The Greek PM is facing up to the need for reform, he should look to the example of the Brazilian leader who successfully confronted financial constraintsThe Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has the chance to become to his country what the South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung, and Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, were to theirs: a man of the left who moves toward fiscal responsibility and freer markets. Like Tsipras, both were elected in the midst of an economic crisis. Both immediately confronted the international financial constraints that opposition politicians can afford to ignore.On assuming power, Kim and Lula were able to adjust, politically and mentally, to the new realities that confronted them, launching much-needed reforms. Some reforms were “conservative” (or “neo-liberal”) and might not have been possible under politicians of the right. But others were consistent with their lifetime commitments. South Korea under Kim began to rein in the “chaebols”, the country’s huge family-owned conglomerates. Brazil under Lula implemented “Bolsa Familia”, a system of direct cash payments to households that is credited with lifting millions out of poverty.The only possible silver lining is that Tsipras’s supporters may now be willing to swallow the creditors’ medicine Continue reading...

All over the world, environmental justice movements are challenging

Some on the left claim the eurozone crisis suggests the EU won’t protect workers. History shows the folly of this stanceWith events in Europe of historical resonance unfolding before our eyes, it is more vital than ever to understand developments. But many on the left seem to be drawing precisely the wrong conclusions.There is an argument gaining momentum on the left – given voice by Owen Jones in these pages last week – that the current EU crisis proves that the European project does not work for ordinary people. Many on the left, according to this line of argument, will have “dipped their toes” in the sea of Euroscepticism and found conditions more amenable than they expected. They invite the rest of us to join them: “Come on in,” is their pitch, “the water’s fine.” Continue reading...

Alexis Tsipras’s troubles are far from over with struggle to muster cross-party support for bailout terms and talk of early elections on the horizonThe reopening of banks and repayment of debts returned Greece to a semblance of normality on Monday but the ruling Syriza party admitted it faced considerable political challenges in pushing through reforms.After a drama-filled month that saw the country come close to being ejected from the eurozone, the government, led by the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, appealed for unity as it faced another make-or-break vote in Athens on Wednesday.Related: Greek banks reopen to a surprise: no deluge of panic-stricken customers Continue reading...

Maurice Obstfeld is an economic advisor to President Obama and University of California academic who voiced doubts in 1999 about the euroAn academic who has warned that the euro was a gamble has been named as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.Maurice Obstfeld, an economic adviser to Barack Obama, is on leave from the University of California at Berkeley.

‘People have behaved so responsibly, so maturely,’ say staff at historical Athens headquarters of National Bank of Greece on first day after 21-day forced closureAt 6am on Monday morning Dimitris Rombopoulos was at his post as the security guard outside the National Bank of Greece. By 6.30 the first of a small but steady stream of people, mostly white-haired pensioners, had begun to appear.

Greece’s bank branches are open for the first time in three weeks, but capital controls are still in place

Officials confirm that almost all of €7.2bn bridging loan went into repaying money owed to the ECB and IMFGreece has taken a step back to normality after its banks reopened following three weeks of closures and receipt of a €7.2bn (£5bn) loan, with almost all of it spent on repaying debts.Greek officials began paying back international lenders shortly after the emergency bridging loan arrived in the Greek government’s bank account on Monday. Continue reading...

Withdrawal limit relaxed to €420 a week and deposit boxes can be emptied, but capital controls remainGreeks were queueing outside banks on Monday morning, as the institutions opened their doors for the first time in three weeks, amid hopes that the beleaguered nation can reach a swift agreement with its international creditors on a bailout of its wrecked economy.Limits on cash withdrawals remain in place, but have been loosened. Greeks are now able to withdraw up to €420 (£290) a week in one transaction, rather than being limited to €60 a day. But restrictions on sending money abroad and other controls have not been lifted and the Athens stock market is closed until further notice.Related: Now a deal has been done, what lies ahead for the Greek economy? Continue reading...

I have long been a supporter of the EU and thought we should adopt the euro. The extraordinary incompetence of the money folk is changing my mind. Christine Lagarde said she wanted to have discussions with “adults” and “grownups”. How “grown up” are those in the troika who have made such an extraordinary hash of the Greek predicament and, in consequence, of the whole European project? Like Wonga, they extended credit when they shouldn’t have done, and are now extorting money from those to whom they should not have extended it. What kind of a mess is that? What kind of Europe is this? They are deeply incompetent, if not worse. I honour Peter Luff’s commitment (Letters, 17 July), but his allies have let him down.

