Macro Economics Articles 2018-2021

Keynesian policy lever pullers at the RBA and Treasury, as well as the Opposition, have been urging the government to inflate the economy. Some are calling for deficit spending, others are urging tbhe authorities to force interest rates even lower than the current barely positive levels.  Even if ignorant of the imp

One disturbing factor regarding the Australian economy is its sluggish growth.  Per capita growth was negative in 2018/9 and has not had a sustained run above 2 per cent since the pre-2007 Howard/Costello years.  The key drivers of growth are capital investment (with its associated technological gains) and

Nick Cater in The Australian rightly lampoons a Harvard study that, by placing its focus on manufacturing, manages to rank Australia ninety-third in the world economic complexity league table. By contrast, another study, Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report, puts Australians second in the world in terms of​

The Australian economy has been flagging for many years now.  Over the past year we actually saw a decline in GDP per capita and per hour worked.There are many reasons for this but all come back to government intervention – excess spending on unproductive welfare measures, over-taxation of business inc

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The Australian economy has been flagging for many years now.  Over the past year we actually saw a decline in GDP per capita and per hour worked.There are many reasons for this but all come back to government intervention – excess spending on unproductive welfare measures, over-taxation of business inc

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The Australian economy has been flagging for many years now.  Over the past year we actually saw a decline in GDP per capita and per hour worked.There are many reasons for this but all come back to government intervention – excess spending on unproductive welfare measures, over-taxation of business inc

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The Productivity Commission’s latest bulletin shows labour productivity annual growth has fallen over recent years, from an average of around 2.5 per cent since 1975/6 down to a negligible increase in 2017/8. Capital growth was also lower and the contribution to output from capital deepening was actually nega

The different rates of change in world income levels have provided Australia with a magnificent base on which to build our own prosperity. But, though our standard of living is testament to some success, political measures have blunted the potential level of achievement.

Relative to GDP Australian government spending to address COVID-19 has been among the highest in the world. The Morrison government seems pleased to have been a world leader in mortgaging the future to combat the crisis. Its package, totalling $320 billion, comprises five elements: • The PM’s initially anno

Writing in The Australian, Janet Albrechtsen has pointed out that the statistical value of life used in regulatory assessment is $4.9 million for someone expected to live another 40 years — $213,000 per year Such measures are income-dependent; in the US the value was put at $9 million and a 2012 study for 

 I have a piece in Quadrant where I estimate the person-years lives saved in Australia at 80,000. Each person-year is worth, on the government’s data, $219,000, hence saving is quantified at $17 billion. The cost in outlays and lost production I estimate at $235 billion, fourteen fold the benefits in lives saved. If

The $320 billion in costs the Australian government has incurred to sustain and stimulate the economy in light of the COVID-19 crisis is money spent for consumption without it attracting any corresponding production. It is a permanent loss that can only be retrieved by increased production. Two areas where r

When the Prime Minister and Treasurer appointed Stephen Kennedy as the Treasury Secretary, they opted for a bureaucrat who had been the architect of Turnbull’s potentially disastrous carbon tax. They would also have known him to have been a senior adviser on Kevin Rudd

It started with Mirko Bagaric in The Australian — “Release super to boost economy” — who, while justifiably railing against the superannuation funds’ fees, argued that allowing people to access 10 per cent of their super could inject up to $300 million into the economy. Mirko has separately suggested that the ac

In normal times we have a healthy disdain for the insights and capabilities of our political leaders. In Australia, the commentariat has just emerged from agendas that blamed them for not acting fast enough to combat the bushfire crisis — even having contributed to it — and from looting taxpayer funds to cur

Deaths from coronavirus were up yesterday (March 16) on the previous day. Although death rates lower than one per cent are being quoted, the macro data (deaths/deaths-plus-recoveries) is 8 per cent, and 15 per cent in Australia (see the chart below). Hopefully that will improve. Otherwise, if Angela Merkel is cor

Keynesian policy lever pullers at the RBA and Treasury, as well as the Opposition, have been urging the government to inflate the economy. Some are calling for deficit spending, others are urging tbhe authorities to force interest rates even lower than the current barely positive levels. Even if ignorant of the impos

The Australian economy has been flagging for many years now.  Over the past year we actually saw a decline in GDP per capita and per hour worked.

There are many reasons for this but all come back to government intervention – excess spending on unproductive welfare measures, over-taxation of busi

Although the economic cycle points to a downturn in the US, growth and especially the stock market is surging.  A newborn confidence is evident and the tax reforms are augmenting investment and hence economic health. That growth in investment was already evident prior to the passage of the tax reforms.