Economic Policies
The Nobel Prize winning economist James Tobin once said that the study of economics “offered the hope, as it still does, that improved understanding could better the lot of mankind”. One of the ways in which it does this is through the implementation of economic policy that helps to ameliorate boom-and-bust cycles, reduces unemployment, contains inflation or lifts people’s living standards in sustainable ways.
Video & Presentation Slides: Australia’s ‘new protectionism’ – part 3
Australia's New Protectionism, Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, The Australian Economy | 25th June 2021Australia’s ‘new protectionism’ – part 2
The cost of appeasing Western Australia
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, Tasmania | 20th June 2021For the next six years, Federal taxpayers – and after that, taxpayers in Australia’s eastern states and territories – will be paying a very high price in order to appease Western Australia’s desire to hang on to as much as they possibly can of the windfall gains it’s reaping from the huge prices being paid […]
Where does the ‘excess US stimulus’ show up – in higher inflation or a bigger current account deficit
Economic Policies, The Global Economy | 3rd June 2021A note co-authored with John Llewellyn of Llewellyn Consulting which asks where the ‘excess demand’ resulting from the extraordinary amount of policy stimulus now being applied to the US economy will show up – in inflation (which is where the financial markets and most pundits appear to be looking) or in the US balance of […]
Victorians have become poorer than residents all other states and territories except one
Economic Policies, News, The Australian Economy | 2nd June 2021Saul talks to Melbourne radion 3AW‘s Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft about how Victoria has gone from being one of Australia’s richest states to one of its poorest, by some measures, over the past 20 years.
Will the property market stay this ‘hot’?
Economic Policies, News, The Australian Economy | 2nd June 2021Saul talks to Domain’s Alice Stolz about the outlook for property prices, and housing policies
Victoria’s economic performance over the past decade
Economic Policies, News, Publications, The Australian Economy | 31st May 2021The Australian Financial Review’s newly-appointed Economics Editor John Kehoe had a front-page piece about the performance of Victoria’s economy, based in part on interviews with me, on 31st May 2021. Here is a set of charts illustrating the points I was making.
Protracted border closures are a new form of ‘protectionism’
Economic Policies, Publications, The Australian Economy | 30th May 2021Op-ed article published in The Australian Financial Review of 31st May (and available online online here) making the case that although the continued closure of Australia’s international borders is providing unheralded benefits to Australia’s economy (boosting spending and accelerating the decline in unemployment), much like the old forms of ‘protectionism’ in which we indulged for […]
Australia’s border closure is ‘increasingly looking like a form of protectionism’
Economic Policies, News | 21st May 2021Saul talks to Sky News’ Laura Jayes about the increases in payroll tax on large businesses contained in this week’s Victorian Budget, and about the economic effect of prolonged border closures.