Monthly Archives: April 2021

Queenslanders, sign up for Brisbane Holiday Dollars lottery

Posted on April 27, 2021 by Gene Tunny

The Brisbane Holiday Dollars voucher program is a tiny stimulus from a macroeconomic perspective, representing only $3 million of state government funding at the most, but businesses dependent on tourism need all the help they can get given all the … Continue reading →

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Online retail falling away from 2020 highs

Posted on April 24, 2021 by Gene Tunny

The big news on the Australian sharemarket yesterday was the 14% drop in the Kogan share price after a market update revealed a drop in earnings for the online retailer (see chart below). This probably should not have been such … Continue reading →

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Economics and religion podcast chat with Darren Brady Nelson

Posted on April 23, 2021 by Gene Tunny

In 2017, the Huffington Post published an article asserting Jesus was a Socialist. In my latest Economics Explored podcast episode on economics and religion, I asked returning guest Darren Brady Nelson, Chief Economist of LibertyWorks and a policy advisor to … Continue reading →

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Qld Audit Office should have recommended council amalgamations

Posted on April 22, 2021 by Gene Tunny

The Queensland Audit Office’s Local government 2020 Audit Report has identified that 25 Queensland local governments, around one-third of the total, “are at a high risk of not being financially sustainable.” As the QAO hints on pages 21 to 22, … Continue reading →

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Missing Middle Housing podcast chat with Natalie Rayment of Wolter Consulting

Posted on April 16, 2021 by Gene Tunny

Brisbane City Council’s worst piece of policy making in recent years was the townhouse ban affecting much of Brisbane (see Townhouse Ban in Effect and my 27 August 2019 post). Around the world, progressive cities such as Portland, Oregon are … Continue reading →

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The indicators look great, but the recovery is very uneven across the economy

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Gene Tunny

In the vicinity of my office at the Johnson Hotel on Boundary St, Spring Hill, I see the ongoing impacts of the pandemic on the economy. The hotel restaurant-cafe Tumbling Stone hasn’t reopened since it shut in March last year, … Continue reading →

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More action, less talk needed on vaccines

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Gene Tunny

Business people know meetings can crowd out action and, hence, meetings should be minimised to only those absolutely necessary and they should be action-focussed (e.g. short and sharp Scrum meetings of the team members directly involved in a project, meaning … Continue reading →

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Female breadwinning podcast chat with Gigi Foster

Posted on April 8, 2021 by Gene Tunny

UNSW Economics Professor Gigi Foster, who you may know from her appearances on ABC’s Q&A and The Economists podcast, has done some fascinating research on the phenomenon of female breadwinning, whereby, in around one-in-four partnerships, the female earns more than … Continue reading →

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Travel bubble great news for Qld’s 200,000 NZ-born

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Gene Tunny

As Queensland Premier Palaszczuk pointed out yesterday on social media following the announcement of the travel bubble with New Zealand, Queensland has the largest number of NZ-born people in Australia. Indeed, according to the 2016 Census, Queensland had 201,200 NZ-born … Continue reading →

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Podcast chat with Nicholas Gruen on freeing fiscal policy from political tinkering

Posted on April 2, 2021 by Gene Tunny

The latest episode of my Economics Explored podcast features a conversation I had earlier this week with Nicholas Gruen of Lateral Economics regarding his recent Financial Times opinion piece on the need for an independent fiscal policy advisory body. In … Continue reading →

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