The eurozone should have learned from Coca-Cola’s mistake - if it aint broken, don’t fix it. And when it’s broken, get out of the fix, as quick as you canThe date 23 April 1985 was a momentous day in the life of the Coca-Cola corporation. For years, the company had been planning a new drink to see off the challenge from Pepsi. There was no expense spared for Project Kansas.“New” Coke (as it was dubbed) bombed. The company responded with alacrity. It didn’t say consumers were wrong. It didn’t say that given time New Coke would be a success. It didn’t plough on simply because it had invested heavily in Project Kansas. Instead, it recognised that there was only one option: to go back to the traditional formula. This returned to the shelves on 11 July 1985, within three months of “New” Coke’s launch.Related: Now a deal has been done, what lies ahead for the Greek economy? Continue reading...

With UK households among the most indebted in any major economy, even a modest interest rate increase would have a huge impactBorrowers beware: Mark Carney’s clear message in his speech at Lincoln cathedral last week was that interest rates may have to rise soon – something anyone who has bought a home or taken out a loan in the past eight years will never have experienced.Yet the other signal that came through – aside from some chin-stroking on medieval inflation and the Magna Carta – was that the fragile, lopsided state of the post-crash British economy means the Bank must proceed with great care. Continue reading...

The Bank of England has hinted at a Base rate rise, but the connection between it and savings rates has been severed for some timeFor the first time in years things are looking up for savers. Or are they?Last Thursday Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, indicated that interest rates would rise as early as December. This should be good news for savers who have witnessed rock bottom returns over a six-year period in which the Bank base rate has stayed at 0.5%. But this might not bring a correlating rise in the rates paid on savings accounts. Continue reading...

Greece’s banks will reopen on Monday and the country will step back from the brink – but can the nation get back to normal or will it be permanently scarred?In the week when Greece’s economic drama peaked, six men conducted a ritual at the site that speaks of everything Europe cherishes most. At sunrise, and then again at sunset, they marched in perfect synchronisation to the top of the Acropolis. There, with rare solemnity, they sang the national hymn, saluted the Greek flag and then marched back down again.The predictability of such a ritual – at the single greatest monument to democracy – contrasted vividly with what was going on below: a make-or-break vote in parliament, an economy in meltdown, closed banks, capital controls, popular uncertainty and protesters hurling petrol bombs at police. “What we now desperately need is to diminish the uncertainty,” says Professor Yannis Caloghirou, who teaches economics at the National Technical University of Athens. “The banking system needs to be stabilised, we need to get back on the road of normalcy.”The age of innocence, the optimism that dominated society after the fall of the junta, is overRelated: Eurozone ready to start formal talks with Greece over €86bn bailoutRelated: Greece debt crisis: reforms will fail, says ex-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis Continue reading...

In Ireland, Portugal and Spain, the IMF has left and at least the semblance of growth has returned. But Greece’s problems put it in a class of its ownThey used to be pejoratively labelled the “Pigs”: Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, the “peripheral” countries carried into the eurozone on a wave of prosperity that were all forced to go cap in hand to their neighbours – and the International Monetary Fund – when the financial crash came.Yet while Greece’s plight has only worsened over the five years since it was first rescued, the other three bailed-out countries have managed to return to growth, and send the inspectors from the International Monetary Fund back to Washington.A lot of the Spanish story is a function of exports. In 2009-10, factories were relocating from eastern Europe to Spain Continue reading...

Varoufakis says conditions imposed on Greece by creditors will ‘go down in history as the greatest disaster of macroeconomic management ever’Economic reforms imposed on Greece by creditors are going to fail, according to the country’s outspoken former finance minister.Yanis Varoufakis told the BBC that Greece was subject to a programme that will “go down in history as the greatest disaster of macroeconomic management ever”.Related: Now a deal has been done, what lies ahead for the Greek economy?Related: Tourists in Greece: 'Don't tell the cook we're German' Continue reading...

