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.
Articles by Alan Kohler 
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.
Kohler: two oil shocks in one
Whatever happens in Libya, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in the short term, the oil price is likely to remain high for some time, at best denting world economic growth.
Kohler: the economic roots of revolution
The sharemarket is ripe for a correction with oil going above $US100 a barrel in both Europe and Asia and the turmoil in Egypt refusing to go away.
Kohler: the cost of our surplus obsession
The Australian Prime Minister is too worried about the fiscal balance and the US President is not worried enough.
Kohler: two revolutions in one
Not much more than two years from one of the greatest financial panics in history, sentiment is now as bullish as it has ever been. The global economy grew 4% last year and is likely to do something similar this year.
Kohler: now THAT’s a broadband business plan
After reading the NBN business plan it’s actually a bit hard to remain aloof and unexcited.
Kohler: welcome to economic Cold War
After two decades of selling to, and lending to, the United States, China is now its largest creditor and largest supplier of outsourced labour.
Kohler: the carefree and the callous
Having forced austerity budgets on Europe, markets are now cheering American recklessness with its own budget and Chinese insouciance about inflation.
Kohler: the Gillard regime is faceless no more
The men and women who work behind the scenes advising ministers and devising their policies, etc, definitely prefer to remain behind the scenes.
Kohler: Marx’s great capitalist creation
Australia’s currency revaluation to US99c last night is as much part of a disorderly global re-balancing and a repudiation of Marxism as a reflection of the stunning strength of the Australian economy.
