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
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.
Bad-luck budget won't win any friends, but nor should it
Ross Gittins This is a deceptively tough budget. It won’t impress people – either with its parsimony or its generosity - but that’s not the measure of a good budget.
Ross Gittins
Robin Hood budget not before time
Ross Gittins So, has the budget led to an outbreak of class warfare? Only if Julia Gillard's a lot luckier than she's been so far. That is, I doubt it.
Deficit realities finally dawn on all
Ross Gittins Something highly significant has happened in just the past week: it's become clear the tide has turned in our politicians' demonisation of budget deficits and debt.
Ross Gittins
Big companies' tax avoidance blatant and shameless
Ross Gittins Paying your fair share is anathema to multinationals.
Ross Gittins
More to life than going along with big bosses
Ross Gittins Keynes was wrong. He famously said that in the long run we are all dead. But since last week I've been an economic journalist for 39 years and I'm still alive to tell the tale.
Ross Gittins
Economy not likely to drag in the voters
Ross Gittins If the economists' forecasts are right - a big if - the economy is likely to be in worse shape by the time of the election.
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
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
Fat cats that got cream in super tax deal are breaking the bank
Ross Gittins One thing that gets me going is comfortably-off people who feel sorry for themselves: those who complain how hard it is to get by on $150,000 a year, or retired people who profess to be...
Ross Gittins
These well-off retirees' claims are a bit rich
Ross Gittins Tax concessions on super take a huge toll on the federal budget.
Ross Gittins
It's great to have a conscience, now tell us how we'll pay for it
Ross Gittins You may not have noticed, but last week was among the most significant of the Gillard government's term.
ROSS GITTENS
Messy end to spend after fiscal bulimia
Ross Gittins It's taken me too long to realise it, but when I retired for a quiet meal after the federal budget lock-up this month, it struck me: there's truth to the opposition's charge that Labor is a big...
Ross Gittins
With fingers down the throat, Labor gorges and splurges into the future
Ross Gittins A thirst to spend and a desire to stay in surplus cohabit uneasily.
Ross Gittins
O'Farrell will need better luck next time
Ross Gittins THERE has never been reason to doubt Barry O'Farrell's skill as a politician, but it helps for a pollie to be lucky and, failing that, for him to have the steel to make his own luck.
The good, the bad and the long delayed are here
Ross Gittins The government has taken to announcing changes in taxes and benefits long before they take effect. But that day has to come eventually and a host of changes - big and small, good and bad - are set to...
Ross Gittins
Damned lies and economic modelling
Ross Gittins One of my resolutions this year is to spend more time trying to prevent lobby groups from using dodgy economic ''modelling'' to mislead my readers.
Ross Gittins
Not all that different but clearly better
Ross Gittins This is the I-solemnly-promise-to-be-tough budget. Its nasties come as an IOU. When the whole state had its tongue hanging out for deliverance from the Carr-Iemma-Rees-Keneally government, some...
Ross Gittins
Why health cover needs no subsidies
Ross Gittins Despite the untiring efforts of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott to make themselves seem poles apart in their policies - he/she is hopeless, I'm really good - the ideological gap between the two sides...