The austerity crisis in Greece, the Iran nuclear deal, the San Fermín festival in Pamplona – the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week Continue reading...

Talk of interest rate rise fuels seven-year high against euro but makes life tougher for UK exporters and puts unwelcome focus on household financesBritons holidaying in Europe this summer were handed a windfall by the Bank of England after the prospects of higher interest rates sent the pound to a seven-and-a-half-year high against the single currency.With the euro already weakened by the Greek debt crisis, comments on Thursday by the Bank’s governor, Mark Carney, pointing to dearer borrowing around the New Year pushed sterling to levels last seen in the month following the collapse of Northern Rock in the autumn of 2007.Related: Pound strengthens against euro after Bank signals interest rate riseRelated: How will a strong pound affect my holiday? Continue reading...

Bundestag has given its backing to new aid talks, but 60 members of Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc opposed the plan

Negotiations set to re-open argument over whether the Greek economy can recover while weighed down with debts totalling €320bnThe eurozone is ready to start formal talks with Athens over an €86bn (£60bn) bailout, paving the way for a month of wrangling over the bitterly disputed question of easing Greece’s debt burden.

Relations between Greek and German politicians may be tense amid the economic crisis, but empathy is easy to find on the streets of both countries

Martin Wheatley’s resignation is another victory for the increasingly bullish banks – George Osborne has capitulated againIt’s job done as far as Britain’s banks are concerned. The departure of Martin Wheatley as the head of the City’s watchdog marks a triumph for the forex fiddlers and the Libor manipulators, but a defeat for the rest of us. The clock has been turned back eight years to the bad old days when the last Labour government ensured that what the banks demanded, the banks got.George Osborne was, of course, full of praise for Wheatley as his resignation was announced. The outgoing head of the Financial Conduct Authority was “brilliant”. He was “passionate” about defending the interests of consumers. A bit too passionate, it seems. Continue reading...

The creation of a single European currency was a brave experiment with the future. It will take another brave experiment to rescue it“Great powers have great currencies” goes the aphorism of Robert Mundell, the Nobel prize-winning political economist. Sure enough, one of the easiest guides to power is to check which currency is most widely accepted around the world. When Britannia ruled the waves, pound sterling ruled the foreign exchanges, while the long “American century” has been papered in greenbacks. Millennia before the iron age of Jean-Claude Juncker and Martin Schulz, Athens enjoyed a golden age – and so did the silver drachma.At its birth in 2000, the euro was garlanded with predictions by Mr Mundell and other eminent economists that it would soon challenge the dollar for global dominance. One of Bill Clinton’s top economic advisers, Jeffrey Frankel, went so far as to co-author a forecast that the euro would overtake the dollar as the world’s top currency … by as early as 2015. This is about more than a league table. As home of the dollar, the US enjoys what has been called an “exorbitant privilege”. Washington can borrow, even at times of crisis, far more easily and cheaply than its competitors. A great currency makes it easier to finance the role of a great power. It also confirms that status. If money talks, it is scarcely more eloquent than when Saddam Hussein redenominated Iraq’s oil exports in euros, rather than dollars (“the currency of the enemy”), or Beijing picked London as a hub for trading the renminbi. When Jacques Delors, the former European commission head, claimed at its inception, “The little euro will become big”, no one quibbled. How could it not? Europe was expanding east and Washington’s “unipolar moment” was drawing to a close. The idea of a monetary union without political union was novel, but it fitted contemporary scepticism of the nation state as an “imagined community” – not to mention the belief of technocrats that budgetary rules could trump political norms. Continue reading...

Politicians in the Bundestag vote to start negotiations by 439 votes to 119, with 40 abstentions

Experts say the Republican presidential candidate’s assertions that changes to overtime pay would result in fewer jobs and lower pay show he is misinformedJeb Bush has created a flap with another statement about American workers. In an appearance in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Tuesday, he said Barack Obama’s proposal to expand overtime pay to millions more managers and white-collar workers would result in “less overtime pay” and “less wages earned”.Numerous economists attacked Bush’s statement, calling him woefully misinformed. And several studies on the rule contradict Bush’s assertion that the overtime rules would “lessen the number of people working”.Related: Fact-checking Jeb Bush: If Americans work more hours, economy will grow Continue reading...

