Sunday, 20 July 2014

Mining Resources Rent Tax is a good idea

The article below is by Ross Gittins and he explains why the MRRT is a good idea. A better designed tax would have raised more money and provided Australia with a Sovereign Wealth Fund to help maintain the standard of living of the country after the resources boom has passed.

Read and understand.

Thursday, 10 July 2014

Unemployment up, but not all bad news

Unemployment rose last month, and has now reached 6%. This might seem a bad thing, but there were actually more full time jobs last month and the rise in employment exceeded expectations.

The reason for the rise in unemployment is due to a higher participation rate. This is encouraging because it means more people are seeking work and that indicates a degree of confidence in the economy.

The ABC article says it all. In particular look at the State unemployment data at the bottom of the article.


Wednesday, 9 July 2014

Reasons to keep the Carbon Tax

As the Senate does or does not vote to keep the Carbon Tax it is useful to remember that the Economics of Climate Change says a Carbon price is a good idea.

It is also worth remembering that the Australian governments issue is that it does not raise enough revenue, thanks to the reckless Costello budgets. Therefore why not tax something bad? It's better than income tax or Medicare co-payments.


Thursday, 3 July 2014

The Economic consequences of Mr Abbott

Joe Stiglitz is possibly the economist who behaves most like Keynes in the modern era. He is never short of advice.

In his current visit to Australia he has been quick to point out the consequences of the current governments policy and he does not much like them. 

This is directly relevant to Budgetary and Supply side policy for Unit 4.