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Economy

Yesterday

Trump blinks | Dutton’s door opens | ASX slammed

Editor-in-chief James Chessell joins to unpack the market mayhem, weigh Peter Dutton’s election chances and preview a big week in corporate Australia.

Taxpayers could be forced to top up the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund if financial markets do not recover in the next three months.

Labor’s housing fund may need bailout after stock slump

Taxpayers could be forced to top up the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund if financial markets do not recover in the next three months.

Trump goes all-in for his biggest deal ever: China

Amid the ruins of the rules-based global trading system, the US president has bet the house on Xi Jinping playing along with his art of the deal.

Markets are resigned to a US-China trade war.

Nine rules for investors to navigate the trade war

Trade wars, like pandemics, have the potential to break traditional correlations in financial markets. But do not despair: trade wars also have their logic.

Michele Bullock delivers her speech.

RBA awaits China stimulus to protect Australia

The Reserve Bank and Treasury are pinning their hopes on infrastructure assistance from Beijing to shield the nation from a deepening trade war.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said this week that he learnt in Year 7 that tariffs hurt the country that applies them the most.

Will global leaders practice free trade preached to Trump?

Given the agreement that tariffs are a tax on consumers, why don’t both major political parties pledge to remove them if they prevail at the election?

There is no grand strategy underlying Trump’s plans.

There is no cunning theory behind Trump’s tariff plan

The White House cited my classmate’s economic research to justify its reciprocal tariffs – it got the maths wrong. But it gets worse.

This Month

Speaking for the first time since Trump’s tariff announcement, Michele Bullock says the volatility caused by the trade war is not as bad as the GFC.

Bullock seeks to calm nerves as rate cut calls grow louder

Speaking for the first time since Trump’s tariff announcement, Michele Bullock says the volatility caused by the trade war is not as bad as the GFC.

China has more skin to lose in this game of chicken. Yet China’s authoritarian political system has more tools at its disposal.

Trump’s economic cold war forces trade pragmatism from Australia

Deepening South-East Asian trade ties would prevent an assertive China exploiting the vacuum left by Trump’s unpredictability.

The ASX suffered another CHESS outage before Christmas.

ASX board, management needs a clean-out

Readers’ letters on the Reserve Bank losing confidence in the ASX, Donald Trump’s backdown on tariffs, foreign students and Peter Dutton’s election campaign

The Coalition’s proposal to pay down debt would actually involve the federal government taking on even more debt.

Coalition’s Future Fund plan is a funny money fiscal illusion

The opposition’s proposal to pay down debt would actually involve the federal government taking on even more debt.

If Wednesday evening’s debate between Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor had been held just four months ago, it would have gone very differently.

How Donald Trump crowded out Angus Taylor’s killer lines

Jim Chalmers and Angus Taylor were gearing up for a cost-of-living election but Trump’s ascension to the White House in January has changed everything.

Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek at the opening of Paddy’s Markets.

Labor is giving the people what they want to hear

Peter Dutton is struggling to compete with Anthony Albanese’s promises to protect voters from the new Trump world challenges - as opposed to facing up to them.

Commonwealth of Australia chief economist Luke Yeaman.

Strap in for long trade war, CBA warns

Commonwealth Bank chief economist Luke Yeaman says the economic pain from Donald Trump’s trade disruption will not end soon.

The opponents tap gloves before a brawl.

Election campaign of cheap jibes and petty bribes

Readers’ letters on Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton’s campaign performance, Donald Trump’s tariffs and making childcare a tax deduction.

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Donald Trump’s counsel for Americans to be patient and that his tariffs will return manufacturing to the United States, implies a longer term, more permanent, process at play.

Trump’s tariffs will isolate America from global trade solution

Many countries that share US concerns about China’s industrial subsidies will now see it as a more reliable trade partner.

Donald Trump memorabilia on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The performance of the market over the last 50 days has made for the worst start of a presidency for more than a decade.

Trump’s chaos kills American exceptionalism

Investor belief in US superiority drove Wall Street to sky-high valuations, but the president’s trade war is now eroding this conviction.

Were US President Donald Trump to kill the tariffs, why should businesses and consumers believe they’ll stay dead?

Why we shouldn’t rule out an economic doomsday

Policymakers should be war gaming the worst scenario because never before has a single signature by a single individual raised the probability of recession so sharply.

Despite lessons through history, investors time and time again attempt to “time the market”.

How to profit from the market panic

Fear is natural. But in markets, these times can present the opportunity to buy quality assets trading at potentially fantastic prices.

Senior trade adviser Peter Navarro at the tariff announcement ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.

Markets have seen through Peter Navarro’s ‘tissue of lies’

The evidence against Donald Trump’s tariff adviser, and his “poorly designed and reckless” tariff hikes, is overwhelming.

Economists don’t believe a recession is near for Australia.

Why economists doubt a recession is coming for Australia

Australian businesses affected by Trump’s tariffs will find new export markets while the economy will be bolstered by rate cuts and a falling currency, analysts say.

Former RBA board member Warwick McKibbin says he does not expect Australia to go into a recession. If history is any guide, betting against him is a risky trade.

Why Australia’s top modeller says we are not headed for recession

Former RBA board member Warwick McKibbin has an unrivalled track record in financial crises. Betting against him is a risky trade.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has branded Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s promise to allow small businesses to deduct staff lunches a “complete farce”.

Recession talk is premature

The major parties are jostling to be perceived as the best placed to manage the international economic turmoil. Australia needs cool heads to prevail.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

Trump’s game of bluff on tariffs and tax

China is threatening to “fight to the end” if America imposes yet more tariffs. The respite on global sharemarkets is likely to be temporary if trade tensions continue to escalate.

Bullock was right about Australia’s shock absorber against US tariffs

Last week, the RBA governor said the exchange rate would be an important “buffer” in Trump’s trade war. It is what economists call it an “automatic stabiliser”.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/policy/economy