I’ve yet to see any of the perpetrators – Liberal tribal mythmakers, industry lobby groups and business’ media cheer squad – admit to their part in the humbling of that “gold standard” virus fighter, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian (a woman I quite like).All those business people feeling the pain of NSW’s protracted lockdown – which seems not to be getting anywhere, with no end in sight – have no one to blame but the short-sighted,...
Sunday, August 8, 2021
Friday, August 6, 2021
Our dealings with the world have reversed, for good or ill
One of the most remarkable developments in our economy in recent times is also the most unremarked: after endless decades of running a deficit on the current account of our balance of payments, for the past two years we’ve been running a surplus. Which looks likely to continue.Because a “deficit” sounds like it’s a bad thing, and the media know their audience finds bad news much more interesting than good news, I guess it’s not...
Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Our leaders would do better if their followers were thinking harder
Much has been said about the failures of Scott Morrison, Daniel Andrews and Gladys Berejiklian in our never-ending struggle to keep on top of the coronavirus. But just this once, let’s shift the spotlight from our fallible leaders to the performance of those they lead. I think we ourselves could be doing a better job of it.There is, after all, much truth in the saying that we get the politicians we deserve. When we think we’re...
Monday, August 2, 2021
Privatisation has done too much to perpetuate monopolies
It always disturbs me to see how few of our econocrats and economic rationalists – “neo-liberals” to their lefty critics – are willing to acknowledge the many cases where, what looked like perfectly sensible micro-economic reform on the drawing board, turned into a disastrous rort in the hands of the politicians.But that’s not true of one of the great survivors from the reform era. Rod Sims, now chair of the Australian Competition...
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Don’t be surprised if the economy surprises on the downside
The economy has been on a roller-coaster since the virus arrived early last year, dipping one minute, soaring the next. Now, with the Delta variant putting Sydney and Melbourne back in lockdown, we’re in the middle of another dip. But as you hang on, remember this: what goes down must come up.When governments order many businesses to close their doors, and us to leave our homes as little as possible, it’s hardly surprising that...
Monday, July 26, 2021
The real reason we’ve hit policy gridlock: fear of public opinion
You don’t have to agree we owe big business a living to know that our public policies are far from perfect and that every government’s job is to beaver away at improving them. Nor to know recent governments have tired of doing that. We each have our theories on why this has happened, but now someone sensible has analysed the reasons policy reform has ground to a halt.John Daley, the man who spent the past decade building our...
Friday, July 23, 2021
Reduced competition between businesses is harming productivity
In the search for explanations of the slowdown in productivity improvement, the world’s economists are closing in on one of the significant causes: reduced competition between the businesses in an industry, giving them increased “market power” – ability to raise the prices they charge.Research by various Treasury economists has found evidence of this happening in Australia. And this month US President Joe Biden acted to increase...
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Getting to net-zero emissions an easier ride than some want to think
I have a mate who – in normal times, anyway – gives me a lift to the gym in his new all-electric Mercedes. He loves its lack of engine noise and amazingly fast acceleration when the lights change (not that I’m implying he’s a rev-head hoon the police should be watching). I’m no car lover, but it’s certainly a smooth, quiet ride.Most of us accept that, as part of the world’s move to net-zero emissions by 2050, we’ll all be moving...
Monday, July 19, 2021
Reality is catching up with our freeloading, populist climate deniers
Don’t be taken in by the Morrison government’s outraged cries of “protectionism” against the EU plan to impose a carbon tariff on our exports to Europe. It’s we who are in the wrong, failing to do what we should have to reduce emissions, in favour of politicking and populism.What we’re seeing is just the reality of the world’s need to act to limit climate change catching up with a government and federal party which, since Tony...
Friday, July 16, 2021
Reform not a dirty word when it benefits the many, not the few
The idea that the economy needs to be “reformed” has been hijacked by the business lobby groups. Their notion of reform involves making life better for their clients at the expense of someone else. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that could be changed to make the economy work better for most of us, not just the rich and powerful.Trouble is, Scott Morrison shows little interest in any kind of reform, whether to advance...
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
The economy’s job is to serve our good health
What a tough, tricky world we live in. There we were, starting to think the pandemic – for us, at least – was pretty much over bar the jabbing, when along came a new and more contagious variant and knocked our confident complacency for six. It’s now clearer that getting free of the virus will be messier, more expensive and take longer than we’d hoped.It’s natural to be impatient to see the end of this terrible episode in the...
Monday, July 12, 2021
Don't believe the boys who cry 'interest rates to rise'
Heard the talk that a rise in interest rates is getting closer? So’s Christmas. Here’s my advice: the greatest likelihood is that a rise is still years away. But between now and then you’ll keep hearing stories that it’s on the way. Ignore them.Why? Because though nature abhors a vacuum, it doesn’t do so as much as the financial markets and the financial media do. They form an unholy alliance because both make their living speculating...
Friday, July 9, 2021
Little sign Morrison is serious about improving productivity
Improving the economy’s productivity is so central to lifting our material standard of living that politicians and big business people talk about it unceasingly. But the funny thing is, most of what they say makes little sense.But first, let’s be sure we know what “productivity” means. It may be that politicians and business people get away with talking so much nonsense on the subject because so many of us aren’t sure.A lot of...
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
The real reason the budget may stay in deficit for the next 40 years
If you follow a rule that when a politician cries “look over there!” you make sure you stay looking over here, there’s much to be deduced from Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s Intergenerational Report, before we put it up on the shelf with its four predecessors.That’s especially so with a federal election coming by May next year. Elections are times when politicians try to convince us they can do the arithmetically impossible: cut...
Monday, July 5, 2021
Our aspirations for a Big Australia need a big trim
Almost all the nation’s business people, economists and politicians believe too much population growth is never enough. But if there’s one thing I hope to be remembered for, it’s that I always subjected this case of group think to critical examination.I remain to be convinced that a Big Australia would be better either for our material living standards or for our efforts to limit the damage our economic activity is doing to our...
Friday, July 2, 2021
Business lobbies use the productivity slump for rent-seeking
It’s encouraging to see the scepticism with which this week’s intergenerational report from Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has been greeted. Any attempt to peer 40 years into the economy’s future will prove close to the mark only by happy accident.But it’s discouraging to see the way the usual suspects have seized on the report’s most glaring weakness to do no more than push their vested interests in the name of “reform”.This fifth...
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Sorry, I'm too old to believe an ageing population is a terrible thing
If ever there was an exercise that, since its inception, has overpromised and under-delivered, it’s the alleged Intergenerational Report. A report on relations between the generations, on the legacy the present generation is leaving for the coming generation?No, not really. If it was, it would be mainly about the need for us and the other rich countries to be acting a lot more seriously and urgently to limit climate change. The...
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