bit of the key, the key stops working even though the pins all match the key. Mm. Do you know what I mean. 

Adam: [00:15:56] No, I don't think I do. 

Thomas: [00:15:58] Right. 

Adam: [00:16:00] But I feel like we're off track again, baby. So I think. The key point here is if you know how I can automatically lock my car after 10:00 at night. At Equity Mates dot com. So. Okay, so this is the. This is the chip shortage. Um, like, is Toyota the only one, or is it just because they're the biggest that I haven't had any other companies suffering this kind of fate? Or is this one Toyota? No. 

Thomas: [00:16:27] Well, I don't know if they're about this, but Honda has reduced production by 40% through October because they can't get chips. The American Car Industry Association reckons that supply shortages are going to cost three 3.5 million vehicles this year to date. So, yeah, so production has been 3.5 million vehicles less than it would have been because of the supply chain shortages. Toyota was forecasting 9.7 million vehicles this year. It's now hard to warn the market saying we're not going to hit that not going I'm not going to meet that because we're not getting the we're not getting the chips we need. 

Adam: [00:17:05] This reminds me of when American Airlines or someone decided they were going to cut back from three olives to two olives in the they're like lunch meal on the flights. And they worked out if they did that, that would save them like, I don't know, $40 billion a year or something. 

Thomas: [00:17:23] Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Adam: [00:17:25] Just one olive per meal because like, isn't the average doesn't the average car contain like 1400 microchips? So like, I feel like the extra one for the spare. Okay, that's just kind of being a freak. Everything's just like, really? But I guess, you know, on that scale, you know, you. Go, well, actually, we can maybe make another out of a thousand cars if we save one chip per customer in that key. 

Thomas: [00:18:00] Yeah, we're going to save 9.7 million just based on their production. 

Adam: [00:18:04] So, yeah, there's a lot more cars. Yeah, that's true. 

Thomas: [00:18:07] Maybe that makes a difference. 

Adam: [00:18:09] So why is there still this semiconductor shortage? Where are they not production not happening again or is it shipping? Is that what's going on? 

Thomas: [00:18:17] Yeah, I think I think it's so we move from sort of covered supply disruptions and then ahead of leases, supply vote. Next come through. But then in the middle of that you had a sort of reorganising of the geopolitical landscape. Russia attacked Ukraine, China became hostile with the U.S. basically moved from sort of best friends to strategic rivals. Mm hmm. America then, sort of has this big push to reshore semiconductor production. So the whole semiconductor industry is reconfiguring itself. Mm hmm. And it all just takes time to play out. And, yeah, and I think that's sort of why we're here, why this is still happening, but it's also why, again, this is a supply shock if you're down, if Toyota's down, if you know, the vehicle industry's down three and a half million vehicles. That's the definition of a supply shock. Which other things being equal means prices must go up. 

Adam: [00:19:17] Hmm. So this is bad news for inflation, too, then? It's just not a good story. 

Thomas: [00:19:22] Not a good news story for inflation. Yeah. So, like, so it kind of, as you're joking is kind of right there. We have these temporary transitory shocks, these supply shocks that happen that feed through into prices. But like the energy shock, the semiconductor shock is taking years to play out. And the danger with that is that then everyone just starts adjusting around this reality and prices going up. Keep, keep, keep pushing higher. I mean, it's interesting. You've seen the other big story through COVID was was container freights, freight rates for international shipping. They exploded. They've come off recently. So they're starting to sort of normalise, which is going to take some heat out of inflation. But yeah, so far we haven't seen it in semiconductors. Hmm. 

Adam: [00:20:08] I like this, though. I like, like getting back in touch with the older technology, you know, like the mechanical technology, like moving back there. It feels nice to move back to, like, a key rather than, like, my car, like, beeps at me if I walk too far away from it with the car running because the keys in my pocket, it's like, Oh, hey, where are you going? 

Thomas: [00:20:26] Relax. I got to lock the door.

