Monthly Archives: March 2019

Qld’s 2nd Health Crisis in 15 years – read about the 1st in my book Beautiful One Day, Broke the Next

Posted on March 28, 2019 by Gene Tunny

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Queensland’s health system is again in crisis, with Queenslanders told by our ministers only to use the public hospital system in an emergency. And, predictably, the Premier is blaming the … Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Bad economic news keeps coming – declining job vacancies & inverted US yield curve

Posted on March 25, 2019 by Gene Tunny

The federal Department of Jobs and Small Business published its February 2019 internet job vacancies data last week, and it revealed a continuation of the downward trend in job vacancies, which were 5.5% lower in Queensland and 4.0% lower nationally … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Macroeconomy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Luckily Qld property prices never reached crazy levels that NSW’s and Victoria’s did – now less room to fall

Posted on March 20, 2019 by Gene Tunny

Michael Janda at ABC News has a good summary of the residential property price data for December quarter published yesterday by the ABS: Australia’s $133 billion property price slide rapidly becoming the worst in modern history This correction has been … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The 7 habits of highly effective economists Part 2 – Habits 4 to 7: Public victory & renewal habits

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Gene Tunny

I have previously posted Part 1 of the 7 habits of highly effective economists in which I covered the first three habits. This post covers the remaining four. The 7 habits were first defined by the late Stephen R. Covey … Continue reading →

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Credit cycle in downswing phase

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Gene Tunny

There is a lot of disappointing economic data coming out for Australia lately. Today the ABS released its January 2019 Lending to households and businesses estimates which  confirmed the credit cycle is in the downswing phase (see chart above). This … Continue reading →

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The 7 habits of highly effective economists – Part 1: Habits 1 to 3 for private victory

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Gene Tunny

I’ve recently become a huge fan of Tim Ferriss’s extraordinary podcast The Tim Ferriss Show. One of the questions Tim regularly asks his super-successful guests is: What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? … Continue reading →

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Is it nonsense to talk about a “GDP per capita recession”?

Posted on March 10, 2019 by Gene Tunny

My colleague Nick Behrens from QEAS is critical of recent references to Australia’s “GDP per capita recession” by the media and the federal Opposition in his latest post A GDP per capita recession is nonsense. Recall that the December quarter … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Grattan 2019 Budget panel discussion I’m participating in at Qld State Library

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Gene Tunny

I’m really pleased to have been invited to be one of the panelists in the Grattan Institute’s upcoming panel discussion on the 2019 federal budget on the evening of Tuesday 9 April, one week after the budget, at the Queensland … Continue reading →

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My question to Chris Bowen on Treasury

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Gene Tunny

Former Westpac CEO David Morgan’s interview with the Financial Review, in which he laments political interference with the Treasury, reminded me that I asked Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen a question at his McKell Institute speech on Wednesday regarding how he … Continue reading →

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Qld economy was goosed up by gov’t spending in final quarter of 2018

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Gene Tunny

Australia’s weak 0.2% GDP growth in December quarter has prompted talk of a “per capita recession”, as our economy has now been growing at a slower rate than the population for two consecutive quarters (see this SMH report). The national … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments