Opinion & Commentary
Opinion and Commentary contains media articles written by CIS researchers.
Categories
Seizing a Sino free trade moment
Australia’s regulation of foreign direct investment is a critical stumbling block in a free trade agreement with China. Read More
It's time to put the break on corporate welfare
Corporate welfare for a favoured few - like Australia's car manufacturers - cannot be justified. Read More
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
A failure of enterprise bargaining mechanics
Australia's current enterprise bargaining system makes it difficult for automotive manufacturers to improve their performance and save jobs. 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
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
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
EU referendum is a bad Irish joke
Economically, whatever happens in Ireland will not be decisive for the future of the euro. That is more likely being decided in Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, Athens and Lisbon. But to the rest of Europe watching... Read More
Striking a French euro tinderbox
Either Sarkozy or Hollande will win France’s presidential elections, but the project of European cooperation and integration will surely lose. And the political uncertainty dominating the coming months... 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
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
Returning to old European rivalries
Europeans may one day wake up in an environment of revived national rivalries, new political extremism and a continent without the open borders they once took for granted. This could be a tragedy even... Read More
In search of a Greek hero
To escape from its current mess, Greece does not need more Sisyphus work. It needs someone to tackle the Herculean task of cutting the country loose from Europe’s monetary union. Read More
Hallmarks of an EU power play
The tragedy of the European crisis is not that it was caused by striving for too much economic efficiency. The real tragedy is that it could have been predicted by public choice theory. Read More
Why Merkozy is destined to fail
The eurozone crisis may soon return with more bad news from bond markets. Pity Europe’s leaders are too busy to deal with it. Read More
Testing the RBA's DNA
As a practical first step towards more RBA independence, perhaps politicians of all parties could refrain from both applauding and criticising RBA decisions. It is none of their business. Read More
Testing the RBA's DNA
As a practical first step towards more RBA independence, perhaps politicians of all parties could refrain from both applauding and criticising RBA decisions. It is none of their business. Read More
A wild forecast for Euro pain
You may think that all of this sounds utterly ludicrous, and perhaps you are right. But ask yourself whether only two years ago you could have imagined elected prime ministers being replaced by technocrats,... Read More
A British pawn in Europe's game
Perhaps it is dawning on Cameron that he had been moved like a pawn on a chessboard by his continental friends. His insistence to act in Britain’s national interest mainly served to promote the interests... Read More
Germany's blissful euro ignorance
It is only a matter of time until reality will catch up with the Germans at some stage. But don’t wake them up just yet. They won’t have their Christmas holidays spoilt just because some countries... Read More
Merkozy's palliative care pact
The euro won’t survive a day longer just because of the political marriage of the German chancellor and the French president. But their botched crisis management indeed makes the time until its eventual... Read More
No fuel like an old fuel: Germany's nuclear reaction provides a win for coal
Fear and green populism were bad counsellors indeed when Germany drew the wrong lessons from the Fukushima accident. 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
Will Mr Nobody crash Europe?
When Germany’s political Boxing Day comes on December 17, there could be some hidden surprises among the presents which may spoil a few politicians’ Christmas breaks. A hitherto obscure German backbencher... Read More
Europe's social failure
Capital markets are not loquacious storytellers. They condense the world into simple numbers. For this reason, the surge in Greek, Italian and Spanish bond yields could be mistaken for a mere technicality,... Read More
Greece has no choice but to get out of eurozone
With the dramatic spike in Italian bond yields, the euro crisis has reached the stage everyone always wanted to avoid. Contagion has spread from Greece via Ireland and Portugal to Europe's third largest... Read More
Europe awaits a Chinese burn
The assessment of Europe’s state of affairs could have hardly been harsher: “If you look at the troubles which happened in European countries, this is purely because of the accumulated troubles of... 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
Europe’s forgotten lessons of history
The rise and fall of the Euro is just another chapter in the long history of monetary unions in Europe. The Euro was not the first attempt to unite different European economies and countries by a monetary... Read More
Is Australia shy of the Asia boom?
By internationally practising a policy of exceptionalism against its Asian neighbours, and domestically following the path of European-style governments, Australia is missing out on the greatest opportunity... Read More
Unravelling the Greek basket case
This weekend, European leaders will once more decide on how to deal with Greece. Read More
A sterling sidestep
Under more normal circumstances, we would now be discussing the coming sterling crisis. That we are not doing so does not mean that it will not happen. 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
Wanted: a friendly EU break-up
If the result of Europe’s bungled attempts of economic and political integration is a continent-wide disaster zone, the cure of this disease cannot be more integration, even if Philip Stephens thinks... Read More
Housing sense in short supply
While the rest of the world wonders what the next phase of the GFC will bring; and while the rest of Europe discusses the future of their common currency; the British are pondering an entirely different... 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
Prophecies of an egalitarian utopia based on false assumptions
The Spirit Level aims to break away from these ethical conundrums and to replace them with the authority of science. It says governments should redistribute incomes, not because it is moral but because... Read More
Skilled arrivals work in Australia's favour
We are the richer for being more selective with our immigration policy in Australia 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
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
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
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
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
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
The PC empire strikes back
GERMAN banker Thilo Sarrazin is a pariah for saying things few would question here. 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
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
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
Time for Greece to be forced to live within its means
It is morally repugnant that ordinary taxpayers around the world are forced, at great cost, to keep Greece solvent in order to prevent banks from losing money. Read More
Putting Greek lessons into practice
Excessive public debt plagues most developed economies, not just small countries on the periphery of Europe. Read More
Is Germany saving Greece or saving itself?
