If you’ve been too busy, too tired, or too bamboozled to follow this week’s economic news, fear not. Here’s our simple digest of what we think are the four most important business and economics stories of the week.

Tony Abbott with BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie and Rio Tinto CEO Sam Walsh. Photo: AAP

Iron ore: Abbott makes a hasty retreat

We already knew the mining industry wielded disproportionate power in Canberra (remember what happened to Kevin Rudd when he tried to introduce a mining tax?) and this week’s antics were only further proof.

Last weekend, Tony Abbott floated the idea of an iron ore inquiry to find out whether BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were purposefully driving smaller miners out of business.

But as soon as these words left his lips, hordes of mining lobbyists descended on Canberra to give him what for, and the PM retreated like a snail into its shell.

We’ll probably never know what BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto et al said that was so persuasive, but judging by the speed of the retraction it’s safe to assume they didn’t mince their words.

But what’s perhaps even more telling is that the only reason Mr Abbott considered an inquiry in the first place was because the third most powerful iron ore producer in Australia, Fortescue Metals, wanted one.

• Iron ore stand-off becomes debate about capitalism
• Budget boosts confidence
• Bowen’s Robin Hood act needs work
• How consumers are paying for the RET

Second time lucky for Mr Joe Hockey? Photo: AAP

Hockey’s Budget boosts confidence

Last week’s federal budget may have boosted Tony Abbott’s popularity, but much more importantly for the economy, it also appears to have boosted consumer confidence.

Both the ANZ-Roy Morgan and the Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer confidence surveys reported a modest but important rise in consumer sentiment over the weekend following the budget.

That is potentially very good news for the economy. It means consumers will spend rather than save, which will stimulate the economic activity.

The major problem over the last year or so has been low consumer and business confidence. That means consumers have saved rather than spent, and businesses have refrained from hiring staff and investing in the business.

It looks like consumers are feeling better about things now. The next big question is, are businesses also feeling better? If the answer is yes, then Hockey’s second budget may have done the trick.

But at this stage that’s a big ‘if’.

Chris ‘Robin Hood’ Bowen. Photo: AAP

Bowen draws battle lines on super tax

This week shadow treasurer Chris Bowen took advantage of Tony Abbott’s weird promise never to change superannuation tax concessions, saying he was happy for the next election to be about super.

Mr Abbott’s promise was weird for three reasons. First, super tax concessions cost the government a massive $30 billion a year, and are unfairly skewed towards the very wealthy.

Second, changing the rules to target the wealthiest 10 per cent would likely be a popular policy.

And third, by ruling out any changes to super tax concessions, Mr Abbott is pre-empting the findings of the tax review that is currently underway, and which has put the issue high on its agenda.

Mr Bowen’s decision to fight hard on this issue is therefore an easy one. It makes him look like a true battler for ordinary Australians.

However, as Rob Burgess wrote this week, beyond the Robin Hood rhetoric, Labor’s plan to tax super is only “slightly more progressive” than the current system – and it will make very little difference to the budget’s bottom line.

The clean energy sector had a bit of good(ish) news after a devastating year. Photo: AAP

A small win for climate change action

The Abbott government has been pretty merciless towards Labor’s measures to tackle climate change: ‘off with their heads’ has been the general approach.

Its policy towards the Renewable Energy Target was no exception, with massive cuts to the 2020 target expected.

This week, though, the Coalition gave some ground, cutting a deal with Labor to slash the target from 41,000 gigawatt hours to 33,000 GWh.

(If you want to know what on Earth that actually means, click here).

That’s a lot worse than it could have been for the clean energy sector.

Kane Thornton of the Clean Energy Council told The New Daily, “Obviously no one in the sector is happy about the reduction in the target.

“But equally, I think the sector needed the crisis to end, and we needed to get back to business, and essentially the compromise package that we put forward as the industry was just that.”

It is unclear why the Coalition made the final concession, but it’s likely that it saw the carnage that was being created in the burgeoning renewable energy sector.

One explanation we can rule out, though, is that the government’s decision had much to do with cutting carbon emissions.