Any alternatives to a levy?
I might have preferred for the Government to take a risk with the surplus in 2012/13, and perhaps to have a go at middle-class welfare,...
Economic growth and distributive justice
I have often worried about whether promoting ‘efficiency” – in the economic sense – ensures maximum well being where it makes some people better off...
Outlook for macroeconomy
I hate to say this but all my forecasts over recent months seem to be proving right. First, we have over-done monetary policy (see my...
Rudd’s achievements
Rudd has back-flipped on a number of government policies – the ditching of the insulation rebate scheme, junking the promise to build 260 childcare centres,...
The role of government
Robert Manne’s new book (co-edited), “Goodbye to All That? The failure of neo-liberalism and the urgency of change”, is an attack on neo-liberalism. There are...
Our debt problems
It is surely elementary that the collapse of the financial system in 2008 caused a huge downturn in private debt and that public debt was...
Recent trends in labour market
In December 2009, the official ABS Labour Price Index was running at about 3% per annum. This represents a continued trend decline in private sector...