Articles by Guest Expert

China’s National Bureau of Statistics has confirmed what researchers such as myself have long suspected – that 2022 was the year China’s population turned down, the first time that has happened since the great famine brought on by Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1959-1961. Unlike the famine, whose effects were temporary, and followed by steady…

Australians’ well-documented affinity with the sun, surf and sand continue to fuel coastal property market growth. This growth defies rising interest rates and growing evidence of the impacts of climate change on people living in vulnerable coastal locations. People in these areas are finding it harder to insure their properties against these risks. Insurers view…

Want to know what the experts predict for 2023? Well… we’ve learned a few things about the universe of predictions, experts, outlooks, and forecasts in this, our fourth year of Prediction Consensus. Experts are reasonably good at predicting the future one year out, though they are also in a strong position to help shape the…

Compared to the rest of the world, income inequality is not particularly high in Australia, nor is it getting much worse – until you include housing. Rising housing costs have dramatically widened the gap between what Australians on high and low incomes can afford. Rising home prices paired with plummeting rates of homeownership are driving…

With bushfire season starting across much of the nation, it’s time to prepare rental properties and check they are adequately insured. Bushfire. Just a mere mention of the word strikes fear in the hearts and minds of most Australians and none more so than those living in bushfire-prone areas. The risk of bushfire is ever-present…

Since 2000, global investment in research and development (R&D) has tripled to $2.4 trillion. R&D spending is also casting a wider global net. In 1960, the U.S. made up nearly 70% of global R&D spending, and by 2020 this had fallen to 30%. From job creation and public health to national security and industrial competitiveness,…

Inflation is surging nearly everywhere in 2022. Geopolitical tensions are triggering high energy costs, while supply-side disruptions are also distorting consumer prices. The end result is that almost half of countries worldwide are seeing double-digit inflation rates or higher. With new macroeconomic forces shaping the global economy, the above infographic shows countries with the highest…