13 March 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
Deep thinkers in the investment world need to realise that most Australians have neither the inclination nor the skill to analyse investments.
12 March 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
Tony Abbott has so far had a dream run in his quest to destabilise the Rudd government.
11 March 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
The Henry's tax review appears to be some time away from seeing the light of day, but one thing is certain - it will recommend higher taxes on the resources sector. Treasury secretary Ken Henry favours moving towards a federal, profit-based charge on resources, in lieu of about 60 inefficient and inconsistent state royalties.
10 March 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
It says a lot about the arrival of Indonesia's president in Australia yesterday that the event was not preceded by either excessive secrecy, threatened demonstrations or concern about a sudden cancellation.
09 March 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
Federal parliament resumes today for two weeks of sittings before adjourning for the pre-budget recess. Which Kevin Rudd will we be watching in the contest for the crucial pre-recess psychological advantage now dominating politics?
08 March 2010 | No byline | The Australian Financial Review
It's understandable that Kevin Rudd thinks he's too busy with health reform to think about the Henry tax review, but it's no advertisement for his skills in managing his cabinet and the government's reform agenda.
06 March 2010 | no byline | The Australian Financial Review
Australian cricketer Shane Warne performed a useful service this week by lending his name to efforts to ameliorate tensions with India.
04 March 2010 | No Byline | The Australian Financial Review
It takes courage to propose fundamental health-care reform and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's proposals deserve serious consideration and close scrutiny. But they leave too many unanswered questions and too many crucial elements to be decided in the future.
03 March 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
Last August the Reserve Bank devised its strategy for how Australia should exit from the extraordinary economic settings that it had put in place to tackle the global meltdown. When it became clear that the Australian economy had dodged a recession, the bank decided to gradually bring interest rates back to normal levels. Only timing was at issue. As the doubts have fallen away, the RBA has inexorably tightened monetary policy. Yesterday it hiked official rates for the fourth time in six months in an emphatic recognition that the economy, overall, is recovering strongly.
02 March 2010 | No Byline | The Australian Financial Review
Kevin Rudd spent all of 2007 moaning about how utterly appallingly the Howard government had run the country, and blithely promising to be a much better government in every area. Pledges ranged from ending the blame game in health, education and infrastructure and "restoring the balance" in workplace relations to cutting red tape for business and building the world's best infrastructure and broadband network.
01 March 2010 | No Byline | The Australian Financial Review
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's version of ministerial responsibility turns out to be just as malleable as his predecessors', but with new twists and pikes that strain the credibility of his government.
01 March 2010 | No Byline | The Australian Financial Review
The rule of law has taken a step forward in Thailand, but ruling elites need to make more changes there to maintain stability and the economic rebound.
27 February 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
The Cooper review's proposal for a simple superannuation fund may not be a panacea but it will spark debate about the merits of professional fund managers through bull and bear markets. The investment managers that survive these pressures best will be those that can respond to any constructive criticism and, if need be, remodel their businesses so as to offer more competitive and reliable services to clients.
25 February 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
The future of Telstra and the promise to construct a national broadband network are another ticking time bomb for the government, which like the Henry report and the unfinished business on carbon emissions could explode this election year.
24 February 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
The Council of Australian Governments Reform Council's latest report on the national agreement to deliver a seamless national economy shows there's still an awful lot to do.
23 February 2010 | No Byline | The Australian Financial Review
Before the 2007 election the then opposition leader Kevin Rudd assailed the Howard government for its frequent lapses of ministerial accountability. One of Mr Rudd's first acts as Prime Minister was to announce a new, improved code of ministerial conduct which insisted ministers "accept the full implications of the principle of ministerial responsibility". The clear message was that he wanted to reverse three decades of drift from the strict principle of ministerial responsibility.
22 February 2010 | No Byline | The Australian Financial Review
Beijing faces domestic and international challenges that could hurt Chinese manufacturing and spread the pain to trading partners, including Australia.
