Vital signs

Vital Signs: disclosure please, we shouldn't be playing bingo with COVID statistics

21 Jan 2022

Governments should tell us everything they know about infections, hospitalisations and deaths. So why aren’t they?

Vital Signs: cautious on rates, strong on climate action - meet Lael Brainard, Biden's new pick for The Fed

26 Nov 2021

Brainard has been pushing the US Federal Reserve to consider exposure to climate change in its regulation and analysis of banks. That’s sparked fury from Republican senators – and even a Nobel Prize winner.

a cartoon representing the Australian economy in hospital and being resuscitated

Vital Signs: JobKeeper delivered what was needed to save the patient

17 Oct 2021

When COVID-19 struck, Australia’s Treasury didn’t have the luxury of years of work, refinement and debate to develop JobKeeper. It had to perform battlefield surgery.

greens leader adam bandt at a lectern saying 'green new deal'

Vital Signs: the Greens' super-profits tax idea could end up burning muscle, not fat

13 Sep 2021

Taxing super profits sounds like a a good idea, but it’s hard to get right and there might be better ways to get more company tax.

Vital Signs: with vaccine thresholds come the danger of repeating past mistakes

27 Aug 2021

Australia could again fall into the trap of false economies by opening up too soon.

Vital Signs: 4.6 per cent unemployment rate hints at what's possible, but it's not the real thing

20 Aug 2021

The unemployment decline isn’t as impressive as it first appears, and wages growth remains sluggish.

Vital Signs: amid the lockdown gloom, Australia's jobless rate hits decade low of 4.9%

16 Jul 2021

The last time Australia's unemployment rate was below 5% was June 2011.

Philip Lowe, an Australian economist who is the current Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia

Vital Signs: RBA governor Philip Lowe's dangerous game on interest rates

09 Jul 2021

The Reserve Bank governor's 'forward guidance' risks him not adapting to changing circumstances, or undermining his credibility.

Vital Signs: Australia's anti-lockdown tribe battles on against the evidence

02 Jul 2021

The nice way to describe a new study suggesting lockdowns haven't saved lives is that it’s 'brave'.

Vital Signs: how to halve serious injuries and deaths from teenage driving accidents

25 Jun 2021

Australia appears to have cracked the case on teen driver safety by restricting late-night passengers.

Vital signs

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