Vital signs

Vital signs. Our compulsory super system is broken. We ought to axe it, or completely reform it

18 Oct 2019

The inquiry will find we force workers to sacrifice income, pay tens of billions in super tax concessions, and still pay out one in every ten dollars of government earnings on pensions.

Vital Signs: Yes, house prices will rise with lower interest rates, but that's not the only effect

04 Oct 2019

Record low interest rates will almost certainly drive up property prices. But they will also drive down unemployment and boost investment generally.

Vital Signs: Why can't Australia be friends with both US and China?

27 Sep 2019

It will take skilled diplomacy for Australia to keep both China and the US happy, but it is important to do so.

Vital Signs: NBN's new price plans are too little, too late

20 Sep 2019

The mess made of National Broadband Network was entirely predictable. Politicians forgot three basic lessons from economics.

Vital Signs: Overinflated talk about an index-fund bubble is very passive-aggressive

13 Sep 2019

Michael Burry was right about the bubble that caused the Global Financial Crisis. He's wrong about the next bubble being passive investment.

Vital Signs: Sure, economic growth is low, but think about what's gone right

06 Sep 2019

More than good management and more than good luck, we've been blessed by delightfully fortunate timing.

Vital Signs: Business investment is flatlining, and it isn't clear what will help

30 Aug 2019

The government can help boost business investment, but it would take a boost in government investment and would keep the budget in deficit.

Vital Signs: Economically, Australia is at risk of becoming Germany, and not in a good way

23 Aug 2019

With a relatively low debt to GDP ratio, Australia was never at risk of becoming Greece. But Germany, with negative interest rates and scant prospects for economic growth, is an open question.

Vital Signs: Amid talk of recessions, our progress on wages and unemployment is almost non-existent

16 Aug 2019

The progress the Australian economy was making has been slowed or reversed, at exactly the wrong time.

Vital Signs: We need those tax cuts now, all of them. The surplus can wait

12 Jul 2019

A bold government would have delivered stages one, two and three of the tax cuts at once. Boldness is what we need.

Vital signs

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