Justin Pyvis
Justin has a PhD in Economics and over 20 years of experience in applied economic, policy and investment analysis with the WA Treasury and AECOM in Perth, and Aletheia Capital in Hong Kong. He writes Aussienomics in between freelance gigs and work on a book covering the policies that create the conditions for prosperity.
2024
Brisbane should withdraw from hosting the 2032 Olympics. The cancellation costs will pale into comparison to the billions that will be wasted in cost overruns and the creation of underutilised facilities, funds which would be much better spent on other priorities.
Javier Milei's troubles in Argentina; the death of the Scottish Enlightenment; how to regulate AI; Bowen's emission's backdown; the limits of industrial policy; how not to fix housing; and how happy are we, really?
Oh boy. Another year, another GST carve-up that led to a flurry of complaints from the states that ’lost out’. This time it was the NSW and QLD Labor governments that were the most vocal, with NSW facing a $310 million cut, while QLD lost $469 million. For context, that’s a total revenue cut of around 0.25% and 0.55% in 2024-25 for each state, respectively – closer to a Budget rounding error than a major policy decision.
Tasmanians will go to the polls tomorrow but it's looking like it'll be more of the same; I ask whether you should you fly on a Boeing; why Xi Jinping's leadership meant Evergrande was inevitable; and what's going on across the ditch.
The NBN was a costly mistake that has failed to earn a commercial return, hindered competition, and its business model is being undermined by new technologies. Might it be time to rethink the experiment?
If Australia's policymakers don't address the rising energy demands of AI, we risk falling behind other advanced nations. Despite its many critics, nuclear is a potential solution alongside renewables, and should not be ruled out so cavalierly.
The rental affordability crisis has been overblown; why your shower should be a lot better; Chris Minns is doing great work on housing; the freaky side of politics and academia; and a little green bonus.
Australia’s national accounts were released last week and confirmed that our per capita recession – defined as two consecutive quarterly contractions – didn’t just continue into the December quarter, but deepened: on a per person basis, our economy is now a full 1% smaller than where it was a year ago.
The Greens released their much-hyped housing plan last week and while I wouldn’t normally give this much attention to a minor party’s policy, it was just so full of well-meaning but really confused policy, I just had to weigh in.
Where the cost of living crisis is biting hardest; China's pivot from growth to security; AI is a marathon, not a sprint; why interest rates might stay higher for longer; and plenty more in this week's Fodder.