Alan Kohler

Is Albanese up for it? Does Chalmers have a "passion for bold policy" to indulge? Does the country need it?

Australians saw through the Coalition's attempt to have it both ways and dealt with Peter Dutton as if he was Donald Trump.

I've seen the future of an important part of Australia's healthcare system — a private hospital owned by a health insurance company. 

The policies of both parties designed to increase housing supply are fine — they're just nowhere near enough.

It seems only a matter of time before Donald Trump uses a crisis and the National Emergencies Act to bring about a revolution in the United States.

The Australian government after May 3 will no doubt want to try to negotiate with the Trump administration about our 10 per cent tariff, but they might be better off to just work around it and move on. 

Both major parties know how to improve Australia’s abysmal productivity performance but they have deemed it too hard.  

While Australian politicians argue about power bill relief and non-existent nuclear power stations, pressing issues like the great US retreat, global warming and AI are being ignored.

While markets and media were chasing Donald Trump’s tariff fiasco last week, something far more important was unfolding in East Palestine, Ohio.

What's most important for Australia — and the entire Western world — is that America has fallen to anti-globalists, and they are carrying out a deep regime change in the style of an autocratic takeover.

Billions are lost by people betting online, mostly by those who can't afford it. A bill that would force online betting outfits to display to each client what they're losing, and what they've lost, each time they log on is hoped to change that.

The challenge presented to Australia by the second Trump presidency is about more than foreign policy and defence, and the end game is unpredictable.

It seems beyond either the wit or the political muscle of Australia's political leaders to set an immigration target, let alone to meet it.

If predictions come true it will be another year of deteriorating housing affordability, prices will rise at twice the rate of disposable income — something that that has been going on for 25 years and has created what we all see now as a crisis.

What no-one talks about as the AI revolution unfolds in stock market hype and scientific gung-ho is what the developers are really trying to do. They're trying to replicate the human brain.

The world's most-awkward acronym, NAIRU, can predict where interest rates are heading and the signs are not good for borrowers.

In Australia, our woeful productivity lately is a source of puzzled discontent and finger-pointing, especially when compared with the United States. But the dark side has been made clear.

Inflation in Australia is officially 3.5 per cent, but the prices of many everyday items, especially petrol, are rising much faster and this new era of higher inflation has only just begun.

Australia's skyrocketing property market has seen house prices increase 22 per cent in 12 months. As Alan Kohler writes, there's no easy answer to housing affordability.

As Australia's vaccine rollout continues to accelerate, questions are being raised about how we gradually move away from a world of zero tolerance for outbreaks, and whether the public is ready for that day. 

For many senior Australians, staying at home as long as possible is the goal. 

For young first home buyers and families burdened by huge mortgages, it is the best of times. For retirees, it is the winter of despair, writes Alan Kohler.

The super guarantee is legislated to increase to 12 per cent within the next four years — but former prime minister Paul Keating argues the rate should be increased further. 

Pansy Leung and her husband both worked as cabin crew for Virgin until they were stood down in March. She now works on a supermarket checkout and packs boxes for a meal-delivery company.

Soon-to-be retirees say they will now have to keep working for longer as coronavirus eats away at business bottom lines and superannuation balances.