In case you haven't seen it. And, to remind you of this blog's 'centrist' roots, remember as you're watching, it was Paul Keating who first introduced this style of advertising. Remember Bill Hunter clambering around the wide brown land telling us what a great thing 'Working N...
Continue reading →
My brother and I both tried quite hard not to be economists. And we both failed fairly miserably. He's been busy producing some interesting graphs concerning the two intergenerational reports.
Continue reading →
Not only is life tough but you try finding a parking spot in a busy shopping centre. Whenever I do I can usually find some place where they could have fitted an extra parking spot. And pretty obviously if theyd have done so I could park there. Well actually I couldnt. If there...
Continue reading →
Who said this? Though it sounds paradoxical to say that . . . to prevent ourselves from making the wrong decision we must deliberately reduce the range of choice before us, we all know that this is often necessary in practice if we are to achieve our long term aims.
Continue reading →
I've just been to see Hairspray - a cinematic version of a Broadway Smash - well I don't know if it was a box office smash but it won lots of awards. It's a musical set in Baltimore in 1962 about rock and roll and a plump girl who takes a rock and roll show by storm with her e...
Continue reading →
For a fair while I've been interested in things like who appoints and pays for auditors of public companies and whether we've got it right (given that the information provided by auditors of companies for instance is a public or quasi public good when produced and firms have a...
Continue reading →
I'm generally in favour of free trade. So are quite a few economists who have reputations for being against it - even though they are not. At one point Keynes, who was a strong free trader argued (I think in the context of England being constrained by fixed exchange rates) tha...
Continue reading →
I've just become aware of bot blogging curtesy of these three links to posts I've just put up. I guess they're part of the escalating SEO war. Anyway, if you look below the fold, my hope is that some geek will have explained what it's all about, whether and the extent to which...
Continue reading →
Well, the speculation in my previous post was essentially spot-on. The High Court has ruled in Roach v Electoral Commissioner (reasons for decision published late yesterday) that Australians have a constitutionally guaranteed right to vote in federal elections, flowing from se...
Continue reading →
From today's Crikey! The NSW hospital crisis and an ALP hackette Alex Mitchell writes: In today's front pages is the story of a female emergency patient miscarrying in the toilet of Sydney's dysfunctional Royal North Shore Hospital after being neglected by staff for several ho...
Continue reading →
Apropos the discussion of a few days ago, Stephen Fry - yes that Stephen Fry - has some interesting observations on his blog about the iPhone. Apple is now doing what we all (well almost all) wish Microsoft would have done, which is to at least make beautiful things from its p...
Continue reading →
I'd like to know what's wrong with all the studies using different methodologies that find a link. Intuitively I find that using a hand held in a car is distracting at least when I'm dialling. It's all in the paper from the looks of it, but I won't get round to reading it and...
Continue reading →
(This is the third and last in a series of posts exploring Australian federalism (the first part is here and the second is here ). I've been struck by the seeming popular lack of interest in Australian federalism, not only judging by the lack of public outrage at John Howard's...
Continue reading →
What a slimy, condescending, pox-ridden excrescence is ABC's Media Watch program. And Phillip Adams isn't far behind, judging by his response to Helen "skepticlawyer" Dale's complaints about his characterisation of an interview with her that apparently never took place ("chill...
Continue reading →
The Central Bank is supposed to target inflation - and providing price stability is vouchsafed help if it can to keep growth ticking along. There's a lot of loose talk about how central bank action 'underwrites' risky moves by financial operatives. But creating more liquidity...
Continue reading →
In a story in Today's Crikey! , Guy Rundle raises a subject dear to my heart about which I am, alas, ignorant. Why are so many of our planning regulations negative - the most obvious being height restrictions, when what we really want from regulation is collective action to ma...
Continue reading →
What have these two men got in common? And who the hell is the guy on the right anyway? Find out at a seminar I'll be leading tomorrow, Tuesday 25th September from 12.30-1.30pm in Seminar Room 4, on the 1st Floor of the J.G. Crawford Bldg - the Public Policy School adjacent to...
Continue reading →
Mungo MacCallum has an article in today's Crikey which tends to take a similar - entirely pragmatic approach to the Parliamentary snarl that occured last Thursday. I happened to see edited highlights of it on "Order in the House" which confirmed all my previous feelings on the...
Continue reading →
My daughter has a dilemma! Should she replace her aging iPod nano with a new generation iPod nano or with an iPod Touch. I'd heard that Apple were producing an iPhone without the phone but I'd not watched the promo until my anxious daughter showed it to me. Watching it you can...