The self-appointed guardian of the EU’s financial rulebook says EU rules forbid a write-off. But there are many ways to get round the legal restrictionsA vote in the Greek parliament means little to Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble. The self-appointed guardian of the EU’s financial rulebook says Athens can vote as many times as it likes in favour of a deal that promises, even in the vaguest terms, to write off some of its colossal debts, but that doesn’t mean the rules allow it.In fact, as Schäuble delights in pointing out, any attempt at striking out Greek debt is, according to his advice, illegal. Yet Schäuble knows Greece’s debts are unsustainable unless some of them are written off – he has said as much on several occasions. So faced with its internal contradictions, he posits that the deal must fail and the poorly led Greeks exit the euro.Optimists argue that a debt write-off can take many forms, getting round Schäuble’s legal restrictions Continue reading...

Time banks, farmer-to-buyer sales groups and alternative currencies springing up but expansion has not been steady or easyAs money has become tighter in Greece, an alternative “solidarity economy” has sprung up providing everything from food and medical care to hairdressing and language classes to thousands – without a euro changing hands.The Athens Time Bank, for example, allows members to collect credits by offering an hour of their time to someone who needs their services. The bank boasts doctors, dentists, electricians, yoga teachers and plumbers among its ranks, but the most popular service on offer is psychotherapy – highlighting how years of austerity have eaten away at more than just savings and living standards.Related: Euros discarded as impoverished Greeks resort to bartering Continue reading...

Christine Lagarde’s comments echoed earlier concerns that proposals will fail unless measures go far beyond what the eurozone has offered so far

Sterling hit high of more than seven years after Bank of England governor Mark Carney indicated that period of 0.5% borrowing costs will end within monthsThe pound has hit a seven-and-a-half year high against the euro after Mark Carney signalled that the first rise in interest rates since the global financial crash could take place around the turn of the year.

Mark Carney says first increase since height of financial crisis is becoming increasingly necessary as economic growth strengthensBritain has been put on alert to expect its first interest rate rise since the global financial crash at around the turn of the year as the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, warned that the long period of 0.5% borrowing costs was coming to an end.Carney told businesses and consumers that Threadneedle Street would have to respond to the economy’s stronger growth by announcing the first tightening of policy since rates were increased to 5.75% in July 2007 – the month before the US subprime mortgage crisis erupted.Related: Buy-to-let boom could jeopardise financial stability, says Bank of England Continue reading...

Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, says the UK can expect its first rise in interest rates since the financial crash. Speaking at Threadneedle Street, Carney says the period of 0.5% borrowing costs is due to come to an end. The warning reflects the Bank's concerns about high debt levels in the UK Continue reading...

Rancorous Bundestag debate expected as dissenting members of chancellor’s centre-right coalition and leftwingers threaten to derail bailout for AthensAbout 50 German MPs from Angela Merkel’s ruling alliance are expected to revolt against the government and vote no to a third Greek bailout in the Bundestag on Friday.

Greece may have voted to authorise the deal but it also needs to be approved by other eurozone parliaments before any funds are releasedThe Greek parliament voted late on Wednesday evening to undertake the package of reforms needed to begin negotiations for an €86bn bailout programme. Despite 32 of its MPs voting against the plans, the Syriza-led government won out by 229 votes to 64.Greece is of course not the only parliament in the eurozone that will need to agree to a third bailout deal. Even in those countries that will not require a formal vote, tensions may emerge further down the road within governments that have small majorities.Greece's Creditors NOT just banks. Exposure of € zone countries poorer than Greece stand to lose up to 4.2% GDP http://t.co/i4QZ3w1xBsSoini: This was not a good day, there were no good option, we had to choose between plague and cholera. #GreeceBarclays: Official exposure to Greece in EMU by country and type pic.twitter.com/5QKkrsWr77The Greek compromise, reached on Monday, is considered to be tough and harsh. If it's so, it is the unfortunate outcome of ´Syriza Spring' Continue reading...

Estate agents could face a drop in the confidence that is keeping house prices high, as an increase in base rate will drive up mortgage costsHomebuyers can wave goodbye to mortgages at just 0.99%. Savers can say hello to better rates for the first time in seven years. Investors will wobble as bond funds dive. But it is estate agents who have most to fear.Related: Interest rate rise set for new year, warns Bank of England governor Continue reading...

