Articles from Peter Martin
Primary tabs
Sure, interest rates are negative, but so are some prices, and when you look around, they’re everywhere
On December 10, it finally happened. Instead of demanding an interest payment from the government in return for lending it money, a group of investors offered to pay the government in order to lend it money.
Naturally enough, the offer was accepted.
The government needed A$1.5 billion which it promised to repay on March 26.
It sought tenders. What was the lowest return an investor would accept to lend it the money?
What’s the best way to boost the economy? Invest in high-voltage transmission lines
When, in the midst of the pandemic, the Economic Society of Australia invited 150 of Australia’s keenest young thinkers to come up with “brief, specific and actionable” proposals to improve the economy, amid scores of ideas about improving job matching, changing the tax system, providing non-repayable loans to businesses and accelerating telehealth, two proposals stood out.
So far so good: MYEFO shows recovery gathering pace
Outside of Victoria the number of hours worked has almost returned to where it was – nowhere near where it would have been, but almost where it was.
We're not really out of recession, as these graphs show
It’d be wrong to say that we are out of recession, although that’s how the graph of Wednesday’s GDP numbers makes it look.
Retirement review finds problems more super won’t solve
It would be a waste if the Friday’s mammoth Retirement Incomes Review was remembered only for its finding that increases in employers compulsory superannuation contributions come at the expense of wages.
5 ways the Reserve Bank is batting for us like never before
The most important of the five measures the Reserve Bank announced on Tuesday is the one that won’t whirr into place for a very long time.
Others start immediately. On Thursday the bank will wade into the market and start buying up bonds issued by Australian governments.
Australia's top economists oppose the next increases in compulsory super: new poll
The five consecutive hikes in compulsory super contributions due to start next July should be deferred or abandoned in the view of the overwhelming majority of the leading Australian economists surveyed by the Economic Society of Australia and The Conversation.