Grattan on Friday: Chalmers attracts some flak for blue sky ideas but the government has bigger problems

By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Jim Chalmers likes to say we need national “conversations” about the economic issues facing the country. Now, just as the new parliamentary year is set to begin on Monday, Chalmers has bought himself a doozy of a conversation, with his essay advocating we embrace “values-based capitalism”.

Values-based capitalism might sound more like a topic for a university economics seminar than something to grab the attention of Ms and Mr Suburbia, as they worry about what the Reserve Bank will do to their mortgages on Tuesday.

But Chalmers’ ideas, to the extent the government pursues…

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