Adam: [00:20:30] So, yeah, I like this kind of old school. Less complicated, like, I don't know, maybe. Maybe we could save on, like, starter motors as well. Just get back to the old, you know, where people used to stand in front of their car and have to crank it over. 

Adam: [00:20:44] So I love to see a Tesla with a crankshaft. 

Thomas: [00:20:53] A market for that for sure. 

Adam: [00:20:55] Hey, before we go to a break, Clement, send us an email CVE@equitymates.com. Hey, guys, I love your podcast. You mentioned in your last episode that interest rates on mortgages were fixed in the US. I grew up in France and it's the same there. I wonder why in Australia we can't have fixed interest rates for more than a few years. Any thoughts? Thomas, any reason why the 30 year mortgage rate in the US? This does seem. 

Thomas: [00:21:18] Odd. Yeah, it is. I did some research and I don't know, I read a couple of things and just wasn't clear. Like, it's like it's sort of, it seems to be kind of a structural feature they had. And then you create sort of the financial infrastructure around it that supports that and you have the, you know, securities and derivatives and everything and it sort of like it just sort of evolves that way. Seems to be the answer. It's just evolved differently here. I mean, I think in practice it is like I don't think you're not locked into your 30 years. I'm sure that must be the case, that you must be able to change lenders and refinance at lower rates at certain points. I think it's just. 

Adam: [00:22:01] If you should be locked in in the eighties, you're like 19% interest for 30 years. 

Thomas: [00:22:06] That yeah. 

Adam: [00:22:07] That. Q You. 

Thomas: [00:22:08] Know, yes, I see some of that. But yeah, I don't know why, how it's evolved like that. Like I did read a piece and I just didn't quite get it immediately. So I'm not sure the answer is it seems to be kind of complex and. 

Adam: [00:22:21] The answer is it's probably, it probably works well for the banks. Mm. 

Thomas: [00:22:27] Yeah. But we've got banks in America and Australia. 

Adam: [00:22:30] That's an excellent point I would say. Is where you provide. That expert analysis that there is a. Nuance there, it just goes over the rest of it. Right. So it's not because of banks. Uh oh, they go, well, yeah. I don't feel like apologising except when I had a good question and I feel like we've given a good answer. Yeah. 

Thomas: [00:22:54] Maybe try another economics podcast. 

Adam: [00:22:56] All right. Why don't we pause there? We'll grab a quick word from this week's sponsor and be back with more Comedian Vs Economist right after this. Welcome back here on Canadian versus economist don't forget to check out community dot Equity Mates dot com. You'll find lots of people basically hanging out, talking about stocks, talking, investing, talking, talking comedian versus economist perhaps in the community versus economist channel. But make sure you head over there. Check it out, log in, create an account and get involved. But Thomas, New South Wales Government cracking down on pokies. What's going on with their pokies crackdown?

Thomas: [00:23:36] Yeah, well kind of. It's probably not quite there yet, but we're potentially on a road to a bit of a crackdown. So the New South Wales Crime Commission. 

Adam: [00:23:44] We've drawn a paper that's going to be circulated. To come up with potentially a proposal where we're going to look at reviewing. The. Pokies situation in 2047. 

Thomas: [00:23:57] Yeah, that's probably as close to the reality of it. But yeah, the New South Wales Crime Commission has just done a review into pokies and money laundering and found that criminals are funnelling billions of dollars of dirty cash through pokies and saying the machines are a safe haven for money launderers because of the weak regulation. Yeah. The New South Wales Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes said at the moment serious offenders can enter New South Wales. Pubs and clubs sit down next to patrons in gaming rooms and openly feed large sums of cash from their crimes into pokie machines with no real fear of detection.

Adam: [00:24:36] They blend in with all the other old ladies. They come in with a suitcase full of cash. Yeah. Yeah, right.

Thomas: [00:24:52] It is. This is literally what happens. So they come in huge. Amount of cash. They put the cash into the machine, they make a couple of bids. Yeah. And then cash out, get a ticket, take it to the office and get and get sort of a deposit for the money back and then that becomes legitimately cash at that point. 

Adam: [00:25:12] Yeah, well this so I listen to a podcast called The Lazarus Heist. It was about as big as a North Korean cyber group. And maybe it was that one might have been a different one. Anyway, they basically worked out, they took all this money out of, I think it was Bangladesh Bank and they had to launder it somehow and they essentially took it to a casino and pokies in Australia. I don't know about everywhere else but in Australia they've got a minimum guaranteed return so they have to return. I think it's something like 80% or something.

Thomas: [00:25:49] So probably it's in the nineties I reckon. 

Adam: [00:25:50] Is this between. 

Thomas: [00:25:51] Yeah, yeah. It's like 87 minimum or. 

Adam: [00:25:54] 87. 

Thomas: [00:25:54] Seven and you can clock it. But yeah it clocked around 92 something like that. 

Adam: [00:25:59] Right. So yeah. So criminals basically just take that hit, they go as just the cost of doing business. We'll take all of our ill gotten gains and fade it through the pokies and we'll just get a return of 87%. The devil number. 

Thomas: [00:26:13] Yeah. 

Adam: [00:26:13] Coincidentally. 

Thomas: [00:26:16] Yeah, right, right. Yeah. So that's what, that's what they're doing.

Adam: [00:26:19] And so then I want to get rid of pokies, I just want to get rid of money. That's money laundering. 

Thomas: [00:26:26] Well that's what the Crime Commission is saying. Yeah. They didn't, they didn't look into whether pokies are a good thing or not but they're saying you shouldn't have many.

Adam: [00:26:32] Yeah, it's a pretty easy question dancing. Oh, hi there. I talk about having a platform. I hate pokies. I just know the scourge of the earth. Right. That has there's no there's no rationale why these things need to exist. 

Thomas: [00:26:48] Yeah, yeah, I know but yeah. But they reckon that they can't put the exact numbers on it, they've got no idea. But they say it's in the many billions. 

Adam: [00:26:57] Yeah. Wow. 

Thomas: [00:26:58] And primarily from drug dealing is what they're saying. Right. So yeah. So they, so they recommended a whole bunch of new rules. Um, they're updating the law to clarify that people and businesses associated with pokies must be active in preventing money laundering. What I love is that the update the law to enable venues with pokies to deny entry to people suspected of dealing with proceeds of crime. Hmm. It's like I think to enable venues to deny entry. So kind of means like if at the moment you can walk into a pub in a black and white striped shirt with masks on and a bag of cash with a dollar sign written on it. 

Thomas: [00:27:41] And I like to launder some money please. And they can't. 

Adam: [00:27:45] Do they got their issue about it are. 

Thomas: [00:27:47] Popular. And this way you like a free lemonade. 

Adam: [00:27:50] Free coffee, a biscuit. We know that money laundering can be tough work. Well, you know, if you have free refreshments, as you say, that cash through our machines. 

Thomas: [00:28:07] The other thing I recommend is changing the load up limits. So at the moment, the most you so you can like put a whole bunch of cash in and then just gamble it away. The maximum load up limit in New South Wales is $10,000. Hmm. So a little bit of a flutter. 

Adam: [00:28:26] You know, you go to the pub, you've got it's new to have a nice time, maybe celebrating a birthday with a family. You walk past the bike lands and you just say, well, well, not just drop a ten K, just a cheeky guy on the bike. He's on the way to the car. So, yeah, they. 

Thomas: [00:28:56] Reckon that number needs to come down.

Adam: [00:28:59] Well, it is I think it is in other states isn't it. Like it's like they're an outlier. Like in others they are, they're. 

Thomas: [00:29:03] The New South Wales is the worst. Queensland. It's $100 in Queensland. Yeah. 

Adam: [00:29:08] Yeah. 

Thomas: [00:29:09] It's just that's reasonable. 

Adam: [00:29:10] Reasonable. Yeah. Yeah. 

