Keynesian purists are all clutching their foreheads, but actually it’s pretty fabulous that Australia’s politicians are competing with each other to promise budget surpluses.
Articles by Alan Kohler 
Rinehart won’t find a Fairfax
megaphone
Gina Rinehart is likely to find investing in Fairfax Media a deeply frustrating experience, whether she’s trying to influence the newspapers or just make money.
Kohler: carried away in an Aussie dollar dance
Global hedge funds are starting to make big returns from borrowing in euros and investing in higher-yielding currencies such as the Australian dollar.
Kohler: why unemployment is heading to 6%
There is an unfolding employment disaster going on in Australia, but compared with Greece and Spain, Portugal and Ireland, we’re doing just great.
What Wilkie’s pokies reform didn’t bet on: the internet
The commotion surrounding Labor’s delay of Andrew Wilkie’s pokies reform takes on different meaning when viewed through the context of the inevitable, which is that the future of gambling resides on the internet, writes Alan Kohler.
Kohler: lights out on an Aussie jobs bonanza
It’s hard to avoid concluding that employment and commercial property returns in Australia are going to come under a lot of pressure this year and beyond.
Kohler: did you hear the one about the bond market?
Up to January, the European Central Bank lent European private banks about €500 billion at 1% interest.
Kohler: this is Carr’s chance to rev the EV engine
You would think, reading the claptrap about why the federal government is giving $34 million to Ford, that there was no such thing as an electric car.
Kohler: an economic Test stumped for global growth
The Big Bash of the debt crisis looks to be over and we are now in the long grind of debt reduction and low growth. But the financial world hasn’t the patience for a five-day Test match.
Kohler: dozing through an IR nightmare
The word “productivity” didn’t make it into Bill Shorten’s press release yesterday announcing a review of the Fair Work Act, or into the terms of reference.
Kohler: the big four’s cloak-and-dagger dance
One of the more bizarre rituals of global finance is the Australian Monetary Policy Dance, where we all wait to see whether an adjustment to official interest rates is “passed on”.
Kohler: surrounded by Europe’s standing armies
Thomas Jefferson definitely got it right 200 years ago when he warned that banks are more dangerous than standing armies.
Kohler: flagging down a recession
Markets are falling now because the US, and probably the world, is tipping into recession. Again.
Kohler: a smudge on Henry’s tax blueprint
It’s hard to imagine anything at all coming from tomorrow’s tax forum when we have a deeply unpopular minority government committed to a $47.7 billion budget turnaround within two years.
Kohler: stranded at super’s ground zero
The aim of retirement incomes policy in Australia for two decades has been to shift the burden of risk to individuals before the next big bear market hit. It worked quite nicely.
Kohler: surplus stupidity and the case for delaying carbon tax …
We are about to get a lesson in the absurdity of political discourse: the government is going to be accused of “breaking a promise” if a global downturn prevents the budget from returning to surplus by 2013. Or if it delays the carbon tax.
Kohler: time for an EU cash blitzkrieg
Ben Bernanke’s Fed has embraced inflation and currency debauchment as the way out, but the European Central Bank is not there yet. That’s why European markets sold off overnight.
Kohler: Wall Street calls a code blue
America has reached its debt limit and must start cutting back just as the economy is apparently getting weaker. Something similar is happening in Europe and Australia.
Kohler: S&P’s false ratings alarm
The world’s sharemarkets have been jumping at shadows lately, so the impact of an actual scary boogey man — in the shape of the first downgrade of US Treasury debt in history — is completely unpredictable.
Kohler: tipping towards a recession
This was always the great danger for the post-GFC world: that debt-laden governments, led by the US, would have to start cutting fiscal deficits before their economies reached escape velocity.
Kohler: Gillard’s incurable retail affliction
Relations between the federal government and business are as bad as they’ve been for 40 years, and it’s not just because of the proposed carbon tax.
Kohler: come back Lindsay, all is forgiven
Lindsay Tanner, come back! All is forgiven. The former finance minister would have been embarrassed by this budget.
Kohler: unwed bourses must settle for less
The Treasurer’s decision to raise the drawbridge on the ASX has the financial sector in uproar, agog at what the reasons might be.
Kohler: fugitives of Japan’s climate fallout
We make far more money from coal and gas than uranium exports, so if worldwide uranium demand collapses and is replaced by demand for coal and gas it is fabulous news for the national economy.
Kohler: at 80, Murdoch still scanning a brave new online world
There’s a certain irony in the fact that at 80 Rupert Murdoch is championing quality journalism and the need to pay for it.
