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Richard Holden

Richard Holden

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No Minister Jones. Big is good for consumers in the digital economy

The default idea that new regulation should aim at reducing the market shares of tech companies is old economy thinking.

10.12.2024 6

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Why price discrimination can be a good thing

The online age may make it easier for companies to predict what we’re willing to pay. But it also makes it easier for us to share stories of nasty...

08.12.2024 10

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Unlisted assets mask awkward questions about super governance

We need to be sure that on valuations, trustees are not conducting some tick-a-box exercise and playing with the retirement savings of members.

27.11.2024 10

Financial Review

Richard Holden

The economics behind ‘credible threats’

Good strategy involves knowing the game, including your opponents, and committing to a strategy.

24.11.2024 10

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Campaign finance laws could reduce not increase political competition

The community independents are right that this legislation is too important to be rushed through parliament in the final two sitting weeks.

17.11.2024 4

Financial Review

Richard Holden

An OECD global tax deal is close. Australia should jump on board

It wasn’t a good look for Australia to be on the world stage at last month’s IMF meetings as a noted holdout on a crucial international agreement.

12.11.2024 10

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Trump’s win shows voters want lower prices at any cost

The hard truth for Labor is that inflation is kryptonite for centre-left governments, and Anthony Albanese’s record on prices is very similar to Joe...

08.11.2024 10

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Why interest rates will not fall soon – or by much when they do

Rising demand for investment capital to fund things like the green revolution will keep the price of money higher than it was.

28.10.2024 10

Financial Review

Richard Holden

The algorithm that decides what uni course you get

Year 12 students applying for university this year will be allocated to courses based on a famous algorithm called “deferred acceptance”.

22.10.2024 10

Financial Review

Richard Holden

As Nobel Prize winners prove, strong institutions are good for us

The 2024 gong in economic sciences went to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson. Their studies have vital lessons for today’s...

15.10.2024 9

Financial Review

Richard Holden

The best tips for investing in markets (from economists)

Buy stocks when prices are low compared to dividends, and sell them when prices are high compared to dividends. Simple, right? But there’s always...

14.10.2024 9

Financial Review

Richard Holden

The answer to our housing crisis is three letters: EBA

For all the focus on the illegal activities of the CFMEU, it’s their legal activities that have played a starring role in our housing affordability...

25.09.2024 10

Financial Review

Richard Holden

There is a much better way to fund universities’ R&D spend

The damage that international student caps would do to our sovereign research capability can be addressed by fully funding research overheads.

17.09.2024 8

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Bank profits are the price of trust, and bitcoin proves it

One way to think about part of the profits that banks make is that it’s the cost of providing trust. But first you need to understand how...

11.09.2024 10

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Why is the RBA acting scared of Jim Chalmers?

The governor and deputy governor’s dangerous signals of non-independence threaten the secret sauce of central banking.

08.09.2024 10

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Labor’s price freeze shows the economic problem with childcare subsidies

Government contributions will again increase demand without boosting supply. No wonder fees keep rising.

01.09.2024 10

Financial Review

Richard Holden

The two words you should always treat with caution in business

Sentences which begin “Studies show...” are often followed by a description of a correlation interpreted as if it were a causal relationship -...

29.08.2024 10

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Bullock talks tough, but board can’t stomach raising rates

The RBA has squibbed again this month. With long-run credibility on the line, it needs to focus on getting inflation inside the target band

06.08.2024 7

Financial Review

Richard Holden

The land of the fair go is taxing social mobility

Antiquated over-reliance on income taxes means that if you do manage to succeed, Australia then taxes that success heavily.

23.07.2024 7

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Tariffs, inflation, debt: The economic hits of a re-elected Trump

Trump’s first term tariffs did not crater the US or world economies. The same cannot be said for his far more ambitious plans the second time...

10.07.2024 8

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Bullock speaks semi-hawkishly about inflation, but acts dovishly

Apparently the Reserve Bank thinks raising rates would trigger a technical recession, so don’t expect our inflation-driven cost-of-living crisis to...

18.06.2024 6

Financial Review

Richard Holden

The three key lessons for RBA and our leaders to defeat inflation

Interest rates are going to have to stay (or go) higher for longer, and governments are going to have to stop expanding their spending so rapidly.

03.06.2024 20

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Forget policy, Albonomics is all politics

The budget is just more hard proof that Australia has not elected a government driven by policy since Kevin Rudd’s Labor in 2007.

14.05.2024 20

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Australia’s last-mile inflation looks like the last 10 miles

The Albanese government took power promising to increase wages. It was a risky gamble that is not paying off.

29.04.2024 30

Financial Review

Richard Holden

The dangers in designing policy via opinion polls

From banks to supermarkets to AUKUS, governments use the wrong tools to get the job done.

16.04.2024 20

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Can Australia compete in the new post-inflation world?

The “new neutral” medium-term interest rate will make global competition for capital far more intense. The country needs to get ready for that.

02.04.2024 30

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Reserve Bank refresh is on shaky ground

Nothing good comes form negotiating with the Greens. The better option is Jim Chalmers cutting a deal with Angus Taylor to establish the new monetary...

19.03.2024 7

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Subsidise journalism, don’t shake down big tech

Meta and Google may be where the money is, but that doesn’t mean we should steal it from them. Even if it’s used for a good cause.

10.03.2024 30

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Garnaut-Sims power plan is big on ambition, short on logic

The $100 billion carbon tax proposal would penalise Australians, deter greener energy switches in Asia, and would be impossible to implement.

19.02.2024 7

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Bullock’s Q&A was what the RBA’s been missing

Gone are the days of Alan Greenspan-like, inscrutable “Fedspeak”. The straight-talking governor’s first media conference was all killa no filla.

06.02.2024 8

Financial Review

Richard Holden

Tax cut retreat is a loss in the global war for talent

This is the wrong policy done in the wrong way, driven by politics and the arbitrary structuring of the budget.

30.01.2024 20

Financial Review

Richard Holden

This is not America: rates are not coming down in 2024

There are no grounds for the cash rate to fall here in 2024. The Albanese government’s big job will be selling that reality to voters,...

03.01.2024 30

Financial Review

Richard Holden

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