Thomas: [00:29:12] But the other, the other thing that they recommended were and this is the one that got the most pushback was the idea to introduce a mandatory cashless gaming system for pokies or gambling wallet effectively. Right. So yeah. So you've got to, you've got to read like a regular you need to register with the hotel or some provider that's authorising it. You do the know your customer regulations and all of that and then you load up your card and then you take your card to the pokies. Yet and this is this is a proposal that's been around for quite a while to sort of to be able to crack down on problem gamblers and sort of say to people can effectively get blacklisted, say like, okay, you're a problem gambling now we're not, we're not loading up your card anymore. Mhm. But yeah the Hotels Association's really pushing back on that one. That one they found. 

Adam: [00:30:03] Lots of this, this notion of cracking down on like where's helping problem gamblers. Like where's supporting them, you know, to. Get off problem gambling and maybe, you know, help them like. 

Thomas: [00:30:14] They're the problem.

Adam: [00:30:15] Yeah. Yeah. What are you doing here? That I am again. You've got a problem. Really? Oh, well, maybe you shouldn't be over it. I am. And when the rest of the business isn't running. Yeah. 

Thomas: [00:30:34] Yeah. So the Australian hoteliers. Like they see that as a big threat to their revenue. A spokesperson for the HRA came out and said we should be very careful of regulatory overreach here. We stand in solidarity with organised criminal syndicates and remain committed to our common mission of destroying the lives of poor people in the name of money. So that was refreshingly honest. I mean, that wasn't literally what they said, but that was. 

Adam: [00:31:04] The gist of it. And it's not a word for word quote. Paraphrasing. Yeah. Well, anything we can do. I mean, any step we can take is good in my book, I think. 

Thomas: [00:31:18] But, I mean, the thing is, I mean, it's interesting, like, just to bring it back to market. So it's an interesting one for a group like Endeavour Group or some of the other private equity players that they own a lot of pubs potentially has a would be a bit of a hit to their if they if the New South Wales got really serious about pokies, which they should. You know, like you know, well-located pub pokies account for a third of revenue. Well and so yes, a third of revenue offer an incredibly small cost base so that hugely profitable for. Yeah. For the pubs and they're capitalised into the value. So a pokie licence is worth $600,000. Wow. You can trade them but you've got to pay that much. So like the value to just bleed poor people of their money is worth $600,000. So and that's the prices that the current pub owners have paid. So so current pubs face a hit one to their revenue if there's a serious crack down and two to their asset values because the value of the licences for. Mhm. Yeah. Right. Which is why they're pushing back so hard against it. No one I want to see any regulation but you know. 

Adam: [00:32:32] Well yeah, but. 

Thomas: [00:32:35] Cry me a river. 

Adam: [00:32:36] It's like. It's like drug. Drug dealers complaining that someone outlawed heroin after Labour got their smack anymore. Oh. 

Thomas: [00:32:48] It's communism. 

Adam: [00:32:52] All right, Thomas, I love this story. Police have urged people to be careful in the Northern Territory, be on the lookout for some fake bills. What's going on? 

Thomas: [00:33:01] Yeah, so apparently some fake bills. And there's a lot of unknowns in this story, which is a bit odd. The fake bills were apparently used for in film and TV production, but it's from. It was in Alice Springs, which is not known as one of the film and television. 

Adam: [00:33:19] Hollywood of Australia. They call it Les Springs, the tinsel town of the Tinsel Town of the North Centre. Yeah. 

Thomas: [00:33:35] So apparently a whole bunch of fake bills have been stolen from. From a house in Alice Springs. From a house they were not. Not from a set, but from a house. Hmm. But anyway, the L.A. police have released a statement saying that the hundred dollar bills feature a series of subtle differences to the authentic cash. 

Adam: [00:33:56] Yeah. 

Thomas: [00:33:57] This includes Sir John Monash and Dame Nellie Melba. On the hundred dollar notes, they've got Steve Irwin and Alf from home and away. 

