Blogotariat

On war and remembrance

• Video: Piketty, Krugman, Stiglitz, and Durlauf on ‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’ - “”The French economist Thomas Piketty discussed his new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century at the Graduate Center. In this landmark work, Piketty argues that the main driver of inequality—the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth—threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. He calls for political action and policy intervention. Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, and Steven Durlauf participated in a panel moderated by Branko Milanovic.”

What was Mussolini’s funniest one-liner?

Opening a venture capital branch seems to be the new “thing” in the corporate world. While Telstra and Westpac are the new big national players, Google is clearly ahead of the curve, with two distinct venture capital firms: the newly launched Google Capital and the five-year-old Google Ventures. But why are so many companies, across a range of sectors, now running to open their own venture capital funds?

By Leith van Onselen Business Day’s Michael Pascoe has written a cracking article today (worth reading in full) questioning whether the New South Wales Government will have the cojones to side with the “consumer, competition, innovation and improved productivity”, or will side with the rent-seeking taxi industry, and seek to shut-down Uber’s ride sharing operation: [...]

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

By David Collyer, cross-posted from Prosper WA Treasurer Mike Nathan has heard the call from REIWA President David Airey to end Stamp Duty and fund this by removing exemptions from State Land Tax, according to today’s West Australian newspaper. I warmly welcomed Mr Airey’s comments yesterday because they rose above the traditional selfish tax-shifting nonsense [...]

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

By Leith van Onselen In the week ended 24 April 2014, the RP Data-Rismark 5-city daily dwelling price index, which covers the five major capital city markets, fell by 0.09%. It was the first weekly fall in values in eight weeks (see next chart). Values fell in two major capitals but rose in three (see [...]

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I spoke today with Marius Benson about Joe Hockey’s one big manufacturing success – a manufactured budget crisis, created by doubling the deficit. Here’s a transcript.

ANDREW LEIGH
SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER
SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION
MEMBER FOR FRASER

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW
ABC NEWSRADIO

THURSDAY, 24 APRIL, 2014

Over-the-top plays have not always gone well for Australia's telcos and Internet service providers. While the sector's big players -- Telstra, Optus, TPG, iiNet and Vodafone -- have proved themselves able at selling telecommunications services, in most cases they have also found it hard to make money from content or services sold over the top of their telco packages. But this doesn't appear to daunt iiNet, which tells the Financial Review this week that it has a war chest for just this purpose.

The basic assumption in Australian monetary policy right now is that the US recovery will push up interest rates in the medium term and that will, in turn, close the yield spread between Australian assets and those in the US, dragging down the Australian dollar. This forecast relies largely upon the expectations of the US [...]

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

If you believe the generous tributes to Neville Wran, NSW under his government was a paradise. In reality, corruption and dirty deals were rife, writes NM contributing editor Wendy Bacon

By Leith van Onselen Larry Summers, former secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton and the director of the National Economic Council for President Obama, has written a great article arguing for a substantial expansion of public infrastructure investment across the US in a bid to boost the economy: The American economy is not performing [...]

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]