SAUL ESLAKE

Economist

SAUL ESLAKE

‘Welcome to my website …
I’m an independent economist, speaker, company director
and Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Tasmania’

Australian Society and Politics


You can’t think (or write, or speak) about an economy without also having a sense of the broader social and economic framework in which it operates. I try very hard to avoid partisan political commentary, but I do sometimes feel moved to write or talk about social or political developments.

Why Reserve Bank needs to raise rates next week

Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, News, Recent Media Interview, The Australian Economy | 28th April 2022

Saul talked with The Conversation’s Chief Political Correspondent Michelle Grattan on 27th April about this week’s much bigger-than-expected March quarter inflation data, and its implications for next week’s RBA Board meeting and for the current election campaign.


“Why ‘less’ could be more when it comes to solving housing affordability crisis” – interview with Melbourne radio 3AW’s Tom Elliott

Australian Society and Politics, Housing, News | 22nd April 2022

I spoke with Melbourne radio 3AW’s ‘Drive’ presenter Tom Elliott on 22nd April about why successive governments’ policies designed (so they say) to reverse the 56-year slide in home ownership rates have failed. https://omny.fm/shows/drive-with-tom-elliott/prominent-economist-explains-why-less-could-be-mor


Who are the ‘better managers’ of Australia’s economy?

Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, Publications, The Australian Economy | 21st April 2022

Article originally published on John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations site on 21st April 2022, asking whether either of Australia’s major political parties can credibly claim to be “better economic managers” than the other.


60 years of housing policy failure

Australian Society and Politics, Housing, News, Recent Media Interview | 18th April 2022

Saul talks to ABC News 24’s Joe O’Brien about the long term failure of the housing policies of successive Australian governments of both major political persuasion.


“Better economic managers”: a factcheck with Saul Eslake

Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, News, Recent Media Interview, The Australian Economy | 13th April 2022

Saul talks to Linda Mottram, of ABC Radio’s flagship program “PM” about the accuracy of political parties’ claims, during election campaigns like the current one, to be “better economic managers” than their opponents


How greed and politics threaten Tasmanian living standards

Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, News, Tasmania | 12th April 2022

Article published by the Tasmanian magazine Forty South about the corruption of the long-standing principles under which revenues from the GST (and before the introduction of the GST in 2000, ‘general purpose grants’ from the Federal Government) are shared among Australia’s states and territories How greed and politics threaten Tasmanian living standards


Scott Morrison spruiks Australia’s post-Covid jobs recovery. We factcheck him

Australian Society and Politics, News, The Australian Economy | 8th April 2022

Guardian Australia’s Paul Karp filed this story based on an interview with Saul, ‘fact checking’ the PM’s claim that the Covid-19 recession was “30 times worse” than the GFC. Scott Morrison spruiks Australia’s post-Covid jobs recovery. We factcheck him | Australian politics | The Guardian      


GST carve up “one of the worst policy decisions” of the past 20 years.

Australian Society and Politics, News | 8th April 2022

Yanchep News Online, which serves Yanchep, Gingin and surrounding areas on the northern outskirts of Perth, has very generously (and bravely, some might say), published this article from YT on the GST revenue-sharing ‘dirty deal’ imposed by the Morrison Government three years ago, and which is being ‘phased in’ over five years starting in the […]


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WHAT'S NEW

Most Recent Articles, Talks and Presentations


‘A distinctive part of life in Australia’ The Declining Dream of Homeownership
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, Housing
17th April 2024


Could China have a currency crisis at some point in the next 2-5 years?
Asian Economies, The Global Economy, Topics
16th April 2024


“The Great Housing Disaster – Who’s to Blame?”
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, Housing, Recent Media Interview, Topics
15th April 2024


The Economic Consequences of Surges in Immigration
Australian Society and Politics, The Australian Economy, The Global Economy, Topics
10th April 2024


Is China heading for some kind of currency or financial crisis?
Asian Economies, The Global Economy
4th April 2024


The next four years will be difficult for Tasmania
News, Tasmania
27th March 2024


Some initial reflections on the outcome of the 2024 Tasmanian State election
Australian Society and Politics, Tasmania
24th March 2024


Tasmania’s fiscal position
Australian Society and Politics, Economic Policies, Recent Media Interview, Tasmania
24th March 2024


Productivity, Tax Reform and ‘Peak China’
Asian Economies, Economic Policies, Productivity, Taxation, The Australian Economy
13th March 2024


Tasmania – lost opportunities
Tasmania
12th March 2024


The Tasmanian Economy
Tasmania
29th February 2024


The worst public policy decision of the 21st Century
Economic Policies, Recent Media Interview
20th February 2024


Is ‘price gouging’ a major contributor to inflation?
Recent Media Interview
19th February 2024


The massive $50bn GST revenue distribution blow out (with Andy Park)
Economic Policies, Recent Media Interview
14th February 2024


The massive $50bn GST revenue distribution blow out (with Gary Adshead)
Economic Policies, Recent Media Interview
14th February 2024


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“You are one of the best at what you do in the world”
Gail Fosler, Chief Economist, The Conference Board, New York, December 2002

“I have never known an economist to have such a knowledge of world economic facts and to be able to bring to bear so much information in answering a question without notice”
Charles Goode, Chairman, ANZ Bank, July 2009

“Saul Eslake is … a highly regarded independent economist with the highest degree of integrity"
John Durie, Columnist, The Australian, July 2009

“… one of the few people in this world who can have so many oranges up in the air at the same time but still manage to catch them"
Andrew Clark, journalist, Australian Financial Review, November 2008

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