The independent review of the Reserve Bank should be headed by someone from outside the country say 12 leading economists in an open letter to the treasurer.
- Scientia Professor of Economics, UNSW
The 2022-23 budget is the result of a good plan, well executed. But whichever party next takes government must close the deficit gap – without resorting to austerity.
It’s time for a new brand of democratic liberalism that understands and harnesses the power of markets for social and economic good.
Australia’s GDP was up 3.4% last quarter of 2021, on the back of pent-up consumer spending. Other factors must drive future growth.
Adjusting tax brackets in line with inflation would ensure voters who wanted more government spending would also have to vote for more tax.
A tighter labour market than in the past is now needed to drive real wages growth.
For many small businesses the past month has been the most difficult period of the pandemic. Australia needs a better plan to help more survive.
There’s no reason why Australian lenders couldn’t offer 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, as they do in the US. It could save borrowers thousands of dollars in interest a year.
The case for the RBA increasing interest rates certainly exists. But it’s far less pressing than in the United States.
Governments should tell us everything they know about infections, hospitalisations and deaths. So why aren’t they?
The NSW government’s announcement of a $1,000 fine for failing to report a positive voluntary rapid antigen test will likely achieve the opposite of its intention.
Anthony Albanese’s plan for high-speed rail between Sydney and Newcastle could well be worth the cost, so long as he doesn’t muddy it with 1970s-style industry policy.
The dominant forces in the Coalition seem to have learnt their lesson: Australia’s economy still needs serious budget support.
The Productivity Commission’s startling finding is that passing on wealth actually cuts inequality.
The Australian Labor Party has options on emissions reduction targets, but it is still running scared from the best mechanism to achieve them.
Brainard has been pushing the Fed to consider exposure to climate change in its regulation and analysis of banks. That’s sparked fury from Republican senators – and even a Nobel Prize winner.
True wages growth, and true price growth, is probably less than the official figures suggest – meaning there’s no need for alarm about inflation in Australia.
The prime minister road-tested an avalanche of slogans on Wednesday, some of them clearly false.
Good decisions can be systematised. We are tantalisingly close, but there’s work to do yet.
Without academic freedom and rule of law it’s hard to see how China’s economy can continue to grow so fast.
When COVID-19 struck, Australia’s Treasury didn’t have the luxury of years of work, refinement and debate to develop JobKeeper. It had to perform battlefield surgery.
The US debt ceiling is a form of self-delusion: a limit imposed on a borrower by the borrower itself. Australia had one until the Coalition and the Green us, abolished it.
Chinese authorities have an intriguing, if troubling, option in handling the Evergrande crisis.
Disclosure requirements work, forcing companies to own up to their customers and investors.
The problem with the plan to relax restrictions at 70% and 80% vaccination rates is it’s based on modelling that’s now obsolete.
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