Is Australia's economy really a world-beater?

The claim that Australia has  gone twenty-six years without a recession is true, but only if you accept three assumptions. Unfortunately, none of them has any official or intellectual basis. Tim Colebatch explains in Inside Story that that economics has no accepted definition of a recession. In public debate, the gap has been filled by the silly measure journalists love to use: a recession occurs when seasonally adjusted GDP goes backwards for two quarters.

Fancy government financing could still cost the taxpayer

Project financing should minimise the level of public subsidy needed to deliver the project; and where risk is borne by the private sector, it should be transparently priced and deliver clear value for money for the taxpayer. Marion Terrill (Grattan Institute) explains.