The short-sighted German strategy of keeping the eurozone together at all costs is turning Greece into one big welfare recipient. Read More
Carbon tax cuts for all
Revenue from the government’s proposed carbon tax must be returned to taxpayers through income tax cuts or alternatively, the abolishment of the Medicare levy. Read More
Europe enters a wintery spring
Europe’s debt crisis is far from over. 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
Eurovision notes EU disharmony
European integration is moving backwards and old nationalisms are returning, as seen in the Eurovision Song Contest as well as in monetary and industrial policy. Read More
Australia’s Norwegian doppelganger
The IMF is calling for Australia to follow Norway and divert profits from the mining boom to a new sovereign wealth fund. Read More
A dangerous euro enchantment
Instead of bringing Europe’s peoples closer together, the struggling euro currency is driving them further apart. Read More
Look to Britain and hold the champagne
The UK property bust provides worrying parallels for our self-congratulatory local economy. Read More
Sad songs from Portugal
Although EU loans are keeping the Portuguese government liquid for now, the austerity measures will be demanding – not least to satisfy voters and taxpayers in other countries guaranteeing the rescue... Read More
Out of Iceland's ashes
Icelanders are great at turning crises into opportunities. The Eyjafjallajökull disaster provided a much needed impetus to Icelandic tourism; and Iceland’s banking crisis has now finally alerted Iceland... Read More
Home is where the money is
Today country hopping has become a mass phenomenon. Global migration flows have increased, but the migrants themselves have become far less permanent. Read More
Britain's debt time bomb is still ticking
Britain’s economic problems are well known. After a massive expansion of government spending in the Blair and Brown years, the financial crisis revealed the unsustainable business model of UK plc. Read More
The hysterical republic
Today’s Germany has little in common with the country that used to trouble the world so much. Read More
A plan that will damage Europe
It is astonishing how little Europe has learnt from previous mistakes. The belief in grand strategies with ambitious targets is alive and well. As is the wish to solve economic problems by ignoring them. Read More
The ascent of lying
Yet our political leaders’ sometimes strained relationship with the truth pales into insignificance when compared with the extent of fraud and deceit on display at the highest level of government in... Read More
Farewell to Europe's old guard
Last week’s unexpected resignation of Bundesbank president Axel Weber sent shockwaves through the German government. 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
A housing market whodunit
Economics, so the saying goes, can be summed up in one word: incentives. If we want to find out why house prices are flat in Germany, we need to understand the driving force behind the high supply of housing. Read More
A necessary shock
It is useful to imagine a scenario in which the fundamental changes of the last decades had not happened. This thought experiment might reveal alternatives to Australia’s strategic and psychological... Read More
Belgium's debt bomb is ticking
Belgians are now chasing a veritable world record: they want to be the country with the longest post-election negotiations. Read More
A crisis eating away at Europe's freedom
Europe’s moral credibility hangs in the balance after Hungary enacted a law to limit press freedom. Read More
Estonia should have listened to Marx
With its entry into the Eurozone, Estonia is more likely to be punished for its enviable public finances. Read More
Watch out for Russian wild card in Asia-Pacific
Russia is pulling out all the stops to court India to maintain its position in Asia's future balance of power. Read More
Don't believe this forecast
As always in Europe, the continent’s politicians know much better what is needed than their often hapless and ungrateful peoples. Read More
EU fails to grasp nettle of a continent in crisis
It's time for fresh thinking in Brussels about the debt threat. Read More
Europe shows the end game for big government
Europe’s present can be our future if we repeat the mistakes Europeans have made in the past. 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
Europe's self-inflicted crisis
To superficial observers, this week's European summit in Brussels will look like any other high-level conference. Read More
Trichet's prize for shredding Europe
Life in Euroland is full of ironies but they don’t come much more bitter than Sunday’s announcement to award the prestigious Charlemagne Prize 2011 to Jean-Claude Trichet, the head of the European... Read More
German polemic has resonance for West
He’s blunt, but Thilo Sarrazin makes a lot of sense. Read More
Europe's growth-killing cult
Originating from the green movement, a culture of risk-aversion has become firmly entrenched in the European mindset. This jeopardises the continent’s future economic development. 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
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
Germany proves clumsy with foreign matter
The ghosts of multiculturalism are haunting Germany, a country that has failed with the concept. Read More
Sarkozy's Ides of March
Whether the new pension system is eventually implemented or not, the tumultuous scenes in the streets of Paris, Marseille and other big cities leave only one conclusion: France is an unreformable country. Read More
America's warpath to Depression
The early Mont Pelerin Society members knew that a free and stable global economic order was not just vital for creating prosperity. It is also a necessary condition for peace. In today’s environment... 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
The economic curse of populism
If the Germans continue to pretend that the current crisis was caused by speculation and not by inherent flaws of the European project, this crisis will not pass. Read More
A bailout that hurts the Germans but doesn’t help the Greeks
As long as countries such as Greece are joined with Germany in a monetary union, this monetary union will not work, argues Oliver Marc Hartwich for the Institute of Economic Affairs, 5 May 2010 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