If anyone had told the Coalition when it was elected in 2013 that it would be presiding over such a debt level, let alone arguing its virtues, they’d have been laughed out of court…
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits the Morton Bay Boat Club in Brisbane, in December 2018.
Dan Peled/AAP
We now need a revolution in our national thinking about debt and deficits.
Newly-elected US Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is co-author of the New Green Deal which proposes massively expanding the budget deficit as a way of supporting both the environment and the economy.
Alba Vigaray/EPA
It’s been 10 years since the U.S. signed into law a scheme to print money, essentially, and save the financial sector amid the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. Did it work? And who’s truly benefitted?
Shadow minister for finance Jim Chalmers, speaking on Q&A.
ABC/Q&A
Was shadow minister for finance Jim Chalmers correct when he said that under the current Coalition government, net debt had doubled? We asked the experts.
Treasurer Scott Morrison played it safe with the 2018-19 budget.
LUKAS COCH/AAP
In announcing free higher education, South African President Jacob Zuma, lobbed a populist hot potato at the ANC elective conference but it’s ordinary people whose fingers will be burnt.
Slightly more optimistic economic figures gives Scott Morrison and the Turnbull government a boost heading into 2018, as the charts explain.
Lukas Coch/AAP and The Conversation
Seven charts on the highlights from the government’s mid year update of the budget.
Each year the government runs a A$40 billion deficit, it increases the lifetime tax burden for households headed by a person aged 25 to 34 by A$10,000.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Unless the government is willing to increase taxes elsewhere to pay for tax cuts there will be longer-term costs for the budget and the economy. And younger Australians will wear these costs.
An illegal money changer holds bond notes outside a bank in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare.
Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo
Years of political instability and economic mismanagement under the rule of ZANU-PF have left Zimbabwe’s financial system in chaos. The country is living on borrowed time and borrowed money.
Running out of options. Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba speaks after delivering his medium term budget.
REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham
South Africa’s 2017 medium term budget reveals a growing gap between revenue and expenditure which places the country in a highly vulnerable financial state.
South Africa’s social compact is at breaking point and the country may need a dialogue similar to its 1994 political transition talks to get out of the crisis.
In an attempt to plug a growing deficit, South Africa is increasing wealth taxes.
Shutterstock
In his 2017/18 budget speech, South Africa’s finance minister Pravin Gordhan opted to focus on taxing high income earners to find desperately needed money.