Publications
Our publications are the most important means of contact between the Centre's ideas and its general readership. Since 1976, The Centre for Independent Studies has produced some of the most authoritative publications in Australasian academia. From the influential Lands of Shame to the authoritative Will China Fail? CIS has published hundreds of publications covering topics from the social policy to legal affairs to religion and education.
In addition to books, the CIS publishes a range of shorter publications: Issue Analyses deal with controversial and current issues and Policy Mongraphs investigate and offer policy solutions. Since 1984, Policy magazine has published feature articles and reviews authored by some of the foremost national and international thinkers on public policy and ideas. The quality of writing and the diversity of topics in Policy ensure its status as a 'must read' by leading politicans, businesspeople and academics.
Hard copies of our publications are available for purchase through the bookstore. Many of the smaller publications are also available for download.
CONTRIBUTIONS
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All Finance, Banking, Monetary Systems Publications
TARGET30: Reducing the burden for future generations
TARGET30 is a campaign promoting smaller government and cutting government spending to less than 30% of GDP in the next 10...
Australia’s Future Fiscal Shock
Government is facing the arduous task of securing sustainable expenditure, revenue and debt beyond the current four-year...
Regulation or Strangulation? Banking After the Global Financial Crisis
Inadequate regulation of finance has taken much of the blame for the global financial crisis, leading governments around...
The Condensed Wealth of Nations and The Incredibly Condensed Theory of Moral Sentiments
In The Condensed Wealth of Nations, Eamonn Butler condenses Adam Smith’s work and explains the key concepts in The Wealth...
Flight of the Kiwi: Addressing the Brain Drain
Why are so many New Zealanders flocking to Australian shores, and what can be done to stop the so-called Kiwi ‘brain drain’? In...
The Henry Tax Review: A Liberal Critique
The public release of Australia’s Future Tax System—known as the Henry review—in May 2010 sparked an ongoing debate...
A Waste of Energy: Why The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is redundant
The federal government’s plans to establish a Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) should be scrapped. As a commercially...
Future Funds or Future Eaters? The Case Against a Sovereign Wealth Fund for Australia
This paper considers the arguments for and against greater use of a sovereign wealth fund in Australia. It argues that the...
Trans-Atlantic Fiscal Follies: The Sequel
What started as the US subprime crisis became the global financial crisis and has now developed into the Trans-Atlantic sovereign...
Trans-Atlantic Fiscal Follies: The Sequel
The GFC is back. What started as the US subprime crisis became the global financial crisis, which has now developed into...
BOOK REVIEW: Guaranteed to Fail: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Debacle of Mortgage Finance
Guaranteed to Fail: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Debacle of Mortgage Finance by Viral A. Acharya, Matthew Richardson,...
FEATURE: International Trade: First Principles Forgotten
The global financial crisis has distracted attention from impediments to international trade.
Shooting the Messenger: The Ban on Short Selling
In September 2008, governments around the world instituted bans on the short sale of equity securities. In Australia, the...
BOOK REVIEW: Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed (William Heinemann, 2009).
Fiscal Fallacies : The Failure of Activist Fiscal Policy
Editor, Stephen Kirchner ; Contributors, John B Taylor ; Tony Makin ; Robert Carling The global financial crisis that emerged...
BOOK REVIEW: The Sub-Prime Solution
The Sub-Prime Solution (Princeton University Press, 2008) and Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and...
BOOK REVIEW: The Ascent of Money- A Financial History of the World
The Ascent of Money- A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson (Penguin, 2008).
Emissions Tax: The Least Worst Option
The New Zealand government’s emissions trading system, due to come into force in 2010 for energy and 2013 for agriculture,...
The Folly of Criminalising Cartels
The federal government's proposal to introduce a maximum jail term of 10 years for individuals found guilty of serious cartel...
Bubble Poppers: Monetary Policy and the Myth of ‘Bubbles’ in Asset Prices
The monograph considers some of the practical problems that are likely to be encountered in implementing an activist approach...
FEATURE: Blaming Greenspan: Monetary Policy, the Housing 'Bubble' and the Credit Crisis
Monetary policy alone cannot explain the US housing or financial crisis. In the context of globally integrated capital markets,...
FEATURE: Commodity Prices and the Australian Economy: Trends Versus Cycles
Real commodity prices will declines over the long run.
Capital Xenophobia II: Foreign Direct Investment in Australia, Sovereign Wealth Funds, and the Rise of State Capitalism
Stephen Kirchner offers a timely analysis of Australia’s foreign investment regime and gives his ideas on how to improve...
Government Intervention in Mortgage Finance: The Case Against 'AussieMac'
An Australian GSE and the mortgage securitisation industry would likely expand only at the expense of other financial intermediaries,...
FEATURE: The Subprime Mortgage Crisis: Lessons For Regulators
Hedge funds need regulating like banks to avoid financial instability.
FEATURE: The Politics of Protection: America and Australia compared
Despite similar public scepticism about free trade in the US and Australia, protectionism is on the rise in Washington but...
FEATURE: A 'New Era' for the Reserve Bank?
