Today
Australia trapped in a ‘jail of short-term thinking’
New Business Council president Geoff Culbert says three-year government terms contribute to a crisis of short-term thinking that is dragging down the nation.
- 22 mins ago
- Phillip Coorey
Chalmers admits growth ambitions are too low
Business leaders welcomed the treasurer’s pitch to embrace what could be a “defining decade” but questioned government policies to fix weak productivity growth.
- 1 hr ago
- Phillip Coorey, John Kehoe and Jonathan Shapiro
- Opinion
- Australian economy
Welcome to a new world driven by supply not demand
It will be harder for central banks to manage a global economy now shaped by supply side constraints. But it won’t all be negative either.
- 1 hr ago
- Wei Li
AusSuper boss says nation in danger of losing sight of growing the pie
Paul Schroder said generational wealth inequality was a major issue and had been exacerbated by a housing shortage that sent property prices soaring.
- Jonathan Shapiro
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Why Shemara Wikramanayake is bullish (and you should be too)
Australia has the natural advantages and economic backdrop to outrun tepid growth forecasts, but top CEOs say we must make the right decisions and the right investments. Here’s how to do it.
- James Thomson
- Opinion
- WTO
WTO in the deep freeze as world walks away from growth
Last week’s failed meeting marks a formal sidelining of multilateral trade rules, at least until the world sits down and decides they were a good idea after all.
- Prudence Gordon
Chalmers’ RBA overhaul in jeopardy
Treasurer Jim Chalmers may need to secure the support of the Greens to legislate his overhaul of the RBA after rejecting the Coalition’s push for board continuity.
- Updated
- Michael Read
Inflation, rates to ‘rebound higher’ | NSW urged to take control of tolls | Beware what comes next for markets
Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.
Why inflation and rates are set to ‘rebound higher’
Expect interest rates to fall, but don’t expect them to stay there. That’s the big picture view of macroeconomic thinkers such as Wei Li and Peter Costello.
- Jonathan Shapiro
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Goldilocks is dead, says BlackRock guru. Beware what comes next
Wei Li says the era of easy money and easy returns is over. Markets might be surging on rate cut hopes now, but what comes next will be much tougher to navigate.
- James Thomson
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Politics, business must focus on aspiration, growth and security
There has been no major enduring, productivity-enhancing economic reform since the Howard-Costello GST package more than two decades ago.
- The AFR View
Yesterday
Chalmers gets a face-to-face with his favourite economist
Economist Mariana Mazzucato is on a week-long tour of Australia touting the benefits of a “mission economy” – or how to do industrial policy differently.
- Hans van Leeuwen
This Month
The industry still struggling post-COVID; How to avoid burnout; A GDP slump we had to have?
This week, James and Anthony ask if Australia’s weak economic growth even matters, reveal top hacks for dodging burnout, and ask why the private health system seems sick.
- Analysis
- Australian economy
Why the cost-of-living ‘crisis’ is not so bad for home borrowers
The economy is softening and cash flow is being crunched by higher interest rates. But it’s not all doom and gloom for indebted mortgage holders.
- John Kehoe
Foreign students are saving the economy
International student spending accounted for more than half the 1.5 per cent increase in GDP in 2023, according to new research from NAB.
- Michael Read
- Opinion
- Review
None of us are monetarists any more
Milton Friedman was a leading economic figure of the 20th century, but his monetary policy theory didn’t work in practice.
- Guy Debelle
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Post-pandemic growth is now the question
Four years on, the government-driven saviour economy in which people feel entitled without having to do much for it is the attitude that must be removed from our politics.
- The AFR View
Government tax take and spending nears record high
Economists are urging Jim Chalmers to focus on paying down debt instead of increasing spending, as new analysis shows the tax take has hit 30 per cent of GDP.
- Michael Read
- Updated
- GDP
Australia faces another year of weak GDP growth
Weak economic conditions will squeeze company profits, push up unemployment and potentially send the budget into deficit, economists have warned.
- Updated
- Michael Read
- Opinion
- The AFR View
ASEAN summit a worthwhile investment of Australia’s soft power
But the optics of forging stronger links with the nations of South-East Asia were undercut by the unprecedented and unedifying intervention by Paul Keating.
- The AFR View
