Chris Joye is one of Australia's sharpest economic minds — a fund manager, AFR columnist, and architect of the indices used to measure Australian house prices.

In this conversation, Joye delivers a blunt assessment of where Australia is headed economically. He argues the federal budget was a defining moment that exposed the government's agenda: taxing the private sector to fund an expanding public service. He connects that policy shift to rising inflation, falling house prices, and a growing brain drain that few politicians are willing to confront honestly.

Topics covered:
• Why the federal budget was a turning point for Australian economic confidence
• Sydney and Melbourne house prices falling at double-digit annual rates
• The RBA's inflation battle and why interest rates may need to go higher
• Australia's national and state debt crisis and what it means for future taxes
• The case for cutting the NDIS, selling the NBN, and raising the GST
• Why high-net-worth Australians and entrepreneurs are quietly leaving
• Trump's economic model and what Australia could learn from US prosperity