Ross Gittins
Ross Gittins is economics editor of the SMH and an economic columnist for The Age. His books include Gittins' Guide to Economics, Gittinomics and The Happy Economist.
Ross Gittins
Eat, drink … and get on the treadmill
Ross Gittins Forgive me for saying so, but don't you think you'd be better off going for a run - or even a brisk walk - than reaching for another mince pie? (The ones my wife made this year were irresistible.)
Ross Gittins
Tail wagging uneasy dog in budget debate
Ross Gittins I hate to burden you with a topic as earnest as the budget deficit so close to the holidays.
Ross Gittins
It's the weak recovery that worries, not surplus
Ross Gittins I hate to burden you with a topic as earnest as the budget deficit so close to the holidays - I had hoped to write about the idea of giving someone a goat for Christmas - but the saga of whether the...
Ross Gittins
Life gets tougher far from the madding crowd
Ross Gittins In Bill Bryson's fascinating book, Shakespeare, he says we know remarkably little about the man, and most of what we think we know has been dreamt up by overenthusiastic scholars.
Ross Gittins
Forget the bottom line: the bigger picture shows things aren't so bad after all
Ross Gittins DON'T believe the doomsayers.
Ross Gittins
A warning as market pipes tune in America
Ross Gittins Just as it's taking the world a lot longer to recover from the global financial crisis than we initially expected, so it's taking a lot longer than we might have expected for voters and their...
Ross Gittins
Lucky Country's had a lot more going for it than just chance
Ross Gittins It drew little comment, but the centrepiece of Julia Gillard's white paper on the Asian century was her target of raising Australia's standard of living - income per person - from the 13th highest in...
Ross Gittins
Lucky country also blessed with skilful management
Ross Gittins It drew little comment, but the centrepiece of Julia Gillard's white paper on the Asian century was her target of raising Australia's standard of living - income per person - from the 13th highest in...
Ross Gittins: Riding on the coal truck
Ross Gittins Farming and mining are Australia's comparable advantage, but exporting is not the only contributor of our wealth.
Ross Gittins
Food boom with a twist turns screws on farmers
Ross Gittins The first thing to realise about the rise of Asia is that our farmers are about to join our miners in the winners' circle.
Ross Gittins: Asia and climate change
Ross Gittins A look at the implications of the Government's Australia in the Asian Century white paper.
Ross Gittins
Opportunity knocks, but the door has to open both ways
Ross Gittins When governments make grand policy unveilings, as Julia Gillard has with her white paper on the Asian Century, it's terribly tempting for people in jobs like mine to sit back and criticise.
Ross Gittins
Be a happy taxpayer - the system benefits you
Ross Gittins Listening to all the argy-bargy over the budget update makes you think - what strange things budgets are.
Ross Gittins
Stop grumbling about tax, we all benefit along the way
Ross Gittins Our tax system shows we live in a fairly caring and civilised society.
Ross Gittins
Poverty, always the poor relation
Ross Gittins It's remarkable that, despite all the effort and expense the government goes to in measuring gross domestic product, it doesn't run to the modest extra expense of measuring poverty.
It's official, the boom is not over
Ross Gittins Have you noticed how joyfully the media trumpet the bad news they seek out so assiduously? The latest is that the resources boom is finally busting. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
Ross Gittins
The boom has bust? It's only just started...
Ross Gittins Have you noticed how joyfully the media trumpet the bad news they seek out so assiduously?
Ross Gittins
How intuitive morality has challenged the rationalists
Ross Gittins Paul Keating still quotes his early mentor, Jack Lang: ''In the race of life, always back self-interest - at least you know it's trying''.
Ross Gittins
Left versus right in an eternal war
Ross Gittins There's a reason why conservatives understand small-l liberals, but not the other way around.
Ross Gittins
If reform isn't balanced, it's self-interest
Ross Gittins Do efficiency and progress necessarily mean we have better lives all round?
