commodities Commodity Price Volatility – A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Commodities are notorious for their volatility. I saw this first hand when I was working as an Investment Analyst at Dixon Advisory. I was tasked to investigate whether shares with exposure to the silver price were worth pursuing. Silver is a fantastic example of a ridiculously volatile commodity. The chart
ACE Business symposium The Dutch Disease and Structural Adjustment – Day 4 of ACE 2012 The focus of my final post will be the first session of the ACE Business Symposium, titled ‘Structural Adjustment: The Dutch Disease and Public Policy in Australia’. The session opened with a methodical and articulate speech from Professor Max Corden of the University of Melbourne, summarising his findings in a
2012 My Perspective: Day 2 - Australian Conference of Economists 2012 Day 2 of the ACE Conference started with a keynote speech from Professor John Quiggin of University of Queensland on the conference’s main theme ‘The future of economics: research, policy and relevance’. Quinn took a “glass-half-empty” view on the future of the economics field, arguing that there was a
ACE 2012 My Perspective: Day 1 - Australian Conference of Economists 2012 This is the first of four blog posts I will be writing for ESSA from the 41st Australian Conference of Economists, co-hosted by Economics Society of Australia and Victoria University. This blog aims to give its readers an insight into the key discussion topics at the ACE conference which created
australian economy Australian Economic Prosperity a Double-Edged Sword The Australian economy continues to defy economic gravity, with the latest round of economic statistics released last week showing an economy growing above trend over the last 12 months, full-time job creation ticking up in May, and a higher participation rate as people become more confident in finding a job.
economic policy What Governments Do, Don’t Do, and Can’t Do When you consider what ‘government policy’ really means, most tend to think of actions made by government on production, distribution, consumption and identity issues, and rightly so. Public policy mainly concerns both the formulation of goals across these many areas of life and implementing ways of achieving these goals (Australian
australia Wayne Swan’s Ironic Attack on Billionaire Miners for his Own Self-Interest Wayne Swan’s essay in The Monthly titled ‘The 0.01 Per Cent: The Rising Influence of Vested Interests in Australia’ has caused quite a stir in the last few weeks. Swan laments the rising influence of wealthy vested interests in Australia’s public policy debate, and warns of it
Import 2022-12-14 05:06 Fiscal Stimulus and Consolidation during Financial Crises Olivier Blanchard, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), recently told the Council of Foreign Relations that he was surprised at the amount of debate surrounding the role of fiscal stimulus during economic downturns. This comes after much criticism of the stimulus packages implemented across the world in early
Downing Lecture Downing Lecture 2012 – GFC and Household Incomes I attended my first Downing Lecture on Thursday night, and heard a fascinating speech by Professor John Micklewright, a research fellow from the Melbourne Institute. It was an interesting account on how the GFC had affected household incomes and income distribution across OECD countries. This blogpost will focus only on
ABC Party Politics Trumps Policy Detail George Megalogenis’ quarterly essay titled ‘Trivial Pursuit: Leadership and the end of the reform era’ highlights the worrying lack of political leadership on both sides of the parliament in the aftermath of the 2010 Australian federal election. It argues that political short-termism and party politics has become the order of
battelino Understanding the crisis that embroils Europe I am sure you have heard of the commotion unfolding in Europe, dubbed by many news media outlets as the ‘European sovereign debt crisis’. But what does this all mean? Ric Battelino, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, spoke in Sydney about the ‘European Financial Developments’ and what
carbon tax ETS is the right policy, it just might not be the right time After passing through both Houses of Parliament, Australia will officially have an emissions trading scheme on July 1st 2012, which will take the form of a carbon tax for its first three years before moving to a flexible price carbon trading market in 2015. It was hailed by the Labor
australian dollar Car Subsidies Delaying the Inevitable The Federal government announced recently that they will continue to support the Australian car industry through ‘co-investment’ – i.e. through tax-payer funded direct subsidies to industry. This is funneling money to multinational co-operations so they can maintain production of Holdens and Fords in Australia. All this is for one reason
Import 2022-12-14 05:06 The Unhealthy Surplus Obsession One of Australia’s prominent business commentators, Alan Kohler, summed it up perfectly in his contribution to today’s Business Spectator: As everyone in business knows, a forecast is just a forecast. In times like these, it’s not even that; it’s a guess that you hope won’t
australia Struggles of the Australian Retail Sector I was watching an episode of one of my favourite political TV shows, The Drum (Mon-Fri, ABC News 24 at 6pm) when Dick Smith was introduced as the program guest. I watched with bewilderment as Smith began ranting and raving – it went something like this: “(without the GST revenue from
