Fresh Economic Thinking

How do organisations that emerge to help people end up degrading over time and becoming a plain old shakedown? That’s the topic I discuss with regular co-host Jonathan Gadir. Although we don’t mention it, my book Rigged , co-authored with Paul Frijters, explains many of the economic mechanisms behind the degradation of institutions into what could be described as a rent-seeking mafia. As always, p...

Will rent control destroy your city? Or is this a slogan economists use to signal their tribal allegiance? Cahal Moran, aka Unlearning Economics, discusses his intellectual journey into economics and the discovery of many shortcomings of how economics is taught and practised. Cahal’s latest Current Affairs article is called Rent Control is Fine, Actually . Watch all his YouTube videos here , and f...

With all the cost-of-living crisis talk these days, you might wonder if it is possible for young Aussies to get ahead financially. But there is a group of people out there winning the financial game of life with their approach to financial independence. The perfect guest to discuss personal financial habits is Matt, who runs the Aussie Firebug website , where he documents his journey of to financi...

Taxpayers Alliance Chief Economist John Humphreys joins the FET podcast to talk all things tax. Is it possible to tax unrealised gains, as is proposed on superannuation accounts over $3 million in value? Maybe. But why bother doing it when it mostly changes the timing of taxation rather than the revenue? We speculate as to whether it is a daring political manoeuvre—propose something you know your...

Given the Australian media’s obsession with the housing crisis, it would come as a shock to many that the share of after-tax disposable income spent on rent by renter households is lower in 2025 than it has been for most of the last decade. But that’s what ANU Professor Ben Phillips found in his latest research on rental affordability (you can find it here or download it below). In today’s FET vid...

There is an interesting debate taking place in urbanist circles. Is more density good for families because it helps reduce housing costs, or bad for families because it creates a lifestyle and environment that is not conducive to large families? Indeed, we might consider changing our policies and regulations based on what we think is the answer to this question. But do we have a reasonable answer?...

Was voting easy and efficient for you? This is something we should all appreciate. Australia’s electoral commission makes voting easy. Our preferential system improves on first-past-the-post single-member electoral systems. And all of this happens quietly and quickly for $30 per vote, thanks to the Australian Electoral Commission. Together with Jonathan Gadir, we riff on the good, the bad, and the...

Anna Samson has had a decade-long career in aid, was a US State Department-funded Fulbright Scholar, and has a PhD in international relations and American foreign policy. In this episode we discuss the inadvertent economic and political outcomes of foreign aid on receiving nations. What surprised me was Anna’s view on the scale of the rent-seeking across the aid industry and the transformation of...

Richard Tooth has a plan—save 300 lives a year on Australian roads. How? By using economic ideas to align risks and incentives better. Take a look at the chart below. People who die on Australia’s roads are young. Preventing a road death would save 40-50 years of life on average. That’s big. Cancer treatments typically save 4-10 life years, then we get five to ten times the life gains from prevent...

Paul Frijters runs Academia Libera Mentis from a castle in Belgium. After a distinguished academic career in Australia and Europe, he is creating an academic oasis in the Ardennes for thinking, learning and growing. I’ve written before about this project. Today, we reflect on five years of the corona panic debacle, the economic and social fallout we are still experiencing, and what we could have k...

A few weeks back, I had engineer Ben Beattie on the podcast to explain some of the unappreciated costs of transitioning to a renewable electricity grid. Before this, Aidan Morrison had explained how many of the costs required to deal with variation in when and where energy is produced from wind and solar were excluded from the (in)famous GenCost report from the CSIRO. Today, Professor Mark Diesend...

In a recent FET article, I explained how the rental market adjusts to inflation arising in non-housing goods and services. Find that article here: The key quote is this: Another insight from the rental equilibrium is that inflation in non-housing goods means that renter households can pay more for rent because that means giving up fewer other goods and services for an extra quantity or quality of...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.fresheconomicthinking.com Paid Fresh Economic Thinking subscribers can enjoy the audiobook version of Rigged: How networks of powerful mates rip off everyday Australians via their favourite podcast app. Chapters will be released weekly over the coming months. A physical copy or ebook can be bought here . Rigged was originally publis...

