Latest
Why the economy needs five things to go right in 2024
From inflation to the stage three tax cuts, there’s a raft of risks ahead in the new year.
- Ronald Mizen
COVID-19 warning ahead of New Year’s Eve parties
Case numbers are soaring across Australia, with experts warning that low testing rates mean infection rates are much higher than official tallies suggest.
- Hannah Wootton
- Exclusive
- Superannuation
Big super spends lots of your money on promotion. Here’s where it goes
New transparency laws reveal for the first time where industry super funds put money for ads and sponsorships. The Tigers and unions are big winners.
- Hannah Wootton
Stormy summer’s toll mounts, in lives and dollars
At least nine people have died in Queensland and Victoria since a Christmas deluge started along the east coast, and rain is expected for days yet.
- Maxim Shanahan
War, elections and tariffs threaten the global economy in 2024
More than 2 billion people in roughly 50 countries will head to the polls in 2024 amid mounting geopolitical tensions.
- Patricia Cohen
Will you live to 100? The answer is in your blood
As a new study reveals similarities between the blood samples of centenarians, here are the lifestyle changes you can make to live longer.
- Polly Dunbar
Opinion & Analysis
The shadow of Trump hangs over the world
Even if he doesn’t run, he is a threat to democracy in a fragile world still reeling from his last efforts to promote a nationalist agenda.
International editor
‘Blackout’ Bowen: the man conservatives love to hate
The energy minister has been a top performer for Labor, winning blockbuster carbon and energy battles against all odds. But he has plenty of fights ahead.
Senior correspondent
The West must avoid populist backsliding on Ukraine in 2024
The West instinctively grasped what was at stake by backing the heroic Ukrainian resistance. The danger now is the message that would be sent by any weakening of Western will to stay the course.
Editorial
Australia needs a formal national security strategy
The government has reached a point where it can no longer avoid open discussion of fundamental questions about unpreparedness for strategic trouble ahead.
Geopolitical analyst
Yesterday
- Analysis
- US election
The shadow of Trump hangs over the world
Even if he doesn’t run, he is a threat to democracy in a fragile world still reeling from his last efforts to promote a nationalist agenda.
- Updated
- James Curran
- Analysis
- Carbon challenge
‘Blackout’ Bowen: the man conservatives love to hate
The energy minister has been a top performer for Labor, winning blockbuster carbon and energy battles against all odds. But he has plenty of fights ahead.
- Updated
- Jacob Greber
This Month
- Opinion
- The AFR View
The West must avoid populist backsliding on Ukraine in 2024
The West instinctively grasped what was at stake by backing the heroic Ukrainian resistance. The danger now is the message that would be sent by any weakening of Western will to stay the course.
- The AFR View
- Opinion
- Foreign relations
Australia needs a formal national security strategy
The government has reached a point where it can no longer avoid open discussion of fundamental questions about unpreparedness for strategic trouble ahead.
- Updated
- Rory Medcalf
- Opinion
- Global economy
Three lessons from my 50 years of forecasting
Confession: my crystal ball has been cracked countless times by purportedly unprecedented developments.
- Updated
- Stephen Roach
- Opinion
- Diet
How to listen to your hunger during the holidays
A neuroscientist explains how we eat with our eyes, gut and brain.
- Alex Johnson
10 long reads for the weekend
Welcome to the weekend. To start off your day, we’ve curated 10 great reads to enjoy.
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
The biggest threat from COVID was in our own homes
Many public spaces were never the threat they were deemed to be, according to a trove of data from seven million contacts in the UK.
- F.D. Flam
- Opinion
- Bonds
A Christmas gift from the bond market
There’s no real reason for yields to have plunged since October, argues Paul Krugman: “My guess is that we’re mainly looking at market psychology.”
- Paul Krugman
Fed’s preferred inflation gauges cool, reinforcing rate-cut tilt
The core personal consumption expenditures price index increased 0.1pc from a month earlier; the overall PCE price index declined for the first time since 2020.
- Augusta Saraiva
After her power bill doubled, this grocer had to make a change
Relief on electricity prices is in sight after deep falls in wholesale prices, but the pain is acute in South Australia and NSW where power bills are highest.
- Ben Potter
Wall Street’s economic doomsayers see US recession around corner
Forecasters at Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo Securities are among those reiterating pessimistic predictions.
- Steve Matthews and Katia Dmitrieva
US inflation report to show Fed’s battle all but complete
A monthly report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis is poised to cement the case for lower interest rates in the coming quarters.
- Matthew Boesler
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Latest legal trial shows Trump still has to be defeated politically
Democrats need to realise that the pursuit of the former president through the courts only serves to fire up his never-say-never base.
- The AFR View
- Opinion
- Democracy
Democratic recession could deepen in 2024
At this moment of maximum global peril, democracies have lost the thing they need most: the power of their legitimacy.
- Misha Zelinsky
- Exclusive
- Workplace safety
Top academy expels sacked economics professor
The move comes after Chris Edmond was sacked by Melbourne University over professional retaliation against a former student who had an affair with him.
- Aaron Patrick
Cost-of-living crunch adds urgency to Christmas charity appeals
Charities are reporting a dip in the number of donations amid a heightened need for support.
- Gus McCubbing
Renewables are cheapest, even with poles, wires and batteries added in
CSIRO’s annual price comparison of energy sources include transmission and storage costs in renewables calculations for the first time. They still come out on top.
- Ben Potter
UK inflation slows more than forecast, fuelling rate-cut bets
Consumer prices rose 3.9 per cent from a year earlier, down from 4.6 per cent in October, according to the latest monthly data.
- Tom Rees and Lucy White
Surprise fall in UK services inflation may hold key to rate cuts
Economists expect services inflation to continue subsiding, pushed lower by the drop in energy prices, the weakening jobs market and lacklustre demand.
- Tom Rees
