The Australian

Make population growth work

A growing population can bring economic benefits. It goes hand-in-hand with increased prosperity and better standards of living. It delivers a larger, better-skilled labour force and more vibrant cities. The real challenge is not to stop population growth. It is making population growth work. [...]

Europe’s social failure

Capital markets are not loquacious storytellers. They condense the world into simple numbers. For this reason, the surge in Greek, Italian and Spanish bond yields could be mistaken for a mere technicality, a simple recalibration between the forces of demand and supply that happens in markets every day. [...]

Greece has no choice but to get out of eurozone

The choice left to Europe's economically illiterate politicians is this: will they finally admit the euro cannot work for Greece (and other periphery countries)? Or will they realise it only after burning another few hundred billion? [...]

A miracle that masks a mirage

As it turns out, there is not much in the German manufacturing example that Australia should copy. We would be much better advised to make the best of our own comparative advantages of being a resource-rich economy in close proximity to the fastest growing part of the world economy. [...]

Think local and give country towns the freedom to prosper or perish

The fight between the lofty ambitions of planners and the cold hard reality of economics still rages. Politicians and planners still believe that they know better. Yet despite all their efforts they regularly fail to suspend the laws of geography and economics. [...]

The PC empire strikes back

When a society can no longer seriously debate political issues, controversial as they may be, it is not just a blow to freedom of speech. It also undermines a nation's capacity for economic reform. Truths may sometimes be painful and feelings may be hurt, but a society that cannot stand vigorous debate risks becoming stale and stagnant. [...]

A bad time to damage our economy as the next stage of the GFC looms

Domestic debates pale into insignificance in comparison with the financial storm that is brewing on the horizon. Why are we even contemplating new taxes that damage our international competitiveness at a time of the utmost economic uncertainty? Australia may have been an island of tranquillity post Lehman, but for how much longer? [...]

Greens unlikely to emulate German success

The Australian Greens' ambitions were dealt a blow in the recent NSW state election. They may have won the seat of Balmain, but their overall primary vote barely moved above the 10 per cent mark. To add insult to injury, the Greens are struggling to fend off a challenge by Pauline Hanson for a seat in the upper house. On the other side of the world, green is a far more popular colour. [...]

Most voters just want a pretty face

Sometimes, even a politician's smile is more important than his or her policies. Voter bias towards more beautiful politicians has long been confirmed in surveys. Where voters are uninformed about politicians' plans and beliefs they instinctively go by their appearance. But new research from Scandinavia reveals that good looks are quite unevenly distributed in this beauty contest. [...]

Myth of green jobs is leading to industrial decline

In Germany, subsidies for renewable energies are paid for by energy users. Renewable energy suppliers can feed their production into the grid at guaranteed high prices; the additional cost of green electricity is passed on to private and business energy users. [...]