Recent publications in IPA Review article
Bailout Bonanza!
IPA Review | March 2009 Periods of economic turmoil have a habit of exposing weaknesses in policy, whether it is through inexperience, a lack of understanding, or a combination of these. Only a short twelve months ago, a newly elected Rudd...
The 'mining boom' myth
Mining isn't the be-all and end-all of the Australian economy. If the ‘mining boom ends', as widely predicted by politicians and other interventionists, life will go on. Apparently, Australia is even luckier than we generally think. We have...
Hitler's grotesque economics
Sinclair Davidson reviews The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy by Adam Tooze(Allen Lane, 2007, 799 pages). In the acclaimed television series Band of Brothers the Webster character abuses a column of German...
Did global warming send Lehman Brothers broke
NOVEMBER 2008: There's much debate about the causes of the global economic crisis. According to the popular media some of the chief suspects include ‘greed', ‘obscene executive salaries', and ‘predatory lenders'. But maybe the...
Liberal and Labor governments can't seem to restrain their spending
The new government has been laying out excellent criteria for public policy, writes Mitch Fifield. But its own policies are failing these stringent tests. On a Brisbane stage in mid-November last year, Kevin Rudd positioned the final nail above...
It's been a long time since the Corn Laws
Tim Wilson reviews Trade Policy, New Century: The WTO, FTAs and Asia Rising by Razeen Sally (Institute of Economic Affairs,2008, 226 pages) Despite their common goal, there is enormous debate amongst free trade advocates about the best means to...
Superannuation and MacBank as the zenith of the Australian nation
Richard Allsop reviews Unfinished Business: Paul Keating's interrupted revolution by David Love (Scribe, 2008, 264 pages) According to David Love in his new book Unfinished Business: Paul Keating's interrupted revolution, Paul Keating and...
Can free markets be as interesting as regulated markets?
Sinclair Davidson reviews The Best Book on the Market: How to Stop Worrying and Love the Free Economyby Eamonn Butler (Capstone, 2008, 172 pages) Eamonn Butler has written a marvellous little book promoting the free market. The best book on...
Try to remember: when you're in opposition, it's not about you anymore
‘If you don't understand the GST, don't vote for it.' That was Paul Keating's message days out from the 1993 election. It helped turn the poll around. Like all successful political lines, it was both shorthand and subliminal. What Keating...
Building the Australian Nanny State
Free bibs Victorian Deputy Premier Rob Hulls has announced an additional $35,000 of funding for Auskick programs to provide bibs and waist bags to identify volunteers who had met working with children checks. V-chip for Australia The Senate...