The author of this report argues that rising government subsidies to industry in the big world economies, and the entanglement of national security and commercial motives, pose difficult policy issues for countries such as Australia, which cannot match the subsidies provided by the great powers.

This paper argues that Australia is emerging from the pandemic sooner, and at less economic cost than expected, but with higher unemployment and elevated debt. Businesses and households are more uncertain than usual, though the recovery is already underway and will likely gain momentum over coming months.

The outlines of a trade deal between the United States and China are there. But without a return to the negotiating table, the dispute could rapidly escalate, magnifying the damage to world growth.

Although some national security policy makers in the U.S are pressing for an economic ‘decoupling’ of the U.S and China, the data in this report suggest separation on any significant scale would be as damaging to Amrica as to China, and perhaps much more so.

Australia is gliding into its 26th year of uninterrupted economic expansion at the same time that the United States and the United Kingdom are wrestling with political rebellions against the very forces that have stoked Australia’s long boom. Open trade, high migration, and unimpeded economic globalisation are under political challenge in major advanced economies. In...