Vital Signs: Biden's economic centrism isn't exciting, but right for these divisive times

By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW

In an age of hyperpartisan politics, the Biden presidency offers a welcome centrism that might help bridge the divides.

But it is also Biden’s economic centrism that offers a chance to cut through what has become an increasingly polarised approach to economic policy.

On the Republican side of politics, there is strong support for neoliberal economic policies – that is, economic policies that don’t just emphasise the importance of markets but represent a kind of free-market fanaticism. Ronald Reagan aptly expressed this view in his 1981…

Read complete article

~	Mali: Political parties call for presidential elections to end military transition

~	What doesn’t kill you makes for a great story – two new memoirs examine the risky side of life

~	Elon Musk says ‘disc replacement’ worked for him. But evidence this surgery helps chronic pain is lacking

~	Angola: Proposed Security Law Threatens Rights

~	Many Australians face losing their homes right now. Here’s how the government should help

~	Vastly bigger than the Black Summer: 84 million hectares of northern Australia burned in 2023

~	We’re only using a fraction of health workers’ skills. This needs to change

~	Curious Kids: who makes the words? Who decides what things like ‘trees’ and ‘shoes’ are called?

~	Ecosystems are deeply interconnected – environmental research, policy and management should be too

~	Robert Adamson’s final book is a search for recognition and a poetic tribute to his love of nature