Richard Holden

Vital Signs: Amid talk of recessions, our progress on wages and unemployment is almost non-existent

16 Aug 2019

The progress the Australian economy was making has been slowed or reversed, at exactly the wrong time.

Vital Signs: Blame Trump, not China for the looming trade and currency war

09 Aug 2019

Australia has more to fear than most countries from a global trade and currency war. All eyes will be on the Reserve Bank governor Friday as he attempts to outline what might happen.

Vital Signs: We need those tax cuts now, all of them. The surplus can wait

12 Jul 2019

A bold government would have delivered stages one, two and three of the tax cuts at once. Boldness is what we need.

Vital Signs: Trump's nominations for the US Federal Reserve are an odd lot, and an even bet

05 Jul 2019

Donald Trump has had four of his nominations for the US Federal Reserve rejected. Now he has another two.

Vital Signs: having a bob each way on US and China is Australia's own super power

28 Jun 2019

Australia can't afford to pick sides between the United States and China. That's a good thing.

Vital Signs: Once were Kiwis. The hidden history of Australia's own well-being framework

21 Jun 2019

Australia's treasury adopted a well-being framework well before New Zealand's much celebrated "well-being budget". Here's what happened to it.

Vital Signs: The times they-are-a-changing for the RBA

14 Jun 2019

The next set of instructions handed to the Reserve Bank will have to be realistic. That might mean a big adjustment.

Vital Signs: If we fall into a recession (and we might) we'll have ourselves to blame

07 Jun 2019

Australia has two options to keep out of recession, neither of them easy. The government will have to abandon its determination to get the budget into surplus.

RBA's likely rate cut is overdue, but there's another cash boost in play

03 Jun 2019

Any interest rate cut on Tuesday could be supercharged by another move to give borrowers more money to play with.

Vital Signs: APRA making it easier to borrow could be another bad call

03 Jun 2019

Combined, APRA and the Reserve Bank are about to give households on $150,000 up to $120,000 more borrowing power.

Richard Holden

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