I recorded a podcast with Georgina Downer, the CEO of the Robert Menzies Institute – a prime ministerial library and museum established to honour Australia’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, and affiliated with the University of Melbourne – about Australia’s ‘housing crisis’, and about how far Australian housing policy has moved away from the […]

China has been running a ‘crawling peg’ exchange rate regime, similar to the one Australia had between January 1976 and December 1983, since 2015. Strictly speaking, a quasi-fixed FX regime like this requires some kind of relationship between a country’s domestic money supply and its FX reserves – although that isn’t really ‘binding’ if the […]

This week’s Saturday Paper‘s “&am” podcast looks at the causes and consequences of the massive increase in Australian residential property prices, relative to incomes, and the resulting decline in home ownership rates, especially among younger and middle-aged Australians, over the past six decades. It includes some extended grabs from me. It’s available here: https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/podcast/the-great-housing-disaster-whos-blame (the […]

Is #China heading for some kind of financial or #currency crisis? In the short term, no. But over the medium- to longer-term, the possibility of a sharp fall in the value of the #renminbi against other currencies, accompanied by large falls in the values of other Chinese assets, can’t be ruled out. China hasn’t been […]

Op-ed in the Hobart Mercury newspaper, 27th March 2024 The Liberals were the biggest losers in Saturday’s election, as indicated by the 12 percentage point swing against them. But they still emerged with the largest number of seats, and provided they can persuade the two left-leaning independents and the Jacqui Lambie Network’s members (whoever they […]

Some initial reflections on the Tasmanian election results (based on figures posted on the Tasmanian Electoral Commission website as of 9am Sunday morning, 24th March). First, the Liberals were the biggest losers at the election. Their share of the primary vote fell by 12.0 pc pts, the second-largest swing against them ever recorded (exceeded only […]

Saul Eslake talks to ABC Radio Hobart’s “Mornings” presenter Leon Compton about the condition of Tasmania’s budget and public finances, and what the impact of the spending promises made by the contenders in the 23 March election might mean for those.