Alternative Economic Review No. 4: Will we all be Keynesians again?
The global economic crisisfrom a non-neoclassical viewpoint January 2008 Editorial: Will we all be Keynesians again? As a U.S. recession looks more and more like a done deal, many will argue that this...
View ArticleAlternative Economic Review No. 5: The myth of progressive taxation
The global economic crisis from a non-neoclassical viewpoint Final Edition — February 2008 Editorial: The myth of progressive taxation By “progressive” income taxation and “means-tested” welfare,...
View ArticleThe recession will not be fully imported
Australia's residential land market is a bubble about to burst. Because property is used as collateral for loans, a bursting bubble leaves lenders and borrowers exposed, causing a recession. It is...
View ArticleStill on the mountaintop: Economically rational racism
Gavin R. Putland marks an anniversary. Forty years ago, as Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of the Promised Land and prophesied “I may not get there with you,” a quiet revolution in economic theory was...
View ArticleBut why have taxes at all, dear Henry?
The first question for Ken Henry's tax review is whether we need taxes at all. If retirees can live on income from assets instead of burdening the taxpayer, why can't governments do the same? An asset...
View ArticleWill we be doing this again in 2026?
Three years and five months after warning that “the next adjustment of Australian interest rates would more properly be down,” Bryan Kavanagh claims vindication in the Age, noting that the Reserve Bank...
View ArticleHow the Left could learn to love a retail tax
Conventional wisdom holds that replacing income tax with a consumption tax would be regressive, and that it would devalue past savings by raising prices. Both objections assume that gross wages and...
View ArticleEconomic policy: A snake-oil duopoly
Gavin R. Putland writes on the Letters Blog at the Australian: Rudd is nаked too Kevin Rudd has declared that the interventionists are back in charge, the non-interventionists having “no clothes” due...
View Article100 years ago: “Mr Max Hirsch dies at Vladivostock”
A private cable message, received in Melbourne, stated that Mr Max Hirsch, one of the best known public men in Victoria, had died at Vladivostock, at 6.30 this morning. Mr Hirsch, who left Melbourne...
View Article100 years ago: “Mr. Max Hirsch. An appreciation”
BY MR R. MURRAY SMITH, C.M.G.* One of the most intimate friends of the late Mr Max Hirsch was Mr R. Murray Smith, C.M.G., who was asked to-day to say something about Mr Hirsch, as he appeared to his...
View ArticleMaking public transport pay for itself
A submission to the Senate Inquiry into the investment of Commonwealth and State funds in public passenger transport infrastructure and services, by Gavin R. Putland, BE PhD.* Abstract The benefit of...
View ArticleMaking the tax system comply with s.82 of the Constitution
A submission to the Treasury review on Australia's Future Tax System, by Gavin R. Putland. . . . If we must have personal income tax, responsibility for withholding PAYE tax should be shifted from...
View ArticleState bias against site-value rating
Differential rating causes a problem: it lets councils give special favours to special interests. So councils like it. So the Victorian Government allows it only for capital-improved-value rating,...
View ArticleDemocracy as we know it makes cronyism inevitable
Contrary to Peter Costello's latest pontifications in the Fairfax press, sticking to “broad policy” that “applies equally to people of like circumstances” does not prevent cronyism in government, but...
View ArticleWake up, Australia: Stamp duties on new cars are illegal
According to the definition accepted by the High Court of Australia in Ha v. NSW and earlier cases, the duties imposed by State governments on initial registrations of new cars (and new motorbikes,...
View ArticleRates on Site Values don't punish home builders
Gill Vivian's story (‘Wrong’ rates ping home builder, POST, 15/8, p.7) neatly explains why local rates should be levied on “site values” — that is, values of land and airspace, including any attached...
View ArticlePayroll tax is probably unconstitutional
One reason for Australia's chronic current account deficit is payroll tax, which inflates prices of Australian products, including exports and import replacements. This suggests that payroll tax is an...
View ArticleBuilders and land speculators: strange bedfellows
Andrew J. Gunter writes in the Age (Letters, Sep.11, 2009): Make a stand THE Housing Industry Association's Gil King says that “any policies that aim to speed up development applications and increase...
View ArticleFree trade isn't
The most important point about “free trade”, which Martin Feil completely misses (“Trade deals are a losing gamble”, The Age, Oct.21), is that it doesn't mean what it says. The trick is that “free”...
View ArticleLand-Backed Debt as a Revenue Base
Presented on April 27, 2010, at the IU Global Conference 2010 (London, April 26–30) by Gavin R. Putland.* Abstract In the case of land subject to a mortgage, Henry George favoured treating the...
View ArticleAn Australian Georgist in London, April 2010
The purpose of the trip was to present the paper “Land-Backed Debt as a Revenue Base” at the IU Global Conference, London, April 26–30, 2010. I left little time for anything else. Nevertheless......
View ArticleEmployers: How to scare off the tax man
Scenario 1: An employer, facing prosecution or bankruptcy for making a mistake with employees' PAYE tax, tells the ATO that if the case goes to court, “we will argue that the obligation to collect...
View ArticleA modestly Georgist “Draft Federal Budget Speech”
By Gavin R. Putland Madam Deputy Speaker: This Budget will eliminate unemployment in Australia. It will do this by eliminating four categories of taxes: first, and most importantly, taxes that cause...
View ArticleFiscal devaluation on steroids
Gavin R. Putland explains how “fiscal devaluation” can replace not only employers' contributions to superannuation, but also PAYG personal income tax. Payroll tax is a reverse tariff: an inland...
View ArticleNeutralizing stamp duty and development levies
It is appropriate that the surge in Melbourne home prices has rekindled debate on conveyancing stamp duty, but not so appropriate that the discussion has focused on the size of the duty instead of its...
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