We’re bombarded with news about the ‘demographic time bomb’ that’s coming. Of rising dependency ratios (ie. a fall in total employment rates) and declining economic growth rates. It’s not only in Australia but across most developed markets.
However, new research from Goldman Sachs and IMF suggests that the problems caused by ageing populations may not ...
The super tax and its intricacies have rightly generated heated debate, though I think it’s time to ask some deeper questions:
Why did the Government choose to introduce this tax?
Why is the Government refusing to budge on aspects of the tax despite an intense public backlash?
What are the circumstances that allowed them to propose this tax?
Why are ...
The proposal to include unrealised capital gains in calculating income subject to the additional 15% tax rate on super fund balances over $3 million should lead to an effective cap on balances of $3 million. (The additional personal tax involved is referred to in the draft legislation as Division 296 tax liability). If the administrative costs to ...
A couple of weeks ago I reported on the current CAPE ratio measure for the US share market. Today’s chart drills down into more detail on how the current levels of profits and pricing relate to the recent profit and share prices cycles in the past three decades. Where are we now?
The key challenge is this – can aggregate earnings per share keep ...
A recent court case involving the Australian Tax Office (ATO) could have a significant impact on the tax payable by beneficiaries of family trusts.
Since late 2009, the ATO has held the view that when a trust appoints income to a corporate beneficiary but doesn’t actually make the payment (known as an unpaid present entitlement, or UPE), this ...
With property prices rising and demand for housing increasing, many homeowners are exploring the idea of property development, often literally in their own backyards.
Subdividing is frequently the first step for those starting out in property development. This may be subdividing your own property or knocking down an old property and subdividing the ...
You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t fear loss.
Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman demonstrated this with his loss-aversion theory, showing that people feel the pain of losing money more than they enjoy gains. As such, investors’ natural instinct is to flee the market when it starts to plummet, just as greed prompts us to jump back in when ...
Statecraft history may provide some insight into the world where China challenges US hegemony.
Why? Because many folks are concerned about a future with China, a non-democratic country, becoming a global power and possibly a new global hegemony. Western folks have only ever known western imperialism and have generally benefited from it.
In the western ...
The Weekend Edition includes a market update plus Morningstar adds links to two additional articles.
UnitedHealth is a US mega cap stock that isn’t well known in Australia even though it’s had an astonishing fall from grace over the past few months. The medical insurer had been a market darling and a top 20 company in the S&P 500 index, having ...
I know opinion is divided on the ALP’s intention to introduce a new tax on those with more than $3 million in super. In one corner, we have those who (rightly) point out that today, $3 million is quite a lot of money and super gets a lot of expensive tax concessions. In the opposite corner, we have those railing against the unfair calculation method – ...
We almost never discuss superannuation in terms of its fundamental rationale: encouraging individuals to achieve their optimal consumption pattern over their lifetime. Superannuation exists to provide for consumption during the years when individuals no longer have a regular income. The case for mandatory superannuation is that, left to their own ...
Wasn’t it fascinating to watch the papal conclave over recent weeks? The producers of the movie Conclave must have been counting their blessings, as viewers were drawn to their fictionalised version just as the real event was unfolding.
It made me think that many families go through their own kind of conclave after the death of a parent. There might be ...
We’re bombarded with news about the ‘demographic time bomb’ that’s coming. Of rising dependency ratios (ie. a fall in total employment rates) and declining economic growth rates. It’s not only in Australia but across most developed markets.
However, new research from Goldman Sachs and IMF suggests that the problems caused by ageing populations may not ...
The super tax and its intricacies have rightly generated heated debate, though I think it’s time to ask some deeper questions:
Why did the Government choose to introduce this tax?
Why is the Government refusing to budge on aspects of the tax despite an intense public backlash?
What are the circumstances that allowed them to propose this tax?
Why are ...
The proposal to include unrealised capital gains in calculating income subject to the additional 15% tax rate on super fund balances over $3 million should lead to an effective cap on balances of $3 million. (The additional personal tax involved is referred to in the draft legislation as Division 296 tax liability). If the administrative costs to ...
A couple of weeks ago I reported on the current CAPE ratio measure for the US share market. Today’s chart drills down into more detail on how the current levels of profits and pricing relate to the recent profit and share prices cycles in the past three decades. Where are we now?
The key challenge is this – can aggregate earnings per share keep ...
A recent court case involving the Australian Tax Office (ATO) could have a significant impact on the tax payable by beneficiaries of family trusts.
Since late 2009, the ATO has held the view that when a trust appoints income to a corporate beneficiary but doesn’t actually make the payment (known as an unpaid present entitlement, or UPE), this ...
With property prices rising and demand for housing increasing, many homeowners are exploring the idea of property development, often literally in their own backyards.
Subdividing is frequently the first step for those starting out in property development. This may be subdividing your own property or knocking down an old property and subdividing the ...
You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t fear loss.
Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman demonstrated this with his loss-aversion theory, showing that people feel the pain of losing money more than they enjoy gains. As such, investors’ natural instinct is to flee the market when it starts to plummet, just as greed prompts us to jump back in when ...
Statecraft history may provide some insight into the world where China challenges US hegemony.
Why? Because many folks are concerned about a future with China, a non-democratic country, becoming a global power and possibly a new global hegemony. Western folks have only ever known western imperialism and have generally benefited from it.
In the western ...
The Weekend Edition includes a market update plus Morningstar adds links to two additional articles.
UnitedHealth is a US mega cap stock that isn’t well known in Australia even though it’s had an astonishing fall from grace over the past few months. The medical insurer had been a market darling and a top 20 company in the S&P 500 index, having ...
I know opinion is divided on the ALP’s intention to introduce a new tax on those with more than $3 million in super. In one corner, we have those who (rightly) point out that today, $3 million is quite a lot of money and super gets a lot of expensive tax concessions. In the opposite corner, we have those railing against the unfair calculation method – ...
We almost never discuss superannuation in terms of its fundamental rationale: encouraging individuals to achieve their optimal consumption pattern over their lifetime. Superannuation exists to provide for consumption during the years when individuals no longer have a regular income. The case for mandatory superannuation is that, left to their own ...
Wasn’t it fascinating to watch the papal conclave over recent weeks? The producers of the movie Conclave must have been counting their blessings, as viewers were drawn to their fictionalised version just as the real event was unfolding.
It made me think that many families go through their own kind of conclave after the death of a parent. There might be ...
