Economy
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How our tax system is making the rich richer. And the poor poorer
Australians frozen out of the housing market cannot expect that government is going to do anything that effectively closes the gap between current house prices and what most of the unhoused could afford as a deposit. Modern politicians of all stripes are all agreed that their political survival depends on doing the maximum to sustain Continue reading »
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Changing mindsets: From wealth creation to delivering retirement incomes
Australia’s superannuation system is based upon defined contributions, largely because that avoids the main weakness of many overseas systems based on defined benefits of rising costs for future generations. Continue reading »
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China’s falling exports to EU, US signals West’s economic decline
We have all no doubt have seen the bad news that China’s exports to the EU have reduced, China’s exports to the US are declining rapidly and, as a result of it, we’re being told by Western media that China is on the verge of collapse. Continue reading »
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ASEAN carpet baggers
Without a hint of embarrassment, Australian Treasurer Chalmers declared that ASEAN was ripe for the plucking by Australian business turbocharged by a AUD$2 billion fund. Continue reading »
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Hong Kong is losing competitiveness to cities on the mainland
The danger Hong Kong faces is not that it might become ‘just another mainland city’, but that it is already subpar to many of its urban cousins across the border. Continue reading »
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Questioning one’s views as circumstances evolve can be a good thing
Economics has achieved much; there are large bodies of often nonobvious theoretical understandings and of careful and sometimes compelling empirical evidence. The profession knows and understands many things. Yet today we are in some disarray. Continue reading »
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Aged Care funding taskforce fails to do its task
There is no argument that funding for aged care has to increase or that equitable funding requires that those with higher means pay more. The recommendations of the Aged Care Funding Taskforce fail to provide solutions on both counts, for older people needing care and their carers, providers, taxpayers, or government. Continue reading »
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Do China’s leaders fully grasp foreigners’ concerns about the country?
Beijing has been slow to address the visa and e-payment woes of foreign travellers, and some officials remain complacent about the exodus of foreign investment. Continue reading »
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Transforming for human survival: a challenge to ACT Legislators
It is not difficult to understand, nor to agree, with the growing numbers of thoughtful people who argue that humanity is on the brink of extinction. And that, without transformational change in the way, we think, and live, our descendants are doomed. Continue reading »
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Ukraine: the dangerous economics of the war of production
After two years of bloody trench warfare and aerial annihilation the economics of the war in the Ukraine are putting the means to end it yet further out of reach. With an avalanche of armaments being poured into the military vortex, the consequences of the unacceptably large losses of life and further massive destruction of Continue reading »
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Alice in Aukusland: America first and the stillbirth of ‘Australian’ SSNs
AUKUS has become a stillborn project. Continue reading »
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Six peculiar ‘Peak China’ myths we all should question
In recent years, there has been a notable shift among certain Western politicians, media outlets and think tanks regarding their perspective on China’s developmental trajectory. The once popular theory of an imminent collapse of China, famously asserted by Gordon G. Chang over two decades ago, has finally begun to lose traction. Continue reading »
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US can’t beat China, so it should join it in the EV revolution
Efforts to keep Chinese electric vehicles out of the US will only hurt American consumers and manufacturers in the long run. Instead, the Biden administration should embrace learning from Chinese carmakers to improve innovation and competitiveness. Continue reading »
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Why does the West abound with misreaders of China’s economy?
As 2024 marks the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, whether this mythical creature should be named “Dragon” or “Loong” in English has puzzled many and stirred heated discussions. Continue reading »
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Price-fixing to price-gouging
‘…price-protection is, and must always, remain the very first and foremost plank in any fighting platform worthy of the name, and hang the public!’ Southern Grocer, 1912. Continue reading »
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Comprehensive upgrade puts Australia in Vietnam’s top tier
The conclusion of a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” by two states leads few observers to experience frissons of excitement. However, the Partnership agreed yesterday between Anthony Albanese and Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Minh Chinh is more than an announceable wrought by officials to garner a headline or two for their principals. Continue reading »
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How did Australia get seduced by AUKUS?
