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    Craig Emerson

    Former Labor minister and economist

    Craig Emerson is managing director of Emerson Economics. He is a distinguished fellow at the ANU, director of the Australian APEC Study Centre at RMIT and adjunct professor at Victoria University’s College of Business.

    Craig Emerson

    Today

    Australia can start marketing wine in China again after tariffs were removed this year.

    High-level dialogue shows China chill is ending

    The resumed annual face-to-face meeting of government and industry has been crucial to stabilising the relationship.

    • 1 hr ago

    This Month

    There is no need for the RBA to have another stab at raising rates.

    RBA must say no to the Recessionistas out there

    The Reserve Bank is taking its dual mandate seriously and seems to be ignoring the incessant clamouring for another rise in the cash rate.

    July

    Stage three tax cuts are part of a steady improvement of the economy.

    Albanese can’t afford distractions now

    The prime minister has to shrug off culture wars and Green taunts to focus relentlessly on an improving economy.

    The MAGA and Brexit movements disobey the commonsense rules of economics.

    Economic logic always trumps junk politics

    Brexit, MAGA trade policies, and the Coalition’s nuclear power push will fail because they make no economic sense.

    June

    The new code views penalties as essential to working effectively.

    Why this is a practical, workable supermarket code of conduct

    The new code offers the best of both a mandatory and voluntary system of compliance for the supermarket giants.

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     Contemplate Australia’s history: unemployment exceeded 10 per cent in the recessions of the early 1980s and the early ’90s.

    Recessions are nasty and shouldn’t be engineered to tame inflation

    Talk of a need to increase the cash rate is misguided – especially so when the main culprits behind the 3.6 per cent inflation rate are identified.

    May

    We must protect Australia’s free and open economy

    Australia prospered in an open postwar world economy. But a new generation has less faith in it.

    Critics of the Albanese government’s gas strategy seem content for governments to prolong the lives of coal-fired power stations at taxpayers’ expense.

    Gas critics are signing up for coal and candles

    The climate movement needs to ask itself what is worse: gas in the new energy mix, or coal that lingers for longer.

    April

    Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ budget will not be inflationary.

    RBA must ignore the band of economists pushing a rate rise

    The Reserve Bank should not be firing up its interest rate models on the strength of inflation that is now steadily dropping into target range.

    Compulsory grocery code strikes right balance

    The interim report seeks to prevent big supermarkets from abusing their market power while rejecting populist policies such as forced divestiture of stores.

    March

    Peter Dutton talks about his nuclear push at The Australian Financial Review Business Summit last week.

    Dutton’s nuclear plan is all politics

    The opposition is more interested in keeping the Nationals in the tent than carbon emissions at bay.

    Dunkley sets up Labor’s 2025 win

    While the Liberals look down rabbit holes like crime and refugees, Labor plans to claim vindication on economic policy.

    February

    The RBA governor Michele Bullock is defending her position for too long.

    Why it’s vital that the RBA cuts rates at mid-year

    The central bank is at great risk of overshooting its policy settings into higher unemployment and it is workers and small business who will cop it.

    Except for Malcolm Turnbull, Liberal leaders have always scuppered tax overhauls that did not suit the direct interests of them and their outriders.

    Liberals don’t want real tax reform

    Except for Malcolm Turnbull, Liberal leaders have always scuppered tax overhauls that did not suit the direct interests of them and their outriders.

    January

    Australia is a concentrated market compared to other countries.

    In the shopping trolley war, the supermarkets have to give

    Suppliers can get paid more, and shoppers pay less. But only if supermarket giants are forced to compete more.

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    The Labor government ran into headwinds during 2023. But is the political breeze about to shift in its direction?

    How Albanese can rebuild from here

    The Labor government ran into headwinds during 2023. But is the political breeze about to shift in its direction?

    • Updated

    December 2023

     Where gas producers can make carbon capture and storage feasible, they should be encouraged to do so.

    Energy transition needs gas, not nuclear

    A rational decarbonising energy policy offers a middle path between the absolutists and the denialists.

    November 2023

    Globally, neoliberalism fell to its knees in 2007, struck down by the Global Financial Crisis.

    Who killed neoliberalism?

    Neoliberalist theory and practice went so horribly wrong because governments that put their faith in markets forgot one word – competition.

    Making trade flow faster would have disproportionate gains.

    Simplifying APEC trade is even better than cutting tariffs

    Streamlining clunky customs and quarantine procedures would have an outsize impact on the regional economy.

    October 2023

    Joe Biden and Anthony Albanese: conviviality, but trade was off the menu.

    Free trade and the MAGA mob

    It is being left to Australia to fly the flag for the dismantling of barriers in a hostile Washington and a thawing China.