Australia would be among the countries that would suffer most from what Trump is proposing, after the US and China.
- Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
My calculations suggest that if homeownership bounced back to 70% – where it was before a key tax change – an extra 430,000 homes would now be owned by the people living in them.
Figures out on Wednesday are likely to show inflation extraordinarily low. They will add to the pressure on the governor to cut.
What the Greens are proposing is really a two-tier company tax system, of the kind that once interested the Business Council of Australia and the Rudd Labor government.
The head of the US Federal Reserve has declared interest rates are headed down there. Australia should fall into line soon after – most likely on Melbourne Cup Day in November.
None of the 49 leading economists polled in the latest Economic Society of Australia survey said they believed the market was delivering good outcomes.
Twenty years ago, an average Australian woman working full time earned 85% of an average man. Last year, it was still only 87%. More is being done about the gender pay gap – but is it enough?
Individual Australians are in a recession, with per-person income slipping since mid-2022. Interest rates are falling overseas. So forget rate hikes: the RBA’s next move is likely to be down.
The Reserve Bank will decide whether to hike or hold rates next Tuesday. The
bank’s new deputy governor has offered us some clues to which way they might go.
Even though social media is free to use, research found many US university students would pay to quit it – especially TikTok – if they could beat their fear of missing out.
Energy experts – and even Greenpeace – underestimated solar power’s rapid global growth. As this chart shows, solar’s now set to become the world’s biggest power source within the next decade.
The Conversation’s expert panel expects the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates two to three times over the next 18 months, with the first cut likely in March.
Interest rates and inflation are lower than expected this time last year. The next set of predictions is likely to be brighter still.
Despite appearances, Australia’s pharmacies don’t much compete with each other. Many are commonly owned, especially those near each other. They are ripe for an ‘Uber’ moment.
Human beings are so keen put off things off (as the Coalition wants to with our 2030 emissions target), economists have come up with a name for it – hyperbolic discounting.
Increases in award wages do very little to boost Australia’s total wage bill, and even less to boost inflation.
The tax cut will be worth $52.60 per fortnight for an Australian on the median wage. Next Monday’s pay rise might be worth another $65.50.
Only one-third of the top economists surveyed give Jim Chalmers’ third budget an A or a B, down from two-thirds in 2023. Many say it left big issues unaddressed.
The opposition leader wants to restrict foreign investors to new properties. In 2016 and 2019 Labor wanted to restrict negative gearing to new properties.
Australia’s economy is already alarmingly weak. A big cut in government spending in next week’s budget could push us from a per capita recession into an actual recession.
The UK is about to force banks to reimburse payments made “because of deception by fraudsters”. Australia’s government isn’t keen.
The thing to look for is the “fiscal strategy”. For the past quarter-century, it’s provided a surprisingly accurate insight into what each budget is doing.
A few simple changes to Australia’s system of student loans would smooth increases in the amounts owing and make it easier to get home loans.
28 of the 38 top economists surveyed by the Economic Survey of Australia want the GST top-up for one of Australia’s richest states scrapped.
Former treasury boss Ken Henry has fessed up to helping dumb down debates about tax and budgets to lists of winners and losers. He says what matters is what wins rather than who.
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