Opinion & Commentary
Opinion and Commentary contains media articles written by CIS researchers.
Categories
The magic pudding state
Australians want government to spend more money on us, but we do not want to hand any more of our cash over to the tax office. 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
It’s time for a free trade agreement with Tasmania
Tasmanians should not have their lifestyle subsidised because they have chosen to live in Tasmania, any more than people in the city or country should be subsidised for living in the city or country. Read More
Tighten the rules on welfare payments
There is more to welfare reform than amalgamating the benefits. 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
Greens have got us tilting at windmills
The debate on climate change has less to do with scientific rationalism and more with the dogma of religious faith. Read More
How taxing housing diminishes affordability
Australia’s under-supplied housing market and housing affordability problem is largely due to the tax burden on housing. Read More
Losing sight of the lucky country
Australia is a country that barely understands, let alone appreciates, its own luck. Read More
Carmaker triumph or GM hypocrisy?
It's a product of public relations that Australians believe every government supports its own car industry, and looking at General Motors' ruthless cost-cutting of its European brands puts even more focus... Read More
A zero-sum carbon game
There is no point trying to subsidise reductions in carbon emissions if the total amount of emissions is capped anyway. 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
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
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
Perk Street is not as one-way as employed, childless renters think
Childless renters pay a lot of federal tax but are exempt from many state taxes 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
Look to Britain and hold the champagne
The UK property bust provides worrying parallels for our self-congratulatory local economy. Read More
Smokers already being ripped off -- plain packaging is just insulting
Smokers are being already being ripped off. The push for plain packaging is just insulting. 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
New Zealand is in a dangerous debt spiral
The earthquake that struck Christchurch was not only a national catastrophe for New Zealand. It is also becoming clear how devastating it is to the Kiwi economy. Read More
How the Germans keep a lid on prices
You get a lot more house for your money in Germany and there's a simple explanation for the stability in the housing market — steady growth in supply. Read More
The iPad app upper hand
Given the poor track record of forecasting the way people inform themselves, the impact of the latest wave of new technologies is not a foregone conclusion. Read More
Why consumers should resist the enemies of choice
Behaviourists are wrong to say people should be protected from irrational financial decisions. Read More
A fundamental Euro flaw
There are good economic reasons for Europe’s economic crisis. The fiscal catastrophe across the continent is the result of decades of reckless spending policies. Read More
German polemic has resonance for West
He’s blunt, but Thilo Sarrazin makes a lot of sense. Read More
G20 should tend to their own backyards
The principal flaw of the G20 is the assumption that the group as a whole can somehow be more than the sum of its parts. 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
Why world must take interest in our boom
Discussion of Hayek's ideas and the Austrian school of economics have had a lot of attention recently and this week Sydney is hosting this year's general meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society, founded by... Read More
Game on in the states of Monopoly
Parker Brothers' Monopoly has been around for 75 years, and needs an update. To make the game more reflective of reality, perhaps rules such as gaining a real estate licence, toll payments at each corner... Read More
Britons brace for age of austerity
The British government is looking to the Australian model for welfare reforms. Read More
Economists should learn some history
The inability of economists to see beyond their own models left them unprepared when the global economy hit trouble. Read More
Let’s ignore snobs of Old Europe
Proudly plebeian, Australia has no need to apologise for its egalitarianism and should celebrate its achievements more self-consciously. Read More
The 'postmodern economy' was a con
The ‘postmodern economy’ in Britain was a con. Read More
The home ownership nightmare
There is a dark side to Britain’s property mania. The stampede into home ownership has created at least as many problems as it has solved. Read More
The flawed giant of Europe
Australians worried about their productivity performance in international rankings may relax a little, as Germany shows productivity performance is not the only measure of a successful economy. Read More
Benefits grow in monthly CPI data
Australia should adopt a monthly consumer price index. Read More
Mr Swan’s preoccupation with superannuation
The government needs to examine how to treat saving within the tax system and whether super should continue to be more lightly taxed than other forms of saving. Read More
More inscrutable than the Chinese
Why are foreign investment criteria a secret? Read More
Europe’s slow, painful death
The potential Greek bankruptcy is only the beginning of Europe’s inevitable decline. Read More
The euro is a failed experiment that should be cashed in
Europe was never ready for a common and the recent global financial crisis highlights this. Read More
Ripped off and overcharged? Not necessarily
Why should consumers believe that they have a right to pay the same price wherever they go? And can a market economy really exist and function without the ability to vary prices? Read More
The seasonal satisfaction index
According to Joel Waldfogel’s book Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays, you shouldn’t have bought his book as a Christmas gift. The gifts received from family and friends... Read More
We aren't just larrikins
Too many Australians take for granted that they live in a prosperous and vibrant nation with a fantastic quality of life and is a good place in which to do business. Read More
Activists should stop talking about global warming and start acting
If climate activists had spent the past 10 years acting instead of wasting time at talkfests such as the one at Copenhagen, we would already have a price signal on greenhouse gas emissions. Read More
Property bias
Newspapers have a big heart for heavily indebted homeowners. Perhaps occasionally they should show equal compassion for tenants and savers. Read More
Doomsayer does his dough
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows capital city house prices up 6.2% for the year ended in September, University of Western Sydney academic Steve Keen conceded defeat and will be donning hiking... Read More
Return to Flyer times with business class
Train travel was not only more pleasant early in the last century, it was also faster. In 1937, the ‘Newcastle Flyer’ travelled to Sydney in two hours 26 minutes – seven minutes faster than the current... Read More
We're Not So Healthy
According to a new study from the Legatum Institute, an international development think tank based in London, these kinds of inefficiencies are hurting Australia’s prosperity. Read More
Life’s joys get a little lost down holes of health-cost analyses
Any time we make a decision that lets us enjoy a bit of fun but with some risk to our health, that decision is considered irrational and cannot generate any real enjoyment. Read More
‘Healthist’ doomsayers are spoiling all our fun
The hidden cost of healthist cost reports is the slow erosion of liberty that ensues when we take them at face value. By conflating the costs that risk-takers impose on themselves with the costs they impose... Read More
Canberra's Investment Confusion
Chinese companies are increasingly looking to invest overseas, and foreign capitals are calibrating their policy responses. Australia, which has been the destination for several high-profile attempted... Read More
For Merkel, it’s now or never to get serious
The strong showing of the pro-market Free Democrats is one of the greatest shifts in Germany’s political tectonics that the country has ever experienced. The tremors will be felt for years to come, affecting... Read More
Australian libertarians revealed
It seems left-wing economic journalist Ross Gittins has just discovered the word ‘libertarian,’ and the revelation seems to have him spooked. Read More
We need to start emissions debate
The climate change policy debate should not be based on popularity but careful analysis of the benefits and costs of various options. Read More
The real priorities
A Mayor has a $10million surplus, which he wants to allocate to a good cause. Ten groups clamour for the cash. One wants to buy new computers for an inner-city high school. Another hopes to beautify a... Read More
System not in the finest health
As the welfare-to-work proposals are made public, Peter Saunders looks at the question of self-funding. Read More
Fix policies to make housing affordable
The house price bubble has finally burst. While it lasted, the boom added substantially to the wealth of existing home owners, but it has made home ownership more expensive for aspiring new buyers. Read More
Commercialising highways
Most people consider the modern auto-highway system a great success. In the United States, automobiles provide 95% of all individual surface trips, and trucks transport an ever-larger majority of all freight.... Read More