Rachel Nolan, a former Queensland Government finance minister, speaks with Economics Explored host Gene Tunny about how government budgets are developed and just how much flexibility governments actually have.
Rachel Nolan is Executive Director of the McKell Institute and is an honorary Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Queensland. Rachel was a member of the Queensland Parliament for eleven years from 2001, when she was elected as the youngest woman ever. She is a former Minister for Finance, Transport, and Natural Resources and the Arts. Rachel was a member of the Queensland Government’s central budgetary decision making body, the Cabinet Budget Review Committee.
Nine-Fairfax media in Australia is reporting Record number of companies launched as COVID drives contractors, entrepreneurs. A couple of things are going on. There are people whose jobs were destroyed by the pandemic and have been forced into self-employment, but there are also people who have reassessed their lives and decided to quit their jobs and become self-employed.
This shift toward self-employment is understandable, given data which suggests that many workers in advanced economies think their jobs are mostly bullshit or pointless, as the late David Graeber, who was Professor of Anthropology at LSE, emphasised in his thought-provoking 2018 book Bullshit Jobs. Graeber nicely identified the five different types of BS jobs: flunkies, goons, duct-tapers, box-tickers, and taskmasters. I’m sure we’ve all known people who could have been characterised as one of these (hopefully not us)!
Even though I strongly disagree with Graeber’s main conclusions (i.e. many of these jobs really are BS from society’s perspective and we need to radically reform our economies), I must say I really enjoyed reading the book and was inspired to record an episode of my Economics Explored podcast on it. So please check out EP95 BS or Pointless Jobs and let me know what you think about the idea of BS jobs and whether you’ve seen people give up BS jobs to become self-employed or start up new businesses.
Episode 94 of Economics Explored (EP94 Economics of New Media) explores how people are making money in the rapidly growing new media or independent media sector. While the internet and social media have badly affected traditional media, they have led to the emergence of a rapidly growing new media or independent media sector.
For instance, leading podcaster Joe Rogan was reportedly paid $100 million to move his hugely popular podcast to Spotify. And independent journalists like Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti are making decent livings through Substack and Patreon subscriptions and via revenue from YouTube. It appears there’s big money for the top talent in new media, which is great news. It’s starting to look like that, to some extent, the market really can support independent and high-quality news and opinion.
Chatting about the economics of new media with host Gene Tunny in EP94 is a new media start up founder, Matt Wong of Discernable, who is based in Melbourne, Australia, and is doing great things on various new media platforms. His Discernable program which you can watch on Facebook or YouTube, provides a fresh perspective on current affairs in Australia.
What happens when economists assume politicians and bureaucrats are self-interested and pursue their own agendas? Economics Explored host Gene Tunny and returning guest Dr Brendan Markey-Towler discuss the theory of public choice, a field of economics which helps us predict how politicians and bureaucrats will behave. They consider what public choice theory means for the growth of government and the types of political institutions we should have.
Is nuclear energy a cost-effective and reliable way for economies to decarbonize, or is it too risky? Episode 92 of Economics Explored considers how nuclear energy can provide zero-carbon, reliable energy and why it should potentially be considered as a key part of the world’s response to climate change. This is a conversation between Economics Explored host Gene Tunny and Adept Economics Research Officer Ben Scott. Gene and Ben’s profile are available on the Adept Economics website.
In Economics Explored EP91, David Johnson of Stanford speaks about his work and teaching on Negotiation and Design Thinking (e.g. David’s Stanford course Negotiation by Design: Applied Design Thinking for Negotiators). David provides some great insights into how design thinking can help improve our negotiating skills. As part of this discussion, host Gene Tunny and David reflect on how better negotiating skills, gained through design thinking, could help us solve important economic, social, and environmental challenges. Toward the end of the episode, David talks about a book he is currently writing on Climate Activism by Design.
David Johnson is a lawyer, writer and professor. He teaches Advanced Negotiation at Stanford Law School, and Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. Across the last 20 years he has also practiced law in Silicon Valley, primarily as General Counsel for tech companies and, most recently, a non-profit foundation.