As fears grow over bank closures, capital controls and a potential euro exit, Greek people are buying luxury goods to put their money in something tangible

Owen Jones, George Monbiot and other usually thoughtful commentators on the left are making a fundamental error when they advocate a “Lexit” campaign to promote UK withdrawal from the EU (The left must now campaign for Britain to leave the EU, 15 July). It would be a classic case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Do they really believe that working people throughout Europe would do better left to the mercies of financial and commercial interests, whose control over individual governments would be enormously increased by being able to divide and rule. The idea that there could be a Europe of free trade without elected democratic oversight would mean abandoning any hope of social justice and would be likely to bring about a competitive undermining of workplace rights and benefits.Owen Jones is surely right in thinking that if Labour really wants a revival it must come out and support BrexitThe EU now is beyond redemption. The mask is off, as John Hilary of War on Want put it at an anti-TTIP meeting this weekEven the Syriza government supports continuing membership of the euro and the EU Continue reading...

The European Central Bank has provided more liquidity to Greece’s banking sector, after the Athens parliament approves bailout deal

Read the full text of the Guardian’s exclusive interview with philosopher and sociologist Habermas, in which he describes the agreement as ‘toxic’Guardian: What is your verdict on the deal reached on Monday?Habermas: The Greek debt deal announced on Monday morning is damaging both in its result and the way in which it was reached. First, the outcome of the talks is ill-advised. Even if one were to consider the strangulating terms of the deal the right course of action, one cannot expect these reforms to be enacted by a government which by its own admission does not believe in the terms of the agreement.The European Council is effectively declaring itself politically bankruptRelated: Greece’s rescue package: utter humiliation or disaster averted? | The panelRelated: Merkel 'gambling away' Germany's reputation over Greece, says Habermas Continue reading...

Mario Draghi reveals extra €900m in emergency funding and adds backing for debt writeoffs as hopes rise that Greek banks will reopen on MondayBanks in Greece could open their doors on Monday for the first time in three weeks, after the European Central Bank boosted emergency funding for the country’s financial sector by €900m (£630m) and threw its weight behind calls for debt relief for Athens.The ECB president, Mario Draghi, announced the extension of aid to the country’s banks while backing the idea – championed by the International Monetary Fund but rejected by Germany – that some of Greece’s debts will have to be written off.Related: Greek debt crisis: ECB raises emergency liquidity and pushes for debt relief - live updatesRelated: George Osborne backs down on use of EU bailout fund in Greece crisisRelated: Merkel 'gambling away' Germany's reputation over Greece, says HabermasRelated: British progressives and the European Union: should we stay or should we go? | Letters Continue reading...

Relative price of McDonald’s staple meal is 43% less in China than in US, according to The Economist’s fabled burgernomics measureChina’s currency is significantly undervalued against the dollar, according to the Economist’s latest Big Mac index, which found that the bestselling burger from McDonald’s cost 43% more to buy in the US than in the world’s second largest economy.The yawning gap between the Chinese yuan and the US dollar, documented in the latest index, indicates that another round in the Sino-US currency war could be looming, although experts cautioned against taking the index as a stringent measurement of currency strength. Continue reading...

In a compromise, chancellor reassures taxpayers there will be an ‘impregnable ringfence’ around the up to £850m of British-backed funds in the EFSMGeorge Osborne has backed down over the use of an EU bailout fund to give an emergency loan to Greece. But the chancellor said there would be an “impregnable ringfence” around the up to £850m of British money in the fund to prevent any losses to the taxpayer in the event of any default.The chancellor argued it was a major victory for Britain in the EU because he had made it a “red line” that UK funds would not be threatened. But Eurosceptics will paint it as an example of Brussels reneging on an agreement with the UK, as David Cameron thought he had secured an opt-out from the EU-wide bailout fund being used after it was set up to help Ireland and Portugal in 2010.Related: British progressives and the European Union: should we stay or should we go? | Letters Continue reading...

