How to improve housing affordability and why the Greedflation thesis is wrong w/ Simon Cowan, CIS - EP203

Economics Explored

Host Gene Tunny and Simon Cowan from the Centre for Independent Studies discuss housing affordability and greedflation in the CIS’s Sydney HQ. They delve into recent articles written by Simon on these topics and explore the factors contributing to unaffordable housing (e.g. zoning and other supply restrictions) and why the greedflation thesis is wrong.

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About this episode’s guest: Simon Cowan

Simon Cowan is Research Director at the CIS. He is a leading commentator on policy and politics, with a regular column in the Canberra Times newspaper, frequent interviews on Sky and the ABC, and multiple appearances before parliamentary committees discussing the budget, citizenship, taxation and health policy. He has written extensively on government spending and fiscal policy, with a specific focus on welfare and superannuation policy. He earlier work focused on government industry policy, defence and regulation.

His latest work includes Attitudes to a post-Covid Australia and Millennials and Super: the case for voluntary superannuation. Some of his other works include a co-authored report on pensions, a deep dive into the Universal Basic Income, and a 2012 piece arguing that Australia should acquire nuclear submarines from the Americans.

What’s covered in EP203

• The problem with housing affordability. (4:56)
• High property prices and housing affordability. (10:02)
• Should we cap migration to improve housing affordability? (14:24)
• The role of public/social housing. (19:12)
• Shared equity schemes. (24:15)
• Home ownership as a key milestone on the way to retirement. (29:09)
• Local government regulations and housing affordability. (35:06)
• The Greedflation hypothesis and why it’s wrong. (39:04)

Links relevant to the conversation

Simon’s Canberra Times articles on housing affordability and greedflation:

The Coalition can create generational voting change by tackling housing affordability - The Centre for Independent Studies

'Greedflation' myth hides real causes of inflation - The Centre for Independent Studies

Images from the Bill Leak room including a poem from Sir Les Patterson (i.e. Barry Humphries):

Sir Les with Bill Leak.jpg

Sir Les's poem about Bill Leak part 1.jpg

Sir Les's poem about Bill Leak part 2.jpg

Past Economics Explored episode discussing wage-price spiral mentioned by Gene:

https://economicsexplored.com/2022/06/14/stagflation-be-alert-not-alarmed-ep143-transcript/

Transcript of Q&A session following Phil Lowe’s speech in Brisbane in July 2023 during which Gene asked the RBA Governor about Greedflation:

https://www.rba.gov.au/speeches/2023/sp-gov-2023-07-12-q-and-a-transcript.html

Full transcripts are available a few days after the episode is first published at www.economicsexplored.com. Economics Explored is available via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, and other podcasting platforms.