There’s a reason it’s getting harder to get any value from the budget.
South Africa’s Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has a difficult task of performing a balancing act as the country’s economy grows slowly.
Reuters/Sumaya Hisham
Eunice Goes, Richmond American International University
The upcoming emergency budget will offer the chancellor of exchequer, George Osborne, an opportunity to set up his stall as an unofficial candidate to the leadership of the Conservative Party. No other…
Fiscal policy can take up where monetary policy leaves off.
AAP/Paul Miller
Comments by RBA Governor Glenn Stevens that monetary policy in the form of lower interest rates may have reached its limits, needs to prompt debate on fiscal policy taking over.
George Ward, London School of Economics and Political Science
While Conservative pundits wonder why high scores for economic competence aren’t boosting poll numbers, some clues might lie away from financial measures.
Tax switch puts the boot on the other foot.
Images Money
The dawn of online government is supposed to help transfer power to the masses. But measures introduced last month look more like a state embellishing its power.
The political to-and-fro after George Osborne’s budget failed to ignite political imaginations. Maybe because all parties are struggling to rationalise the hole government coffers.
The numbers check out. But how worried should we be?
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
“At the moment, we are spending over $100 million a day more than we’re collecting in revenue. Now that’s unsustainable, particularly given we’re spending nearly $40 million a day on the interest on the…
Australia’s children and grandchildren will not enjoy the fruits of the country’s prosperity as much as their parents.
Mate Marschalko/Flickr
Having enjoyed continuously increasing prosperity since the Second World War, Australians have come to expect that each generation will live a better life than the last. But this steady progress may be…
Not all leaders agree on the path to boosting economic growth.
Paul Miller/AAP
G20 leaders have put growth and employment at the centre of the global agenda. To spur collective growth by more than 2% over five years, member countries have agreed to implement a package of structural…
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has called for fiscal policy to lead the way in ending the Eurozone recession.
AAP/EPA/ARNE DEDERT
Harald Sander, Cologne University of Applied Sciences (CUAS)
In July 2012 European Central Bank president Mario Draghi famously announced that the ECB would do “whatever it takes” to rescue the Euro. And he added: “Believe me, it will be enough.” In fact, it has…
The costs to Britain of a potential departure from the EU are much argued over, but when it comes to the crunch, even the most likely scenarios put forward by the pro-Brexit camp show the country could…
Is Osborne producing a robust recovery?
Dan Himbrechts/EPA
What does the now sustained recovery in the UK and the still tentative signs of recovery in the eurozone tell us? According to some on the right, it says all is good in the world, austerity has been successful…
Is Australia on its own ‘Great Gatsby curve’?
Victoria Pickering/Flickr
In the popular novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald, James “Jimmy” Gatz (The Great Gatsby) climbs from his poor, rural North Dakotan origins to New York’s high society. His parties are as glamorous as they get…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane have drawn a line in the sand on industry assistance…or have they?
Alan Porritt/AAP
Announcing the decision to refuse assistance to SPC Ardmona, Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said: “I think it is a clear delineation of where this government believes we need to go with industry policy…
Servicing the current level of public gross debt is not a problem for Australia.
Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com
There continues to be a great debate around Australia’s fiscal position. Yet, budget deficits are, in fact, a natural outcome of the business cycle. In a policy brief, co-authored by myself and colleagues…