Economy
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Want to solve Australia’s housing crisis? Look to Vienna
What do you think of when you think of Vienna? Probably not a model for affordable housing in Australia. Continue reading »
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‘Little Crappy Ship’: report excoriates ship building program behind USS Canberra
A new US investigative report has excoriated the controversial Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program which included the USS Canberra – commissioned in very unusual circumstances with great fanfare by the US Navy recently in Sydney. Should its revelations about the manifest failures in the USN’s procurement performance – with former officers describing the LCS class Continue reading »
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Rights are necessary but insufficient for the achievement of the full inclusion of people with disabilities
Two significant reports concerning people with disabilities are due be released. First will be the Independent Review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and second, the findings of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Underpinning both inquiries is Australia’s commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights Continue reading »
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War profiteers are a sign of a profoundly sick society
“War is good for business.” So reads a quote from an arms industry executive in a recent Reuters article titled “At London arms fair, global war fears are good for business” about Europe’s biggest arms show, the biennial Defence and Security Equipment International. You will probably be unsurprised to learn that Reuters does not name Continue reading »
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Navigating policy and power – Indonesia and Australia’s energy transition
Indonesia and Australia have more to gain from energy transition – and more to lose from inaction – than any two countries in the world. But the Indonesian government must navigate significant policy challenges to attract the capital it needs for a swift, just and orderly transition. Continue reading »
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Australia: Made for free trade and a tax on rent
There is no more important issue in Australian taxation reform than replacing current arrangements by efficient mineral rent taxation. That requires large analytic effort and effective political leadership. Success would bring high rewards to the Australian polity, and I expect electoral rewards to the Government that is seen as being responsible for a good outcome. Continue reading »
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From Biotech to AI
Can regulation of Biotechnology provide clues for the regulatory measures now required to limit risks in the use of AI? Continue reading »
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From America’s IRA to China’s eco-civilisation, a new global consensus is emerging. Globalisation and growth are out, redesigning society is in
This summer saw the hottest average global temperatures in the last 125,000 years. Europe is embroiled in war, with other conflicts raging around the world. The global economy is still reeling from the impacts of the first global pandemic since 1919. Experts are warning against the threat posed by our most advanced technological creation–artificial intelligence (AI). Continue reading »
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China, innovation, and competition with the US
The real American terror is not that the Chinese economy will grow bigger than the American economy – if it is not already – but that the Chinese mixed economy model will prove superior to the rampant free-market, greed model US billionaires and their peddlers promote. Continue reading »
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Our media won’t tell us but Huawei’s Mate60 is set to challenge iPhone
The moon waxes and wanes, the tide ebbs and flows, empires come and go but some empires come more than once. This is, once again, China’s time. While there have been moves to prevent this from occurring, one recent event proves they are unsuccessful. Continue reading »
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Wilful ignorance drives civilisation collapse
In May 1971, I published a full-page letter in The Australian addressed ‘To Those Who Shape Australia’s Destiny’. It was signed by 730 Australian scientists including Sir Mark Oliphant and Sir Macfarlane Burnett. Continue reading »
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Business should serve, not enslave
It is time for government to get the suits back under control and manage the economy for the benefit of us all. Continue reading »
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Government’s abject failure to understand the gas industry’s huge health impacts
Current articles on the government’s climate policies increasingly use words such as reckless, hypocrisy and betrayal referring to approval of coal mines. But it is even more difficult to find words to describe the gas industry’s infliction of pain on humanity by the approval of gas mines. Continue reading »
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Biden: Chinese among “bad folks” who do “bad things”
At a political fundraiser in Utah on 10 August, U.S. President Joe Biden described China’s economy as a “ticking time bomb”, adding that “That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things”. It’s not only an unusually undiplomatic comment, but an unfair one that borders on the ridiculous. Continue reading »
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The Circuit Game: Oligopolies are distorting the economy
In orthodox theory, oligopolies are big, lean and efficient. Their size and efficiency should produce price cuts. Instead, in the real world, oligopolies undermine economic democracy. They price gouge. They outflank regulatory laws while regulatory cops sit on their hands. Can Andrew Leigh and Jim Chalmers limit the damage economic concentration imposes? Continue reading »
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Australia only has itself to blame for trade woes with China after siding with the US
Australia has no business playing the victim when the lines between strategy and economic interests have become increasingly blurred. Continue reading »
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Will ‘Closing the Loopholes’ protect ‘gig economy’ workers?
