Shorten needs to follow the lead of Hawke, not Whitlam

Bob Hawke at a Canberra press conference in 1983.

The Hawke-Keating policies were orthodox economics that worked. Yet they are now denounced by Labor’s revisionists as 'trickle-down' neo-liberalism.

The world economy has largely recovered from the Great Recession in terms of employment, but productivity remains sluggish.

Hate globalisation? Then embrace stagnation

Noah Smith

The pace of world trade slowed a lot when the economy crashed a decade ago. In addition to physical globalisation, financial globalisation also has slowed.

Malcolm Turnbull started off talking about economic reform before retreating step by step

Australia's next PM needs a plan for growth. Luck won't be enough

The AFR View

Neither party's plans will deliver the productivity overhaul that Australia needs. That must encompass tax, energy, education, industrial relations, and Australia's place in the wider world.

Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg are the right team to lead Australia for the next three years.

For all its faults, the Coalition faces in the right policy direction

The AFR View

The party might have unity, but Bill Shorten’s agenda threatens a high-taxing, high-spending caricature of a Labor government.

Even if real interest rates rose, perhaps because productivity growth strengthened durably, the impact of robust ...

Fire or ice: how the long debt cycle might end

Martin Wolf

Some warn that the world of high debt and low interest rates will end in the fire of inflation. Others prophesy that it will end in the ice of deflation.

Labor plans to undermine its own industrial edifice

The AFR View

The problem for Labor is that the Fair Work Commission resists big wage hikes because they can cause unemployment, and poverty.

Letters: Budget forecasts debate about very little

Letters on budget forecasts, energy policy, TPG/Vodafone merger and franking credits. Wednesday May 15, 2019.

Adani shows Labor climate split that never went away

The AFR View

During the Rudd-Gillard era it was clear a rift had opened up between Labor's blue collar working class support and its inner city left-prog...

Letters: First-home buyers subsidy will misfire

Letters on federal ICAC, aged care, Israel Folau and climate change. Tuesday May 14, 2019.

The dollar holds the key to systemic risk

A pro-cyclical currency like the Australian dollar can cause havoc when markets tank.

It's every man for himself

If you are in any doubt how the Coalition has misread the politics of climate change and how concerned the Liberals are about Victoria, look at the recent change in language and behaviour.