Jan Crosby, the head of housing at KPMG, said: "These figures make for frightening reading and show that housing affordability is no longer just a problem for lower wage earners.
Searching for savings at the end of its term in government, Labor said it was indefinitely deferring the already legislated changes because the floating carbon price was forecast to be far lower than originally calculated and families did not need as much compensation.
Instead, they typically pay lower interest rates on deposits than smaller banks do, and charge higher interest rates on loans.
In retail banking, they haven't capitalized on the benefits of size (like lower borrowing costs) to cut prices for their customers, the way big retailers like Wal-Mart do.
"During this depression, when the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, it is a splendid thing that, for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles," Franklin D Roosevelt stated in 1935, referring to the world's biggest and littlest star.
Obama pledged the law would lower premiums by up to $2,500 per year for a typical family by January 2013 and improve the economy.
Today he had to admit that not only has he missed his debt target but that growth will be substantially lower than he forecast.
Upstream capital spending edged lower last year, falling to $147.4bn as companies reacted to the surprise fall in the oil price, the first dip in upstream investments in at least nine years.
The small grey-bricked building in lower Manhattan looks like just another public (state) high school, but behind its light blue doors a new approach to education is being pioneered.
Lower these carefully into a pan of simmering water and poach for 4 minutes.
Platinum refiner Johnson Matthey dropped 102p to £23.06 as third quarter profits fell 19% to £84.3m, hit by lower sales of catalytic converters for car exhaust systems in Europe and weak demand in Japan.
