The Dismal Science

The China economy is creaking. Could the crash be coming and what can the authorities do to stop it? Plus, the market questions the RBA, lockdowns hit the job market and how COVID impacts football performance.

NSW reopens and spending takes off, the Great Resignation, a global tax deal and a Nobel Prize for natural experiments.

Gas shortages are leading to spiraling energy prices across the world. Are we headed for another era of stagflation? Plus, APRA tries to cool the housing market, another record trade surplus for Australia, and should the US mint a trillion dollar coin?

"Everything Evergrande owns belongs to the Party and the Chinese people," Evergrande Chairman Hui Ka Yan once said. Will the Chinese people now own the crashing property company's $300bn of debt or is China headed for a financial crisis? Plus, housing affordability, monetary tapering and vaccinating the world. This is a long one but we're taking next week off so listen at your leisure.

Large parts of the economy are in 'wait, survive and see' mode, according to RBA governor Philip Lowe. We look at the latest deceptive unemployment data, the OECD's Australian economy fan fiction for a post-pandemic world, house prices and urban planning, as well as US inflation, the softening in the Chinese economy and central banks' role in fighting climate change. It's a big one!

The RBA is expecting the economy to bounce back in December but should the halting recovery of other more open economies around the world be tempering our optimism? Plus, is the China property bubble about to burst?

The Delta lockdowns have caused widespread job losses and decimated consumer demand. Were economic policymakers inadequately prepared for the downside risks of a new COVID strain? Plus, Q2 GDP, takeaways from this year's Jackson Hole conference, and the Taliban economy.

The latest confidence numbers tell a tale of two Australias as the bickering continues over the national COVID strategy. Plus, the case for board diversity.

As more of Australia goes into lockdown, the RBA is maintaining what some are describing as a 'bizarrely' optimistic view of the recovery. Plus, a weird jobs report and the OG gold standard.

Despite the lockdowns, businesses and consumers are clinging to vaccine hope. Plus, the IPCC's Code Red, US infrastructure and China's billionaires.