He has testified before Congress and the California Assembly on law and technology issues. He has conducted dozens of trials and appeals, including two state Supreme Court arguments. His client list included some of the biggest names in science and technology: Apple, Caliper, Google, McKesson, Sankyo Pharma, and The Computer History Museum.
In 2007 David completed a JSM in Law, Science and Technology. His thesis explored design methods for software and their potential application to systemic environmental issues. In 2014, David wrote, produced and delivered the world’s first free online course on Negotiation to some 5,000 students in 47 nations. General Electric thereafter licensed the course for a four-year run in their executive education program, “Brilliant U.”
Last year, during sabbatical in Singapore, he wrote a keynote article for the Singapore Academy of Law, Design for Legal Systems. Now back at Stanford, David is working on a book applying design thinking to climate change activism, working title: Climate Activism by Design. In addition to writing and teaching, David is an avid skier and sailor, and a diligent but decidedly average tennis player.
Episode 90 of Economics Explored features a discussion regarding COVID lockdown costs versus benefits with Professor Douglas Allen from Simon Fraser University, Canada. Professor Allen has concluded COVID lockdowns have been the greatest peacetime policy failure in Canada’s history. Please check out our conversation for Professor Allen’s justification for this claim.
Episode 85 of Economics Explored is a conversation on business cases for public infrastructure projects, featuring a case study of an Australian dam project. It includes a discussion of the requirements and processes for the development of public infrastructure business cases in Australia, with a case study of a current business case process relating to an irrigation dam which program host Gene Tunny is involved in. While Australian examples are used, the insights and lessons are relevant internationally. In many respects, Australian processes and requirements for developing public infrastructure business cases are world-leading.
In 2017, the Huffington Post published an article asserting Jesus was a Socialist. In my latest Economics Explored podcast episode on economics and religion, I asked returning guest Darren Brady Nelson, Chief Economist of LibertyWorks and a policy advisor to the Heartland Institute, whether Jesus was indeed a socialist (and also whether the question even makes sense given Jesus lived 1700-1800 years before the industrial revolution). Among other points, Darren noted:
The weight of biblical evidence certainly suggests that he wasn’t a socialist, not that he was a capitalist, but there’s certainly more overlap. And one of the key points would be socialism is involuntary…so any redistribution…it’s by government fiat, by government force. That’s at great odds with the Bible and what Jesus taught…Jesus expected people to follow him voluntarily. He expected them to be generous voluntarily. And, obviously, the free market is all about things being voluntary.
Darren and I had a wide-ranging discussion considering, among other issues, the impacts of religion on economic growth and whether the rich can get into heaven, given you cannot serve both God and Mammon.
Darren’s articles on religion and economics include:
One year on from when many countries started imposing tough COVID-19 control measures, Economics Explored host Gene Tunny asks eminent Australian finance Professor Peter Swan whether lockdowns pass a cost-benefit analysis test. In Episode 79 Running the Numbers on COVID-19 measures, Professor Swan says he stands by his view expressed last year that they do not. Listen to this episode to hear why Prof. Swan believes this is so.
About this episode’s guest– Professor Peter Swan
Professor Peter Swan AO FRSN FASSA is currently in Banking and Finance, UNSW-Sydney Business School. Peter completed his Honours Economics Degree at ANU, his PhD at Monash and after a visiting position at the University of Chicago, joined the Economics faculty at ANU, then to a chair at AGSM (UNSW), and was foundation professor in the Finance Department at the University of Sydney prior to returning to UNSW in 2002 with a Scientia Professorial Award in 2003.
He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 1997 and gained recognition in the Queen’s Birthday Honours lists in 2003 and 2016 with the Order of Australia (AM) and (AO), respectively. In 2018 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN). His Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) Citation states: “For distinguished service to finance and commerce as a leading academic, journalist, and commentator on domestic investment, and on a range of political and economic issues.” His Member of the Order of Australia (AM) Citation states: “For services to academia as a scholar and researcher and through contributions to public policy in the fields of economics and finance”.
If you’d like to ask a question for Gene to answer in a future episode or if you’d like to make a comment or suggestion, please get in touch via the website. Thanks for listening.