Continue reading →
Like many of you I saw this on facebook: Graham Young is fighting attempts to expel him from the Liberal Party this Sunday. This is Graham's article on Ambit Gambit from July describing the situation and why the party is seeking to throw him out. I hope Graham gets the result...
Continue reading →
Nelson: "Order the signal, Hardy." Hardy: "Aye, aye sir." Nelson: "Hold on, that's not what I dictated to Flags. What's the meaning of this?" Hardy: "Sorry sir?" Nelson (reading aloud): "'England expects every person to do his or her duty, regardless of race, gender, sexual or...
Continue reading →
I'd not seen this before - though many better travelled Troppodillians will have. For those that have not - you read it first on Troppo! With the company slogan ruling out evil things, Google continues (so far) to do good things.
Continue reading →
A terrific lecture by Robert Manne on 'Reconciliation' is to be heard and/or downloaded from the Hindsight program on the ABC website. I've heard it previously, so it's not that new, but it's a good listen if you have the time.
Continue reading →
When the stuff about Kevin Rudd's heart broke I thought 'well here we go again'. A bit of quasi dirt. Now it seems like a reasonable assumption that the government knew of the revelations and encouraged them. Of course it's entirely possible that they didn't. But on form you'd...
Continue reading →
Thank you all for your comments on my earlier posting ("why the electorate may want change") which sought to explain the apparent willingness of many swinging voters to switch sides. I argued then that it cannot be due to substantive policy differences: they exist (on industri...
Continue reading →
Doubts have started to emerge today about the resilience of Kevin Rudds leadership in polls. Liberal Party sources confirm that doubts do exist, which has led to intense speculation among some parts of the media as to whether the ALPs ability to project an air of confidence ha...
Continue reading →
Former Territory Labor Opposition Leader and Keating government Minister Bob Collins has died in Darwin at the age of 61. Whether from the bowel cancer he had suffered over the last couple of years or from some other cause is yet to be revealed. I knew Bob Collins very well in...
Continue reading →
I reproduce below the gist of my letter in today's Australian in the hope that it will elicit some opposing comments on why the electorate may want to replace the Howard Government Letter follows. Imre Salusinszky (misled by hatred, 20/9/07)) forgets that there are at least as...
Continue reading →
Just as I'm praising him to the skies , uberjournalist Paul Krugman, not content with two fantastic columns a week, gives us a blog as well . And having discovered it, what is the first post I read on it? Krugman summarising the very point I drew attention to. That he has a su...
Continue reading →
Visit Grodscorp to suggest a caption The federal election is absorping more than its share of attention in Ozblogistan, and is certain to do so for the next two months. For those who care, there is feast of psephology at Poll Bludger, Simon Jackman's Blog , Peter Brent's Mumbl...
Continue reading →
Over at Lava Rodeo, tigtog posts about an advocacy site put together by American-inspired and left-leaning lobby group GetUp! and an assortment of greenie groups "advocating placing your vote according to candidates records on climate change." Tigtog laments the lack of any an...
Continue reading →
Australian Mateship is the name given to the practice of referring to a person as mate when you cant remember their name.
Continue reading →
I taped last Wednesday night's LNL and only listened to it last night. Download the mp3 file and be amazed. Do it NOW! The file will disappear tomorrow night.
Continue reading →
The article below began, in my mind at least, as a post. Then thinking that it might be worth putting the effort into it to make it read pretty well, I spent some time on it and sent it unsolicited to Crikey! They prefer stuff they've asked for or that you've pitched, and they...
Continue reading →
Australian Policy Online asked me to tidy up the post I put up a while back on Child Poverty - Take a Bow Brian Howe. For the record and to enable anyone who wishes to offer further comment, I've done so here . Readers can download a Word file from the APO site. Thanks to Pete...
Continue reading →
I remember as a young bloke reading an ad for a Holden FJ that was nearby for $3,000. I rang the seller and then jumped in the car to look at it. Unfortunately even back then three grand only bought you a rustbucket FJ that is up on blocks. I ended up buying a 1962 EJ Holden i...
Continue reading →
Crikey it seems has a need for 'balance'. What else would explain the quality of (at least some of their) right leaning correspondents. Below the fold was today's effort by the redoubtable Alan Jones and John Howard fan Professor Flint. It is not very good. That a former diplo...
