Chicken Chalmers to plunder commodity prices

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Nothing is ever learned for very long in Canberra.

Having spent many years overestimating commodity prices and tax revenue, Treasury finally buckled in 2016 and slashed expected commodity prices.

This was quite sensible. Given the terrible forecasting history, it was better to be conservative and it also made pollies look good when the budget ended between than expected.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.