Journalism and other writing
Australia’s rental and property market in general are in a dreadful mess, according to a research paper published last week by property companies PEXA and Longview.
Their prognosis is that it can only get worse unless something is done. The system is certainly not working for tenants, but, they argue, it is not very good for owners either.
Continue reading “Why renters are being done over”
Not far from the beautiful yachts and powered gin palaces on the Cairns Marina are a number of boat broker’s offices. In the back room of one, away from the glazed eyes of the clientele, is a sign put up for the eyes of the staff only. It reads: We Sell Nightmares to Dreamers.
I wonder if there is such a sign, or if not, the thought behind it, at the shipbuilders yards that construct nuclear submarines in in the US and Britain.
Continue reading “We must ask: where’s the money coming from”
Australians should take special heed of the analysis of the noted defence strategist Peter Jennings and then draw the exact opposite conclusion from his about what should be done.
Continue reading “We’re a target. What to do?”Journalists fall into the same trap as generals and politicians: they view the present war with blinkers imposed by the experience of past wars.
This has coloured the reaction to the Albanese Government daring to change tax arrangements on superannuation. There would be a major voter backlash, virtually every commentator argued. The horses would be frightened. Where would the slippery slope end, argued the Opposition – Labor will tax ordinary Australians to the hilt.
Continue reading “New wars different results”
True story. How a millionaire avoided $10,000 in tax by a simple accounting transaction which is perfectly legal.
Follow this true case carefully and you will be as astonished as I was that Australia’s superannuation rules could allow such a thing.
Continue reading “Estate planning should not be a super idea”
Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe is like a passenger in a racing car with both hands on the handbrake. Meanwhile, the real driver (the Government) has feet on the accelerator and foot brake and hands on the gears and steering wheel.
Yet it is Lowe who is expected to ensure the car circumnavigates the track, does not crash or break down, and glides to the chequered flag to the applause of one and all. But if he applies the handbrake (as he has done) and the car sways erratically, he is pilloried.
Continue reading “Lowe’s weak weaponry”
The race is on. And the stakes could not be higher.
The race is between competing interests. On one hand we have the broad mass of the world’s people who do not want to experience the catastrophes associated with global heating: floods, fires, food and water scarcity and so on. On the other hand, we have big fossil energy corporations and the policy-makers in nations that have large reserves of fossil energy.
Continue reading “A big race: fossil profits v transition”
Australians should be hoping that the members of the Reserve Bank board have read the 6000-word essay written by Treasurer Jim Chalmers for the latest edition of The Monthly before today’s board meeting.
But they probably haven’t or, if they have, won’t alter their static thinking and rates will rise – recklessly and riskily.
Continue reading “That essay: Stalin not at the gates”
What an unseemly, messy “debate” we had in the Australia Day week over the Voice.
To put it crudely, it seems that the whitefellas opposing the Voice are concerned that it might give the blackfellas too much, and that the blackfellas opposing the Voice are concerned that it will not give them enough.
Continue reading “It’s broke we need to fix it”
The demonstrators at last week’s virtual meeting of the elite rich and powerful at the Davos World Economic Forum were instructively and decisively different from previous demonstrations.
This was not the usual anarchists in the street demanding the end of capitalism. Rather it was 200 b/millionaires pleading mostly in writing for higher taxes to be imposed upon themselves.
Continue reading “Why millionaires want to pay more tax”