Last Tuesday (May 12, 2026), the Australian Treasurer introduced the 2026-27 Fiscal Statement (aka Federal ‘Budget’). I have been reluctant to comment on the ‘Statement’ given the constant repetition by the Treasurer about a ‘trillion dollars of debt’ and all the rest of the flawed conceptual development and nomenclature that has surrounded its release and…
Fiscal Statements
Well my holiday is over. Not that I had one! This morning we submitted the manuscript to the publisher for the Second Edition of our Macroeconomics text, which will come out later this year. Finishing a massive project like that is always non-linear – the last few months are hideous – checking everything and filling…
I have been a consistent critic of the way in which the British Labour Party, both in opposition and in government, is obsessed with rigid fiscal rules, thinking it is the only way that it can demonstrate fiscal credibility (whatever that is in their minds). The result is that they get cornered into situations that…
Unfortunately, the so-called progressive UK Guardian has an Australian economics editor who is anything but if his economic analysis is anything to go by. The economic news for this week started with the release of the – Final Budget Outcome – (FBO) for the 2024-25 fiscal year for the Federal government (released September 29, 2025).…
The UK economy is heading into a malaise. The latest news – UK construction activity in July falls at steepest rate since Covid (August 6, 2025) – and – UK services sector has biggest fall in orders for nearly three years (August 5, 2025) – confirms that there is a slowdown underway. That was prefaced…
In my commissioned research activities, which are separate from the basic academic research that occupies most of my time, I come across interesting situations which bear on the way monetary systems operate and the type of constraints faced by different levels of government. In Australia, we have three levels of government: Federal (currency issuer), State…
We sometimes encounter commentary that blows away the smoke that provides cover for important myths in the world of economics and finance. Whether that commentary knows the import of its message is questionable but it certainly has the effect of casting aside a myriad of fictions and redefines the sort of questions that one can…
It’s been a week of grand fiscal statements. Tuesday, it was for Australia as I discussed yesterday – Australian fiscal statement – rising unemployment amidst a moderate fiscal contraction (March 26, 2025). Then yesterday in the UK, the Labour Chancellor delivered the British Government’s – Spring Statement 2025. Both statements come at a time when…
Last night (March 25, 2025), the Australian government delivered the latest fiscal statement for 2025-26 (aka – The Budget – and, in doing so tried to win renewed electoral appeal given its waning popularity and a national election that has to be held in the next 6 or so weeks. So it offered the tax…
The British press are reporting that the Government there is planning further spending cuts of the order of billions of pounds because the economic environment has changed and the current fiscal trajectory is threatening their self-imposed fiscal rules thresholds. We already heard last week how the Government is significantly cutting Overseas Aid as it ramps…