Continue reading →
Well no doubt this has been around the net for months, but this is the first I saw of it. Prediction markets, ready go go on the net - well pretend ones - with token bets. These guys could make a lot more money - and we'd have better markets - if you could bet real money. But...
Continue reading →
Some people think that Paul Krugman should get the Nobel Prize for his economics. I disagree. It's not that good - though a prize a year, often shared beteween the architects of various fields means that the field is likely to narrow down over time - they'll be scraping furthe...
Continue reading →
The Book Show picked up the theme of blogging today . I'm a complete fan of the Book Show - how they pump out 40 odd minutes of good content each day beats me. Ramona Koval is a good sort - good fun to listen to. Unfortunately, like so many MSM encounters with blogdom, it was...
Continue reading →
Well you've seen me grizzle about Microsoft before now, and in particular Office 2007 including a debate with Joshua Gans on the subject . Well I've now taken the extra-ordinary step of uninstalling Word 2007. It was better than Word 2003 in lots of small ways, but the ribbon...
Continue reading →
When I first saw this portrait, I thought it was a damn good portrait and - though you could see it as unflattering - those narrow eyes, I didn't see it that way. The eyes could equally be visionary - scanning the horizon for those new vistas that George was going to take us t...
Continue reading →
Here are a couple of monuments , the first recently errected in Dublin, the second on the drawing boards. They're by the same architect. Where Melbourne got the angular yellow beams of Denton Corker Marshall, Dublin and soon Wales will have the gleaming spires of Ian Richie Ar...
Continue reading →
Jen's brother Stuart is a lifelong Hawthorn supporter. His wife Jo is an equally passionate Collingwood fan (there's no accounting for taste). Jo is 9 months pregnant with twins. They were due almost exactly today, but they hadn't turned so Jo was booked in for a caesarean nex...
Continue reading →
Courtesy Brad DeLong's site , packaged up understandably enough in Brad's Why Oh Why Series under the heading "Why Oh Why Does Tom Friedman Still Have a Job?"
Continue reading →
This article - now many years old - discloses that Peter Singer gives away one fifth of his income. That's a very very fine thing and a damn site better than me. According to his own calculations, which I have no reason to doubt, that means he's saved thousands of lives. Perha...
Continue reading →
Writing op eds you often wonder how the subbie will bugger up your meaning by putting a headline on your piece that effectively prejudges the way people will read what you say. Still Catherine Deveny has struck it lucky. The subbie has captured the essence of her writing and h...
Continue reading →
The Chinatown area of Cavenagh Street, Darwin just before World War II (This is the second in an intended series exploring Australian federalism (the first part is here ). In this part I test the proposals of those who think we would be best advised to abolish the existing Sta...
Continue reading →
I got this email from an old friend currently living overseas in response to the notes I posted on manufacturing. I haven't thought much about manufacturing. But I would start with trying to see what Australian people can offer others. Trade surely is more that ever the way of...
Continue reading →
Australian rugby guru Rod Macqueen, one of the architects of the Stellenbosch rules Missing Link arts editor and Sidelined sports pundit Amanda Rose habitually refers to rugby as "yawnion", and this commenter received short shrift from Chris Sheil for expressing similar sentim...
Continue reading →
A few hails and farewells to kick off today's issue of Missing Link. Condolences to the family of Charles Murton, erudite proprietor of Diogenes' Lamp . Charles died after a lengthy battle with cancer, and will be remembered for his astute engagement with all comers across the...
Continue reading →
Last night on the 7:30 report Mr. Howard gave us the truth. We know this because he said so several times. He levelled with the Australian people last night. Its a new tactic to seize the initiative. The Honest John tactic. The question is will it work? In a way its refreshing...
Continue reading →
Because I managed to say some things in the interview of the report on Regulation and Innovation more compellingly than had been said in the report (pdf) or in the op ed of the report , I was about to try to hunt someone down in India to transcribe the relevant part of the pro...
Continue reading →
For the record - over the fold. Crikey asked me to edit some notes of a keynote speech I gave at Kevin Rudds Manufacturing Roundtable which I posted the night before on Club Troppo. In addition to the micro-economic agenda I quoted yesterday, I raised some macro-economic and t...
Continue reading →
The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades by Nathan Nunn Abstract: Can part of Africa's current underdevelopment be explained by its slave trades? To explore this question, I use data from shipping records and historical documents reporting slave ethnicities to construct...
