Dan Hadley

  By   Dan Hadley AUSTRALIA’s population is ageing.  Older Australians are a growing proportion of the total population, year-on-year. For business leaders, it is important to understand the ramifications. According to the Federal Government’s  Australia’s Ageing Population   Report , released in 2019, the growth in the proportion of older Australians is partly due to an increase in life expectancy. In the 1960s a man might have expected to live an average life span of 78 years and a woman 78 years. Today the average life expectancy is around 85 for men and 87 for women in Australia. Some experts believe that the average life expectancy will continue to rise over time. Australians enjoy one of the highest average life expectancy rates in the world. The  CIA World Index  lists Monaco as having the greatest average life expectancy of its citizens at over 89 years and the lowest being Chad at just over 50 years.  The Parliamentary Budget Office recen...

AUSTRALIAN sugar cane growers currently face one of the most difficult economic periods in the history of Australian sugar production. India’s recent glut of sugar into the world market by primary producers has driven down the cost of sugar significantly. India’s increased production of raw and refined sugar in the last few years, off the back of subsidies, has led to more than 30 million tonnes over the 2018/2019 year. Just three years ago this number stood at just over 20 million tonnes. As a result, the global sugar price has plunged to a 10-year low of US$0.0983 per pound in the September period on the back of India’s announcement of an additional US$1 billion in sugar subsidies. Market fluctuation in October have left the price back in the US$0.12 per pound which translates to just over A$390 per tonne.    Further volatility with significant downward spikes is expected though, and this temporary relief may be the calm before a storm of medium term reduced pricing. The com...

By Dan Hadley SOME EVENTS cannot be quantified completely in just economic terms or numbers. The Australian bushfire crisis that has impacted the country since September 2019 is a prime example. Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning Economist, advocated the idea that almost anything can indeed have an assigned cost – even pollution or devastation  en masse . That seems a tough pill to swallow in the face of thousands of razed homes, lost human lives, millions of perished beautiful animals and over 10 million hectares of land, including national protected parklands, lost.  As an economist with close friends in the Adelaide Hills who lost everything but the clothes on their back, it becomes a difficult task to even broadly quantify the ‘economic’ impacts of this crisis, let alone the emotional fallout. With smoke from these fires reaching as far as South America and help from other countries pouring in by way of donations and firefighting volunteers, it could easily be argue...

  By Dan Hadley AS AUSTRALIANS celebrate Australia Day this week and commemorate the arrival of the British First Fleet in 1788, the fallout of a vote in the United Kingdom sees offices in Brussels being packed, flags being taken down and Brits walking out of the European Union for good. This is a week to watch and remember and the ‘British exit’ could mark a significant turning point for Australia. Australia forms a very important part of the Commonwealth of Britain. The relationship we continue to share is an important one, historically, culturally and economically.  Nonetheless, Australia’s relationship with the European Union (EU) is not strictly predicated on the actions of Great Britain. The Brexit does represent a significant shift in geopolitical as well as economic forces throughout the European region and throughout the world. Many Australians are left wondering if this shift will have a ripple affect all the way down into the southern hemisphere. Pack...

  By Dan Hadley AS AUSTRALIANS ARGUE AND FIGHT in shopping aisles over packets of toilet paper, other nations have focused on more serious matters in regard to COVID-19. Loosely referred to as ‘coronavirus’, the pandemic has spread to almost every country according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Originating in Wuhan, China, it seems the virus will inevitably reach every corner of the world. At the time of publishing this article, the coronavirus has officially infected nearly 170,000 people globally and killed over 6,500. In the face of government controls, lockdowns, isolate on and blockades, markets and economies have met a calamity that may have a fallout greater than the 2009 Global Financial Crisi Markets falling… Shares across all markets have taken a dive in the wake of WHO announcements and ever-growing statistical reports of coronavirus spreading. The Dow Jones has taken a 9.5 percent hit over two months since January 2020 with the Nikkei down 10.6 per...