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Apr
15
How can we afford not to?

How can we afford not to?

Australia should resist Albo's "Future Made in Australia", which will make all but a few well-connected businesses and workers worse off. Instead, we should focus on boosting industry productivity through reforms such as eliminating trade barriers and zoning restrictions.
12 min read
Apr
12
Friday Fodder (14/24)

Friday Fodder (14/24)

How are interest rates affecting Australia; merger reform and misunderstanding competition; India's Modi and policy uncertainty; and does Australia need parliamentary reform?
8 min read
Apr
10
Can Xi Jinping rescue China's economy?

Can Xi Jinping rescue China's economy?

China's economy faces structural issues that Xi's policies can't fix. His "new quality productive forces" strategy will distort the economy and fail to make China rich. To stay ahead, Australia should embrace China's subsidised exports to benefit consumers while ensuring economic flexibility.
12 min read
Apr
08
Why Australia should stop digging into industrial policy

Why Australia should stop digging into industrial policy

The Albanese government's "new approach" to industrial policy is simply mid-20th century interventionism with a lick of green paint. It is wasting money on uncompetitive industries and creating a reliance on subsidies that are politically difficult to remove, burdening consumers and taxpayers.
10 min read
Apr
05
Friday Fodder (13/24)

Friday Fodder (13/24)

Inflation should be the highest policy priority; Bayesian reasoning and the Wuhan lab leak; the urgent need for economic reform; how to reduce debt, Jamaica style; and even when wrong, models can be useful.
7 min read
Apr
04
A sticky, stagflationary mess

A sticky, stagflationary mess

Australia risks "sticky" inflation if real wages start to outpace productivity, requiring higher rates longer and job losses as businesses start to adjust on the employment rather than not wage margin. Continued fiscal deficits also fan future inflation risks.
10 min read
Apr
02
Brisbane should sprint from the Olympics

Brisbane should sprint from the Olympics

Brisbane should withdraw from hosting the 2032 Olympics. The cancellation costs will pale into comparison to the billions that will be wasted in cost overruns and the creation of underutilised facilities, funds which would be much better spent on other priorities.
8 min read
Mar
28
Thursday Thinkers (12/24)

Thursday Thinkers (12/24)

Javier Milei's troubles in Argentina; the death of the Scottish Enlightenment; how to regulate AI; Bowen's emission's backdown; the limits of industrial policy; how not to fix housing; and how happy are we, really?
12 min read
Mar
25
It's time for fiscal rules

It's time for fiscal rules

Oh boy. Another year, another GST carve-up that led to a flurry of complaints from the states that 'lost
9 min read
Mar
22
Friday Fodder (10/24)

Friday Fodder (10/24)

Tasmanians will go to the polls tomorrow but it's looking like it'll be more of the same; I ask whether you should you fly on a Boeing; why Xi Jinping's leadership meant Evergrande was inevitable; and what's going on across the ditch.
6 min read