Electrical engineer Ben Beattie runs The Baseload Podcast , providing “common sense and unfiltered commentary” on Australia’s energy sector. Given the enormous investments taking place now (and planned in the next decade) to transition Australia’s electricity grid to predominantly renewables, it is worth keeping a close eye on the engineering and economic realities at play. To know if the costs of...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.fresheconomicthinking.com Paid Fresh Economic Thinking subscribers can enjoy the audiobook version of Rigged: How networks of powerful mates rip off everyday Australians via their favourite podcast app. Chapters will be released weekly over the coming months. A physical copy or ebook can be bought here . Rigged was originally publis...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.fresheconomicthinking.com Paid Fresh Economic Thinking subscribers can enjoy the audiobook version of Rigged: How networks of powerful mates rip off everyday Australians via their favourite podcast app. Chapters will be released weekly over the coming months. A physical copy or ebook can be bought here . Rigged was originally publis...

Cameron and Jonathan discuss the trend of moving from Australia to cheaper countries abroad to beat the cost of living and the apparent inability to get ahead down under. —————— Follow  Cameron  and  Jonathan  on X/Twitter. Buy The Great Housing Hijack here . Please like, comment, share, and subscribe. Theme music: Happy Swing by Serge Quadrado Music under Creative Commons Licence CC BY-NC 4.0 Thi...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.fresheconomicthinking.com Paid Fresh Economic Thinking subscribers can enjoy the audiobook version of Rigged: How networks of powerful mates rip off everyday Australians via their favourite podcast app. Chapters will be released weekly over the coming months. A physical copy or ebook can be bought here . Rigged was originally publis...

Cameron and Jonathan examine Australia’s proposed social media ban for kids aged 16 and find it hard not to be critical of it. —————— Follow  Cameron  and  Jonathan  on X/Twitter. Buy The Great Housing Hijack here . Please like, comment, share, and subscribe. Theme music: Happy Swing by Serge Quadrado Music under Creative Commons Licence CC BY-NC 4.0 This is a public episode. If you'd like to disc...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.fresheconomicthinking.com Paid Fresh Economic Thinking subscribers can enjoy the audiobook version of Rigged: How networks of powerful mates rip off everyday Australians via their favourite podcast app. Chapters will be released weekly over the coming months. A physical copy or ebook can be bought here . Rigged was originally publis...

Robert Sobyra is the research lead at BuildSkills Australia. Earlier this year Rob predicted that Australian unemployment in December would be above 4.7%. I took the other side of the bet and that now seems to be the winning side. Hear about why that unemployment uptick was forecast and the puzzling strength of the Australian economy, especially relative to its peers in Canada and New Zealand. Als...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.fresheconomicthinking.com Paid Fresh Economic Thinking subscribers can enjoy the audiobook version of Rigged: How networks of powerful mates rip off everyday Australians via their favourite podcast app. Chapters will be released weekly over the coming months. A physical copy or ebook can be bought here . Rigged was originally publis...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.fresheconomicthinking.com Paid Fresh Economic Thinking subscribers can enjoy the audiobook version of Rigged: How networks of powerful mates rip off everyday Australians via their favourite podcast app. Chapters will be released weekly over the coming months. A physical copy or ebook can be bought here . Rigged was originally publis...

Robert is an insightful Aussie commentator who has written at Fresh Economic Thinking before about the puzzle of the Labor party refusing to move left politically. Hear Robert’s thoughts on bicycle helmets, superannuation, school lunches and public transport fares and see if you are convinced by the arguments. Find Robert on X here . —————— Follow  Cameron  and  Jonathan  on X/Twitter. Buy The Gre...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.fresheconomicthinking.com Paid Fresh Economic Thinking subscribers can enjoy the audiobook version of Rigged: How networks of powerful mates rip off everyday Australians via their favourite podcast app. Chapters will be released weekly over the coming months. A physical copy or ebook can be bought here . Rigged was originally publis...