Price and Asset Inflation and Debt
Consumer Price Inflation, Asset Inflation and Debt Price and Asset Inflation and Debt Price and Asset Inflation and Debt. Inflation has been an important topic among economists, for some time, since COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine conspired to force prices up around the world. The discussion of consumer price inflation has become overly complicated. […]
The Care Economy
The Care Economy But nobody cares. This might be the dilemma we face because of the ageing population that the intergenerational report (IGR) talks about. In its fact sheet the IGR talks about how the ageing population will reinforce the trend towards a services-based economy, with the care and support sector and its workforce potentially […]
The Australian Labour Market in 2023
Australian Labour Market I was listening to the radio where an economist, Stephen Wu, employed by the CBA, was being interviewed on Radio National about an indicator he has developed to help assess the state of the Australian labour market. He made the point that when the unemployment rate is used in isolation to judge […]
Deflation or Stagflation
Deflation or Stagflation If I had to choose between these two evils, it would probably be stagflation, but it would be a close-run thing. It looks like the reserve bank may eventually be in the invidious position of one day having to deal with stagflation. Stagflation is roughly defined as the condition in which there […]
The Energy Transition
The Energy Transition – The State of Play The energy transition is a term that describes the path away from using fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas to produce energy. Energy is required to run our transport, industrial, household and other energy-using sectors. It is the basis of our ongoing prosperity so mishandling […]
Clipping the Ticket
Clipping the Ticket in Superannuation Do this exercise. Use a simple calculator or the calculator app on your computer and type the following numbers in this order: 100000 x 1.07 Now type the ‘=’ key 25 times. You will arrive at the number 542743.26. Repeat this exercise and replace 1.07 with 1.08. The number you […]
A Soft Landing is Now Off the Table
A Soft Landing is Now Off the Table in 2023 A soft landing is now off the table for the Australian economy. The recent national accounts showed that GDP increased by only .2% in the first quarter of this calendar year. This falls within the scope of rounding error which could be revised to a […]
The Debt Ceiling
The Debt Ceiling Drama The debt ceiling is exercising the minds of anyone who has an interest in the continued functioning of a key plank of the financial system. It relates to part of the system that underpins our capitalist economy. US Government debt. Many conspiracy theories surround the attribution of the US dollar as […]
The Budget 2023 Based on Luck
Budget 2023 We have had a budget bought down that forecasts a surplus. It is a budget for a lucky country with rivers of royalty gold pouring into the coffers of the Federal Government care of a commodities boom that hasn’t been handicapped by a currency at parity with the USD as the commodity boom […]
The Reserve Bank of Australia set up to fail
A relatively modern discovery of the branch of economics called macroeconomics is the empirical relationship between the rate of inflation and the rate of unemployment. The relationship, which was discovered in 1958 by UK economist A.W. Phillips, shows an inverse relationship between the level of unemployment and the rate of change in wages. We have […]
