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…
Matthew Stevens, the AFR’s kindly mouthpiece for big miners, is today promoting a range of very bad ideas that suit his, ahem, audience. The article is paywalled from sheer embarrassment. He lauds the political destruction of WA Nationals’ leader Bernard…
Craig Emerson, principal architect of Australia’s Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, is out in the AFR today fighting for good taxes and sound economics. For thirty years, the PRRT had been a successful revenue-sharing device, delivering well over $33 billion to…
Well, it certainly looked like a market today: all those people assembled at the auction, wanting to see what that four bedroom, two bathroom brick veneer house with a double garage was worth. Near new; attractive and efficient layout; sitting…
The NSW government is reforming how it funds fire services, removing the charge on fire insurances and introducing a land-based levy. NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet says: “Eliminating the old (Emergency Services Levy) is expected to reduce insurance costs on residential…
Louis Christopher of SQM Research – aka Black Dragon – has seen through the maze of deceit to properly identify the national interest and yesterday published Five Solutions to Housing Unaffordability Crisis. His prescription is simple: cut immigration, grow in…
The UN Special Rapporteur’s Report into the financialisation of housing delivers a damning indictment on the worldwide commodification of housing. The report investigates the state of housing globally, the current economic policy trends to control and shape investment, and the…
The Real Excess Burden: an overarching approach By Bryan Kavanagh Disclosures I’m not a fan of economists who are able to equate the rent flowing from land with the returns to manufactured capital without experiencing a frisson of self-reproach. That…
Treasury is asking why the Petroleum Resource Rents Tax collects only a fraction of the revenues it could. Actually, they know exactly what is wrong, but need public consultation in case someone has a bright idea to fix this broken…
The West Australian state election March 11 will be quite a fight. The few opinion polls suggest a handsome victory to the McGowan ALP opposition. ReachTEL has 55-45 two party preferred and Newspoll 52-48 in favour of Labor. Minor parties…