Author: John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra

The Reserve Bank of Australia left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4.1% today, stressing the uncertainty in the economic outlook. As the Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock told a media conference, “since February there has been a lot more uncertainty introduced in the international context”. The on-hold decision was widely expected and Bullock described it as a “consensus decision” by the board. The decision to hold was not because the election campaign is underway. It was because there has not been enough new economic data to change materially its view on inflation. The governor said the board had never…

Donald Trump inherited a strong economy from President Obama and managed it poorly. Real GDP grew more slowly under Trump than it had under any president since the second world war. He was the only president since then to preside over a fall in the number of workers with a job. In 2016, the United States (US) economy was the world’s largest; by 2020 China’s was more than 10% bigger. Trump’s economic policies Would a second Trump presidency be any better? Hopefully, there will not be another pandemic for him to mismanage. But his policies suggest the economy would again…