You do not need prices in a land of plenty. Prices are a wonderful way of coordinating competing demands on scarce resources. Read more

If the Government wants its announced increase to the Accommodation Supplement to do any good, it had better have some policies ready to help increase housing supply. Otherwise, landlords are likely to be the main beneficiaries. Read more

Australia makes me happy. It gives me a sense of perspective. Read more

While Budget days bring focus to the Government’s spending priorities, there is no budget day for regulation. Regulation never gets the same attention as spending, but it is at least as important. Read more

There are a lot of dumb cases for tax cuts. I’ll try not to make one of those here, but let’s cover those dumb ones off first Today’s dumb case for tax cuts was once a smart case for them – in the 1970s. Read more

A good mythbusting takes on the things we know that aren't so. There's plenty of popular misperception out there in need of it. Read more

When economist Paul Samuelson was challenged to come up with an economic principle that was both true and non-obvious, he cited comparative advantage. That two people, or countries, can be made better off by trading, even if one of them is better at producing everything that they might trade, is hardly intuitive. Read more

Infrastructure financing can be tough for fast-growing councils hitting up against their debt limits. When interest payments, as a fraction of expenditures, are up against the cap, new borrowing for infrastructure has to quickly provide a return that offsets the interest costs. Read more

You already know about Schrödinger’s Cat: the imaginary cat trapped in a box with a device that may, or may not, have already killed the cat. The cat is then simultaneously dead and alive, from the position of someone outside of the box. Read more

The Commerce Commission is nothing if not clever. While it kept everyone busy watching for its rulings on media mergers, it quietly cornered the market on competition policy conferences. Read more

I may risk creating the impression that I enjoy judicial euphemisms. For the past few years, police have been getting stroppy about alcohol licences. This was most obvious when Parliament had to legislate around police obstructionism to allow bars to stay open to screen the Rugby World Cup in 2015. Read more

Nobody yet knows the new pay equity regime’s administrative cost. But we have a pretty good estimate of the costs of the pay equity settlement for the aged care sector: about two billion dollars. Read more

It is too easy to take prices for granted – in part because nobody invented them. If somebody had invented prices as a way of making sure that goods, services, capital and workers wind up, for the most part, getting to the places where they are most needed, that hero would have commemorative statues everywhere. Read more