Australia's central bank paused its rate-hiking campaign this week, holding the cash rate at 4.35% as policymakers weighed the competing pressures of inflation still above target and a housing market cooling more swiftly than anticipated. The Reserve Bank finds itself at a familiar crossroads in the long arc of monetary policy: having acted, it must now reckon with consequences that outpaced its own forecasts. In Sydney and Melbourne, falling home prices and a 20% drop in lending since May signal that the cumulative weight of earlier decisions is already reshaping lives and balance sheets. The