Opinion & Commentary
Opinion and Commentary contains media articles written by CIS researchers.
Categories
Why tax-free imports are a retail red herring
Retailers would be better served lobbying government for policies other than raising inefficient taxes on low value imports. Read More
Increasing the super contribution rate is a second-rate solution
It is timely to re-examine the economic case for compulsory superannuation. Read More
Better ideas than raising super guarantee
Is compulsory super improving retirement incomes and reducing future demands on the budget from an ageing population? Read More
Fairness is not equality
Income equality is not achievable, it is not desirable and it is not fair. Read More
Self-sustaining leviathan
How does Australia compare in the welfare dependency stakes? Read More
Australia’s long-term fiscal future
One of Australia’s strengths going into the global financial crisis was the condition of its public finances. We are now in danger of frittering away that strength. Read More
Why the euro project must end
The most important lesson to emerge from the crisis in the eurozone has very little to do with fiscal policy. Read More
Independent body needed to preserve integrity of fiscal forecasts
Treasury has not gone wrong in its forecast for recovery, but in its expectations for the preceding downturn. Read More
There are better ways to ensure State's future
The WA Future Fund announced in the State Budget last week is based on two related but fundamentally flawed ideas. Read More
Murray's Future Fund brace is broken
David Murray's defence of the Future Fund can only inspire doubt about the ability of sovereign wealth funds to enhance Australia's prosperity. Read More
The hypocrisy of Europe's bankers
As the eurozone crisis has now seemingly calmed down and my friend’s updates become more ecstatic by the week, I am afraid that we are edging ever closer towards his dream scenario. To most Europeans,... Read More
Work act flaw threat to growth
Job security is a major bone of contention between unions and employers under the Fair Work Act. Read More
Why a sovereign wealth fund won't work
Many of the desirable objectives of a sovereign wealth fund could be achieved through greater use of enforceable fiscal policy rules that would enable politicians to make long-term commitments to responsible... Read More
Give austerity a chance
Fiscal policy should focus on micro-economic issues such as promoting incentives to save, work and invest, as well as ensuring the long-term sustainability of public finances. Read More
Budget heat in a revenue drought
Governments in other countries are in deeper fiscal distress than ours, but governments at the federal and state levels in Australia are struggling with the consequences of a revenue drought after years... Read More
Countdown to a US debt debacle
It says something about the depths of Europe’s economic malaise that America’s economic managers are attending international meetings and lecturing others about the need to get their fiscal houses... Read More
Italy defaults on debt and sends lenders broke? So be it
The federal government will need to cut spending to ensure a surplus in 2012-13. Read More
Budget surplus fetish means more harsh spending cuts
The federal government will need to cut spending to ensure a surplus in 2012-13. Read More
Should super contributions be raised to 12 per cent?
Four experts debate the topic in The Question. Here is Adam Creighton's contribution. Some compulsory saving is sensible. People will rationally save too little when they know taxpayers will help support... Read More
Going long on European deja vu
Markets were euphoric, political leaders relieved. “Europe has taken a step forward. Europe and Greece will emerge stronger from this crisis,” Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou boasted to reporters.... Read More
Stepping stones to an EU inferno
Don’t read too much into last week’s vote in the German parliament to extend the European Financial Stability Facility bailout fund. Read More
RBA pay: why Glenn Stevens is not Elizabeth Taylor
Notwithstanding the Reserve Bank’s excellent record and deft management of Australia’s economy, especially during the GFC, its decision to jack up the pay of its most senior management by 30% during... Read More
Sighs of relief heard from the bankers' bunkers
Alas, the GFC showed that it is impossible for democratic governments to let large financial institutions fail, however much they should. It is a government's job to free taxpayers from unwittingly providing... Read More
Wet ink on a euro death notice
The euro has been a moribund currency for years. The remaining options to buy it more time have been blocked by the German constitutional court. To end this farcical tragedy someone needs to put the final... Read More
Same cracks, just a new coat of paint
Analysis of the NSW Budget Read More
Time to revisit RBA board
Union leaders would have you believe that the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia is beholden to the big end of town, but the current unnecessarily tight monetary policy indicates that this is not the... Read More
NSW budget: time to cut and shed Mick Dundee image
With a public service head count just shy of 390,000, NSW puts the Commonwealth government, with a mere 270,000 staff, to shame. Macquarie Street employs 10% of the NSW workforce. Read More
Don't get starry-eyed about housing
In textbook markets there is no need for price forecasts. Prices are determined by the interaction of supply and demand. If you fed a supercomputer with all the relevant information about buyer preferences,... Read More
Don't get starry-eyed about housing
In textbook markets there is no need for price forecasts. Prices are determined by the interaction of supply and demand. If you fed a supercomputer with all the relevant information about buyer preferences,... Read More
