EDITOR'S PICKS

The taper weight
Alan Kohler
The Fed’s May pivot is a double-edged sword for the rest of the world, and will bring into question Australia’s 22-year record of unbroken economic growth.

The Fed (and the four?) keep the RBA quiet
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Stalling retail, falling confidence and slowing mining will ensure the Reserve Bank cuts again. But the Austalian dollar and, perhaps, the big four have stayed its hand this month.

The gift of a healthy economic handover
Stephen Koukoulas
Given its inheritance, it’s reasonable to expect a Coalition government to deliver three more years of GDP growth near 3 per cent, underlying inflation around 2.25 per cent and unemployment near 5.5 per cent.

Sink or swim: Abandoned Billabong’s last gasp 
Stephen Bartholomeusz
The final failure of private equity suitors to save the day leaves Billabong with little option but to pursue chief executive Launa Inman’s brutal turnaround strategy.

Canberra's aversion to real work
Rob Burgess
Our politicians have been happily doing policy acrobatics, attacking visa holders and economic thinkers while throwing pies at each other. None of this falls under the category of 'work'.

Calm before a deathly debt storm
Steve Keen
Conventional economists like Ben Bernanke were tricked by low volatility preceding the financial crisis. But a period of tranquility is normal before an economy is sucked into a treacherous vortex of debt.

Xi ditches his tie for hard US labour
Geoff Raby
Xi Jinping’s American visit – the most important international meeting of the year – has been choreographed to involve lots of hard work. For Australia, that’s a welcome development.

After Nine’s cricket catch comes Ten’s next serve
Ben Shepherd
Ten will probably enter a bidding rally with Seven for the 2015 tennis rights, and after watching the cricket rights war Tennis Australia should be licking its lips.

Brussels can't reverse the outburst
Oliver Marc Hartwich
The EU's policy recommendations for each country reads like a compendium of what's wrong with Europe. Add a monumental outburst of truth from one regulator and you've got a clear list of problems with no solutions.

CLIMATE SPECTATOR: McKibben vs Bernardi
Tristan Edis
Last night's Q&A program pitted an environmentalist against a climate denier in familiar debate. But it was the middleman’s position that was the most telling.

Easy UK powers away from the eurozone
Stephen Koukoulas
The difference between May PMIs of the eurozone and Britain, which both improved, highlights just how superior the UK's recovery policies have been.

How can asbestos trump common sense?
Rob Burgess
Global news shines a jarring light on Australia's asbestos beat-up and shows the futility of this Coalition strategy.