An income-contingent loan system like HECS helps the market weave its magic, ensuring the price mechanism works even better. It’s time to stop apologising for it, argues Richard Holden.
The Commonwealth can act alone to change the rate or scope of the GST, but it would be a brave government that did so in face of the inevitable community backlash, writes Dale Boccabella.
Advocates for unlimited debt – public or private – have failed to make their case, or even shown how it is possible without a breakdown of society, writes Peter Swan.
The Australian dollar is the fifth most traded currency in the world and its value gyrates wildly. Richard Holden gazes into his crystal ball to predict what 2015 has in store for the Aussie.
In Australia, we have supply of impact investment funds and demand from social enterprises, but we do not have the social and market infrastructure to connect the two, write Markus A Höllerer and Danielle Logue.
As the terms-of-trade boom unwinds, Australia needs an enterprise-friendly push for productivity growth and competitiveness. But the fundamental lessons of the past appear to have been forgotten, writes Wolfgang Kasper.
A lower Aussie dollar is good news for exporters. But it’s bad news for home owners, and consumers and business that source inputs from abroad, writes Richard Holden.
David Murray’s Financial System Inquiry may call for the removal of superannuation tax breaks but the government’s tax discussion paper, due to be released next week, is unlikely to do the same, writes Gordon Mackenzie.
Why does the Financial System Inquiry report focus so much on the property boom rather than setting up ideas on how to get more competition in the sector, asks Michael Peters.
