If ASIC gets its way, NAB will have to do more than pay compensation.
David Mariuz/AAP
If ASIC succeeds in its action against two subsidiaries of the National Australia Bank, the rest of the industry will be put on notice.
If the trade war with China escalates, siding with the US is going to cost, but Australia’s long-term national interests still lie with it.
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There can be no middle road in the trade war between China and the United States. Soon we will have to pick sides.
The rules make it hard to make reasonable money providing a reasonable service.
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Amid concerns about their quality of care, aged care providers are getting bigger or getting out.
Do we need yet another class of guest workers to pick our fruit?
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Introducing yet another special agricultural employment visa might destroy the good things about the ones we’ve got.
A cleverly-designed auction can make sure strata-titled apartment blocks are only sold when all of the owners are happy.
Tom Rabe/AAP
It’s not fair to evict people against their will. On the other hand, one holdout shouldn’t be able to derail the sale of an entire strata-titled apartment block. Now an international team has come up with an ingenious solution.
Whether there is a floor beneath which cuts in interest rate are ineffective depends in part on house prices.
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It is thought that it doesn’t help much to cut official interest rates toward or beyond zero, and maybe it doesn’t, but new research suggests the answer has a lot to do with the housing market.
Independent directors are sought out for qualities other than ethics.
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The candidates most likely to be chosen as independent directors are those good at avoiding tax.
It’s tempting to design your own shoes, but it takes time.
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For a while Shoes of Prey could do no wrong. So what happened?
There’s still money to be made steering people into bad products.
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Dud insurance is the tip of the iceberg.
Malcolm Turnbull at the Tumut 2 power station in August 2017.
Alex Ellinghausen/AAP
We are getting closer to being able to apply private sector rigour to the examination of public sector projects with social benefits.
The AMP began life as a mutual, somewhere for its members to put their savings.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
Parallels in the historical trajectory of AMP and IOOF are striking. Both were founded in the 1840s. Both demutualised, and now both find themselves centre stage at the banking royal commission.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg receiving his first briefing from Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe.
Dan Hibrechts/AAP
Wednesday’s national accounts were good, perhaps as good as they’ll get.
Scott Morrison as treasurer during the May 2018 budget lockup.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The promised budget surplus depends on everything going right, and much more income tax says the Parliamentary Budget Office.
The pension age will climb to 67 and then climb no further, for now.
Glenn Hunt/AAP
The pension age won’t climb to 70 after all. What was it all about?
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg unveils the national accounts on Wednesday.
Lukas Coch/AAP
We are doing well, but our economic report card is mixed.
It’s about to become easier to steal money. We’ll have become more vigilant.
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It’s becoming easier to steal big licks of money through the financial system. We’ll have to be less trusting.
In Canberra you can build on land you don’t own.
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In Canberra you can build on land you don’t own, and it’s cheaper.
James Mirrlees, at a Henry Tax review forum at the Australian National University in 2012.
Alan Porritt/AAP
James Mirrlees died last Wednesday, aged 82. Australia owes him much.
Governments can use nudges to influence our choices.
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Law professor Cass Sunstein, on why behavioural science is always nudging us
The Conversation 20.5 MB (download)
Governments and businesses are using "nudges" to influence our choices, but how? On this podcast episode, Cass Sunstein, a Harvard professor who wrote the book on nudges, unpacks behavioural science.
Australians aren’t paid for their donations even though donors overseas are.
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To save taxpayer money and treat Australian donors more fairly, a competitive market for plasma supply is necessary.
Without measures to stop it, many of us will fall further behind.
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The press said the Productivity Commission found that all of us are better off. It didn’t.
Online prices drive offline prices.
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The mere possibility of online competition is restraining prices offline.
‘Unconscious bias’ might be a cop out.
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We need to hold people accountable for the harms caused by biased discriminatory behaviour.
Morrison made the market jump.
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The share market jumped after Scott Morrison won the leadership, and for once the jump seems to mean something.
There has been no robust evaluation of the last two employment programs.
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Governments have relied on a series of employment programs to tackle the employment gap, but these have not yielded positive outcomes.