One of the most important aspects of the government’s Fair Work Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill is the detailed provisions covering gig workers. Those provisions account for 100 pages of the 284-page bill. Continue reading »
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Think Tanks are information laundering ops for war profiteers
The British billionaire-owned newspaper The Telegraph has an appalling new article out which reads like a paid advertisement for a missile manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The title even sounds like it was written by a marketing team: “A war-winning swarm missile will knock China out of Taiwan — fast”, subtitled “Rapid Dragon is a military gamechanger that Continue reading »
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Power meltdown: putting Australia’s energy transition back on track
We know Australia’s got a problem when a cautious, technical, energy market operator says: “Imminent and urgent investment is needed, or the reliability of the NEM [National Electricity Market] will be at risk.” More broadly, Australia’s energy transition is at risk. But the federal government has the challenge and the opportunity to get things back Continue reading »
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Health ministers maybe in office but seldom in power
The major barrier to health reform is the power of providers or at least their assumed power. Continue reading »
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Expanded Brics will continue to chip away at US dollar’s dominance
How the US has used its dollar privilege for its own interests, without regard to the damage it causes others, has not gone down well with developing countries. The BRICS’ formation and expansion must be seen for what it is: a rallying cry for a fairer world order. Continue reading »
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China’s artificial intelligence is a great leap forward: Australia’s opportunity?
Australian entrepreneurs and investors are already looking to the new developments in our region for inspirations and opportunities. They might look no further than China. Continue reading »
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The empire means widening our circles of compassion
In trying to get people to care about warmongering and imperialism what we’re really trying to do is get people to widen their circle of compassion to the furthest extent possible. To extend their care for the people around them to include caring about violence and abuse against people even on the other side of Continue reading »
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The US economic war on China
China’s economy is slowing down. Current forecasts put China’s GDP growth in 2023 at less than 5%, below the forecasts made last year and far below the high growth rates that China enjoyed until the late 2010s. The Western press is filled with China’s supposed misdeeds: a financial crisis in the real-estate market, a general Continue reading »
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Australia’s fiscal challenge
Productivity growth will be less than projected in the Intergenerational Report, the budget deficits will be worse, and the Government should be setting the scene for raising more revenue. Continue reading »
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The climate doesn’t care who builds batteries
Like it or not, the structure of global trade in green technologies and the raw materials required for their manufacture is being decided in an era when geopolitics trump markets, and the WTO’s credibility to check the abuse of national security exceptions is near rock bottom. Continue reading »
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The NACC and the economics of corruption
When corruption really gets into the bones of a society the damage it does to institutions can take generations to heal. Continue reading »
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US urged to own up to causing Afghan misery by illegitimate war
Two years after the heart-breaking Kabul Moment that saw the withdrawal of US-led Western troops from their illegal invasion and occupation, the United States has been urged to assume liability for humanitarian sufferings of Afghanistan people. Continue reading »
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Muddled on the Middle Kingdom
Anthony Albanese needs to see for himself what the Chinese economic miracle looks like close up. Continue reading »
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Fatal mistake: Intergenerational report misleads on climate risks
The Australian Government’s public analysis of climate risk, our greatest threat, is dangerously misleading. The Intergenerational Report 2023 (IGR) is a prime example. By dumbing down the implications of climate change with simplified economic models, the IGR and similar reports are institutionalising the global failure to face climate reality. Continue reading »