Category Archives: Macroeconomy

Fiscal Stimulus with Fabrizio Carmignani – my latest Economics Explored podcast episode

Fiscal stimulus is very topical worldwide, with the new US President Joe Biden proposing a US$1.9 trillion COVID relief and stimulus package. And, in Australia, there is a debate occurring over how to support the tourism sector once JobKeeper finishes … Continue reading

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Federal quarantine facilities in remote areas should be considered after repeated failures of state-run inner city hotel quarantine

Now that COVID has escaped from inner-city hotels in four cities, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth, our governments should finally realise we need to do things differently. Otherwise our economic recovery will be jeopardised by repeated “short, sharp” lockdowns that … Continue reading

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Qld’s economy definitely fared better than Victoria’s which suffered badly from Stage 4 restrictions

Weirdly, CommSec’s latest State of the States report ranked Victoria in 3rd place and Queensland in 5th place, even though Queensland’s economy has definitely fared much better during the pandemic than Victoria’s. In my Thursday post I discussed how silly … Continue reading

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Foreign investment and productivity – my latest Economics Explored podcast episode

The latest episode of my Economics Explored podcast is on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Productivity. In the episode, I speak with the authors of a recent study published in the Journal of International Business Studies: Foreign Influence, control, and indirect ownership: … Continue reading

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CommSec’s weird assessment of Victoria’s economic growth as leading the nation in State of the States

This afternoon, Australian Institute for Progress Executive Director Graham Young alerted me to his conversation with 612 ABC Brisbane host Steve Austin and McKell Institute Executive Chair Rachel Nolan yesterday on Steve’s Drive program (from around 2:26:30) regarding the CommSec … Continue reading

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Qld exports were $21bn lower in 2020 due largely to lower coal and LNG prices

At the launch of the Queensland Premier’s Export Awards in May 2019 at the Tower of Power, 1 William St, I spoke about how Queensland’s exports had soared to record levels over the previous few years, largely as a result … Continue reading

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JobKeeper has been stimulating in multiple ways – evidence from Lush Marcoola

Well done to Matty Holdsworth from the Sunshine Coast Daily for some excellent reporting on the Lush Marcoola brothel which was re-printed in today’s print edition of the Courier-Mail on p. 47: YOUNG men cashed up on JobKeeper payments kept … Continue reading

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Why Qld’s unemployment rate is highest in nation despite better jobs recovery during pandemic than rest of Australia

When I spoke with Scott Emerson on his 4BC Drive program on Monday (see my Monday QEW post), he asked me how it was that Queensland could possibly have a higher unemployment rate than Victoria given the harsh restrictions they … Continue reading

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Chat with 4BC’s Scott Emerson about Qld economic outlook

I had a great chat this afternoon with 4BC Drive program presenter Scott Emerson about the Queensland economic outlook. Among other things, we chatted about the Deloitte Access Economics report which was nicely summarised by the Brisbane Times as ‘Queenslanders … Continue reading

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Qld CHO emergency powers extension bill submission

Yesterday 5pm was the deadline for submissions to the Queensland Parliamentary Inquiry into the bill to extend the COVID-19 public health emergency and the Chief Health Officer’s emergency powers until 30 September. Queensland’s Parliament has only one chamber and the … Continue reading

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