If money is the life-blood of the economy interest rates are its blood pressure. And if the analogy holds, which it does this far, rates can both be too high and too low.

The risks are also similar. Too high and you risk the economic equivalent of stroke. Just right […] Continue Reading…

K Rudd’s tax raid on smokers is an interesting exercise in smash and grab economics. It affects traditional Labor voters more than anyone else, but is likely to be meekly accepted, or wildly acclaimed, by health and consumer groups across the country.

If he beats up on his own like […] Continue Reading…

The ABC has been running alarmist reports from a Nature paper that suggests methane released from the  Arctic permafrost could cause $60 trillion worth of damage to the economy.

I’m watching Emma Alberici on Lateline, and surprisingly, she’s actually putting some criticisms of the paper to one of the authors. […] Continue Reading…

When the Ruddbot was at his zenith it was a different world. Those were the days before the GFC, or in its near aftermath, when we still hadn’t realised that the party wasn’t going to go on forever.

As reported in Business Spectator, a Boston Consulting Group report finds that […] Continue Reading…

I have a confession. My car is salary packaged. And I don’t feel guilty about that.

But now I have a government telling me that this is a tax loophole that needs to be closed.

Since Paul Keating introduced fringe benefits taxes it has been perfectly legal to salary sacrifice for […] Continue Reading…

We can tell whether Labor’s change to its rules to make Kevin Rudd leader for the term of his political life is a projection of Rudd’s naked self-interest, or a genuine attempt at reform, by applying a simple test.

Rudd is only one of 8 elected parliamentary Labor leaders. So if it’s […] Continue Reading…

Kevin Rudd’s deal with PNG depends on the assumption that it will stop the flow of immigrants within a month or two. Papua has no interest in becoming “Nuginistan” to allow its former colonial master to escape it’s refugee “problem”, so there has to be a limit to how […] Continue Reading…

Another year slides by, perhaps teaching me patience. A few steps forward, along with slow progress towards distant goals. Like the landscaping. As I spend more time here, the people are what pull me. Along with the solitude are developing friendships that provide balance and a feeling of belonging. […] Continue Reading…

The gnattering (sic) Nabobs of negativity (enlisted in the cause of the politics of positivity of course) are at it again – manufacturing reasons to bash Tony Abbott. They must be desperate.

Yesterday Abbott said that an ETS “[Is] a so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no […] Continue Reading…

In my youth, I was enthusiastic about the idea of taking parliamentary leadership out the hands of parliamentarians. As president of the Young Liberals in Queensland, I proposed – unsuccessfully – to have a series of “primaries” to elect the parliamentary leader.

It was at a time when the Liberal […] Continue Reading…