Financial stress in 3 graphs: there's fewer of us in it, but for those who are, it's worse
HARRYZH/ShutterstockThe good news from new research conducted by the Australian National University for Social Ventures Australia and the Brotherhood of St Laurence is that fewer of us are ...
COVID-19 cost more in 2020 than the world's combined natural disasters in any of the past 20 years
www.shutterstock.comWhat have we lost because of the pandemic? According to our calculations, a lot — and many of the worst hit countries and regions are far from world media attention...
To abandon vaccination targets is to abandon the mantle of leadership
The Australian government has abandoned its ambitious targets to have the adult population vaccinated by the end of October. It has, in fact, abandoned having any target.We all sometimes fin...
Christine Holgate's 'principal' error was applying corporate logic to Australia Post
Papin Lab/ShutterstockPerhaps the most important lesson from the Christine Holgate controversy is that the confluence of sexism and politics leads to double standards for female executives.B...
Did somebody say workers' rights? Three big questions about Menulog's employment plan
Menulog, Australia’s second-largest food ordering and delivery platform, has declared it will break with the standard “gig platform” business model and engage some of its c...
With the trans-Tasman travel bubble about to open, how much should the tourism industry get its hopes up?
www.shutterstock.comBy this time next week flights between New Zealand and Australia will have been taking off and landing for roughly 48 hours. The quarantine-free trans-Tasman travel bubbl...
Home prices are climbing alright, but not for the reason you might think
It’s tempting to think home prices are soaring because there aren’t enough homes.But that can’t explain the sudden takeoff from about the year 2000, the sudden takeoff from...
Not wiped out. Even after the collapse of Greensill, there's time to save Whyalla
Tudoran Andrei/ShutterstockWiping off Whyalla has become something of a macabre sport.All manner of things have been said to be about to destroy the steelworks town, including (briefly) the ...
Resistance to raising the minimum wage reflects obsolete economic thinking
Fewer than 2% of Australian employees work for the minimum wage (now $19.84 an hour). But the federal Fair Work Commission’s annual decision on how much to increase the minimum wage al...
New Zealand’s new housing policy is really just a new tax package — and it’s a shambles
GettyImagesEconomists like to talk about “optimal policy instruments” — essentially, policies that achieve their objectives more effectively or efficiently than the alterna...
Housing affordability is a problem. Here's why super-for-housing isn’t a solution
The idea that young Australians should be able to dip into their super to help buy their first home keeps going round and round. The most recent iteration put forward by the Coalition’...
Vital signs: to fix Australia's housing affordability crisis, negative gearing must go
Dan Himbrechts/AAPHouse prices are back in the news, and out of control.In the past three months the…
Company directors can't serve two masters: what went wrong at Australia Post
Shareholder primacy is often said to be the guiding principle of corporations. The idea is that they…
JobKeeper and JobMaker have left too many young people on the dole queue
Of the more than 870,000 Australians who lost their jobs in the first few months of the COVID-19 cri…
The successor to JobKeeper can't do its job. There's an urgent need for JobMaker II
workskil/ShutterstockUntil the end of last month one million workers were paid by JobKeeper.This mon…
The paradox of going contactless is that we're more in love with cash than ever
Ann Kosolapova/ShutterstockCOVID has changed you, right? You use less cash, perhaps a lot less.In th…
Hostage to fortune: why Westpac could struggle to find the right buyer for its NZ subsidiary
www.shutterstock.comThe recent announcement that Westpac is “reviewing” ownership of its…
Please, no more questions about how we are going to pay off the COVID debt
Brian A Jackson/ShutterstockThere are many uncertainties about the next federal election, but there …
Curbs on press freedom come with a cost, new research reveals
The importance of a free press to a thriving democracy is well-known. But what is its importance to …
Is that a good egg? How chocolate makers rate on social and environmental measures
Pixelbliss/ShutterstockEaster is the biggest chocolate-buying time of the year. But who’s real…
Vital Signs: swaps, options and other derivatives aren't just for the financial elite
Paulus van Dorsten/ShutterstockOne of the biggest trends in economics over the past 40 years has bee…
How To Make Money on St. Patrick’s Day
Every year people around the globe prepare for St. Patrick's Day by planning epic parades, festi…
A shocking statistical fact that will change the way you think about the gender pay gap
ShotPrime Studio/ShutterstockDomestic violence committed on female partners in heterosexual couples …
Prince Harry’s critics have a point: woke capitalism is no solution
Jeremy Selwyn/APPrince Harry has copped a pasting in the British media for his new job as “chi…
Now they want to charge households for exporting solar electricity to the grid — it'll send the system backwards
zstock/ShutterstockIt’s come to this. The Australian Energy Markets Commission has produced a…
