This Month
- Analysis
- Aussie dollar
Winners and losers from the Aussie dollar’s near five-year low
There’s something strange going on with the currency. Expect expensive overseas trips, takeover activity, more foreign buyers in the real estate market and a federal budget boost.
- John Kehoe
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Rate cut can’t paper over Australia’s economic problems
The near-term focus on the RBA highlights the worrying fact that an election fought mainly over the cost of living will mask Australia’s budget and growth problems.
- The AFR View
- Analysis
- Federal budget
With a $7.4b black hole, Gallagher tries to explain the unexplainable
Budgeting no money for public servant wage rises may have made sense under a stingy Coalition, but it makes no sense under a Labor government hiring like mad.
- Michael Read
What crisis? Millennial nostalgia fuels rush for $7050 handbags
The limited-edition designer goods market is in rude health as a Louis Vuitton collection nears sellout in Australia.
- Michelle Bowes
- Opinion
- Inflation
RBA should cut rates and not be fooled by trimmed mean inflation
The actual inflation rate Australian consumers and businesses feel is now within the designated target range of 2-3 per cent. The RBA should not ignore this.
- Craig Emerson
The $18.4trn reason to listen to BlackRock’s three lessons in 2025
Wall Street and its biggest investors like the global investment giant influence the ASX more than anything else. That’s why you need to listen.
- Anthony Macdonald
CEOs reveal how to fix the productivity problem
Business reckons it’s ready to invest to help bolster living standards for all Australians. It just needs some policy help.
- Updated
- James Thomson and Anthony Macdonald
More skilled migration, less red tape to kickstart economy: CEOs
The government needs to stimulate sagging productivity growth if Australia is to prosper, business warns.
- Anthony Macdonald and James Thomson
The existential risk Australia’s rock star investors are facing
If fund managers cannot work this one out, they could be gone before the problem gets a chance to fix itself. Small shareholders and even super funds would be worse off.
- Anthony Macdonald
- Opinion
- Opinion
No Christmas rate cut because Chalmers fought economic laws and lost
The treasurer made a bet he could spend expansively but still see multiple interest-rate cuts from the Reserve Bank before the next election.
- Richard Holden
The books Australian economists loved in 2024
The Shortest History of Economics by Andrew Leigh ranked as one of the most popular books among our most prolific readers.
- Cecile Lefort
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Dogs of the ASX need to find their bite
The banks ensured the Australian sharemarket made good money for investors in 2024. But we need changes to do it again this year.
- Anthony Macdonald
- Opinion
- Opinion
Green-left politics is trashing our freedoms and prosperity
Australia is held back by a special kind of leftism that is essentially an assault on the fundamental human rights that drive a free-market economy.
- Stephen Anthony
December 2024
- Analysis
- Analysis
The lucky country has blown the (20-year) boom
Australian governments have frittered away much of the windfall from the mining boom, which may now be fading. And there is no plan to pay for spending locked in.
- John Kehoe
24 hours in Chadstone: a postcard from Melbourne’s shopping temple
I spent a night in the mega mall in the week before Christmas, and even a bloated Victorian budget couldn’t spoil the mood.
- Gus McCubbing
- Opinion
- Governance
The good, the bad and the ugly of corporate Australia in 2024
Big deals, big names, big disasters. From AirTrunk to Woolies to our own Nine Entertainment, here are the biggest moments of the year.
- James Thomson
‘Give us a chance’: More visas not enough to fix skills crisis
According to a recently launched coalition of business groups, unions and community organisations, more than 620,000 permanent migrants work below their skill levels and qualifications.
- Ronald Mizen
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Bigger and hidden deficits are the real MYEFO result
In its mid-year budget outlook, Labor is effectively doubling down on the bigger-spending, bigger government that has crowded out private investment.
- The AFR View
- Opinion
- Federal budget
Budget update sounds a clear warning
Jim Chalmers is good at relaxed rhetoric about the economy. The mid-year figures are much tougher to explain.
- Updated
- Jennifer Hewett
Coalition nuclear fund would deepen $90b off-budget blowout: Chalmers
A record $90 billion of spending over four years will be obscured in off-budget funds, but Treasurer Jim Chalmers says it would be worse under the Coalition.
- Updated
- Michael Read