Australian trade, investment & economy
State-owned enterprises: A strange fixation
Mike Callaghan is spot-on in arguing that Australia's foreign investment policy needs a wider reassessment than simply looking at limits on state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Let's…
Are we measuring international trade correctly?
Perhaps the most fundamental change in international trade in recent decades has been the development of multinational 'supply chains'. The production process has been 'unbundled'…
Australia's economic diplomacy: Enlightened self-interest?
Almost a year since the Coalition took the reins of government and introduced its policy of 'economic diplomacy', a term which was probably foreign to many Australians at the…
What next for multilateral trade negotiations?
The Director-General of the World Trade Organization is sounding despondent after the latest setback to the December 2013 Bali Agreement. Meanwhile, a survey of exporters has…
Australia's economy: Stimulus, saving and the GFC
John Edwards' Beyond the Boom is a welcome follow-up to his 2006 Quiet Boom, which I reviewed at the time in conjunction with Ian Macfarlane's Boyer Lectures.
I agree with the…
Resources boom: Australia's misplaced pessimism
'We'll all be rooned,' said Hanrahan, 'before the year is out.'
Pessimism is a key part of the great Australian tradition, reflecting a history of booms and busts. It has…
Hillary Clinton's trade warning: Can China coerce Australia?
Hillary Clinton believes Australia is too economically dependent on China, warning that dependence could 'undermine your freedom of movement and your sovereignty — economic and…
Lowy Institute Papers
Beyond the boom
In this Lowy Institute Paper, Dr John Edwards, Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute, challenges the pessimism about the Australian economy. The mining boom is far from over –…
Foreign direct investment: Ten simple questions
1. Why is FDI so sensitive?
Here is an impolite truth about international commerce: governments, even 'liberal capitalist' ones, are obsessed with sovereignty. Foreign direct…
Foreign-investment anxiety revealed in Lowy Poll
I've just written on the widespread antipathy in Indonesia to foreign investment, and how it is colouring the presidential election campaign. I attributed this hostility to the…