On this episode of Follow the Money, author and economist Gary Stevenson joins Ebony Bennett to discuss wealth inequality, the global issue of housing unaffordability, why Australia should tax gas properly, and how many far-right parties have become the Steven Bradburys of global politics.

This episode was recorded on Thursday 26 February.

What we owe the water: It’s time for a fossil fuel treaty by Kumi Naidoo is available now for just $19.95. Use the code ‘PODVP’ at checkout to get free shipping.

You can also subscribe to the Vantage Point series to get four essays a year on some of the most pressing issues facing Australia and the world.

Guest: Gary Stevenson, economist and author of The Trading Game // @garyseconomics

Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebonybennett

Show notes:

While many of us are currently monitoring the situation in the Iranian fog of war, other pressing questions at home remain. What sort of victory against foreign enemies will we have if we end up losing our country to internal threats?

I am speaking, of course, of the migration crisis, which has thrown the very concept of American citizenship itself into doubt. After decades of treating citizenship like some ethereal idea, theoretically extendable to anyone who wants it, Americans have finally woken up to the fact that citizenship must be more than a piece of paper. New questions, as well as new battle lines, have emerged not only around illegal and legal immigration—but even the idea of birthright citizenship is now up for legal reexamination.

It’s against this larger background, then, that we should view Trump v. Barbara, a case the U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing on April 1. At stake is whether our laws permit Americans to have a country or not. The Court will hear the government defend the proposition that birthright citizenship does not include children born to parents who are “unlawfully present,” or who have only “temporary” status. Such conditions on citizenship are very common among many nations, including numerous historically Christian nations.

This past weekend, the United States launched Operation Epic Fury, a coordinated campaign with Israel that sent a wave of airstrikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran, targeting its military and infrastructure after decades of refusing to halt its nuclear program. In this effort to break the spine of a regime that has ruled through terror at home and violence abroad for nearly 50 years, a significant number of the regime’s top political and military leaders were killed, including the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

It matters that the ayatollah did not simply expire naturally but was taken out by the United States. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s evil project of repression is well known across the West, along with its killing of Americans and regular chants of “death to America.” For decades, it has brutally crushed its own citizens and wreaked havoc worldwide through its proxies while Western countermeasures were marginally effective at best and enabled these actions at worst.

On this episode of After America, Allan Behm and Dr Emma Shortis discuss the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and the assassination of its leader, Trump and Netanyahu’s cynical messages for the Iranian people, what this war means for nuclear proliferation, and the Australian government’s “deeply disappointing” response.

This discussion was recorded on Monday 2 March 2026.

The latest Vantage Point essay, What we owe the water: It’s time for a fossil fuel treaty by Kumi Naidoo, is available now for $19.95. Use the code ‘PODVP’ at checkout to get free shipping.

Guest: Allan Behm, Advisor, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute

Host: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @emmashortis

Show notes:

The Mar-a-Lago model: how Trump is trying to dominate global governance, After America, the Australia Institute (February 2026)

Our rights are not guaranteed. They are protected by laws — and laws can be weakened if politicians rollback our rights. In recent years, politicians have attempted to dilute or replace the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998. Conservative governments weakened and removed parts of the Equality Act, left key duties uncommenced, […]

The post Say No to Rollbacks on Our Rights appeared first on Equality Trust.

The Mellon Foundation and its peers have recently come under sustained attack for their role in radicalizing higher education. Headlines like “Mellon Foundation Awards Morgan State University $500,000 Grant to Cultivate the Next Generation of Black, LGBTQ+ Scholar-Activists” are now a dime a dozen. Notable contributors to this wave of critiques include Tao Tan, who put together data-driven analysis for the American Enterprise Institute on the effect of grants from private foundations, and Tyler Austin Harper, who wrote a withering profile of the Mellon Foundation for The Atlantic. These and other writers provide chapter and verse on how the financial incentives provided by Mellon and its lesser brethren have transformed America’s humanities and social science professors into leftist activists.

To revive higher education, tradition-minded philanthropists must play an essential role in reforming what radical philanthropists have tried their best to wreck. They should not attempt to create counter-Mellons, but instead provide professors with financial incentives to move away from radical activism. Mellon’s task was to radicalize a liberal establishment willing to be radicalized. Because it worked with the philosophical grain of the academy, its task was easier than what tradition-minded education reformers currently face.

If you drink beer, congratulations, you’re the backbone of the Australian economy! After all, that’s how politicians and the media describe the gas industry. But the truth is the federal government collects more money from the beer excise than from the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, as Independent ACT Senator David Pocock pointed out in Parliament, in an exchange that went viral.

When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked why Australian beer drinkers pay more tax than gas export companies, the PM dodged the issue by accusing Senator Pocock of “promot[ing] grievance”.

