It’s now official, since the budget, economic confidence has plummeted. But who is to blame – government or opposition? For a couple of weeks there the news was unofficial – just straws in the wind. Turnover in the video store was down, but then it’s an industry in decline, so not a very good data point. […]

I’m so impressed I had to blog this. This advertisement:   appeared immediately over this post on our forum:   …Very true Yuyutsu, but also oversimplified. Take note that 30 percent of the Australian economy lurks in the dark area of the black market. …The proponents of this economy are not simply drug runners either; they […]

Well, maybe it is going a little far to describe Crikey as the “hard left”, but with Marni Cordell, ex New Matilda, as their new editor, they have to be trending that way. Certainly this headline from their email newsletter suggests they know where their audience’s heart is: “Tories dominate PM’s book awards”. The PM’s […]

It was an ABC report that alerted me to the fact that smoking rates in New York are now down around 15%, declining from 24% a few years ago. This is far lower than Australia’s which is around 18%. The ABC report suggested a number of reasons for the decline, and they are presumably the […]

Like the  last parliament this one looks as though it will be diverted to arguments about who lied, and who didn’t. But as the old joke goes: “How do you know when a politician is lying?” “Their lips are moving.” Unduly cynical, but the fact that it is an old joke shows politicians lying is […]

Means testing Disability Care won’t save any money this budget, but it will in future budgets. And because of the improvident promises that Labor and Liberal made in the election campaign, future budgets are going to be just as difficult to manage as this one, if not more so. Effectively the public at the last election agreed […]

Thomas Piketty and Capital in the 21st Century is just le dernier in what is likely to be a long list of writers telling us we have a problem with inequality in our society. And maybe they do in France but I’m pretty sure that isn’t the case in Australia. Sure, there is a disparity between what the […]

The diesel rebate is not a concession because excise on diesel is an example of an hypothecated tax. I pay full excise on the diesel in my Landcruiser because it is used on the road (almost exclusively) and fuel excise is supposed to be used to maintain the roads network. A hypothecated tax is one where […]

There’s hysteria over suggestions that the government might introduce a Medicare co-payment, and while the introduction is a worthy idea, for the life of me I don’t understand why the government might want to introduce it as a new policy because it is effectively the status quo for most Australians. Medicare works on the basis of […]

It’s one of my few appearances on The Drum, but it’s got to be some of my most prescient writing – when Julia Gillard appointed Bob Carr as foreign minister, it was hailed by most commentators as a masterstroke, but I was among the few honourable dissenters. Labor is seen as being desperately in need […]