Of razor gangs, budget cuts and the policy mix

In the Channel Nine series Underbelly Razor – as in real life – Sydney’s criminal matriarch Tilly Devine did not hesitate to wield the razor to keep her motley empire in line and protect it against incursion by rival gangs. It appears Julia Gillard approaches the task of achieving a budget surplus in 2012-13 with a similar ferocity of intent.

Gender pay gap: why do male CEOs with daughters pay women more?

Dad, can I have a pay rise?

Should a woman tending to personal care needs of an elderly person be paid more or less than a male garbage disposal worker? The government’s decision to support a pay rise for 150,000 social and community services workers delivers a well-earned boost to the pay packets of some of our most under-appreciated workers. But Fair Work Australia’s new powers to assess pay discrimination cases based on “equal or comparable work” open a can of worms.

Like cholesterol, inequality cuts both ways

Speaking of cholesterol...

SHOULD we worry about rising inequality? Protests across the United States under the Occupy Wall Street banner are in part a spontaneous outcry at the outrageous post-crisis salaries of Wall Street “bailoutees”. But they also find roots in a deeper, multi-decade trend of rising inequality in the US.

The true cost of NIMBYism

A home is the biggest purchase most Australians will make in their lifetime and yet most of us know very little about the forces that determine what types of homes are available to live in and what we must pay for them. Most of us think we have a pretty good idea of what our homes should be worth, but home prices, like prices for all private goods and services, are ultimately decided by the forces of supply and demand.

Should we worry about not “making stuff”?

People making stuff

Do you sometimes worry about Australia becoming a place that doesn’t “make things” any more? Let me lighten your load. Kevin Rudd used to worry about such things. In his first press conference as opposition leader in 2006, Rudd stressed he wanted to be the prime minister of “a country that actually makes things”.

Euro zone a car crash: best keep your eyes on the road

Lamborghini on fire... Italy?

You know how most of the traffic created by a car crash is not the crash itself, but everyone slowing down to have a rubberneck? Well, the same thing can happen with economies. And fair enough, the unfolding car crash that is the euro zone is a pretty horrific sight. It’s hard to look away.

Trouble keeping up with Euro woes? Get used to it.

Mamma Mia. Where are those happy days? They seem so hard to find. The Greek tragi-comedic musical continues to play on continuous loop. Leading characters are still struggling to sing from the same song sheet, emitting only a discordant jumble of sound and fury to set investor nerves a jangling. Which would be entertaining, if it weren’t so potentially lethal for the global credit system and world economy.

Monopoly blues: why top bosses’ riches are undeserved

In the hit Broadway musical How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, a young window washer discovers a book that tells him the secrets to climbing the corporate ladder.
If such a book were to exist in Australia, it would be short, consisting of one sentence: “Become the CEO of a company with monopoly power.”

Life is short, but the Tax Act is long

He forgot to do his tax return

IT’S around this time every year I get a jolting reminder of how short life is. Yep, tax returns are due on Monday, people. Have you done yours yet? So while some of you laze about reading newspapers this weekend, think of me sitting at home sifting through receipts

Tony Abbott-o-nomics, or not…

Economics textbooks are hefty objects. Many a kinked neck and curved spine have resulted from children being forced to lug such weighty tomes between school and home.
Whether many students manage to read and absorb the often turgid contents of such books remains an open question.