Martin Duck
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martyduck.bsky.social
Martin Duck
@martyduck.bsky.social
30 followers 32 following 3 posts
Post-Doctoral Research Associate at The University of Sydney in the Discipline of Political Economy: Housing, finance, inequality and democracy
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Reposted by Martin Duck
jomichell.bsky.social
Great charts in this, but I'm going to take issue with one sentence. These were political choices, not the unavoidable outcomes of a fiscal crisis.
As such, the prevailing narrative about the UK’s tough austerity in the 2010s misses a crucial detail: there were indeed steeply regressive and damaging cuts to benefits and public services, but this was not a classic move for a government of the right, cutting spending to finance tax cuts for the rich. So deep was the fiscal crisis that public spending was cut and taxes on the rich went up. The result is that Britain’s top 10 per cent is the only segment paying more in taxes today than in 2010. Even after including the impact of benefit cuts on the bottom of the income distribution, the top has seen bigger income losses than anyone other than the poorest fifth.
November 21, 2025 at 7:34 AM
martyduck.bsky.social
The private sector alone has never built enough dwellings for the population to affordably house itself. If the government is serious about housing equity and affordability (it's demonstrably not), it should directly build houses, lots of houses, rather than incentivise even greater demand.
grogsgamut.bsky.social Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 25d
Governments used to build places for people to live in.

Housing used to be affordable.

www.theguardian.com/business/gro...
But looking further back and taking into account population growth, the past 25 years of juicing demand and trusting the private sector to fix things has led us to a point where public housing plays a very minor role: Then chart showing the number of public sector building approvals has gone from 100 a year per 100,000 residents in 1984 to around 15.
November 12, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Reposted by Martin Duck
mkonings.bsky.social
New piece about MAGA's Fed strategy:

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Martijn Konings, Fiscal Dominance? — Sidecar
Trump and the Federal Reserve.
newleftreview.org
November 12, 2025 at 8:38 PM
martyduck.bsky.social
theconversation.com/how-many-of-...
How many of Australia’s 2.2 million property investors would lose out under a new plan to curb negative gearing?
The new proposal to phase out tax breaks on more than one investment property would affect around 1% of Australians.
theconversation.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Reposted by Martin Duck
housingtheory.bsky.social
Martin Duck, @mdemac.bsky.social and @mkonings.bsky.social on the role of states in reinforcing asset-based welfare policies and class positions, in ”The Edges of the Asset Economy: Housing, Class, and Social Change?”
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com
October 24, 2025 at 11:47 AM