AUKUS. The most disastrous defence-policy mistake in our history: In a class of its own as an exemplar of bureaucratic incompetence. Continue reading »
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Boom or bubble: March market and economic review
Last Friday the All-Ords share index finally escaped its straitjacket of see-sawing sideways within a range of roundly 6,600 to 7,900 since April 2021. The All-Ords reached 8007.1 points, beating its previous high on the 4 January 2022 (7926.8). See chart below. Technical analysts view this breakout to be a particularly good omen. Continue reading »
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Government thrashes our democracy, removes RBA safeguards
The Albanese government is about to free the Reserve Bank of Australia from a rarely used constraint allowing a Treasurer to override a decision of the central bank, such as a policy to push interest-rates so high they cause a severe recession. Continue reading »
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Hugh White dismantles the AUKUS project
As opposition to AUKUS grows, the nuclear submarine project does not stand up to expert scrutiny. Continue reading »
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America is dumbing itself down. Banning TikTok won’t halt the slide
The US has created the conditions for the decline of its own society. Continue reading »
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Submarines, stealth and STEM – stifling any AUKUS debate
The Australian government has decided to ignore critics of Aukus in parliament and the community. Rather it has moved to embed the idea of Aukus directly into the Australian psyche. Continue reading »
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Electric vehicles will crush fossil cars on price as lithium and battery prices fall
If it wasn’t already clear, the writing is now well and truly on the wall for the fossil car makers: Just a week after BYD launched its $US15,000 “Corolla killer” and with the world’s largest EV battery maker recently announcing it’s on track to cut battery costs in half this year, new research suggests the decline in Continue reading »
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The new Pericles: Marles, master of the Seas
Thucydides has Pericles, the great Athenian statesman and strategist, observe that “Mastery of the sea is no small matter”. The Defence Minister should have been mindful of Pericles’ words as he launched the Enhanced Lethality Surface Combatant Fleet (ELSCF). Or he might have recalled Pericles’ caution that “I am far more afraid of our own Continue reading »
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Australia’s India bet: Not a lay down misère yet
When do shared values become shared interests? Australia’s relations with India have accelerated exponentially. The nearly century-long pattern of discovery and rediscovery of India by the Australian polity is now history. Durable knots are being tied across the spectrum of political, economic, and social issues. Continue reading »
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One last chance for the low paid to receive tax equity
21 days after the Federal Government did an about-face on its earlier promise to maintain the previously legislated income tax regime, it has secured passage through the House of Representatives of major changes to Australia’s income tax legislation. But speed and the evident equity in the major part of those changes, principally directed at “middle Continue reading »
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A welcome new approach to economics
“The Alternative: How to build a just economy” by American author, Nick Romeo, that has been published by Basic Books UK in recent weeks, is a welcome arrival to a human world in crisis. Continue reading »
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As a new world war rages, an anxious China walks softly
A new world war is underway. For those living in developed countries, where gruesome battles remain mere headlines, it may not feel like the earth is burning, but in 2022 a total of 180 military conflicts (defined as resulting in 25 battle-deaths or more in that year) occurred worldwide. The final statistics for 2023 compiled Continue reading »
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Stop Australian charitable donations to the Settler Movement in the Occupied Territories
Despite the strong words being used by Anthony Albanese in conjunction with the Canadian and NZ governments to indicate Australia’s deep concern against a “devastating” and “catastrophic” ground offensive in Rafah in Gaza, or the ongoing proceedings in the International Court of Justice, it is high time that Australia actually went beyond words, and start Continue reading »
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The future of tax reform
There are recurrent calls for tax reform, but it is typically too difficult to achieve a consensus. However, the necessary action to reduce carbon emissions by introducing a tax on carbon emissions could result in most people being better off and thus achieve broad support. Continue reading »