The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, isn’t to blame for his party’s disintegration. Its roots lie in the party’s absence of coherent objectivesAlexis Tsipras survived last night’s vote in the Greek parliament, but not without witnessing the disintegration of his own party. Three ministers and 39 Syriza MPs refused to support the new memorandum of understanding voted in last night. The deal was passed with opposition votes. Technically Syriza still has a mandate, but in reality it will be unable to govern without these opposition votes.Among those who split away are renegade MPs from other parties that Syriza integrated before the last election to attract voters. The core rebels, though, come from the party’s hardline Left Platform. They include the ministers Panagiotis Lafazanis and Dimitris Stratoulis, who despite not voting for the deal refuse to leave office. A standoff also occurred with the speaker of parliament and the Syriza MP Zoe Konstantopoulou. Disliked by many for her outspoken manner, Konstantopoulou voted against her own party last night. Syriza now faces a split that is not only about the deal but also about who will shape the future of the party.Related: Greek MPs pass austerity bill as Athens police clash with protestersThe absence of a clearly defined strategy initially helped to boost the numbers of party supporters Continue reading...

This attempt to turn Athens into a debt colony will fail – and open the way to the breakup of the eurozoneYou couldn’t have had a clearer demonstration of what democracy now counts for in Europe than this week’s immolation of Greece. In January, after five years of grinding austerity imposed by the troika of creditors had shrunk its economy by a quarter and pushed millions into poverty, Greeks rebelled and elected an anti-austerity government.Following months of fruitless negotiations, the country voted last week to reject the latest cuts, tax rises and privatisations demanded to deal with the disastrous impact of the first phase of austerity. The response of the eurozone’s masters was immediately to ratchet up the pain still further. For the “breach of trust” of daring to put the terms to its people, Athens was to be punished. So on Monday – threatened with expulsion from the eurozone and economic collapse courtesy of the European Central Bank’s cash blockade – the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, bent the knee.Related: The left must now campaign to leave the EU | Owen JonesWhat kind of a union treats one of its members like a recalcitrant colony and dismisses its democracy as an affront? Continue reading...

Funding comes as eurozone finance ministers scramble to assemble €7bn bridging finance to keep economy afloatGreek banks will benefit from an extra €900m (£630m) in emergency funding to keep them afloat, the European Central Bank has announced, possibly allowing bank branches to open on Monday.Mario Draghi, the ECB president, said a majority of the central bank’s governing council had voted in favour of the move that brings the institution’s support for Greek banks to €130bn in total. Continue reading...

Cutting tax credits and raising the minimum wage puts the onus of income on having a job - jobs which are increasingly at riskMost rich countries now have millions of “working poor” – people whose jobs do not pay enough to keep them above the poverty line, and whose wages therefore have to be subsidised by the state. These subsidies take the form of tax credits.The idea is a very old one. England implemented its “Speenhamland” system – a form of outdoor relief intended to offset rising bread prices – during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1795, the authorities of Speenhamland, a village in Berkshire, authorised a means-tested sliding scale of wage supplements. The supplements that families received varied with the number of children and the price of bread. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Intellectual figurehead of European integration says efforts of previous generations put at risk by Angela Merkel’s hardline stance on GreeceJürgen Habermas, one of the intellectual figureheads of European integration, has launched a withering attack on the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, accusing her of “gambling away” the efforts of previous generations to rebuild the country’s postwar reputation with her hardline stance on Greece.Speaking about the bailout deal for the first time since it was presented on Monday, the philosopher and sociologist said the German chancellor had effectively carried out “an act of punishment” against the leftwing government of Alexis Tsipras.Related: Eurozone scrambles to assemble €7bn bridging finance to keep Greece afloatRelated: Protests against austerity in Athens and Berlin - in pictures Continue reading...

Prime minister plans to provide skills training to more than 400 million people to tackle workforce shortagesIndia’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, launched a programme on Wednesday aimed at imparting skill training to more than 400 million Indians over the next seven years “to make India the world’s human resource capital”.

Alexis Tsipras drives through tax increases and pensions shakeup amid angry splits in his Syriza party

The treasurer, Joe Hockey, outlines his plans for Australian tax reform at a PricewaterhouseCoopers lunch in Melbourne on Wednesday. He says superannuation tax must not take money from those who have worked hard to take care of themselves, and that state, corporate and income tax reform is needed to boost Australia's economic competitiveness Continue reading...