A miracle that masks a mirage
As it turns out, there is not much in the German manufacturing example that Australia should copy. We would be much better advised to make the best of our own comparative advantages of being a resource-rich... Read More
There's no such thing as a free healthcare system
But when it comes to health, Australians spurn pragmatism and tear up the laws of economics. We shackle ourselves with a government-funded and managed health system with all the hallmarks of the former... Read More
A poisoned chalice of EU power
Eurobonds had not even been on the agenda (officially, that is), and an EU-wide tax on financial transactions almost certainly will die aborning. In another way, however, the Merkel and Sarkozy show was... Read More
Who needs credit ratings? They should be optional
Banks and investors should thrive or die by the quality of their own assessments of credit risk. They have the most incentive to get it right, writes Adam Creighton, a research fellow at The Centre For... Read More
A euro power play that backfired
As it turns out, the euro is not only an unworkable currency. It actually started as a French insurance policy against German power. But even as an insurance policy it has failed. Against their will, it... Read More
Value cut adrift in a sea of paper money
Abolishing the gold standard was meant to free up gold but central banks still hold about one fifth of the world’s 166,000 tonnes of gold and have bought even more since the financial crisis. Private... Read More
Setting a European time bomb
The announcement by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade US government debt may have been historic but largely inconsequential Read More
US Congress swapped a crisis yesterday for a bigger crisis tomorrow
I provoked a tirade of abuse from Crikey readers in the past fortnight when I suggested it would be preferable that the $14.3 trillion United States debt ceiling not be raised. Read More
Dollars must flow if numbers to grow
Debate about Australia's population is framed with national aggregates and ignores how local governments deal with increased population. Part of the reason Australians are averse to more people is because... Read More
What our economists really think about politics
You might have expected that most economists, following Milton Friedman, view inflation as “always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” Yet only 40% of respondents agreed with the proposition that... Read More
No reason or evidence will cure US of its debt fetish
The hysteria accompanying the scramble to lift the debt ceiling in the United States is misplaced and self-serving. Read More
Think local and give country towns the freedom to prosper or perish
FOR politicians, and especially for town planners, letting people decide where and how they want to live has never been an acceptable idea. Administrative elites have always been convinced they know better... Read More
Greece bailout: prolonging pain for no real gain
Rescuing the country with another bailout would only prolong the pain. Greece squandered money on the Olympic Games, an over-sized bureaucracy and easy loans Read More
Paying dearly for European insanity
it would be tempting to seize the moment and rehash all the arguments for why the euro will never work and cannot be saved. Read More
Growing anger in local government
So how well are Australian local government leaders really equipped to deal with population growth? Read More
Local councils deserve a better financial deal
Council rates surging to pay for new residents Read More
A bad time to damage our economy as the next stage of the GFC looms
WITH the US fiscal crisis nearing a dramatic finale, downgrades of European debt ratings continuing and the euro crisis deteriorating, the global financial crisis has just moved into a new phase. Read More
Learning from Europe's competitive spirit
One of the classic questions of economic history is how the West grew rich. Read More
Tax changes are just a redistribution
The carbon pricing scheme was sold by the federal government as containing taxation reform measures, but once again we have lip service from politicians and tinkering at the edges Read More
Carbon tax could have united us all
More than 3 million households will be worse off come July, about a third of Australian taxpayers. Indeed, many thousands of individuals with incomes between $67,000 and $80,000 face the prospect of their... Read More
Has the EU's stress test failed?
As the whole world worried about a potential Greek collapse, another European country experienced two actual bank failures. Read More
Sending profits abroad is a good thing
It is amazing how easily people are convinced by this 'sending profits abroad' argument, when it is just a protectionist fallacy. Read More
Foreign investment will boost food security
Foreigners acquiring Australian farm land appears to unite all political parties, we shouldn’t allow commercial decisions to be overridden my populist votes. Read More
US will Remain the Preeminent Player in Asia
In early May, I gave an interview to the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper arguing that China was probably ‘the loneliest rising great power in world history’ Read More
The phantom giant of Luxembourg
Under the veil of its legendary diplomatic finesse, Luxembourg hides its profiteering role in the sad state of Europe’s economy and politics. Read More
Dwelling upon 'investment'
Buying a house or unit isn't the financial investment Australians believe it to be. Read More
Budget office helps pollies, not punters
The Parliamentary Budget Office should focus analysing overall fiscal strategy and long-term fiscal sustainability rather than policy costings. Read More
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae: Guaranteed to fail?
