Umpire calls time on negative gearing
Many voters have strong views for or against negative gearing. But when rival politicians fall to arguing about their policies, most of us find we don't know enough to decide who's right.
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Ross Gittins
Ross Gittins is economics editor of the SMH and an economic columnist for The Age. His books include Gittins' Guide to Economics, Gittinomics and The Happy Economist.
Banks still haven't shown contrition for the bad apples
Is there any justification for a royal commission into the conduct of the banks? Is it just a political stunt? All royal commissions are called for political reasons and many are stunts, in the sense that their primary objective is just to bring particular issues into the public spotlight.
185th anniversary: view from the newsroom
How has the Herald changed in 185 years? How should I know – I've been working for it for less than a quarter of that time.
We all pay the price when businesses break our trust
Big businesses must clean up their own behaviour before they start telling others what to do.
There needs to be more to work than money
Has it ever occurred to you that, in all our economic striving, most of us – almost all our business people, economists and politicians, but also many normal people – are missing the point?
Where will the jobs be after the boom?
It's a question doubting customers have been asking me through the whole of my career: but where will all the jobs come from? We worry about jobs, convinced there's never enough of them.
Doctors share the blame for a sick budget
Advances in automation have made subsidies for many health services unnecessary, but taking steps to remove them leads to outrage.
Turnbull is losing his chance to be a great PM
The closer we get to the pointy end of the Coalition government's first term, the more Malcolm Turnbull seems to be shrinking to the size of his stunted predecessors.
Prisons trap our money along with crooks
Things may be gloomy in other countries, and even in parts of our own economy, but there's one aspect of Australian life where everything's on the up: we're enjoying a sustained prison boom.
Parties need money, business supplies it
According to the Labor Party's rising star, Senator Sam Dastyari, 10 big companies control our political process. You don't need to look far to find evidence of the power wielded by "the big end of town".
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