It’s an intangible thing, the real economy, because it’s a composite of millions of individual decisions a day, writes Bernard Keane.
Australia economy
Battle of the bulging egos: Mal v. Kev
The risk with Turnbull’s tactics are that they backfire, and create a public impression of an smart-rse, someone who failed to get behind the Government as it tried to manage a global crisis, writes Bernard Keane.
The fiscal massacre that laid the Rudd agenda to rest
Turns out we missed the opportunity to invest the proceeds of the mining boom and we’ll have to wait until the Rise of China and India Part II reaches these shores several years hence, writes Bernard Keane.
Wanted — one agenda for Federal Government.
Judging by Wayne Swan’s performance yesterday, he was so flabbergasted by what the international financial crisis has done to his budget that he’d become thoroughly disorientated, writes Bernard Keane.
Banks dig in over RBA cut
The refusal of the banks to pass on the full cut is simple gouging, writes Bernard Keane.
Talk of recession as Swan fumbles the figures
Treasurer Wayne Swan refused to rule out a brief recession in coming months in releasing Treasury’s Mid-Year Economic Forecasts this morning, writes Bernard Keane.
The most financially incompetent government since federation
The run on the mortgage funds — funds which support vast numbers of self funded retirees — was created by the Rudd government, writes David Flint.
Businesses, retirees and the government teat
You’d think businesses would be well-placed to weather a slowdown. But the first thing a lot of them do is run to the government, writes Bernard Keane.
Paul Sheehan: white washing banks
Blaming the average working punter may do wonders for Sheehan’s sense of schadenfreude, but he has let the bank who’s guru he cites, well and truly off the hook, write Greg Barns and John Meriweather.
No one blameless in the Great Bank Guarantee Kerfuffle
The only message reaching people is that the Coalition doesn’t support the Government’s handling of the crisis, and that’s dangerous ground for Malcolm Turnbull, writes Bernard Keane.
Nothing wronger than the Oz when it’s ‘right’
The Oz has joined the Government, the Opposition, and for that matter Ken Henry, in going over the top, writes Bernard Keane.
Kohler: Pawning the global economy
Yes, the world’s governments did well to save the banking system from catastrophe, but it was already too late to save the economy, writes Alan Kohler.
Mortgage funds under attack
The emerging liquidity crisis in the mortgage fund sector will accelerate a trend toward property financing shifting from the non-bank sector to the banks, writes Tony Boys.
Climate Change 2: Enviro groups need to talk dollars and cents
Suddenly we’re back talking economics, not the consequences for economic growth of unchecked climate change and the net economic benefits of addressing it, writes Bernard Keane.
Exec salaries: Rudd opens fire on the business community
One day Kevin Rudd’s blasting extreme capitalism and bank pay packets and the next he’s sitting down with 150 business leaders as commander in chief during a rolling economic security crisis, writes Stephen Mayne.
Costello: We must sow the seeds of the next crisis
If Australia is to sow the seeds of the next crisis, it needs to return to the stimulating policies of the Costello/(Howard) government, Peter Costello tells Walter Slurry.
Mungo: Destroying the free market to save it
The mere fact that the federal and state governments are going ahead with long term nation building projects is a signal that things remain pretty stable, writes Mungo MacCallum.
Commentariat 1: Bank guarantee on the hop
Bernard Keane reports on what the pundits thought.
Hewson loses plot, Turnbull subverting it
Contrary to their self-promotional material, there seems to be a disturbingly strong nexus between Australian conservative political leaders and poor economic management, writes Michael Pascoe.
Rudd’s money back guarantee is panicky policy
Yesterday the Government started to panic – but given everyone else is in full “I’m a teapot” mode, they looked relatively rational in doing so, writes Bernard Keane.
A prime time flop from Kerry and Kevin
How could a 10-minute exchange between Kerry O’Brien and Kevin Rudd not once bring in the key issue of Australia’s free-falling currency, asks Stephen Mayne.
Australian media: economic panic mongers
There’s an air of panic creeping into media coverage of the financial crisis, and it’s not helping anything, writes Bernard Keane.
Hold your nerve for some great buying opportunities
It is important to stress that no-one outside of Iceland has yet lost any money on deposit as government guarantees rain down upon the global banking system, writes Stephen Mayne.
Kohler: Politicians are dragging us down
The world’s politicians are uncoordinated and applying a wide variety of different coloured band-aids to the financial system, writes Alan Kohler.
Consumer credit numbers show the US economy is in free fall
It’s now clear that the US economy is in far worse shape than even thought yesterday, writes Glenn Dyer.
