The Dismal Science

Treasury made a $60 billion blunder on JobKeeper. Now what should we do with the spare money? Plus negative interest rates, the death of Oliver Williamson, global trade and superspreading. This is a big episode (every minute represents approx. $1bn of the JobKeeper shortfall). We've divided up the topics into chapters. If you skip forward, we won't hold it against you.

A record number of Australians lost their jobs in April and now one in five workers is either unemployed or underemployed. Plus the RBA's thinking on the property market, will working from home change the CBD and a rare cameo from our former Chief Economist, Stephen Walters.

The Reserve Bank has set out three scenarios for the Australian economy depending on how we go over the next six months in curbing the coronavirus. Plus the horror US jobs report, retaliatory China tariffs and confidence in Australia picks up. We're a little late getting this one out. Apologies to our loyal listeners. We recorded this last week before the Australian jobs numbers were released. We'll have another episode out later this week covering those.

Rising tensions over the Australian government's calls for an inquiry into the origins of coronavirus have raised old questions about our dependence on China. Plus more bad jobs news and the economics of vaccine development.

The coronavirus crisis has seen steep spikes in the prices of some goods and dramatic falls in others. Which should worry us more? Plus GDP growth in the US is turning out even worse than expected and we look at research into the media's influence on coronavirus cases.

There is some speculation that the lives lost due to the recession could outnumber those from the coronavirus itself. But the evidence from past downturns might surprise you. Plus the latest from China, what's going on with oil prices and the ugly jobs numbers start rolling in for Australia.

After two decades obsessing over budget surpluses, Australia is entering a new normal with a massive run-up in government debt to stop the economy from flatlining during the coronavirus crisis. Should we be worried and how will we ever pay it back?

With a coronavirus vaccine expected to take 12 to 18 months, smart people are starting to think about what steps we can take till then to quash the virus while getting back some semblance of normality.

As the global economy goes into freefall, policymakers are faced with a dilemma: how do they slow activity enough to halt the spread of coronavirus, while at the same time providing enough stimulus to keep the economy going.

Mark and Ivan discuss how bad the coronavirus crisis could get, what the impact might be on GDP and whether there is hope for flattening the curve.