This Month
- Opinion
- Monetary policy
The Reserve Bank should act like policymakers, not forecasters
What new information will lead the central bank to increase the cash rate? Today’s decision provides zero additional clarity on this.
October
- Opinion
- Monetary policy
The great interest rate debate takes another turn
Stephen Grenville’s claim that he wants interest rates to actively be pushed up because it is “inevitable”, is like saying we’re all going to die some day, so let’s stop taking care of ourselves.
- Opinion
- Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize for economics goes for understanding when correlation is causation
David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens made pioneering contributions to what is now a core part of modern social sciences, not just economics.
- Opinion
- Monetary policy
Sucking it up and raising interest rates would be economic carnage
Those calling for normalising monetary policy need to understand that we don’t live in our parents global economy but in an age of secular stagnation.
August
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
We score an F for COVID-19 testing
The medical bureaucracy’s failure to expedite vaccine supply is matched by the lack of action on faster testing kits.
July
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
The end of lockdowns is near but it’s not here yet
There’s no living with a strain three times more infectious than flu and 20 times as fatal. So we can’t go wobbly on the strategy that’s prevented the deaths and economic carnage that premature reopening would entail.
- Updated
June
- Opinion
- ALP
Next election is Labor’s 1983 moment all over again
Rather than fighting battles already won over the minimum wage, the ALP must focus on how capital and labour can work together to improve productivity and lift living standards.
May
- Opinion
- Federal budget
Where does the budget leave Labor?
The Coalition’s great flip on deficits and spending has also opened the way for Labor to return to its own reforming tradition.
- Opinion
- Vaccination
Biden is making a mistake on vaccine patents
An act of apparent generosity could damage the IP system that created these miracle drugs in the first place.
April
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
Paying for lack of vaccine insurance
The government may have found another 20 million Pfizer shots as it limits use of AstraZeneca. But there have been too many unforced errors as well.
March
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
To win the vaccine rollout race we must start sprinting
Australia started later and is running slower than other countries. To speed up supply and demand, delivery of the jabs should be industrialised and eligibility dramatically increased.
February
- Opinion
- Monetary policy
The perverse logic of the push for higher interest rates
Tech-driven secular stagnation, not central bank policy, is the reason money is cheap, monetary policy is less effective, and why more aggressive fiscal policy is needed.
January
- Opinion
- Media bargaining code
Media code is a Stalinist show trial
The Morrison government needs to come to its senses and recognise that its proposed media bargaining code is absurdly slanted in favour of media companies.
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
Is the virus the meteor that finally wipes out the dinosaur of cash?
Businesses that have shunned cash in the pandemic may be finally nudging the public away from clunky notes and coins.
November 2020
- Opinion
- Monetary policy
Did the RBA just do the right thing? It's very hard to tell
Imagining that central bankers have magical powers obscures a lot of other important policy conversations.
October 2020
- Opinion
- Nobel Prize
How two economists applied game theory to improve auctions
The Nobel committee has shown impeccable taste in awarding this year's economic science prize to Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson for profoundly important contributions to our understanding of auctions.
September 2020
- Opinion
- Federal budget
Why the party of thrift shouldn't be timid about cutting taxes
The Liberal Party's ditched the obsession with debt and deficit to pay for pandemic supports. But that should not deter them from their old focus on inefficient taxes.
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
The key to living with the virus? Less accurate tests
Forget the gold standard, it's about volume. Test strips could be deployed to schools and workplaces and even to shopping centres, airports, and large cultural events.
- Opinion
- Superannuation
Rudd and Keating's rant won't fix the super system's flaws
The former prime ministers' defence of higher contributions misses the point. Reforms are needed to increase the returns on the super we have – not just pour more money in.
August 2020
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
Biden will back the trans-Pacific trade partnership
Joe Biden has empathy for the losers from globalisation. But he will still be a stronger advocate for free trade than Donald Trump.
