Monday, March 31, 2014

We need less fancy financial footwork, not more

Attention conspiracy theorists: see if you can detect a pattern in this. Tony Abbott wants to review the renewable energy target, so he appoints self-professed climate change "sceptic" Dick Warburton, who feels qualified to explain to the scientists where they're going wrong. Abbott wants to review the financial system, so he appoints a former boss of a big four bank, David Murray, who feels qualified to explain to economists...
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Saturday, March 29, 2014

Your guide to business entitlement

With the Abbott government's close relations with big business, we're still to see whether its reign will be one of greater or less rent-seeking by particular industries. So far we have evidence going both ways. We've seen knockbacks for the car makers, fruit canners and Qantas, but wins for farmers opposing the foreign takeover of GrainCorp and seeking more drought assistance, as well as a stay on the big banks' attempt...
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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

How we can do better on Aboriginal imprisonment

You don't need me to tell you that in a country such as America, with all its history of racial conflict, the rate of imprisonment for African-Americans is far higher than the rate for whites. Twelve times higher, in fact. But you may need me to tell you we make the Yanks look good. Our rate of indigenous imprisonment is 18 times that for the rest of us. Aborigines make up 2.5 per cent of the Australian adult population,...
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Monday, March 24, 2014

Abbott's red tape play-acting hides rent-seeking

The world of politicians gets deeper and deeper into spin, and so far no production of the Abbott government rates higher on the spin cycle than last week's Repeal Day. Hands up if you believe in red tape? No, I thought not. So how about we package up a huge pile of window dressing with some worthwhile but minor measures, slip in a few favours for our big business supporters and generous donors, and call it the most vigorous...
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Saturday, March 22, 2014

We own as much of their farm as they own of ours

Did you know that, at the end of last year, the value of Australians' equity investments abroad exceeded the value of foreigners' equity investments in Australia by more than $23 billion? It's the first time we've owned more of their businesses, shares and real estate ($891 billion worth) than they've owned of ours ($868 billion). These days in economics there's an easy way to an exclusive: write about something no one...
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Wednesday, March 19, 2014

More to infrastructure problem than spending money

We get bombarded with economic and political news. Some of it is worth knowing, some isn't. Some gets much attention, some gets little. Sometimes we give too much attention to things that aren't worth knowing and too little attention to things that are. The Productivity Commission's draft report on public infrastructure is one of the latter. Ostensibly, it's a report advising Tony Abbott on how to achieve his dream of becoming...
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Monday, March 17, 2014

Ending the mining tax will hurt jobs

Don't be misled by last week's better-than-expected figures for employment in February. If you peer through the statistical haze you see the problem is the reverse: employment is weaker than you'd expect. Follow that through and it takes you to - of all things - the mining tax. The job figures were better than expected for two quite silly reasons. First, because economists are hopeless at predicting month-to-month changes...
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Saturday, March 15, 2014

Many economists don't get the labour market

The world is full of economists who, though they know little of the specifics of labour economics, confidently propose policies for managing the labour market based on their general knowledge of the neo-classical model. All markets are much the same, aren't they? I fear this is the best we'll get from the Productivity Commission's inquiry into regulation of the labour market. So a test of the commission's report will be...
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Friday, March 14, 2014

A REVIEW OF CURRENT AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC POLICY

The main reason for reviewing the present state of economic policy is, of course, the election of the Abbott government in September 2013. Often a new government will introduce a new approach to economic policy, with the rationale for the changes spelt out in the first set of budget papers following the election. But the explanatory material in this year’s budget papers was little different from previous years. From this I deduce...
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Thursday, March 13, 2014

I’M OK - REFLECTIONS OF AN OFFICERS’ KID

Talk to Salvation Army Eastern Territory Historical Society, Bexley North, Thursday, March 13, 2014I suppose before I head off down memory lane I should start by giving my testimony - testifying to my present state of grace (or lack of it). I’m no longer a practicing Salvationist, in fact I have to confess to being a backslider. I’d be lucky to get to one meeting a year, though I did go to the Commissioning a few Sunday mornings...
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