Fresh Economic Thinking

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 The Great Housing Hijack via their favourite podcast app. Two chapters will be released weekly over the coming months. Theme music: Happy Swing by Serge Quadrado Music under Creative Commons Licence CC BY-NC 4.0

This article is for paid Fresh Economic Thinking subscribers. Please support FET and enjoy detailed analysis such as this by upgrading to a paid subscription. Maybe also check out the Fresh Economic Thinking YouTube channel where interviews and free podcasts are posted regularly. What is the marginal cost of producing an extra home? This article gets into the weeds and was prompted by this tweet a...

It costs $30 billion a year in fees alone and takes 11% of wages as a non-tax compulsory payment from families at the time they need the money most, yet there is no lobby group seeking to scrap the wasteful superannuation system. Cameron and Jonathan discuss how interest groups sprung up around the super honeypot, and contemplate how to form such an anti-super lobby. Please leave your comments if...

Please consider supporting Fresh Economic Thinking — Australia’s newest one-man think-tank—by upgrading to a paid subscription. Thank you to all my existing paid FET subscribers. You will get the audiobook of The Great Housing Hijack starting later this month via the FET podcast. Your support helps me do things like a recent debate with Kevin Erdmann about “What makes housing more affordable? Publ...

You might have heard this: “The biggest SCAM in life: Paying taxes on money that you make, taxes on money you spend, and taxes on things you own, that you already paid taxes on, with already taxed money.” A previous FET article explained why this makes no sense, as money circulates and value accumulates. We chat more about why this is wrong and what are legitimate issues in the Australian tax syst...

Do you suspect electricity retailers are scamming you? You're probably right. Jonathan rants about how a strange note on his power bill sent him down the rabbit hole to discover just how stupid and funny our energy retail pseudo-market is. The long bureaucratic incubation of the Better Bills Guideline is here . Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis says that if the energy market is compli...

The economic performance of the United States in the past year has been exceptional compared to Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Here’s why. The United States is still stimulating its economy with Covid-era monetary policy because of its unique mortgage market with 30-year fixed interest rates. Manipulating the price of mortgages and via this, housing investment and prices, is the main way we ma...

This is a different FET episode. It was recorded in December 2023 in Wellington with Bernard Hickey for his podcast at  The Kaka . Tim Helm and I talk about important and often neglected economic details in the housing supply and price debates. However, in the four months since, Hickey couldn’t find the time to post this conversation, despite the housing topic being a major media story and finding...

What is The Great Housing Hijack? Who’s housing crisis is it anyway? And why do we need to understand the economic concept of equilibrium to know whether our housing policy will work? Jonathan and Cameron chat about the new book and the big ideas within it. Get The Great Housing Hijack on Amazon here . Follow Cameron and Jonathan on X/Twitter. Please like, comment, share, and subscribe. Theme musi...

Thank you to paid FET supporters. Your support allows me to do things like: * Appear as an expert witness at the Senate Inquiry into Shared Equity (was 5th March) * Appear at the Senate Inquiry into Retirement (on Tuesday 12th March). * Conduct a seminar on housing economics for NSW regulator IPART (also 12th March) The season for change in higher learning is now. Not only have I started Fresh Eco...

Don’t forget to pick up a copy of The Great Housing Hijack . Upcoming in-person events: * Brisbane: 13th March 2024, 6pm at Avid Reader, West End * Melbourne: 20th March, 12.20pm, John Cain Luncheon with Per Capita * Melbourne: 20th March, 3.30pm at RMIT * Canberra: 21st of March, 6.30pm hosted by The Australia Institute Paid FET subscribers get access to this post and article voiceovers on their...

Upcoming in-person events for The Great Housing Hijack (out on 27th Feb): * Sydney: 28th February, 6.30pm at Inner West Library * Sydney: 29th February, 6.30pm at the University of Sydney * Sydney : 1 March, 5.30pm at Macquarie University * Brisbane: 13 March 2024, 6pm at Avid Reader, West End * Melbourne: 20th March, 12.30pm John Cain Lunch with Per Capita * Melbourne: 20th March, 3.30pm at RMIT...

