Alan Kohler

What makes the AI-driven stock market bubble unique in history is that if it's not a bubble, the impact on humanity could be far more challenging than any previous technology.

There doesn't seem to be much political mileage for the government to do anything at all — whether that is cracking down and forcing cannabis users back onto the black market or fully legalising the substance.  

China used to be trying to catch the West, specifically the US. Then it caught up. Now the West is trying to catch up to China, but likely can't.

The explosive rise of drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro is shifting consumption patterns, health outcomes and pushing pharmaceutical giants into trillion-dollar valuations. 

There is now a global race to build humanoids that can walk, talk, reason, lift, carry, fetch, stack and generally operate in a human environment. 

The strange macho appeal of fossilised vegetation means that 30 years of annual United Nations meetings to stop the planet heating any more have been a bust. 

Anyone who controls the supply of magnets controls the future, and China has been quietly working on this under America's nose for decades. Can Australia muscle in?

The nation has not yet embraced the idea that housing needs to be more affordable, or that it's the most important economic and social issue facing the country.

To remind the US president: China is both communist and working passably well, something he and the United States generally are being forced reluctantly to confront.

Speculative manias where the first investors win because there isn't a bust are rare occurrences. 

The two great technology revolutions of the modern era — artificial intelligence and renewable energy — are colliding.

The national project to fix housing affordability is off to a slow start but, from deposit schemes and negative gearing to immigration and construction delays, the reasons are complex.

China is driving hard to supplant the US in this new military industrial complex, and has already achieved leadership in electric vehicles, batteries, drones and renewable energy.

The problem with an emissions reduction target is that its mere existence implies it is achievable and that if we do achieve it, we will be fine. The truth is more complex.

Australia's emissions reduction number is, in short, a laugh-or-cry-o-meter, or perhaps more accurately, a tax-o-meter. 

Donald Trump's declaration that, "I have the right to do anything I want", didn't get the attention it deserved.

The failure to match population with housing and infrastructure has led to a more serious decline in living standards than is evident from GDP per capita statistics.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers must find a way to repeat what Paul Keating did in the 1980s and 90s, and lift productivity. Good luck with that.

We can now conclude that the strategy of taxing and banning nicotine addiction out of existence is a complete failure. The result is organised crime making about $10 billion a year in revenue.

The AI battle between China and the US is less about profits and return on investment, and more about geopolitics — national machismo, security and defence.

Four Ts dominated the conversation about Anthony Albanese's China trip: Trump, tariffs, Taiwan and trade. But look a little deeper and it's clear green iron was a key talking point, too. 

It's entirely appropriate that Albanese is meeting Xi again before he meets Trump for the first time. Xi is more important than Trump now.

To meet the government's housing target every year there will need to be infill land created about 26 times the size of Melbourne's CBD across Australia. 

The economic reform round table set down for August will talk about tax reform but a strategy for the future of artificial intelligence and robots should be part of the conversation.

America is sidetracked and weakened by wars and unrest. Donald Trump understands the problem but has been unable to resist the pressure from America’s military establishment and Israel.