Category Archives: Macroeconomy

The Other Side interview on federal debt and lockdowns

Posted on July 24, 2021 by Gene Tunny

Earlier this week I spoke with Damian Coory on his The Other Side program about the massively expanding federal debt and the economic cost of lockdowns, among other issues. The YouTube video of our conversation is embedded below. Given the … Continue reading →

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Does government understand business and realise the huge costs of lockdowns?

Posted on July 13, 2021 by Gene Tunny

The reports from the Sydney lockdown are grim. The lockdown is imposing a huge cost on affected businesses. The financial assistance offered today by the federal and NSW governments may be insufficient for many businesses (e.g. see Sydney CBD restaurants … Continue reading →

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RBA would be right to taper its Quantitative Easing program

Posted on July 5, 2021 by Gene Tunny

There’s a nice article by William McInnes in today’s Financial Review, Economists expect RBA to ease stimulus, which begins:  Economists expect Tuesday’s Reserve Bank board meeting to acknowledge the economy’s surprisingly strong recovery and to signal some tapering of its … Continue reading →

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Qld’s heavy CAPEX pipeline dominated by public sector projects

Posted on July 3, 2021 by Gene Tunny

First, thankfully the Queensland Government will lift the Brisbane-Moreton lockdown at 6pm tonight, although the threat of future lockdowns remains, making it challenging to plan anything over the next couple of months. I’m really hoping the COVID spread is contained … Continue reading →

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End of 2nd day locked down in Qld Police State

Posted on July 1, 2021 by Gene Tunny

If government imposes hard-to-justify and unreasonable restrictions on people, then it shouldn’t surprise us if they don’t fully comply. Based on the amount of people wandering around Brisbane City relative to previous lockdowns, and on various media reports, Queenslanders have … Continue reading →

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Lockdown CBA podcast discussion with Prof. Douglas Allen of Simon Fraser University

Posted on June 5, 2021 by Gene Tunny

If you’ve seen any of Alan Jones’s recent commentary on Sky Australia you may have heard him talk about a recent cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of Canada’s COVID lockdown. Episode 90 of my Economics Explored podcast features a discussion regarding COVID lockdown costs versus … Continue reading →

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Growing concerns that stimulus and money printing are fuelling inflation

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Gene Tunny

Setting off an inflationary spiral is one of the big risks with the mega-stimulus measures and Quantitative Easing or money printing we’ve seen in the responses of governments and central banks to the pandemic. This month, we’ve seen some higher-than-expected … Continue reading →

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Decarbonising the Economy – my latest podcast episode

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Gene Tunny

The latest episode of my Economics Explored podcast is on the topic of decarbonising the economy. My monologue is based on a talk I gave last Tuesday to the First Tuesday Club forum hosted by the Brisbane Dialogues group at … 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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