Illustration by Simon Letch

Dutton wants to know if you’re better off now. It’s a trick question

The opposition leader’s question is so seductive to people who don’t follow politics and the economy,and don’t want to use their grey matter.

  • Ross Gittins

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese deserve some credit for our economic good fortunes.

Debt and deficit:Labor’s budget naysayers ignore the cold hard facts

When it comes to the budget,there’s been an element of good management as well as good luck,for which Chalmers and Albanese deserve some credit.

  • Ross Gittins
Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

Was this really the budget we needed? Our experts deliver their verdicts

Shane Wright,Ross Gittins,Peter Hartcher,Jacqueline Maley and Matthew Knott break down the economic and political implications of the budget.

  • Shane Wright,Ross Gittins,Peter Hartcher,Jacqueline Maley andMatthew Knott
Jim Chalmers’ budget is modest – at best.

The government is timid,uninspired and uninspiring. This budget fits it perfectly

When Jim Chalmers says Labor’s new tax cuts are “modest”,he’s not exaggerating. However,this is a budget we’ve wished on ourselves.

  • Ross Gittins
The competition regulator says grocery prices in Australia have soared over the last five financial years.

It’s official – supermarkets are overcharging. Quick,change the subject

Neither the Labor government nor the opposition are truly interested in shutting down price gouging by the big two supermarkets – they would rather have the issue disappear.

  • Ross Gittins
Illustration by Simon Letch

The outlook for house insurance is much worse than we’re being told

Insurance companies,the banks and the government know what’s coming,but they don’t want to talk about it before it happens,mainly because they don’t know what to do about it.

  • Ross Gittins
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Jim Chalmers will make his pre-election budget pitch on Tuesday.

Much argy-bargy on the way to next week’s off-again,on-again budget

The business press may be shocked by budget deficits,the voters have never been – and that will particularly be the case this time when all they care about is the cost of living.

  • Ross Gittins
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have traded barbs.

More cyclones will come. How many before our leaders finally do something?

Albanese and Dutton will lose votes to the two groups who really care about the great challenge we face:climate change.

  • Ross Gittins
Reserve Bank deputy governor Andrew Hauser believes we’ve entered a world characterised not just by volatility,complexity and uncertainty,but also by “ambiguity.”

Maybe the inflation surge didn’t happen the way we’ve been told

Academic economists may be locked into their maths and econometric models,but practising economists know it ain’t that simple.

  • Ross Gittins
The “care economy” has helped to drive rapid jobs growth in the last few years.

Our jobs market is booming,but the RBA needn’t be so worried

The expansion in employment has been extraordinary. Why hasn’t this massive growth in the workforce led to higher wage rates?

  • Ross Gittins