Housing
This is the first of what I intend to become a regular Oz Econ Pulse, a free roundup of the economic, political, and social trends that impact Australia. Normally I'd send it out on a Friday or Saturday but with the Easter break this is a short week,
Deep Dives
He just really likes tariffs.
Industrial policy
This update has become something of a weekly policy analysis wrap, given the flurry of announcements we're getting ahead of a federal election that now looks like it'll be held on or before 12 April (today is the deadline for a 29 March election to be
Deep Dives
A sugary drink tax will do more harm than good.
Deep Dives
Ed Husic's call for genuine corporate tax reform could boost investment, raise wages, and drive economic growth. But do we have the political willpower to get it done?
Deep Dives
Facebook leaving Australia shows that the media bargaining code backfired. The government misdiagnosed the problem and harmed consumers while benefiting the big media companies. It's time to cut our losses, accept that the code was a mistake, and focus on real solutions to support local media.
Deep Dives
We desperately need tax reform in this country and fixing bracket creep for good would be an excellent feather for Chalmers to put in his rather empty reformist cap.
Deep Dives
I'm honestly not sure why Albo was willing to risk so much political capital on a relatively small distributional change just to get his very own Oprah moment. But the whole stage 3 tax cut song and dance is a recurring sideshow to a much, much deeper issue: bracket creep.
Money
Ah, the age-old question: does money buy you happiness? The general consensus is yes – to an extent. For example, surely the happiness a person gets from their billionth dollar is less than what they derived from their first dollar? Nobel Prize winners Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton (2010) formalised this