Thinking Out Loud

Long-form analysis and argument across economics, finance, cities, and society.

  1. Urban

    Tokyo Won't Save Melbourne's Suburban Rail Loop: The Case for State-Led Land-Banking Over Passive Value Capture

    Melbourne's Suburban Rail Loop is being sold partly on a financial promise: that the infrastructure will pay for roughly a third of itself by harvesting the…
  2. Urban

    The Case for Density: Why Melbourne Should Build Up

    Melbourne has spent four decades answering a housing shortage with more Melbourne — another ring of subdivisions at the urban fringe, another hour added to the…
  3. Finance

    The Quiet Cost of Instant Liquidity

    Markets that promise you can always sell are quietly making everyone's exit more dangerous.