Who is Immanuel Wallerstein and does his “world-systems” approach provide insights into our social and economic world? Check out some of Wallerstein’s writing here , and an interesting an relevant article on his thinking for today is here . Follow Cameron and Jonathan on X/Twitter. Please like, comment, share, and subscribe. Theme music: Happy Swing by Serge Quadrado Music under Creative Commons L...

I talk to Tim Helm about the rise of “Yes In My Back Yard” (YIMBY) as a cultural movement and dig into some of the economics missing from housing debates. Follow Cameron and Jonathan on X/Twitter. 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 discuss this with other...

Australia in 2022-23 has seen record net immigration, as have other countries such as New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom. We discuss the structure of Australia’s immigration system, the economics of our policy choices, and what might be a more sensible immigration program. Leith is the Chief Economist at Macrobusiness . Follow Cameron and Jonathan on X/Twitter. Please like, comment, share...

Have you ever thought it might be possible to retire early? My guest today is Matt from Aussie FIREBUG who has done that. He’s been part of the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement. What’s it all about, and does it make economic sense? Find out all about the FIRE movement at Aussie FIREBUG . Follow Cameron and Jonathan on X/Twitter. Please like, comment, share, and subscribe. Theme...

What is a property buyer’s agent? How can trading housing be more efficient? And how we can boost the regions to take population pressure off the capital cities? Hear Pete’s views on these questions and more in this engaging chat and follow him on X/Twitter @PeteWargent. Follow Cameron and Jonathan on X/Twitter. Please like, comment, share, and subscribe. Theme music: Happy Swing by Serge Quadrado...

You might have heard that renewables are the cheapest new electricity generation technology. But is this claim true? Physicist and businessman Aidan Morrison looked into the assumptions and analysis in the various reports that produce such claims from organisations like the CSIRO and AEMO. Aidan has published his initial analysis of the “sunk cost assumption” hidden in these reports at Fresh Econo...

Tim Helm is the Research Director of Prosper Australia . We chat about Tim’s intellectual journey into the economics of property and housing, and his views on housing prices and debates about supply. The Auckland analysis referenced in the episode can be found here and here . Follow Cameron and Jonathan on Twitter. Theme music: Happy Swing by Serge Quadrado Music under Creative Commons Licence CC...

What are the legal and economic issues that arise when trying to enforce a duty of care to future generations? Cameron and Jonathan discuss the legal and economic questions arising from the Private Senators Bill by David Pocock intending to “legislate a positive duty of care, creating a requirement for politicians and policy makers to consider the impact of climate harm on young people and future...

There has been a lot of news on both the housing policy and COVID policy fronts recently. Cameron and Jonathan share their thoughts on things like the Housing Future Fund, the latest on Australia’s COVID vaccination injury compensation scheme, a new anti-discrimination bill about COVID vaccines, and news out of the United States about hidden influences behind the COVID mandates, and more. The Lee...

Why does an economist start a website documenting the effect of city upzoning? Matthew Maltman is an Australian economist who runs the website onefinaleffort.com . In this interview, Cameron talks with Matthew Maltman about the case for experimenting with zoning changes to understand what really happens. Did Auckland fix its housing problems with upzoning? Where are other planning rule changes bei...

Misha Saul is an investment manager by day, but by night he is also one of the more interesting participants in Australia’s economic, cultural and political debates. He has broad interests in history, culture, war, finance and business, and always gets you thinking. For example, Misha wrote an essay entitled A “New Hong Kong” in Australia? where he mused about building new cities and how we might...

What exactly is Super? What’s its purpose? How can we do retirement policy better? This is Part 2 of a special joint episode where Cameron is hosted by Matt from Aussie Firebug to participate in a debate about superannuation with CIO of The Motley Fool Australia, Scott Phillips. Find Part 1 of this episode here . Check out Aussie Firebug here . Follow Cameron and Jonathan on Twitter. Theme music:...

What exactly is Super? What’s its purpose? This is Part 1 of a special joint episode where Cameron is hosted by Matt from Aussie Firebug to participate in a debate about superannuation with CIO of The Motley Fool Australia, Scott Phillips. * What is the purpose of Super? * Is there an alternative to the current Super system? * Thoughts on how we could fix the Super system * Do we actually need to...