John Humphreys

The case for jurisdictional competition

_{Published in Menzies House blog on3 March 2010 under the title “Competition v Monopoly“}

There is always a tension between the desire to have a single uniform approach, and the benefits from competition. Unfortunately for me (and other defenders of competition) the benefits from uniformity are sometimes more immediately obvious. This is especially true when it comes to the topic of jurisdictional competition, compared with the lure of a quick fix through political centralisation.

The hollowing of the reform agenda

_{Published in Menzies House blog on 23 February 2010 under the title “What is Reform?“}

Apparently, “reform” is a good thing. Commentators tell us that Australia went through some important economic reforms in the 1980s & 90s which helped Australia achieve stable and high economic growth. And sometimes we are told that we need another “round of reform”. The government insists that they want to give us more reform. And lots of lobby groups insist that they want to see a “third wave of reform“.

So it looks like we all agree.

Not quite. The problem is that the word “reform” is neither good nor bad, and really tells us nothing about a policy change. Just because Mugabe’s policies were called “land reform” that doesn’t make them good. What matters is the direction of the reform.

Fat tax or risk-pricing in healthcare? A response to Stephan Knoll

_{Published in Menzies House blog on 18 February 2010 under the title “Fat Tax & the Liberal Tradition“}

Yesterday, Stephan Knoll wrote about his campaign for government action to stop people getting fat, and argued that his proposals were consistent with “centre-right” philosophy. He’s half right.

Don’t confuse morality with politics

_{Published in Menzies House blog on 3 February 2010 under the title “Libertarians & Conservatives: Be Careful not to Confuse Morality and Politics“}

On the right side of politics there has long been a conflict between the “conservatives” and “libertarians/liberals”. The former value religion, nationalism and tradition while the latter value individualism, tolerance and diversity. All good-sounding words.

At first glance it seems that these approaches should conflict. And yet there are people like Tim Andrews, Ralph Buttigieg, Danny Haynes, Jim Fryar, Dan Farmilo and many others who describe themselves as “conservative libertarians” or something similar. How can this be?

Why the Rudd stimulus was bad policy

_{Originally published in Menzies House blog on 1 February 2010 under the title “Why the stimulus was bad policy“}

There is a general perception that the economic stimulus package was good public policy and saved the Australian economy from recession. It wasn’t, and it didn’t.

Most of the economic commentary in Australia has been fairly simplistic. The standard story goes that the economy was heading for recession, so the government spent lots of money, and that made the economy stronger so we avoided recession. This is the line repeated by the Rudd government and some of the media.

But this story is wrong on several levels.