Prosper Australia

30 August 2011 MELBOURNE:- Massive hikes to the Fire Services Levy are a very poor way to fund bushfire preparations, says Prosper Australia. “While this move may appear sensible, if insurance premiums in fire-prone areas rise to the $1,000 mentioned in the Herald Sun, many homeowners will see it as too expensive and skip it,” [...]

photo credit: JD Hancock You are cordially invited to a special night for everyone interested in the great Georgist themes of economic efficiency and social justice. 120TH ANNUAL COMMEMORATION DINNER Thursday 1st September 2011 6 pm Gathering time – 7 pm Dinner – 8 pm Address COMMEMORATION SPEAKER: Leo Foley, B.Ec Taking it to the [...]

Dr Gavin Putland of the Land Values Research Group drives a stake through a vampire heart in the Letters page of today’s Australian Financial Review Joanne Seve (Letters, August 5) regurgitates the property lobby’s favourite untruth, namely that land tax is passed on to tenants. In its crudest form, this argument expects the reader to [...]

At this market climax, let me remind all of the risks of compulsive, over-optimistic ambition. In Leo Tolstoys’ tale, ‘How Much Land Does A Man Need?’ written in 1886, a wealthy peasant named Pahlom is told of the rich earth in the land of the Bashkirs beyond the Volga. They are simple folk and he [...]

26 July 2011 MELBOURNE:- “In the last three months alone, ‘Stale Stock’ in Melbourne postcodes 3000-3207 has ballooned from 19,800 to 31,600,” Prosper Australia Campaign Manager David Collyer said today. ‘Stale Stock’ is property on the market for more than sixty days and unsold. Gardens have been primped, interiors polished up, advertisements run, open for [...]

photo credit: yewenyi “The mismanagement of both the federal tax powers and Australia’s natural assets by the Gillard government is sickening,” Prosper Australia Campaign Manager David Collyer said today. “They are allowing the miners to gouge our country twice.” “Treasury modelling estimated the new mining tax negotiated by the Gillard government will bring in $100 [...]

photo credit: mugley The Baillieu government has just received a major report into Victoria’s economic efficiency that offers a clear path to redesign state taxes, advance living standards and make Victoria an absolute magnet for employment and investment. “Ted Baillieu can write history and be Victoria’s Great Architect through tax reform.” Prosper Australia Campaign Manager [...]

photo credit: George Laoutaris Will Greece Let EU Central Bankers Run Riot Over Sovereignty? Michael Hudson When Greece exchanged its drachma for the euro in 2000, most voters were all for joining the Eurozone. Their hope was that it would ensure stability, and that this would promote rising wages and living standards. Few saw that [...]

“You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.” – Warren Buffett, Chairman’s letter 2001. Negatively geared property investors are exposing themselves, the banks and every Australian citizen to capital destruction, a highly infectious disease that leaves permanent scars. Negative geared property is the glaring weakness in Australia’s deflating housing market. [...]

photo credit: Super Doily As published in yesterday’s Online Opinion As if out of thin air, a magical 46 per cent more property was offered for sale in February than a year earlier. Like the heavens opening after a long drought, desperate first home owners must have been thanking their lucky stars. Let’s repeat that. [...]