Tag Archives: australia

Is employment a lagging indicator of the economy?

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Gene Tunny

A tendency has developed among commentators to dismiss the relevance of discouraging employment data, based on the view that the labour market is a lagging indicator of the economy (e.g., a recent post by a prominent Australian economic commentator: Crappy … Continue reading →

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

Removing second-hand car import restrictions could significantly lower car prices

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Gene Tunny

I was happy to learn from a former Canberra colleague yesterday that I’m cited in the Productivity Commission’s January 2014 Position Paper on the car industry, regarding the benefits that would come from removing the restriction on second-hand car imports. … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry policy, Labour market | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

ABC Brisbane radio interview on Toyota departure

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Gene Tunny

This morning, Steve Austin from 612 ABC Brisbane interviewed me regarding Toyota’s departure and the demise of car manufacturing in Australia: How will Toyota’s departure affect the local economy? I reiterated a number of points I’ve made previously, including in … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry policy, Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Minimal threat to Qld economy from car industry shutdown

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Gene Tunny

The demise of Australia’s car manufacturing industry was always inevitable, but even I have been surprised at the pace with which Ford, GM Holden and now Toyota have announced their plans to cease production in Australia. While the plant closures … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry policy, Labour market, Macroeconomy | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Budget repair challenge means Govt should reject calls to assist Holden and Qantas

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Gene Tunny

I spoke with Pat Hession on ABC North Queensland radio yesterday afternoon on the removal of the Commonwealth Government’s debt ceiling, effectively its “credit card limit” as Pat described it. I made the following points: I’m disappointed the debt ceiling … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget, Industry policy, Tax | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Treasury wants to acknowledge unreliability of budget estimates

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Gene Tunny

There’s a great new working paper out today from the Commonwealth Treasury, Estimates of Uncertainty Around Budget Forecasts, which suggests a change to budget reporting that would make it hard for current and future Australian Governments to claim they will … Continue reading →

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Congestion charges part of solution to costly congestion

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Gene Tunny

Infrastructure Partnerships Australia appears to make some good points in its lobbying of the Abbott Government on the need for congestion charges to help alleviate traffic congestion and defer or avoid the need to augment transport infrastructure, as reported in … Continue reading →

Posted in Infrastructure, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why have a debt ceiling?

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Gene Tunny

I have no problem with the Federal Government pushing to raise the debt ceiling to $500 billion (i.e. around one-third of the level of our GDP of $1.5 trillion), which on current projections is likely to be several tens of … Continue reading →

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Grattan joins fight against stamp duty

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Gene Tunny

Leading Australian think tank the Grattan Institute has joined the fight against stamp duty on property transactions (see Renovating housing policy and Jessica Irvine’s article). Grattan notes (on p.32): Stamp duty and pension asset tests create large disincentives to households … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing, Labour market, Tax | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Qld unemployment rate stable at 6 per cent

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Gene Tunny

The September 2013 labour force data are out, and they show the Queensland unemployment rate is stable at around 6 per cent (see chart below). While high relative to the pre-financial crisis period when unemployment fell below 4 per cent, … Continue reading →

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