If, like most Australians, you think Australia shouldn’t be giving away its gas for free, or that the gas industry should contribute more from its super profits tax than the beer excise, the Prime Minister seems to think you should stop whingeing about it. The real question is – why isn’t the Prime Minister aggrieved by this gas rip-off?

In Quarterly Essay 100, Sean Kelly considers the enigma of the Albanese government. With wide yet shallow support, will it change the country? Does it have big ideas, or is it content just to become “the natural party of government”? Kelly gives a definitive account of Albanese’s political style and asks what lies behind it. In speaking to a fragmented, disengaged electorate, the Prime Minister places a high value on moderation. Often that means ducking fights with entrenched interests. But this runs the risk of embedding an ever more unequal nation, led by a government that can seem gutless. In this subtle and brilliant essay, Kelly explores whether Labor is still up for the good fight.

Sean joined Per Capita at our February 2026 John Cain Lunch. Watch the recording below.

The post The Good Fight: What Does Labor Stand for? With Sean Kelly appeared first on Per Capita.

The Trump II administration’s trade wars and framing of the dollar’s reserve status have accelerated concerns about the sustainability of the current monetary and trade system. Against a backdrop of various disintegrative tendencies, our new book Deweaponizing Interdependence: Bringing the Idea of International Clearing Union into the Twenty-First Century (available open access) reintroduces the concept of an International Clearing Union (ICU) and offers an important overview of critical approaches to the prevailing monetary system.

Cross-posted from here.

In New Mexico and the United States more generally, we the people are guaranteed rights to assemble and to express our views, free from government restraint. On March 28, when millions of people across the country will participate in No Kings events, they will live these rights. The medium will be a significant measure of the message: in America no government official may violate people’s civil rights, including their rights to assemble and express their views about democracy, rule of law, and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Kenneth Rogoff Is (almost) right about the importance of inflation -but entirely wrong about its management Susan Borden America’s debt problem is not what Foreign…

The post Kenneth Rogoff Is (almost) right about the importance of inflation appeared first on Economic Reform Australia.

A post-Keynesian discussion of US economic hegemony: resilience or decline? (Part 2) Alan Prout In Part 1 we listed some long-term factors that contribute to…

The post A post-Keynesian discussion of US economic hegemony: resilience or decline? (Part 2) appeared first on Economic Reform Australia.

By Osmond Chiu, Research Fellow

The recent interest rate hike to address inflation drifting above the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) target band has reignited debate about the Albanese Government’s economic management. Critics argue excessive government spending and the RBA’s initially slow response are to blame for rising prices and slower economic growth, despite the International Monetary Fund noting Australia is successfully managing a “soft” landing. New Liberal Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has blamed increased government spending for inflation, stating there is ‘no ambiguity’ that the Coalition’s solution would be to cut spending growth and the public service by at least 36,000.

But what if the RBA had lifted interest rates far more aggressively and what if the Albanese Government had implemented deep spending cuts as some commentators and the Coalition advocate?

New Zealand offers a revealing counterfactual.

Wealth taxes don’t go far enough: Let’s transform our economy with public money Sheridan Kates Wealth taxes are crucial to build an economy that works for…

The post Wealth taxes don’t go far enough appeared first on Economic Reform Australia.

Empathy, morality, civilisation and resisting tyrants Geoff Davies Are we just selfish brutes who need to be civilised into social, moral behaviour? If not, where…

The post Empathy, morality, civilisation and resisting tyrants appeared first on Economic Reform Australia.

Uncertainty is central to Keynesian economics Steven Hail This item is extracted from Steven Hail’s 2018 book Economics for Sustainable Prosperity. The discussion relates to…

The post Uncertainty is central to Keynesian economics appeared first on Economic Reform Australia.

The Global Financial Crisis from a flawed neoclassical perspective Steve Keen This is a critique by Steve Keen of Lee Ohanian’s paper “The economic crisis…

The post The Global Financial Crisis from a flawed neoclassical perspective appeared first on Economic Reform Australia.

Equations that mask inequality Barbara Williams Students of economics learn obedience to equations that mask inequality. That thought hit me while reading “The Justice Lie”…

The post Equations that mask inequality appeared first on Economic Reform Australia.

Economics textbooks — scandalous intellectual dishonesty Lars Syll It is well-known that Keynes frequently criticised more traditional economics for committing the ‘fallacy of composition’. This…

The post Economics textbooks — scandalous intellectual dishonesty appeared first on Economic Reform Australia.

Can MMT save AI from catastrophe? John Alt A chief criticism of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is that it is inherently inflationary. The simple logic…

The post Can MMT save AI from catastrophe? appeared first on Economic Reform Australia.

Renewables over 50%, wholesale prices down – is the energy transition … succeeding? Tony Wood Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as January’s record-breaker…

The post Renewables over 50%, wholesale prices down appeared first on Economic Reform Australia.