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Tony Dillon

Are franking credits back in Labor's sights?

A recent Treasury Department statement on tax spending includes franking credits, which may be coincidence or something more ominous. Here's why the Labor Government shouldn't target franked credits to raise revenue.

Four experts clarify super tax and franking misconceptions

Critical facts are overlooked on the new super tax and franking. The super tax is a progressive tax not a flat tax, we have many ways of taxing 'income', concessions are overstated and franking has a common value.

RBA justifies its QE to QT, but did it drive inflation?

Deputy Governor, Michelle Bullock, explained last week why the RBA bought $280 billion of bonds in its QE programme, but are we paying the price for this stimulus as rising inflation shocks central bankers?

How our preferential voting drives the election result

At a federal level, Australia has used preferential voting since 1918, and it is an accepted part of our democracy. It might surprise to learn how fundamental it is for deciding which party forms government.

Betting markets as election predictors

Believe it or not, betting agencies are in the business of making money, not predicting outcomes. Is there anything we can learn from the current odds on the election results?

Doubts over the Eraring Power Station closure

There may be serious flaws in the plan to replace the generation capacity from the accelerated closing of Eraring Power Station. Tony Dillon critically assesses the proposed approach.

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Investment strategies

LICs vs ETFs – which perform best?

With investor sentiment shifting and ETFs surging ahead, we pit Australia’s biggest LICs against their ETF rivals to see which delivers better returns over the short and long term. The results are revealing.

Retirement

The growing debt burden of retiring Australians

More Australians are retiring with larger mortgages and less super. This paper explores how unlocking housing wealth can help ease the nation’s growing retirement cashflow crunch.

The ASX is full of broken blue chips

Investing in the ASX 20 or 200 requires vigilance. Blue chips aren’t immune to failure, and the old belief that you can simply hold them forever is outdated. 

Shares

Buying Guzman y Gomez, and not just for the burritos

Adding high-quality compounders at attractive valuations is difficult in an efficient market. However, during the volatile FY25 reporting season, an opportunity arose to increase a position in Mexican fast-food chain GYG.

Investment strategies

Factor investing and how to use ETFs to your advantage

Factor-based ETFs are bridging the gap between active and passive investing, giving investors low-cost access to proven drivers of long-term returns such as quality, value, momentum and dividend yield. 

Strategy

Engineers vs lawyers: the US-China divide that will shape this century

In Breakneck, Dan Wang contrasts China’s “engineering state” with America’s “lawyerly society,” showing how these mindsets drive innovation, dysfunction, and reshape global power amid rising rivalry. 

Retirement

18 rules for ageing well

The rules to age successfully include, 'the unexamined life lasts longer', 'change no more than one-eighth of your life at a time', 'nobody is thinking about you', and 'pursue virtue but don’t sweat it'.

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