Two centuries of economic development courtesy of the Industrial Revolution

One of the small pleasures of my year was watching the deft political manoeuvrings of Thomas Cromwell in the TV miniseries of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.

Knowledge, not resources, driving economic growth

• COMMENT

Some economists worry the world economy isn't growing fast enough. It's slowing down and reaching the point of "secular stagnation".

Mining makes pollies confused about demand and supply

Our politicians on both sides have terrible trouble working out how supply works.

Unemployment, take a step back for the big picture

• COMMENT

It is possible to make sense of what's happening in the labour market, but only if you follow a few rules.

Politicised Treasury bites own tail, covers for Turnbull

• COMMENT

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen is right: One of the Abbott-Turnbull government's various acts of economic vandalism is its politicisation of the once-proud federal Treasury.

Recession? Look out your window

• COMMENT

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.

Why I'm a pathological optimist, despite my job

Last week in front of 1400 people at a Fairfax Media subscriber event I was outed as a "pathological optimist" by an anonymous reader, who wanted to know how I got that way.

Education efficiency should start with Grattan compromise

If Treasury wants to start acting more like economists than accountants, a good place to start would be to urge its political masters to seize on the opportunity presented by the school funding "compact" proposed by the Grattan Institute.

Economists forced into productivity guessing game

• COMMENT

Conventional economics is falling apart, no longer making the sense we thought it made.