Cash economy
Argentina cracks down on football fans burning money to taunt rivals
Visiting foreign football fans who mock Argentina’s crippling inflation crisis by burning banknotes will be punished with up to 30 days in prison.
- by Harriet Barber
Latest
No quick fix as China’s economy sinks into deflation
Despite $20 billion in trade strikes over the past four years, the superpower remains Australia’s largest export market and a key engine of economic growth.
- by Eryk Bagshaw
Opinion
Opinion
The looming end of cash will fuel conspiracy theories and hoarding
The switch from cold, hard cash to digital dollars will become another fault line in a democracy that is already under attack from misinformation, conspiracy and institutional failure.
- by Shane Wright
Exclusive
RBA
Big change: Development shows Australia may have reached peak cash
For the first time since the advent of dollars and cents, the total amount of cash is starting to fall.
- by Shane Wright
Treasury castigated for inaction on black economy
The Australian National Audit Office has hit out at Treasury for the way it dealt with plans to shine a light on the “urgent, pervasive and damaging problem” of the alternative economy.
- by Shane Wright
Cheque-mate: Chalmers makes final move on dying payment network
Most Australians only see cheques in a birthday card from their grandmother. By 2030, the government plans to end the cheque system altogether.
- by Shane Wright
Young Chinese were promised prosperity. Now they’re being pushed to the poor countryside
One in five young graduates is jobless. Their president thinks they are slack. Local authorities are offering them $500 a month to retrain as farmers and become rural teachers.
- by Eryk Bagshaw
Expecting war to last till mid-2024, Ukraine granted $172b loan to keep economy afloat
The IMF and international community funding package’s worst-case scenario assumes Russia’s war on its neighbour will last until late 2025.
- by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder
Bankrupt island thrown a $4.5 billion lifeline
A mob took residence in the presidential palace last year and forced the leader to flee. Since then, Sri Lanka has been trying to pull itself together.
- by Krishan Francis
‘Revenge spending’ drives Shanghai’s post-COVID rebound
Shanghai’s middle class is bored, a little angry and full of cash. Now they want to spend big on things that make them happy.
- by Eryk Bagshaw
‘Crime of national proportions’: Lebanese state media archives looted
The records were located in a building that houses two ministries and adjacent to the heavily guarded Interior Ministry in charge of security in the country.
- by Kareem Chehayeb