One of Julia Gillard's proudest claims is that the federal tax burden is much lower under Labor than it was when John Howard and Peter Costello were in charge. It's true. But it's not anything to boast about - the tax base has sprung a leak. Several leaks.
In the mid-noughties, federal tax receipts hit a record 24.2 per cent of gross domestic product. This year they're expected to equal only 22.1 per cent, despite the introduction...
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
THE EVER-EVOLVING POLICY MIX: Keeping up with changing fashions in macro management
Talk to VCTA Teachers Day, Melbourne, Friday, August 24, 2012
One of my self-appointed roles is to help economics teachers keep up to date with changing economic policy and economic thinking. Today I want to give you an update on the policy mix, but I’m going to put it in historical context and so it will also involve a bit of a refresher course. The macro managers change the policy mix in response to the economy’s ever-changing...
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Big Tobacco as caring corporate citizen
Surely we're being far too tough on Big Tobacco, as so many disparagingly refer to it, after the failure of its High Court challenge to the plain packaging legislation. If we'd only open our minds to what British American Tobacco and the others are saying, we'd see how remarkably public spirited they are.
They're worried not for themselves but about the "serious unintended consequences" they fear plain packaging will bring....
Monday, August 20, 2012
IS THE HIGH AUSSIE DOLLAR REALLY BAD FOR THE AUSTRALIAN AND VICTORIAN ECONOMIES?
Economic Society Forum, Melbourne, Monday, August 20, 2012
Rather than plunging into a debate about whether policy makers should seek to influence our exchange rate and, if so, how they should go about it, I want to start by examining the reasons for people’s great concern about its present level. The high dollar is disadvantaging all our tradeables industries, but for the miners (and, to a lesser extent, the farmers) that’s...
Treasury thinks the unthinkable: tax rises
Note well: the secretary to Treasury, Dr Martin Parkinson, has provided voters with the only no-bulldust budgetary advice they're likely to get between now and the federal election. Everything they get from the politicians - on both sides - will be straight from vote-chasers' fantasy land.
Even much of the media believe their interests lie in feeding their customers more of the self-delusion they prefer to hear rather than reminding...
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Rise of multinationals threatens our tax collections
As the world's centre of economic gravity shifts towards Asia, the process of globalisation - the breaking down of barriers between countries - is speeding up. This means there's no shortage of challenges looming for our political leaders.
They'll pop up in many areas, but in a speech earlier this month the boss of Treasury's revenue group, Rob Heferen, outlined those affecting taxation. He says our present tax system, which...
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Self-funded retirees are kidding themselves - and us
One thing that gets me going is comfortably-off people who feel sorry for themselves: those who complain how hard it is to get by on $150,000 a year, or retired people who profess to be "self-funded".
Someone once asked me why I was so disparaging of self-funded retirees when, from what they could see, I was going to end up as one myself. It's true. Or, rather, it's true my superannuation is too generous for me to get even a...
Monday, August 13, 2012
Union lion bearded in its den
Fair Work Australia's monumental rebuff to the Transport Workers Union in its dispute with Qantas strikes a blow to the credibility of claims the Fair Work Act is some kind of conspiracy against employers.
The commission (which is what Fair Work Australia is in all but name) had no choice last week but to support Qantas management because, in both its tactics and its demands, the union was being so bloody-minded.
That's true...
Saturday, August 11, 2012
The tricky truth about the jobs figures
If you want to know what's happening to employment, there's the hard way and the easy way to find out. But, in any case, can you believe the official figures?
Economists, the markets and the media prefer to do it the hard way, using the "thrills and spills" method. The "seasonally adjusted" figures we got from the Bureau of Statistics this week showed total employment across Australia rose 14,000 last month.
But the previous...
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
IS A ‘STEADY-STATE’ ECONOMY FEASIBLE?
Walter Westman Lecture on Science, Humanity and the Environment International House, University of Sydney, Wednesday, August 8, 2012
I was pleased to attend the first of these Walter Westman lectures, in 2008, given by my friend Steve Hatfield-Dodds, and I’m honoured to deliver this year’s lecture. I want to talk about economic growth - a topic of concern to many people who think deeply about science, humanity and the environment...
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