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Showing the benefits of Europe – Hein Roelfsema
There is an atmosphere of cautious waiting in the Brussels air. Major elections to come in France, Germany, as well as here in the Netherlands. But already some very worrying first drops start to come down. A very undecided ‘State of the Union’ speech by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker succeeded in the goal of […]
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Apple tax decision European Commission implied powers – Hein Roelfsema
Although last week’s taxation decision by the European Commission (EC) was widely anticipated, the €13bn size of the Apple ruling last week caused a shockwave within the European Union (EU) as well as between the EU and the US. As a university professor at the start of the academic year, the Apple case provides for […]
Call for key reforms in trade negotiations
I was honoured to be one of the economists who put their names to a major feature in today’s Australian, titled “Free trade mythology”. Despite the title, we are very much pro free trade – but we call for a number of reforms to our trade negotiation and communication governance processes and a renewed emphasis on […]
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SME business confidence & conditions up – NAB
The NAB’s June quarter survey of SME businesses (released today) shows both business conditions and confidence up in all states, although SA and WA (in particular) lag behind other states. Nationally, multiple measures of business conditions – particularly trading and profitability – were up, although employment conditions remain “lacklustre”. The business confidence index is up […]
Voting again beats minority government – Paul Kerin
In an article in today’s Australian, I expand on the argument I made on the Adelaide Economic Policy Forum article last Monday (available here) that unless one party can form a majority Federal government, it would be in the public interest to go back to the polls. The key point is that a majority government […]
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Governance arrangements and trade negotiations – Bill Carmichael
Bill Carmichael, the legendary former Chairman of the Industries Assistance Commission, was a very influential figure behind major economic reforms that have delivered substantial benefits to Australia. We are delighted that Bill has submitted an important paper titled Governance arrangements for future trade negotiations to the Adelaide Economic Policy Forum. Bill’s paper is about the […]
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Federal election: should we vote again to save the economy? – Paul Kerin
In my January column in Company Director, titled “The election effect” (and available here), I pointed out that economic research shows that in the year leading up to an election, business investment is (on average) about 5% lower than it otherwise would be. As business investment accounts for about 15% of GDP, a typical election […]
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Economic briefing on SA, Australian & global economies – SACES
At the SA Centre for Economic Studies’ Economic Briefing Luncheon this week, the Centre’s Deputy Director Steve Whetton, gave an excellent overview of the SA, Australian and global economies. Steve’s slides are available here.
Beef with knock-back of Kidman sale: a lost foreign direct investment opportunity – Christopher Findlay & Paul Kerin
In their article in The Weekend Australian, Christopher Findlay and Paul Kerin argue that the Federal Treasurer’s rejection of the sale of the S. Kidman & Co. cattle stations to a consortium 80% backed by private Chinese businesses has not been in Australia’s public interest. As well as forgoing the usual benefits that foreign direct […]
Realising economic reform in China – Christopher Findlay & Chunlai Chen
In an article just published in the East Asia Forum, Christopher Findlay and Chunlai Chen (a PhD graduate of the University of Adelaide, now at ANU) argue that the Chinese economy faces two fundamental challenges. One is the risk of a financial crisis. The other, possibly more difficult to deal with, is resistance by the […]