Latest News & Commentary
How to get the states on board federal reform
By Leith van Onselen The AFR’s Alan Mitchell has written a solid piece prognosticating about the best tax reform options to reform Australia’s federation. Predictably, Mitchell mentions raising/broadening the GST in exchange for lower income taxes, which according to...
Land windfalls provide wealth illusion
As published on The Drum. Our houses can't make us all rich By Warwick Smith PHOTO: Increases in house prices are only really beneficial to those who own more than one house.(Reuters: David Gray) While a recent report might suggest Aussies are the richest people in...
Property saves the Victorian Budget
Republished with kind permission from www.macrobusiness.com.au By Leith van Onselen The Victorian Government has released its 2013-14 Annual Financial Report, which revealed a $2 billion surplus in 2013-14 – the largest Budget surplus recorded for the state in 15...
Australia’s Addiction to Private Debt
by Philip Soos and Paul D. Egan A perennial and divisive issue in politics and economics today is the matter of public debt. It is commonly asserted that rising public debt threatens the economy and needs to be reined in. Governments are often portrayed...
Sen Xenophon put on notice by affordability petition, follow up
Cross posted from the Rational Radical By Matt Ellis Last week I had the opportunity to speak to Senator Nick Xenophon about our petition against his plans to allow first home buyers to use superannuation funds for housing deposits. It seems he had at least taken some...
Think Tank Times
Think Tanks Blow Public Opinion: Prof Michael Hudson on the most influential US think tanks by Renegadeeconomists on Mixcloud Subscribe to the weekly Renegade Economists podcast Transcript Renegade Economists October 1, 2014: DOUBLETHINK TANKS, TAR SANDS, WATER &...
Infrastructure Recycling Code for Insider Pleasing
Part of our Evolving Economics Enews Series, our fortnightly'ish update on our latest news, views and events. Sign up! Steve Wall Value Capture Privatisation Agenda The Federal Government's $5billion infrastructure recycling program continues with...
New Stonnington parks to enforce land scarcity
Chris Vedelago at The Age has exposed a fascinating land-play by Stonnington Council, enforcing scarcity and lifting land prices in the most valuable residential municipality in Melbourne by adding to insatiable demand with its own house-buying to demolish and make...
East-West = Wasteful Infrastructure
Letter to the Editor The Age 03/10/2014 David Beardsell North Balwyn The 1880s in Victoria were largely driven by land speculation and the building of useless public and private infrastructure such as the Outer and Inner Circle railways, which ran from Oakleigh to...
It’s Raine-ing elderly property investors
Angus Raine of RE agents Raine & Horne burst into song about property taxes in a letter on page 55 of the Australian Financial Review today - and what a nice cartoon, Clement! Angus wants Stamp Duty tax breaks for empty nesters – people trapped in...
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