Editorial

  • US growth still eludes Fed

    Perhaps the most alarming thing for policymakers about the summertime wilt in the US economy is not so much that it is happening, but that the extraordinary measures they have put in place since the financial crisis have been so slow to make a difference.

  • Alliance is bad for business

    As Labor fell into the embrace of the Greens yesterday, the June-quarter national accounts revealed a robust economy that fairly steamed into the new financial year on the back of surging mining revenues.

  • State can't write fires blank cheque

    The Victorian government was right to carefully consider its response to the royal commission into the Black Saturday bush-fires.

  • No truck with more protection

    Caretaker Treasurer Wayne Swan is flirting with a dangerous return to populism in refusing to rule out any increase in tariffs.

  • Reform matters more than ever

    Little that's happened in the lead up to last week's strange courtship of the independents has increased confidence in the economic background to our national drama. The Chinese economy has continued to slow and the United States has struggled, as the downwards revision of June quarter growth estimates and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's muddled remarks about prospects and policy options attest.

  • New politics could lead to genuine tax reform

    With Greens to the left of the next federal government and independents to its right, the country is probably stuck with the current taxation system for another parliamentary term. But probability is not destiny.

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