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Economics Explained

Evergreen context on economics, distilled into calm, readable pulses.

Most people encounter economic ideas — inflation, interest rates, comparative advantage — as headlines rather than concepts, which makes them hard to reason about independently. Briflio's Economics hub explains the underlying mechanics in plain terms, so the next debate about rates or trade policy is legible on its own merits rather than dependent on whichever pundit explained it last.

Economics

Gas from the Beetaloo Basin will only pour fuel on the climate change fire

Gas is now flowing from the vast – and controversial – fossil fuel project.

People carrying large quantities of banknotes during German hyperinflation

Economics Explained

Gas from the Beetaloo Basin will only pour fuel on the climate change fire

Inflation Is a Rise in the General Price Level, Not One Expensive Product

Do tech billionaires dream of shared abundance? We should probably just tax them

Comparative Advantage Explains Why Unequal Partners Can Still Benefit From Trade

Central Banks Change Rates to Influence Spending Indirectly

Compound Interest Makes Time Part of the Return

GDP Measures Production, Not Whether Life Is Going Well

AI is set to boost productivity and will have a ‘profound’ impact on the jobs market: Treasury

$40 trillion debt balloon is a warning sign for US economy and the world

Controlling wild pigs can work if it’s a group effort

Why the Pentagon is suddenly interested in a tiny town in NSW

Decolonizing economics means questioning where its ideas came from — and imagining new ones

Better call mom: Schools still see mothers as the default parent to contact

Governments have a financial vested interest not to reform gambling laws. Here’s why

Not just cigarettes and alcohol: why the ‘Oasis index’ and others like it offer real economic insights

Autocracies get more repressive when opening up their economies – a political scientist explores why

7 accessible reads about building a fairer economy

Why the US economy stays strong even when its policies shock the rest of the world

Creative destruction

Comparative advantage

Ruled by engineers: how China gets things done, leaving the US in the dust

Broncos say their new stadium will be ‘privately financed,’ but ‘private’ often still means hundreds of millions in public resources

Measuring poverty on a spectrum instead of an arbitrary line conveys a more accurate picture of inequality

How bond markets have become one of the most powerful forces in modern politics

Pittsburgh’s post-steel economy is a success – and a warning for other cities

How much is a bat worth? Protecting these insect-eaters isn’t just good for farms – their deaths cost taxpayers and the wider economy

Seat the rich! World Cup ticket inflation reflects widening gap between haves and have-nots

Inflation

Tragedy of the commons

Too many ‘stupid rules’, too little authority: how organisations create their own red tape

Grattan on Friday: Chalmers is trying to make economic uncertainty a springboard for reform

Climate change has already made Australians in one state much poorer, and more’s to come

Keynesian economics

Grattan on Friday: Jim Chalmers’ ticker is about to be tested as he tacks towards the May budget

How natural selection helps design antennas, cancer treatments and adhesives

What is migration for? How national needs wrestle with a basic human desire

NZ wants to double foreign student revenue by 2034 – but does it have capacity?

We designed an AI tutor that helps college students reason rather than give them answers

Doing things alone is on the rise, and businesses should pay more attention to that – even on Valentine’s Day

Australia is betting on a new ‘strategic reserve’ to loosen China’s grip on critical minerals

Former Harvard president Summers’ soft landing after Epstein revelations is case study of economics’ trouble with misbehaving men

Nationals leader Matt Canavan promotes work from home to grow regional areas

How cocaine traffickers launder cartel money

Game theory

Global power struggles over the ocean’s finite resources call for creative diplomacy

How Paris’ working-class dining experience is reshaping restaurant economics in France

Politics with Michelle Grattan: Alan Kohler says Labor’s tax changes probably won’t lower house prices

Oil isn’t just fuel: Iran conflict could disrupt markets for everything from plastics to fertilizers

Suspending family-based immigrant visas weakens US families and the economy