Almost all of the Reserve Bank’s new Term Funding Facility has ended up in the hands of big businesses. There’s a way to make sure small businesses get it.
We’re running out of interest rates to cut to keep the economy from sinking. Before the next recession occurs, we need to come with an effective approach to monetary policy.
The Reserve Bank of Australia says it’s prepared to ease monetary policy further if needed to stimulate the economy. But is the policy working when interests rates are so low?
With a relatively low debt to GDP ratio, Australia was never at risk of becoming Greece. But Germany, with negative interest rates and scant prospects for economic growth, is an open question.
Jim Stanford, University of Sydney and Richard Denniss, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
For economics to play a more helpful, critical role, it must abandon blind faith in the free market and embrace the social, historical, and environmental context in which economics actually happens.
The New Payment Platform may speed up transactions, but evidence suggests it could also lead to more scams and fraud, and many customers won’t switch over.
A digital Australian dollar could remove the role of middlemen and creates a cheaper electronic currency system, while at the same time enabling the government to fully regulate the system.
A new report suggests the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia should income a “representative of the poor”. This is a proposal worthy of consideration.
This week’s strong growth in full-time employment shows a robust labour market. This only deepens the puzzle of why inflation is so low at the same time.