20 February 2010 | No Byline | The Australian Financial Review
When the world caught the Great Inflation in the 1970s, Australia got a particularly heavy dose. It took two decades, a deep recession in 1991-1992 and some deeply unpopular reforms under the Keating government -- workplace deregulation and determined low inflation targetting by the Reserve bank -- to eradicate it. Low inflation over much of the subsequent two decades made possible the longest economic expansion in half a century, culminating in the China boom which the flexible economy was able to absorb without the need for a credit crunch for the first time in our modern history. Thanks to these reforms and the good fortune of being a big raw materials supplier to China and India, we also escaped relatively unscathed from the global financial crisis and the Great Recession. But the major developed economies were not so lucky and the aftermath of the crisis is throwing up plenty of hazards which the Rudd government is going to need all the skill and patience it can muster to safely navigate. As we outlined here on Friday, new capital and liquidity rules designed for the worst ringleaders of the toxic securities bust being cooked up in international forums threaten to bluntly penalise our relatively secure and well managed trading banks and further constrain lending to small and medium enteprises. The negative implications of this for the real economy and job creation are obvious. Just as worryingly, the massive sovereign debt problems of the developed economies of the United States, Japan and Europe are encouraging Northern hemisphere policymakers to think the unthinkable -- that inflating their way out of debt could be the least worst option -- all over again. International Monetary Fund chief economist Olivier Blanchard this week released a paper arguing that inflation of, say. 4 per cent -- well above the inflation targets of most rich countries -- might not be such a bad thing after all. It would allow heavily indebted rich countries to inflate their way out of their debt problems more quickly and less painfuly than they could earn their way out through austerity. One of Mr Blanchard's predecessors, columnist Kenneth Rogoff, recently mused that "temporary" inflation of up to 6 per cent might be an acceptable way for the US to escape its debt and deficits spiral. Beguiling though their reasoning may sound from their vantage points in Paris and ????, it is flawed and should be rejected. Just as bad money drives out good, years of bad public policy can drive out good policy. The economies facing the worst debt crises can not blame their predicaments entirely on the global financial crisis. They were running irresponsibly large budget deficits in the good times before the crisis, thanks to unsustainable welfare state spending or costly wars, or both. When the crisis hit and they had to bail out their banks and stimulate their economies, tipping their budgets into the danger zone of double digit deficits and mounting debts. It is true that there are no easy answers for these economies. Correcting a double digit budget deficit in the space of a few years -- as Greece is being asked to do as the price of European Union support -- would risk tipping them deep into recession and making their problems much worse. Put simply, much of Europe, Japan and the US face a decade of austerity to repair their stricken public finances, and their reduced spending power will make it harder for developing countries such as China, India and Brazil to maintain their momentum as the engines of global growth. But inflation is not the solution. The Euro would make it difficult to engineer only in those member states that needed it, and history shows it would be virtually impossible to engineer a "temporary' inflation outbreak. Prolonged inflation would destroy currency values indiscriminately. The inflationary dragon was only slain at great social cost. It would be dangerous to revive it. And whatever happens in the Northern hemisphere there is no need for Australia to entertain such an option given our healthy public finances.
17 February 2010 | No Byline | The Australian Financial Review
The federal government think it's onto a winner with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's brave decision to lead the coalition back into the workplace reform debate. So does ACTU president Sharan Burrow, who's dusting off her 2007 campaign dossier. The problem for the government and the union movement, however, is that the political climate has changed since 2007. Then, the benefits of the Howard government's workplace reforms -- 2 million jobs created without the inflationary crisis that previous jobs booms caused -- were taken for granted. Exaggerating the "evils" of Work Choices was easy for Labor and the unions.
17 February 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
The time has surely come for the government to end its bungled attempts to change tax treatment of employee share and option schemes and fix the policy once and for all.
11 February 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
This election year has got off to a bad start for at least three governments. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is looking flat-footed for the first time as he confronts the maverick new Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, and tries to keep the hydra-headed clim...
11 February 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
One word that defined the 2007 election campaign of now Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was innovation. Many in industry now question the government's bona fides and the ability of Industry Minister Kim Carr to create innovation policies that boost product...
08 February 2010 | The Australian Financial Review
The climate change debate has taken on a different hue since parliament last considered Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's proposed emissions trading scheme. Though not the complete failure that some critics allege, the United Nations summit in Copenhagen w...
