Latest Economy & Markets Stories

The government sat on a report into the retirement income system for four months because it was so politically sensitive and then released it on the day the Brereton report into potential war crimes in Afghanistan was released. Harry Chemay looks at what’s at stake in the debate around the rise in superannuation guarantee levy.

It is time the Australian Bureau of Statistics changed the way it reported unemployment figures, writes Alan Austin. Australia’s real unemployment rate is closer to 13% than 7%.

The super funds run by banks and financial institutions – many of them major Coalition donors – have been fleecing the public’s super on an industrial scale for at least a decade. This is the story Westpac and News Corp Australia didn’t want you to see in mid-2018 – even in the middle of a royal commission into banking illegality. Investigative reporter Anthony Klan reports.

“You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, and I’ve had mine,” Kerry Packer once famously proclaimed, after selling his Nine Network to Bondy for $1 billion and buying it back three years later for $250 million. Now Brookfield has found their Bondy, the Government of Queensland

Many superannuation funds exclude investment in “controversial weapons” but astoundingly this definition does not include nuclear weapons. However, this will change once the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty becomes international law, writes Dr Margaret Beavis. With two of the largest pension funds in the world already having divested, Australian funds are on notice.

Brookfield’s make-up artists are hard at work. They’ve taken “coal” out of the title, hired every broker in town to flog the thing and, in the most telling move, are rushing to get the deal done before the end of the year. Michael West reports on the ASX float of Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure, which looks set to siphon off Aussie cash to an offshore haven, with yield-hungry retirees paying the price.

Crown chair Helen Coonan is chair of a PR firm whose clients have been involved in questionable financial transactions including money-laundering and stumping for shady sharemarket promoters and mortgage brokers fighting commission bans. Her PR role is in conflict with her position as chair of financial complaints ombudsman AFCA

New Zealand and the US compile public registers to ensure their Jobkeeper-type subisidies are not rorted by businesses. But no such transparency for Australians. As the Government singles out bureaucrats such as Australia Post chief Christine Holgate for corporate excesses, Tasha May shines the torch on pandemic rorting at the top end of town.

A few days after the “budget to beat all budgets” was announced, what is most noticeable is not the expected magnitude of spending, deficit and debt, but the consensus among commentators, analysts and economists. “Underwhelming”, “opportunity missed” and “hope and a...

Comparing the GDP numbers of New Zealand and Australia to try to make a point is a superficial comparison, writes Alan Austin. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg should also include employment and debt levels, exports and health outcomes, for starters.

There are those who do back-flips, and triple backward somersaults with a twist. Then there is Communications Minister Paul Fletcher. The sad saga of the National Broadband Network continues as the Government this week announced a large scale upgrade to fibre, and heralds it as “an idea whose time has finally come”.

MWI is a weighted index of the most recent published economic data, daily forward-looking market data and present economic sentiment. It is a blend of indices and financial market prices which both capture where the economy has been and foreshadow where it is headed.

Paul Keating seized on a huge jump in productivity in this week’s horrific GDP release but the effect of the pandemic will profoundly change the structure of Australia’s economy for good. Michael West reports.

A key recommendation of the Productivity Commission was for a Best in Show list of the top super funds. The sector hated the idea because it threatened their gravy train. MPs duly fell into line and instead last week passed legislation that, on its own, could worsen the problem of fund underperformance. Harry Chemay investigates.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp reckons it’s $1 billion. Google reckons it’s a piddling $10 million. News and Nine Entertainment have enlisted the Government and the ACCC in their battle to force Google to pay for their news content. Just how much money does Google Australia make from traffic to its site from news-related queries?

Astronomical profits on the back of continued exploitation of Indigenous-owned land in WA. It’s time Rio upped the royalties it pays, moved its HQ to Australia, hired Indigenous Australians in senior roles, and ditched its colonial British establishment attitude.

The Law Council has bounded to the rescue of Lendlease as the Tax Office closes in on the construction giant’s billion-dollar tax rort. The stakes are high. Michael West explores what appears to be a classic mates deal to rescue a large tax rorter at the expense of all other Australian taxpayers.

We are privileged this week to be part of Democracy’s Watchdogs — Bill Birnbauer’s non-profit organisation — which “aims to honour the work of Australian investigative journalists and educate the public about the work of our watchdogs and how they have enhanced our democratic processes”. Michael West reports.

Lendlease relied on a technicality to refuse to refund 100-year-old Egon Pedersen his $270,000 bond, making a mockery of its “pillars” of integrity, openness and trust. It quickly changed its tune when Michael West Media got involved. Dr Sarah Russell reports.

They should call it MMP not MMT, Modern Monetary Practice, not Modern Monetary Theory. It is happening now. They are creating new money, and in a speech last week, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank endorsed and explained it. Michael West reports on the debate over MMT and how it is being used to soften the impact of recession.

The numbers are in — the Trump-Radical Republican response has been great for corporations and the one-percenters, not so good for Americans, writes DCReport editor-in-chief, David Cay Johnston.

The government has tossed $130 billion at business, the corporate largesse is dripping all over the big end of town. Even highly profitable $8 billion property developers such as Mirvac are rolling in the free money, yet when it comes to Virgin Australia they are being all punctilious about “letting the market sort it out”. Michael West reports on the future of Virgin.

The cuff-linked bottom-feeders are now preying over the carcass of Virgin Australia, 10,000 jobs are on the line, government is dithering and Qantas circles, the famishing spectre of a monopoly in its sights. This is not about bailing out Virgin, it’s about bailing out the banks.