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Peter Martin

Editor, Business and Economy

Peter Martin is Business and Economy Editor of The Conversation and a visiting fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the ANU. A former Treasury official with an honours degree in economics, he has worked as the economics correspondent for ABC radio, as the ABC's Tokyo correspondent and as economics editor of The Age. With Dr Gigi Foster of UNSW he created The Economists podcast on ABC Radio National. In 2016 he was made a Distinguished Alumni of Flinders University in recogn...

Will Jim Chalmers' budget drive up inflation? Not likely – and here's why

May 23, 2023 15:03 pm UTC| Economy

The proposition that cutting prices will stoke inflation is a hard one to get your head around, even if you are an economist. Yet it has been seriously put forward as a critique of this months budget; the one in which...

Sure, the RBA froze interest rates on Tuesday, but there's plenty of pain to come

Apr 05, 2023 13:16 pm UTC| Economy Central Banks

Australias Reserve Bank hit pause on interest rates after ten successive hikes on Tuesday, but for many Australians, the pain it has inflicted is about to begin. The Bank says more than one million households will come...

5 ways the Reserve bank is going to bat for Australia like never before

Nov 04, 2020 00:17 am UTC| Economy Central Banks

The most important of the five measures the Reserve Bank announced on Tuesday is the one that wont whirr into place for a very long time. Others start immediately. On Thursday the bank will wade into the market and...

Economic growth near an end as Treasury talks of prolonged coronavirus downturn

Mar 06, 2020 09:13 am UTC| Economy

Australias three-decade run of near continuous economic growth is set to end, with treasury warning of a hit to growth of at least 0.5% in the first quarter of this year, potentially followed by a prolonged downturn. If...

Why we've the weakest economy since the global financial crisis, with few clear ways out

Sep 06, 2019 07:46 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

The Australian economy is tepid, with consumer spending the weakest in ten years, business investment shrinking, and economic growth too weak to cover population growth. Were it not for very strong growth in export...

No surplus, no share market growth, no lift in wage growth. Economic survey points to bleaker times post-election

Jan 29, 2019 12:26 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy Politics

The Australian economy will remain healthy for long enough to enable the government to claim it as a strength in the lead-up to the May election, but the first Conversation Economic Survey points to a fairly flat outlook...

My magnificent seven. Seven really bright ideas (and one as old as time itself) from 2018

Dec 27, 2018 10:18 am UTC| Insights & Views

Few things are as valuable as a bright idea. They rarely pop up in meetings (where most of the time people agree with other people), or in business (where most of the time its easier to keep doing what youve been...

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Economy

What should you do if you can’t pay your rent or mortgage?

The cost of living crisis is making it difficult for many people to pay their bills, including housing costs. Private sector rents have increased by an average 9% over the year to February 2024, and rising interest rates...

Reducing energy demand and improving efficiency will help prevent the next gas crisis

Gas prices have relaxed, Europe has come out of the winter with record gas storage levels and a surfeit of liquefied natural gas is set to reach the shores of Europe over the coming years. Many commentators are hopeful...

Minimum wage for South African farm workers: study shows 2013 hike helped reduce poverty even though compliance was poor

Minimum wage policies are typically aimed at reducing poverty. Yet there is little direct evidence of this effect, especially in developing countries. And none for South Africa. In a recent paper, we consider the...

Gas is good until 2050 and beyond, under Albanese gas strategy

The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel through to 2050 and beyond. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuels uses would change over...

South Africa’s plan to move away from coal: 8 steps to make it succeed

The South African governments Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan was launched in November 2023. It is a roadmap guiding the country away from reliance on coal-fired power towards renewable energy alternatives by...

Politics

Donald Trump Allegedly Offers Oil Execs a Deal to Scrap EV Incentives for $1B Donation

Former President Donald Trump reportedly proposed a $1 billion deal to oil executives, offering to end electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in return for campaign funding, according to The Washington Post. This move underscores...

US Supreme Court upended decades of precedent in 2022 by allowing voters to vote with gerrymandered maps instead of fixing the congressional districts first

For the 2022 midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use congressional districts that violated the law and diluted the voting power of Black citizens. A 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court in February...

Germany lowers voting age to 16 for the European elections

Ahead of the European parliament elections in June, Germany has lowered the age limit on participation to 16. This makes it the largest of just a handful of states in the EU to allow people under the age of 18 to vote....

South Africa will be president of the G20 in 2025: two much-needed reforms it should drive

South Africa will play an important international role in 2025 as president of the G20. The G20 is a group of 19 countries as well as the African Union and the European Union. Between them they represent 85% of global...

What early 2024 polls are revealing about voters of color and the GOP

By the end of winter 2024, the return of Donald Trump to the top of the GOP presidential ticket has revealed a surprising trend in the former presidents base of support: his increasing popularity among Black and Latino...

Science

Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you’ve likely never heard of

Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without...

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are...

A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars

While we go about our daily lives on Earth, a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car is trundling around Mars looking for fossils. Unlike its predecessor Curiosity, Nasas Perseverance rover is explicitly intended to...

Technology

Bitcoin's Rise Fueled by $222M ETF Inflow: What’s Next for BTC?

Bitcoins price jumped over $67,000 after a $222 million ETF inflow, highlighting strong market momentum and investor enthusiasm. ETF Inflows and Bitcoins Price Surge Recent data from Farside Investors indicates that...

Ex-OpenAI Exec Criticizes Sam Altman's Focus on 'Shiny Products' Over AI Safety Concerns

Former OpenAI executive Jan Leike resigns, criticizing the companys prioritization of shiny products over AI safety, calling out Sam Altmans leadership. Safety vs. Product Focus Leike, the leader of an artificial...

Binance Enhances SHIB, USTC, AGIX Trading and Liquidity for Better Market Dynamics

Binance has announced efforts to enhance liquidity and trading for Shiba Inu (SHIB), USTC, and SingularityNET (AGIX), including tick size adjustments aimed at improving market dynamics and trading experience. Binances...

OpenAI Disbands Team Tackling AI Risks Amid Leadership Changes and GPT-4o Launch

OpenAI has dismantled its Superalignment team, initially formed to address AI risks, following the resignations of key leaders Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike. OpenAI Disbands Superalignment Team Days After Leaders Resign,...

$73M Crypto Scam: Two Foreign Nationals Arrested for 'Pig Butchering'

The Justice Department prosecuted two Chinese nationals on Friday in a cryptocurrency scam that laundered at least $73 million from deceived victims. Defendants Allegedly Used Shell Corporations to Launder Funds Through...