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What’s keeping oil prices from spiking even more?

July 14, 2026

The price of crude oil has spiked, again. And US President Donald Trump has posted on social media, saying the US will charge a 20 per cent fee on cargo travelling through the contested Strait of Hormuz.But why is the price of oil still not as high as many would expect? And what economic costs remain behind a ceasefire that appears to have effectively collapsed?Meanwhile, we continue the conversation on economic productivity, looking at another cornerstone of the Australian economy: property....

Why pay isn't keeping pace with productivity

July 13, 2026

The interaction between pay and productivity has driven some of Australia’s biggest economic and policy debates in recent decades.New research from the Centre for Policy Development suggests that the typical worker’s wages are not keeping pace with productivity growth. And moreover, it's been this way for three decades.   So why does productivity matter? And what larger questions does this research raise about how we set wages and harness technology here in Australia?Daniel Ziffer and ABC Bus...

Justin Wolfers on the absurdities of Trump’s America

July 10, 2026

Justin Wolfers has spent 25 years in the United States watching the world’s biggest economy from close range - and from the useful distance of an Australian accent that still cuts through the absurdity.A former Reserve Bank economist and now Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan, Wolfers has become one of America’s sharpest economic communicators.He joins Alan Kohler to talk about the health of the US economy, the chaos of Trump-era policymaking, the folly of ...