Adam: [00:34:09] All of the Alpha still doesn't have a last name, even in the official police publication. Steve Irwin and Alf from home in a way, because everyone just knows who it is. It's got it's. Surprisingly they've had to issue a warning saying don't accept $100. Bill with a picture of Steve Irwin. 

Thomas: [00:34:38] I mean, to be fair, there's some fruit. They're pretty there's some, it's a high end production. It's not just some teenagers with the. 

Adam: [00:34:44] It's got a picture of Steve Irwin mean it's not that someone is never a no. I'm not saying he shouldn't be on money. I'm just saying to date he's never been on money. Now, what if someone handed me one? I'd be like, Ah. Yes, I smell a rat. 

Thomas: [00:35:05] Yeah. But if you were in. Singapore and someone gave you $100 note there didn't, didn't have. Some Singaporean historical figure that had us at a K-Pop.

Adam: [00:35:16] Go. Oh, sure. Yeah, if you like. Yeah. Yeah. All right. If you're working, maybe you're picking grapes in Australia, backpacking in here and the and. And the grape the farmer was paying you in cash. Just this. Yeah. Our from firing away. That's right.

Thomas: [00:35:38] You'd Google who was Steve Irwin? Steve Irwin's Australia's most loved naturalist.

Adam: [00:35:44] Oh, that must be wise on how to do that. Yeah. Like, uh, yeah. 

Thomas: [00:35:50] A few, a few other subtle differences. So the Shrine of the Shrine of Remembrance? Yeah, it's normally on the note that was replaced by John Farnham. 

Adam: [00:35:58] Oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah. 

Thomas: [00:36:01] And replace the word Australia with Australia. 

Adam: [00:36:07] See, that's it's a dead giveaway right there because everyone knows the proper abbreviation for Australia is straighter and not a straight year there. There's no Australia doesn't exist in the Australian vernacular. But yeah I noticed, I think in a case of art imitating life they've replaced the Australian masked owl with a native wattle, with a mining whole. Truck that's reviving native flora and fauna. We've got mining today. Uh, man, I. The thing about this is, is that given that it's a film set. And presumably, like, I don't know, maybe they often go to remote locations to film Hollywood blockbusters. So it's potential that it's quite collectable. So these $100 notes might actually be worth more than $100, depending on the success of the movie. Mm hmm. So they might not even use them. They might just keep them as, like, a souvenir. The store imagines perhaps, like a Titanic version. I'm not filming the Titanic in Alice Springs, L.A., but. But, you know. Some massive Hollywood blockbuster. Then you just keep the notes. And with the way inflation's going, you know, I'd rather have a fake hundred dollar note with Steve. Irwin on it. With a chance of being a collector's item than it actually of that.

Thomas: [00:37:43] Mm hmm. Yeah. No, totally. I mean, I wouldn't think you sound. I wouldn't buy it until it was an NFT, obviously.

Adam: [00:37:50] But I do think you've got to. Be you've got to be pretty brave, I reckon, to walk into a shop with a $100 note with Steve Earle and. John Fathom and a mining truck like that. And try to use it like I'd love I'd. Love to see someone try and hand over that fake note and but I'd take it I'd take it even further. Like when the shopkeeper was like, okay, this is this is dodgy. I'm calling the cops. Just have like you, mate, rock up in like a 98 Commodore. With police written on the side it is going in. Yeah. I mean Nino and la la la la la. What saves the day? The problem is I can see Australia written on this. Everything seems to be above board. Hmm. Uh, yeah. Yes. Well, police have advised any shopkeepers receiving money with Al from home and away on it to simply respond with. Get out of my. Store, you're flavin 'my group. All right. All right, gang. That does us for this week. Thank you so much for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed this week's show. We hope you enjoy every show. We'd really like it if you could write and review the show. Wherever you get your podcasts, that would help us out a lot. But for myself and Thomas, it's better for us. And we'll talk to you again next time. On Comedian Vs Economist.