The failure of Lehman Brothers was a trivial event compared to the much bigger but largely ignored failure a week before, when Freddie and Fannie were put into ‘conservatorship’ by the US government. Read More
Budget cuts can be popular
With an election still more than two years away the government should seize this opportunity to make the sort of cuts it should have made in 2008. Read More
Reform a boon to all in the money game
Advisers will now offer dispassionate and useful financial counsel. Read More
A failure of political leadership
Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan's rejection of Singapore Exchange's (SGX) bid for the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) represents a failure of political leadership. Read More
GDP no real guide to wealth or welfare
The confusion about what makes a country prosper arises from our fixation with GDP, which is a misleading metric of economic performance that no entity would pay to calculate itself. Read More
A forgotten financial failure
The regulatory responses to the global financial crisis have for the most part been conditioned on a false narrative about the causes and consequences of the crisis. Read More
Borrowers lose as mortgage industry takes its $4bn win
Rather than taking a hard line, the government is a soft touch. Read More
The Euro monster
Under their self-chosen monetary corset the Europeans now have the choice between the mother of all banking crises, hyperinflation à la Weimar Republic, or painful and unpopular financial transfers in... Read More
Attacks on banks are misdirected
Australia's interest rates are high because the nation has strong growth prospects. Read More
Aussie banker bashing
This time Australian bankers are being bashed for taking responsibly to manage their excess demand. Read More
Europe's most dangerous man
Ahead of the G20 summit in Seoul this week, the mood music between member countries is markedly different from previous conferences as the political differences between the main players are far more visible... Read More
The EU's win-win losers
The problems around last weekend’s summit are thus the problems of the Euro as a currency – Europe is too diverse to agree on sensible rules and too diverse to have a common currency in the first place. Read More
World debt crisis needs strong action, now
Australia has a vital interest in how the global debt crisis plays out. Read More
The failure of German banking
The involvement of German state and federal governments in banking precedes the financial crisis; in fact it has long been one of the defining features of the country’s financial sector. Read More
Fiscal authority the way to go
We need a fiscal commission to strengthen the entire budget process. Read More
Grave euro doubts remain
Experts have now shifted their attention to the US dollar. However, this does not mean that the euro is off the hook, says Oliver Marc Hartwich in Business Spectator, 19 August 2010. Read More
Bond market vigilantes should also weigh the risks of continued inactivity
Stagnation could be worse than a fiscal crisis. Read More
Benefits grow in monthly CPI data
Australia should adopt a monthly consumer price index. Read More
Imbalances essential to global economic system
The federal Treasury’s David Gruen recently told a conference at the University of Western Australia that global imbalances were implicated in the global financial crisis and it was desirable that they... Read More
Economic policy must re-earn our respect
Policymakers sacrificed a lot of their credibility due to their responses to the global financial crisis and this can be seen in the fundamental uncertainty about the inflation outlook. Read More
Big spending, poor results
Big government spending leads to poor results. Read More
End of trend is nigh for central bank sales of gold
It may seem odd that simply transferring ownership of existing above-ground stocks should make a difference to the gold price. But the Reserve Bank of India's recent purchase of 200 tonnes of gold from... Read More
US dollar down but not out as kingpin of global finance
The broad US dollar index has been trending lower since its last major cyclical peak in 2001. This has led many observers to question whether the US dollar will retain its status as a so-called ‘reserve... Read More
The US deficit canary has rattled the cage in warning of dire eventualities
The US government’s finances are in such bad shape that the Congressional Budget Office sounded a public alarm about the risk of debt default, a flight of capital out of the country, an exchange rate... Read More
Policymakers Sold Australia Short
The government has argued that GDP growth and the unemployment rate numbers demonstrate the effectiveness of its fiscal stimulus measures. In reality, they demonstrate only that policymakers sold Australia... Read More
Hewson manifesto was ahead of its time
Revelations in Paul Kelly’s The March of the Patriots that then Reserve Bank Governor Bernie Fraser planned to invoke provisions of the Reserve Bank Act to frustrate a Hewson government’s reforms to... Read More
Plan delivers little bang for very big bucks
The government’s fiscal stimulus packages represent discretionary policy actions that add to cyclical deterioration in the budget balance. Read More