America’s opioid crisis won’t be solved by the Mexican wall and capital punishment. Meanwhile, deaths keep rising, and Australia isn’t immune, writes Lesley Russell.

Automated welfare didn’t end with the robo-debt controversy. Here and overseas, governments are turning vital decisions over to computers.

Peter Brent asks would a stronger prime minister pull Peter Dutton into line?

The week’s two big political campaigning scandals — Cambridge Analytica’s data-harvesting and Labor’s funding scam in Victoria — highlight the temptations facing parties desperate to win government. For Labor, an Ombudsman’s report on the affair places valuable information in the hands of the Victorian Opposition.

Finance’s share of the Australian economy is higher than ever, leaving us vulnerable to a growing global liquidity bubble, writes Michael Gill.