by Dr Cameron Murray reposted from macrobusiness On Friday 28th April I am appearing and Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission’s Operation Belcarra as an expert witness on relationships between councillors and property developers, and how that leads to...
Investor interest-only loans are a key risk factor threatening to destabilize Australia’s mountain of private debt, according to investment firm Standard Life Investments, a keen observer of interest rates. IO loans are often associated with thin equity buffers, risky...
The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax has been a successful revenue-sharing device since 1987, delivering well over $33 billion to Consolidated Revenue, derived entirely from the economic rents of resource extraction with no harm to producers. It has never deterred...
by Bryan Kavanagh reposted from thedepression.org.au Mason Gaffney gives amazing chapter and verse in ‘The Corruption of Economics‘ about the people who successfully sought to conflate land and capital within the study of economics, in order to circumvent Henry...
The ninth UDIA State of the Land report on residential land development shows 57,381 new house lots were produced and 53,107 sold in 2016, up 8 per cent on 2015. Meanwhile, national land prices rose 13 per cent. The stock of land available to builders and homebuyers...
by Dr Cameron Murray reposted from macrobusiness Prosper Australia has for years been conducting research into how many of Australia’s 9.8 million homes are left vacant. Their major finding is that of the 1.7 million homes in greater Melbourne alone, around 82,000 are...
Nelson Yap at the Australian Property Journal writes: SECRET companies are allowing illicit and corrupt money to flood into Sydney and Australia’s real estate market. Transparency International’s new report Doors Wide Open: Corruption and Real Estate in Key Markets...
The Cohen family, holders of The Block Arcade in Collins Street Melbourne, must meet a massive rise in State Land Tax after the Valuer-General’s biennial land revaluation. Their 2017 tax bill is $450,000, up from $30,000 last year. According to the AFR, the Cohens...
Peter Martin, Australia’s clearest economic writer, has turned his icy gaze to Stamp Duty. This vile tax causes real harm to all of us and begs to be struck from the statute books. Yes, it is a state tax. Yes, the feds can push reform along and add $85.5 billion to...
What did Marcus Aurelius mean when he said “Poverty is the mother of crime”? Surely he wasn’t trying to justify crime? The vast majority of poor people keep on ‘the straight and narrow’ without turning to crime? No, he wasn’t justifying crime; he was simply being...