Continue reading →
Martin Feldstein wants to cut US interest rates by one percent. I agree with him for all the reasons that he puts. And disagree with the opponents of a rate cut for the main reason he does. The idea of a 'Greenspan put' is pretty silly when the put, or the implicit guarantee,...
Continue reading →
Well, two afternoons after actually. This post is here as a matter of record as it's largely a repetition of a story posted here on Sunday . Anyway, Crikey asked me to write the notes up and what with their word limit it's serialised into two parts - the first of which appears...
Continue reading →
During yesterday's Constitutional Law lecture, I noticed that one of my students was quite distracted and continually fiddling with his mobile phone. I wasn't entirely surprised, because I was talking about section 109 inconsistency, which isn't the world's most rivetting topi...
Continue reading →
A befriended blogger made a careless comment recently that American newspapers (with the New York Times on top) were 'unquestionably the best in the world'. Being from European stock, and hence growing up with the equally silly idea that everything European is better than anyt...
Continue reading →
A couple of weeks back I wittnessed a discussion meeting here at QUT on whether Hedgefunds should be outlawed, or at least heavily regulated. The main speaker was Dr. Robert Bianci who has sent a large part of his PhD degree on the functioning of Hedgefunds. The PowerPoint sli...
Continue reading →
When Peach Home Loans was first launched it was called Plum Home Loans , and the avalanche of calls that we got after appearing on A Current Affair did not endear us to Plum Financial Services, of which we had not been aware. I had thought that having registered our business n...
Continue reading →
No not me. I don't want it!
Continue reading →
If only I knew how to use Photoshop ... About 3 weeks ago I pointed out that, although the MSM polls had Labor way in front, the overall trend (at least up to July) seemed to have the Coalition on track for a very close election result by late November or early December. Howev...
Continue reading →
Names are de rigueur around Ozblogistan this issue, as sundry people riff on a piece by resident Age bomb-thrower and lefty Andrew Bolt alternative, Catherine Deveny. Nick Gruen and Legal Eagle got going with two thoughtful pieces apiece, while Darlene Taylor was in wholeheart...
Continue reading →
Bryan Palmer writes : This gives an average of 58.25 for Labor and 41.75 per cent for the Coalition. Plug these numbers into the election calculator and see what you get. A pie chart of the "see what you get" with a uniform national 11% swing (normal caveats etc): The red area...
Continue reading →
I'm a speaker at Kevin Rudd's Manufacturing Industry Roundtable on Monday. I thought I'd outline a few thoughts here and invite feedback. Ive thrown these points together quickly as Ive got to get on a plane so apologies for any typos and for the staccato delivery. But feedbac...
Continue reading →
One formula for op ed writing is to annoy your readers . Another is to lay out some set of actual or imagined social phenomena onto some Procrustean ideological bed for interpretation. This lazy and infuriating piece of fluff from Catherine Deveny in the Age which is headed by...
Continue reading →
From the abstract to a recent article . In this research, we assess whether the number of public comments filed in response to proposed agency rules has dramatically increased as a result of the automation of the submission process. Specifically, we compare the volume of comme...
Continue reading →
I have no reason to accuse Troppo readers of being particularly representative of the community from which they come, but I'd still be interested in the experience of those whose experience is relevant to this question. Why do women use their husband's surname when they marry?...
Continue reading →
When I think of the latest polls I think of Gough Whitlam polishing off Billy Sneddon, Paul Keating seeing off Alexander Downer. If only they'd eased up a little their own political fortunes might have been a little better. If I were advising Kevin Rudd I'd have suggested he m...
Continue reading →
I've just happened upon a transcript of a Gordon Brown press conference at No 10.gov. The blogosphere pointed me there because of this controversial passage - which read just fine to me. I think Mrs Thatcher, Lady Thatcher, saw the need for change and I think whatever disagree...
Continue reading →
They must not get away with this. "Protest is not violent, war is violent," student Rainee Lyleson told Wednesday's rally. "We will not be intimidated." Rainee is fifteen and in Year 9 at Mosman High School. She spoke at the rally , at Belmore Park, attended by 300 school kids...
Continue reading →
It has been over 7 years since Judge Jackson issued his order for Microsoft to be broken up into an applications and a operating system business. Due to various complications , that never came to pass. But what if it had? What would the computer world look like today? The brea...
Continue reading →
John Quiggin has an interesting post on the progress (or perhaps lack of same) of the Brough/Howard intervention into NT indigenous communities. Both the post and comment thread are worth reading. John also asks: One of the striking features of the governments intervention in...
