Australian Society and Politics
You can’t think (or write, or speak) about an economy without also having a sense of the broader social and economic framework in which it operates. I try very hard to avoid partisan political commentary, but I do sometimes feel moved to write or talk about social or political developments.
The real meaning of last November’s US elections is becoming clearer – the American people voted for this
Australian Society and Politics, News, Security, The Australian Economy, The Global Economy | 9th March 2025An article originally published on Pearls and Irritations (a blog curated by John Menadue), and by The New Daily on 9th February 2025 I am not suffering from what some of President Donald Trump’s more fervent supporters — both in the US and in Australia — like to call “Trump derangement syndrome”. That is, I’m not disputing that […]
Werribee voters send messages to both major Victorian political parties
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, News | 9th March 2025My op-ed in The Australian Financial Review of 9th February 2025 about the meaning of the by-elections held in the Victorian state seats of Werribee and Prahran the precdeding day – in particular, about the Victorian economy and the parlous state of Victoria’s public finances. Federal election 2025: Liberal Party is yet to heed the message […]
Victoria’s economy and public finances
Australian Society and Politics, The Australian Economy | 5th March 2025Victoria’s economy has begun to under-perform that of the rest of Australia, even though its population growth rate (which has under-pinned an above average ‘headline’ economic growth rate for most of the past two decades) is still above that of the rest of Australia. But measured in terms of either per capita gross product, or […]
China Live-fire in the Tasman Sea
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Video, Tasmania | 2nd March 2025Saul Eslake talks with the newest member of the InEconomics team, Rear Admiral Rowan Moffatt AO, RAN (retd) about what the flotilla from the Chinese PLA-Navy was doing in the Tasman Sea and other waters off the Australian coast last week, what China might be seeking to achieve by that, and what the implications for Australia might be.
Widening the Gap – An Intergenerational Lens on Wealth Inequality in Australia
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, Housing, The Australian Economy | 12th December 2024Wealth is inevitably more unequally distributed than income. And inequality in the distribution of wealth has increased more than inequality in the distribution of income in Australia (as in many other countries) over the past two decades or so. But what’s particularly striking, at least in Australia, is how inequality in the distribution of wealth […]
Elections and economies – the US and Australia
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, The Australian Economy, The Global Economy | 23rd November 2024Donald Trump’s clear (although not overhelming) victory in November’s US Presidential election, combined with the Republicans’ capture of both Houses of the US Congress, puts him in a strong position to implement his agenda. The combination of swingeing increases in tariffs, the deportation of between 1.3 and 8 million migrant workers, a futher increase in […]
“Hiding in Plain Sight” – $180 billion of spending over four years.
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, The Australian Economy, Topics | 11th November 2024The Australian Financial Review‘s Economics correspondent Michael Read has an article about the increasing propensity of Federal Governments of both political persuasions to obscure on-going spending in a category officially termed ‘investments in financial assets for policy purposes’, which in the Federal Budget Papers is the difference between the ‘headline’ budget balance – which despite […]
Will Anthony Albanese succeed where Bill Shorten failed in making changes to the taxation treatment of property investment?
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, Housing, Taxation | 26th September 2024Article published by Pearls and Irritations on 26th September 2024, revisiting the arguments for winding backk ‘negative gearing’ and the capital gains tax discount, in the light of press reports suggesting that the Albanese Governmnt has asked Treasury to consider options for reform.