-
1 week ago | 
spectator.com.au | Dimitri Burshtein |Peter Swan
President Donald Trump’s trade policies, launched under the slogan ‘Making America Great Again’ have instead sparked economic disruption, geopolitical instability, and strategic confusion. Far from securing America’s economic and national interests, these policies are actively undermining both.
-
2 weeks ago | 
spectator.com.au | Dimitri Burshtein |Peter Swan
In 1980, then Singapore prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, warned that if Australia failed to reform, it risked becoming ‘the poor white trash of Asia’. At the time, Australia was inward-looking, heavily protected by tariffs, and structurally complacent. Under prime minister Malcolm Fraser and his treasurer John Howard, Australia was grappling with a period of stagflation, economic stagnation combined with high inflation.
-
3 weeks ago | 
spectator.com.au | Dimitri Burshtein |Peter Swan
Following his election as Venezuelan President in 1999, Hugo Chávez launched a series of radical reforms known as the Bolivarian Revolution. Chávez’s aim was to transform Venezuela socially, politically, and economically. Some of Chávez’s notable reforms included nationalising industries and dramatic increases to public spending, primarily funded by debt and commodity exports.
-
1 month ago | 
afr.com | Dimitri Burshtein |Peter Swan
Governments must ultimately be judged by their results rather than their promises. And this week’s budget will evidence the culmination of three years of Albanese government economic and public policy mismanagement. As a telling measure of performance, Australians have, during this period, experienced the steepest decline in per capita disposable income in the developed world.
-
1 month ago | 
afr.com | Dimitri Burshtein |Peter Swan
The national broadband network has been a financial disaster for Australia, delivering among the highest-costing and lowest-speed internet in the world. It, like many of the so-called big reforms of the past 20 years, will be an economic and productivity albatross around the necks of Australians for generations to come.
-
1 month ago | 
spectator.com.au | Dimitri Burshtein |Peter Swan
Australians are frequently reminded that we are facing ‘the most complex and challenging strategic environment since the second world war’. Yet given recent exercises by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), Australia does not seem anywhere near prepared. It was left to a Virgin Airlines pilot to report live firing since apparently Australia lacks the capability to monitor potentially hostile warships in our backyard.
-
2 months ago | 
spectator.com.au | Dimitri Burshtein |Peter Swan
And so it has come to pass. Donald J. Trump has been sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. One of his key pre-election commitments was to establish a Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), a body led by billionaire Elon Musk to advise the President on how to streamline US government operations and reduce government expenditures.
-
Jan 22, 2025 | 
afr.com | Dimitri Burshtein |Peter Swan
“Will a 2025 IPO revival save the shrinking ASX?” This question was posed on the front page of this newspaper last week. Unfortunately, the answer to this question is no. Because while the ASX continues to wrestle with financial and regulatory challenges in replacing its CHESS platform, its listing business continues to wither. Loading...
-
Dec 4, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | Dimitri Burshtein |Peter Swan
In an 1887 letter to Bishop Creighton, English politician Lord Acton famously noted, ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’One of the key battle lines in the 2022 election was the issue of political integrity and corruption. This was a key element of the electoral platform of the Teals and Labor which was manifest in the creation of the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
-
Nov 20, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | Peter Swan |Dimitri Burshtein
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, King Louis XIV’ s minister of finance, once pithily observed that, ‘The art of taxation consists of plucking the goose so as to obtain the most feathers with the least hissing.’ With this challenge in mind, it may sound appealing for President Donald Trump to impose an across-the-board tariff hike.
