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.
How the worm – and the world – turns. When the Abbott government came to power just four years ago, it claimed its arrival signalled the "end of the age of entitlement". Don't laugh, it's happening – but in the opposite way to what treasurer Joe Hockey had in mind.
We're all supposed to be equal before the law, but you ain't anything like equal if they can afford a lawyer and you can't.
Surveys show most people say they need a little bit more than their getting for a comfortable life. Trouble is, they say that no matter how much their income rises.
When the consumer price index is dissected, the real problem is the rate of increases.
It's never my policy to feel sorry for any politician, so let's just say I wouldn't like to be in Malcolm Turnbull's shoes when he meets the electricity retailers he's summoned to Canberra on Wednesday.
More Australians have died at the hands of police, lawfully or unlawfully, in 10 years, than from terrorist attacks in Australia in the past 20 years.
You can see it overseas in the electoral popularity of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn, and the anti-establishment revolts in the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump.
I can't let one of the Coalition government's greatest achievements go without acknowledgement and explanation.
For the growing number of us who care more about good policy and effective governance than party loyalties, the news isn't good.
Unlike Turnbull, whose actions contrast markedly with what every voter knows are his long-held views.
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