Continue reading →
Andrew Inglis Clark This is the first of several intended posts about Australian federalism. Federalism doesn't seem to have very many supporters in early twenty-first century Australia, at least judging by the fact that both our current Prime Minister and Opposition Leader ar...
Continue reading →
I mentioned when reviewing Opera Australia's Barber that there was another production of the same work in the pipeline. By now it's actually too late to see Pacific Opera's season of The Barber of Seville , which finished last weekend. But it's still worth a comment for the be...
Continue reading →
There is speculation building that Holden is gearing up to full production in order to export the Ute to the United States. Holden Ute - Pontiac G8 Ute photochop by Aych Es Vee The traditional Ute platform in the US has been the Chevrolet El Camino, but it appears that the Ute...
Continue reading →
APEC and election speculation is clearly dominating bloggy concerns, and people are starting to get a tad silly with it all. The latest hacking victim is Andrew Landeryou , who joins his ideological opponent Jeremy Sear in having had his site hacked and blog nicked. Love em or...
Continue reading →
I'm not a soccer fanatic. But it's a nice game. In my limited experience, Ronaldinho is the most exciting player I've seen. Someone described this to me over coffee today and it wasn't hard to find on YouTube. Enjoy. And just since I saw it, there are some nice ones in the sec...
Continue reading →
"[T]he [Reserve] bank doesn't lift rates two months in a row, never mind in an election year. Glenn Dyer, Crikey, 5th Sept 2007
Continue reading →
Just following up on yesterday's post I managed to secure AFL tickets to Saturday's final between Collingwood and the Swannies, or - as Tandberg called them in one cartoon featuring Ita Butrose as one of their main supporters - the Thidney Thwans. Displaying some of the proble...
Continue reading →
Yesterday I received an email advising that Black Inc.'s excellent magazine The Monthly has begun publishing selected articles online for free access. I bought a 12 month subscription for my dad as a Christmas present last year. After reading some of the free access articles l...
Continue reading →
When I was a kid I was a master at getting into the MCG - squeezing through gaps left between those revolving door exits and the walls, wandering in when no-one was looking. These days on the right side of the law it's not much easier. Each week that Collingwood play in Melbou...
Continue reading →
Two of the most fashionable ideas in social policy thinking are coming together -- conditional welfare and early childhood intervention. Together they'll create a new supernanny state that fights crime, prevents teenage pregnancy, lifts employment and leaps rigorous cost-benef...
Continue reading →
The latest national accounts suggest that over the March and June quarters of 2007 there has been a surge in market sector productivity growth (market output divided by hours worked in market sector). The ABS tells us this is the result of an increase in market sector output o...
Continue reading →
The AIRC website reassures readers that: An employee who believes he or she has been unfairly or unlawfully dismissed has 21 days from the dismissal date to lodge an unfair or unlawful dismissal application with the AIRC. There is an application lodgment fee of $55.70. However...
Continue reading →
Where The Engineers Are looks at engineering in the United States, India and China under globalisation and the role economics, commerce and education have in the development of engineers. The paper discovered that the US and India were pumping out about the same number of Engi...
Continue reading →
If was only a matter of time before politicians retreated even from the 'doorstop' and handed out audio and video feeds for the media's consumption. I think I predicted this on Troppo somewhere in the dim dark past, if so I can't find where I did. In fact it's a bit unfair to...
Continue reading →
Watching this interview on Thursday night, as Paul Lennon explained that his job is to grow the Tasmanian economy and attract big investors; that he had no choice but to bend the rules to get the pulp mill approved in time; that 'the Greens are a political party in Tasmania op...
Continue reading →
A day or so ago I put up this popst to ask Troppodillians to suggest a foreign aid charity I could get excited about. Well there are plenty of charities that are exciting - one of which I forgot to mention in the original post was the micro-credit operation Opportunity Interna...
Continue reading →
Well, I could bill this as the Andrew Johns druggie special edition, because Joey's turn at the Notting Hill Carnival has certainly made a few waves around Ozblogistan. As is often the case, Wicking managed to combine Johns' efforts with one of the stranger animal interest sto...
Continue reading →
Commenting meaningfully on a High Court decision in which the Justices are yet to explain their reasons presents a distinct challenge for legal bloggers: THE High Court has ruled that a federal law banning all prisoners from voting is unconstitutional, after an Aboriginal inma...
Continue reading →
