photo credit: raminders We follow the glitter of celebrities and our football teams and let others do the dull work of government. Our dreams are about homes, cars and holidays. But sometimes an issue is so important it deserves our undivided attention, if only for a short while. The big issue is tax – [...]
photo credit: anarchosyn The Henry Tax Review’s highlighting of Land Tax as a policy direction is a welcome and encouraging development, says Prosper Australia. “This is THE tool to liberate the people of Australia from their current financial difficulties,” Prosper Australia’s Karl Fitzgerald said today. “Consider the enormous economic benefits this reform offers. “Taxing land [...]
photo credit: robertivanc The great property speculation game is over in America and Europe. The music has stopped. Forty years of steadily increasing pressure has been released. Houses are worth a fraction of what people paid in better times, while the giant mortgages they took on remain. Meanwhile, Australia parties on. We play the [...]
photo credit: midlander1231 For too long, the media eagerly reported the property spruikers’ claim ‘prices only go higher’. This ‘truth’ turned homeowners into speculators and led a whole generation of first home buyers to commit to enormous mortgages they will only pay off after thirty years of unrelenting sacrifice. This week the public story [...]
photo credit: the|G|™ Written Oct 16th Raising interest rates will do little to address underlying economic issues, says visiting US economist Professor Michael Hudson. “The market factoring in 7 interest rates rises spells danger for the Australian economic miracle” warns Professor Hudson. “Governments must use tax policy rather than monetary policy to address asset bubbles. [...]
photo credit: kodama (home) Suburbs hit with land tax increase TAXPAYERS owed more than $227 million in land tax by the end of February – a 20 per cent increase since last year, Office of State Revenue figures reveal – with a Herald investigation finding that much of the pain is being felt in the [...]
# 2 12 December 2008 Ineffective demand: a picture of a tax-induced economic depression In the 2nd of this most important series of commentaries warning of the looming depression, Bryan Kavanagh interprets one of his most important graphs. Mr Kavanagh lists the reasons why the GFC has occurred via an overview of recent tax trends. Essential [...]
Today’s Sydney Morning Herald article on Empty Dwellings in a City Desperate for Places to Live has exposed the raft of vacancies prevalent when land banking trumps housing affordability. It quotes how 122,211 sites were vacant in the 2006 census, reminding us of the findings from the I Want to Live Here report. Negative gearing [...]
The day after the 2008 Federal Budget, Gavin Putland (our Research Officer) sent three letters to newspapers. This one was sent to THE AGE, which exercised its editorial discretion not to publish: Cop-out On Inflation And Rents If a Budget is to be anti-inflationary, it must stimulate supply more than demand. Most importantly, it must [...]
By Bryan Kavanagh Treasury’s mission is “to improve the wellbeing of the Australian people by providing sound and timely advice to the Government, based on objective and thorough analysis of options, and by assisting Treasury Ministers in the administration of their responsibilities and the implementation of Government decisions.” It aims to assist: 1. A sound [...]