It's the economy, stupid!
Displaying 11 - 20 of 21 articles
“We will be getting more expensive kids” writes Professor Davidson, and this is absolutely right. Furthermore, not just every additional child supported under the proposed new scheme will be more expensive…
Who isn’t happy to see a new-born? Well soon enough, if the polls and betting markets are to be believed, the taxpayer will wince every time a new baby comes into the world. An Abbott government will be…
Adrian Beaumont draws our attention to the betting markets and to the controversy that surrounds those markets relating to election outcomes. He suggests the betting markets follow polls and conventional…
In the early noughties former Labor leader Kim Beazley suggested that he’d like to see the unemployment rate with a ‘5’ in front of it. At the time this was considered a huge faux pas. At the time he had…
The recent announcement by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to offer lower company tax rates for northern Australia has received a range of positive and negative criticism. However, it is not a new idea. As long…
I do agree with Professor Mark Crosby and many other commentators that a fiscal “northern zone” is a bad idea. First, tropical Australia is divided across two states and a territory. Do we need to discriminate…
Proposals by the two main political parties to provide selected subsidies to particular regions and industries, unless justified to correct a market failure, are a quick way to reduce productivity and…
Kevin Rudd’s proposal for a “northern zone” with low company tax rates to attract businesses has been widely ridiculed in the media as another crazy thought bubble. I think it is a great idea. As long…
The Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO) was published this morning. Zareh Ghazarian provided a very readable account of the background to this document. But rather than being an update of the…
As expected, the debate between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition on Sunday night concentrated on the economy. I would have thought the televised discussion would help me, an Australian…