The budget balance usually steals the headlines on budget night, but it’s not that important, says Greg Jericho.

With budget night a little over a month away, Greg tees off on Australia’s political obsession with budget deficits. He argues it’s not a good measure of the health of the economy or of who is a better ‘economic manager’ – and the forecasts are often wildly wrong anyway.

Greg Jericho is Chief Economist at the Australia Institute and the Centre for Future Work and popular columnist of Grogonomics with Guardian Australia. Each week on Dollars & Sense, Greg dives into the latest economic figures to explain what they can tell us about what’s happening in the economy, how it will impact you and where things are headed.

australiainstitute.org.au // @theausinstitute

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute and Centre for Future Work // @GrogsGamut

Producer: Jennifer Macey // @jennifermacey

Additional editing: Emily Perkins

Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions

We’d love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to podcasts@australiainstitute.org.au.