Prosper Australia

A soundly-based Land Value Tax to reduce the taxes on labor and enterprise would restore the rewards to effort and propel the economy forward like a rocket.

photo credit: Travis S. The US housing market is a living hell.  Homeowners are being boiled alive. The price of land was bid up to staggering multiples of incomes, until it no longer made sense to buy a house. And then the trend turned, hard and fast. One in five US mortgages is ‘underwater’: the [...]

photo credit: The Library of Congress Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked. Warren Buffett In the US housing bubble, banks and financiers gave a mortgage to anyone with a discernable pulse.  NINJAs (No Income, No Job, no Assets) were welcomed – as long as they could sign their [...]

Melbourne City Council is selling lanes to developers, according to The Age today. It makes a pretty penny, too, having pocketed $1.2 million from the sale of part of three lanes in the last 12 months alone. The article sparked an intense debate on the newspaper’s blog.  Sales are energetically supported by citizens disgusted by [...]

photo credit: Lucia. . . A secret map of Melbourne’s transport plans for the next 30 years was published in The Age yesterday. Doubts were raised about its authenticity (weakly, unconvincingly) by the Victorian government. Average householders may shrug, but this is a treasure map for property pirates speculators. “Here be Gold, mateys! Arrgh!” Knowing [...]

photo credit: RR and Camera At the peak of his career Elvis Presley was so popular audiences would sit and clap at the end of the night, demanding encore after encore.  They couldn’t get enough.  The only way to end the demands and disperse the crowd was for him to leave and to announce: “Mr [...]

photo credit: itmpa Last week Treasury made public its Red Book – the economic advice it gives to the incoming government. In it, Treasury lays out a big, bold reform agenda.  On housing, the Red Book is scathing: “Access to adequate housing affects all Australians and is integral to a decent life. It is part [...]

i photo credit: Susanica The credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s overnight reaffirmed Australia’s AAA rating. Donald Horne’s 1964 label ‘The Lucky Country’ was ironic, yet fits our unique position as the western world endures its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. S&P says the risks to Australia include its dependence [...]

Prof. Ross Garnaut gave the Hamer Oration at Melbourne University on Thursday. He pointed out that Australia has not experienced a recession for 17 years, a record for The Lucky Country. Such a period of unbroken growth is not just an Australian record, it is a world record. But one-way tickets have built-in risks for [...]

photo credit: looseends   Saturday mornings at the Richmond market. I hear a fruit stall worker calling his wares: “Last of the carrots! A dollar a bunch! AND THERE’S NO MORE!” Of course, he has carrots by the boxful under the table, but his solemn warning means he sells out every day. Shameless lying by [...]