Why we keep buying presents no one needs
Spend much time with economists around this time of year, and you will hear about the dreadful inefficiency of exchanging gifts. But there's a higher logic to the gift economy.
Spend much time with economists around this time of year, and you will hear about the dreadful inefficiency of exchanging gifts. But there's a higher logic to the gift economy.
There will be no relaxed Christmas break for Kerry Stokes and the directors of his Seven West Media.
In this uncertain world, there are still a few unalterable facts of political life. For example, Republicans always do what Charles and David Koch, the billionaire bankrollers of right-wing politics nationwide, tell them.
Corporate Australia has wound down for the silly season, but the scandals haven’t abated.
Some economists worry the world economy isn't growing fast enough. It's slowing down and reaching the point of "secular stagnation".
The fixation with the budget deficit being a few billion one way or the other is arguing about the fleas on the dog – it's economic growth that decides whether the dog is fed or not.
Despite the occasional talk, politicians aren't prepared to do what's necessary to fix the problem of employers not paying superannuation.
The saga of Bellamy's demonstrates just how rapidly a company can move from being a sharemarket darling with seemingly limitless growth prospects to a sharemarket pariah with a questionable business model.
Since going public in June 2013, Commonwealth Bank whistleblower Jeff Morris is contacted at least once a month by company insiders.
One managing-director embroiled in scandal is perhaps unlucky: to suffer three in a row starts to look serious.
A new OECD paper has looked at how tax systems, including Australia's, effectively discriminate against married women.
Billionaire media mogul Kerry Stokes has a very important decision to make.
What an amazing difference 19 months can make for parliamentary inquiries into housing affordability and ownership.
Our politicians on both sides have terrible trouble working out how supply works.
When Col Fullagar isn’t jumping out of helicopters volunteering as a firefighter in remote areas of NSW he works in the cutthroat world of life insurance.
You can read James Packer's sell down and impending exit out of the Macau market many ways.
When a guy with an assault rifle walks into a pizza joint to "self-investigate" the made-up conspiracy theory he found on the internet about a non-existent child-prostitution ring, there's no doubt we've got a problem.
It is possible to make sense of what's happening in the labour market, but only if you follow a few rules.
Congratulations are in order as ScoMo's epiphany represents a major break with the Abbott/Hockey dogma of all government debt being evil.
More people are going to have to take risks, because jobs can't be guaranteed, even with a degree.
The Fed's well-telegraphed move early this morning is a key part of why our central bank has not cut its cash rate again.
The move take a position and get a slice of the spoils in the carve-up of the Tatts Group is vintage Macquarie Group.
A new bid from financial players including Macquarie and US-based private equiteers KKR for lotteries and gaming group Tatts could scupper Tabcorp's takeover ambitions.
The Australian public is the sole investor in Adani's coal export plans. We need to understand the true numbers.
Fairfax is calling it dirty. At the very least it's intriguing.
Imagine the task of building a city the size of Canberra every year, for the rest of this century. Or, how about creating a new city the population of Melbourne every decade?
Donald Trump hung his winning presidential campaign on the idea that he alone could bring back American jobs.
It was supposed to be the Coalition government’s panacea for the crisis in confidence plaguing the financial planning industry, but almost two years after it was launched, it’s a dud.
What would economic race-calling be without its little excitements? As you may possibly have heard, this week's news is that the economy has contracted - shrunk, gone backwards - by 0.5 per cent.
Treasurer Morrison labelled this week's surprisingly low September quarter GDP number as a "wake-up call". What he didn't say is that it's a call that's been ringing for three years.
Create the cellar of a true connoisseur with these bold - and delicious - selections.
Not all high-riding wagons are created equal, but these are built to withstand even the toughest terrains.
I've always found exit interviews to be perplexing.
This Christmas, a small Newcastle bakery will have its biggest year yet.
A free independent guide from SMH with expert information.
A free independent guide from SMH with expert information.
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