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economics
National affairs
Built on good fortune, relying on luck
Brendan Coates & Danielle Wood
9 May 2018
To deliver tax cuts and budget surpluses the treasurer will need to stay lucky
National affairs
Budget blues
Peter Brent
8 May 2018
Don’t spend too much time looking for a post-budget bounce. It won’t happen — or it’ll be over well before the election
National affairs
Budgeting in boom time
Tim Colebatch
2 May 2018
Cautious in parts, extravagant in others, the Victorian budget is built on a boom
National affairs
Not so super
Brendan Coates, John Daley & Trent Wiltshire
29 April 2018
Increasing the Superannuation Guarantee will help the rich at the expense of the poor
Essays & reportage
Untangling the hair trade
Assa Doron & Robin Jeffrey
28 April 2018
Extract
| Discarded hair makes a circuitous journey from India to the West, gathering value along the way
International
Domestic disharmony
Kerry Brown & Marya Shakil
23 April 2018
India’s Narendra Modi visits China this week as the two countries continue to grapple with internal challenges
National affairs
Why is unemployment still so high?
Tim Colebatch
20 April 2018
Buried in a Treasury report is the data that shows where most of the jobs are going
Books & arts
What counts, and what gets counted
Carmela Chivers
4 April 2018
Books
| The quest to quantify the performance of our most important institutions can backfire, but what other choice do we have?
National affairs
Hear that ticking?
Michael Gill
22 March 2018
Finance’s share of the Australian economy is higher than ever, leaving us vulnerable to a growing global liquidity bubble
National affairs
Big hopes for small business
Andrew Beer
19 March 2018
With the debate over renewable energy largely settled, the new South Australian government is looking to smaller companies to help meet its economic goals
National affairs
Australia today: slow growth, high debt
Tim Colebatch
13 March 2018
Behind the day-to-day swings in the economic data are worrying longer-term trends
Books & arts
The not-so-tragic commons
Jane Goodall
12 March 2018
Books
| Following in the footsteps of Nobel prize-winner Elinor Ostrom, two new books make the argument for public property and the public good
National affairs
Dear Ms Plibersek
Dean Ashenden
5 March 2018
Labor’s shadow education minister faces the problem of working out why school reform has failed, and what a federal education minister could do about it
National affairs
Good advice, and puzzling blind spots, in the IMF’s latest report on Australia
Tim Colebatch
23 February 2018
The International Monetary Fund gets some things right and some things wrong — but you wouldn’t necessarily know which from the coverage it’s had
National affairs
It’s going to be a bumpy economic ride
Saul Eslake
13 February 2018
The impact of America’s badly timed stimulus will ripple across the world
National affairs
Bitcoin’s zero-sum game
John Quiggin
24 January 2018
The quicker the cryptocurrency reaches its true value the better
Books & arts
How the public interest went missing in action
Carmela Chivers
22 January 2018
Books
| Is the US economy suffering from an overriding malady — and could Australia become infected?
Essays & reportage
Keynesians of the first hour
Alex Millmow
6 December 2017
Called on the eve of a revolution in economic thinking, the 1936–37 banking royal commission mattered in ways that the latest one probably won’t
International
The fall and rise of America’s rating agencies
Timothy J. Sinclair
21 November 2017
Attempts to regulate rating agencies haven’t been notably successful. But perhaps the diagnosis was wrong
Essays & reportage
Is a universal basic income “challenging but possible”?
Tim Dunlop
10 November 2017
With interest growing, supporters gathered in Melbourne recently to discuss the practicalities
Books & arts
Private gains and social losses
Jason Sharman
6 November 2017
From the archive
| The biggest tax havens aren’t on faraway islands, writes
Jason Sharman
National affairs
The Productivity Commission’s multi-factor problem
John Quiggin
31 October 2017
The need to lift multi-factor productivity has become an article of faith. But what if it doesn’t really exist?
National affairs
Dial M for missed opportunity?
Lesley Russell
30 October 2017
The Productivity Commission’s healthcare recommendations might not go far enough, but they could still be too bold for the government
International
The calm before the storm?
Kerry Brown
28 October 2017
What did an orderly party congress reveal about China’s priorities for the next half-decade?
International
Have headline, will travel
Peter Brent
19 October 2017
Beware of what excitable headline-writers and the betting markets say about Donald Trump’s chances of serving two terms
International
China in the Pacific: a question of influence
Graeme Smith
16 October 2017
Exaggerated fears about China’s intentions reflect a misunderstanding of what’s happening in the region
International
Italy: the bel paese that lost its way
Tim Colebatch
2 October 2017
Life is still good for many Italians, but bad decisions are deepening the north–south divide
Correspondents
A break in the European clouds
James Panichi
19 September 2017
Europe is shipshape and ready for action, according to the European Union’s top official
Essays & reportage
The generation game
John Quiggin
5 September 2017
It makes no sense, but typecasting generations is more popular than ever
Correspondents
The land that fell to earth
David Hayes
16 August 2017
Britain has spiralled into political failure since voting to leave the European Union. What happened, and what happens next?
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