Australia's central bankers should face greater scrutiny and accountability.
FEATURE: Deal or No Deal
While multilateral trade liberalisation is stalled, Clarissa Keil argues that Australia may need to stay in the race for...
Milton Friedman: A Tribute
Nobel-Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman died in late 2006. In March 2007, the CIS hosted a tribute to Friedman and...
FEATURE: Fiscal Policy and Interest Rates in Australia
Tax cuts are unlikely to increase interest rates.
BOOK REVIEW: The Intelligent Australian Investor
The Intelligent Australian Investor by Chris Leithner (Wrightbooks, 2005).
BOOK REVIEW: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
BOOK REVIEW: The Rise and Fall of Monetary Targeting in Australia
The Rise and Fall of Monetary Targeting in Australia by Simon Guttman (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2005).
RESPONSES BY INVITATION: A Call To Inaction
(In response to American Grand Strategy: The Imperial Logic of Bush's Liberal Agenda by Edward Rhodes in POLICY Summer 2003.) A...
Breaking the Trade Stalemate: What Are Australia’s Options?
Australia’s best hope of long-term trade liberalisation lies in signing a free trade agreement with the United States....
Setting the Record Straight: Free Trade and the WTO
By allowing social issues into the WTO agenda using tenuous links to trade policy, the WTO Council has placed the organisation...
COMMENT: Uniform Commercial Laws: The Merits of Wallis Recommendation 114
In its final report in March 1997, the Wallis Committee expressed the view that reform of the regulatory framework could...
Book Review: States of Health: Health and Illness in Australia
States of Health: Health and Illness in Australia (3rd Ed.) by Janet George and Alan Davis (Longman, 1998.)
FEATURE: The 'Unrepresentative Swill' 'Feel Their Oats'
The Rise of Senate Activism in Australia.
Rear Vision on Trade Policy: Wrong Way, Go Forward
Policies affecting trade flows do not begin or end in the international arena: Decisions about reducing protection must be...
BOOK REVIEW: Social Justice: Fraud or Fair Go?
Social Justice: Fraud or Fair Go? edited by Marlene Goldsmith Menzies Research Centre, 1998.
BOOK NOTES: An Introduction to the Thought of Karl Popper
An Introduction to the Thought of Karl Popper by Roberta Corvi (Routledge, 1997.)
BOOK REVIEW: Keeping the Bastards Honest: The Australian Democrats' First Twenty Years
Keeping the Bastards Honest: The Australian Democrats' First Twenty Years edited by John Warhurst (Allen & Unwin, 1997.)
BOOK REVIEW: The Paradox of Parties: Australian Political Parties in the 1990s
The Paradox of Parties: Australian Political Parties in the 1990s edited by Marian Simms (Allen & Unwin, 1996.)
Reforming Central Banking
This book is about which monetary institutions and monetary regimes are most likely to promote price stability.
Markets, Morals and Community
Few people today doubt the market’s contribution to prosperity, but still there are powerful intellectual traditions opposing...
Should We Worry About the Foreign Debt?
The debate about Australis's foreign debt seems endless. Some say it is nothing to worry about and other fear a foreign...
FEATURE: Reserve Bank Independence or a Money-Growth Rule?
Reserve bank independence has been proposed as a way of increasing the stability of monetary policy.
SCHOOLS' BRIEF: Fiscal Policy and Budget Deficits
The government's budget deficit is the most common, but sometimes least informative measure of its fiscal policy stance.
REJOINDER: for FEATURE: Does the Family Need a Family Policy?
James Cox's rejoinder for his feature article, Does the Family Need a Family Policy?
Lessons from the Freiburg School: The Institutional Foundations of Freedom and Prosperity
West Germany’s post-War economic success was based on the ideas of the ‘Freiburg school,’ a school of liberal economists,...
DEBATE: Clarifying the Role of Ideas
The Private Interest Theory Debate: John Hyde weighs in on the argument.
DEBATE: A Rejoinder
The Private Interest Theory Debate: John Quiggin's rejoinder. Page 5.
Do We Need a Reserve Bank?
'Free Banking' is gaining increasing attention as a promising remedy for inflation. Could private agencies be involved in...
Regulating for Competition? Trade Practices Policy in a Changing Economy
Arguments for a greater reliance on market forces to protect consumer welfare are explored in this collection by leading...
Beyond the Current Pessimism
Professor Ray Ball gives a personal interpretation of the historical roots of Australia’s economic malaise.
Australian Takeovers: The Evidence 1972-1985
Corporate Control, Economic Efficiency and Shareholder Justice
This book is an examination of the theoretical background and economics of the market for corporate control.
Capital Xenophobia: Australia's Controls of Foreign Investment
An early study by the CIS which supported the lifting of controls on foreign investment in Australia.
A New Financial Revolution? An International Review of the Campbell Report
A Review of the Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Australian Financial System (1981) which was considered the most...
Taxation, Inflation and the Role of the Government
In this publication, the proceedings of a seminar conducted by the Centre for Independent Studies, Milton Friedman is joined...
