Balancing the budget mantra overlooks benefits of infrastructure spending

Apr 19, 2016 05:04 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy Politics

When the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) recently released its recommendations on how the government should balance the budget, it prefaced it with the statement No economic problem in Australia is...

The problem with measuring productivity

Apr 19, 2016 04:59 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

Productivity seems to be one of the measures the Federal Government is using to justify its policy decisions in the lead up to the budget. The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull invoked this little understood term in...

Currency War Series

G-20 reaffirms previous exchange rate commitments, warns against reliance on low interest rates

Apr 18, 2016 15:54 pm UTC| Commentary Economy

The G-20 countries reaffirmed their previous exchange rate commitments, including that they will refrain from competitive devaluations and they will not target their exchange rates for competitive purposes. The worlds top...

Positive inflation numbers take pressure off the RBNZ to act at April 28th meeting

Apr 18, 2016 12:09 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is scheduled to review its OCR on 28th April. Falling commodity prices and a recently stronger NZD have meant continued or increasing downward risks for New Zealand inflation. In the final...

Australian economy to perform strongly amidst challenging environment in 2016

Apr 18, 2016 11:24 am UTC| Commentary Economy

In 2016, the Australian economy is likely to perform strongly amidst challenging environment, according to Westpac. In 2015, Australias real GDP grew 3%, while a recent rally in commodity prices implies that risks on the...

Currency War Series

Monetary Authority of Singapore eases monetary policy in response to deteriorating global economic outlook

Apr 14, 2016 15:37 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks Economy

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Thursday, surprised the market by loosening its monetary policy. The central bank set a target of a zero per cent currency appreciation, and said that this change of stance was...

How the wisdom of crowds could solve the mystery of Shakespeare's 'lost plays'

Apr 14, 2016 15:33 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy

Are the many wiser than the few? Are the masses cleverer than the expert? This is a question which has in recent years attracted an explosion of interest, perhaps most famously popularised by James Surowieckis 2004 book,...