Category Archives: Macroeconomy

Minimum wages and employment podcast discussion

Posted on November 9, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Apart from Joe Biden winning the US Presidency and the Democratic Party otherwise under-performing, in my view, the major news coming out of last week’s elections in the US was Florida voting to increase its minimum wage to $15/hour by … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Qld economy in big trouble if China follows through with trade threat

Posted on November 7, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Australian investors appear remarkably optimistic about the prospects for patching up our relationship with China given that, as the Financial Review reported yesterday, ASX up 4.4pc in US election, QE week. I can understand why a new round of Quantitative … Continue reading →

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RBA Governor Lowe does Treasurer Dick a favour in lead up to 1 December Qld Budget

Posted on November 4, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick is facing a tough challenge developing the COVID-recession-ravaged state budget, but the Reserve Bank of Australia will make his task a little bit easier with its new round of Quantitative Easing, by which it purchases Australian … Continue reading →

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NSW border policy still lacks solid justification

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Gene Tunny

The Palaszczuk Government’s simple and appealing message of Keeping Queenslanders Safe has helped it win an increased majority, and there is no doubt Queensland has done well to control coronavirus and our state economy has coped with the COVID-shock better … Continue reading →

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

Upcoming QPC Productivity Reform livestream on 24 November

Posted on October 26, 2020 by Gene Tunny

The Queensland Productivity Commission (QPC) has arranged an upcoming livestream on Productivity Reform in Australia and NZ, scheduled for 24 November, with some well known Australian and NZ economists, econo-crats, and pundits. According to the program we’ll hear from, among … Continue reading →

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Chat with Joe Branigan on LNP’s New Bradfield Scheme and 5% jobless target and Labor’s $600M Council cash splash

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Yesterday afternoon I caught up with my good friend and former Treasury colleague Joe Branigan to chat about the upcoming Queensland election, and you can listen to our wide-ranging conversation via the player/link below. Among other issues, we chatted about … Continue reading →

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Qld has highest unemployment rate, but we’ve actually coped with COVID-shock better than most states

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Queensland once again has the highest unemployment rate in Australia (7.7% compared with a national average of 6.9%), as revealed by the September Labour Force Survey data released by the ABS yesterday, but we need to be careful in jumping … Continue reading →

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Election campaign debate needed on border and other restrictions

Posted on October 13, 2020 by Gene Tunny

The family of a well-known Brisbane businessman has cancelled a Halloween/election night party because there is still a limit on gatherings to 30 people in private residences (see the healthdirect website). Is it still necessary to have this restriction in … Continue reading →

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

Michael Knox on Quantitative Easing as a long-term strategy

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Australia’s money supply has surged over the year as the RBA has undertaken Quantitative Easing (QE), electronically printing new money to buy Australian and state government bonds and to lend to the banks (see the chart of M3, a measure … Continue reading →

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Auditor-General exposes deep flaws in Queensland’s governance

Posted on September 24, 2020 by Gene Tunny

Queensland’s Auditor-General is having a big week, with the publication of hard-hitting reports into the latest Queensland Health IT bungle (see today’s Courier-Mail) and the Government’s economic response to COVID-19. The report on the economic response revealed a lack of … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget, Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment