The Canberra Times published today an opinion piece of mine on a topic I have been writing about since late November and is familiar to Club Troppo readers. My original version is set out below. For various reasons, I may not be able to respond to comments quickly. Sorry. The...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian The Worst of Perth sculpts former WA Premier Geoff Gallop and yearns for his return in...
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I was listening to a podcast of a BBC interview with Ian "Supercrunchers" Ayres. Supercrunchers is a book which illustrates all the ways in which the 'new econometrics' or 'social stats' is revolutionising - well lets not get carried away - improving the judgement of all sorts...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Mark Shorter's upcoming performance at MOP projects explores patriarchal modes of power...
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I have about three draft posts, all unfinished on a particular theme which I have touched on once before here . The general theme is the growing viability of doing well by doing good. One of the posts was called Googlenomics and referred to the massive amount of <jargon>consum...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian The new Political Compass per Gummo Trotsky Kev Gillett believes the only effect increa...
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I've never known. Anyway, I've discovered a blogger I'd not read before - a stroppy femmo who's a great read - who seems to have similar views to mine . Go and have a good squiz around her site .
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Jacques is advising us that we should upgrade to the latest version of Wordpress. He may well be right, but Nicholas and I are nervous/remaining to be convinced. Apparently there are some potential security issues with the version we're currently running. Our concern is that j...
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John Cargher is one of a handful of people who have been part of my consciousness for as long as I can I remember, and who are still doing their thing -- at least, he'll be in this category until tomorrow. There won't be many of these great constants left after that: a quick m...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Anzac Day march Ken Parish indulges in some refuting of Albrechtsen and if nothing else...
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Love him or hate him . . . (when I grow up I want to be director of cliche management for Hill and Knowlton). Anyway John Quiggin has a characteristically good post about Paul Keating , contrasting the expression 'Howard haters' with 'Keating haters'. His point is that the wor...
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I was reading an honours thesis by Joel Ickiewicz and I thought his brief acknowledgements page was so cute I'd share it with other Troppodillians so, with Joel's agreement, it is below the fold and it has won Troppo's inaugural cutest acknowledgements page of the year. This e...
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Writing a post about a Janet Albrechtsen column is almost certainly an advanced symptom of insanity, ranking just behind hairy palms and checking to see if you have them. Nevertheless, her effort in yesterday's Oz about the alleged perils of an Australian charter of rights mer...
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Valid till 1 June Valid until Thursday, 1 May 2008 Borders Cashiers: For eligible book do the following: Ring item, select S1, highlight book, select S5, scan or enter coupon #, enter 25%, proceed. *Coupon offer applies to full priced non-fiction books only. "Great Price" stic...
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I've proposed a theory of political momentum on Troppo before - somewhere . . . don't ask me for the link (actually I've just thought of one ). But it goes like this. The really good politician is not focused on the next election, but rather trying to strategise a way of getti...
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Well he doesn't actually. I've just copied and pasted a post of his on his blog - below the fold. The contrasting characters (this is not just a matter of style) of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been prominently on display since the Pennsylvania results came in. Her ki...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Graham Young points out yet another pointless quick-fix by the government and then offe...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian If you imagined that concrete "big things" at tourist spots were a uniquely Australian...
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A whilc back 'principle based' regulation was all the rage. Outcomes based regulation is another catch cry. In an interesting paper Chris Berg of the IPA argues that the 'mega regulators' of Australia - the ACCC, APRA and ASIC - have now carved out for themselves such discreti...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian 2020 Roundup Is it too late for Joshua Gans to get a guernsey in the Missing Link Wrapu...
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Following my outlining of Web 2.0 ideas for the ABC on Counterpoint, innovator and entrepreneur Ralph McKay got in touch with me to tell me of his own efforts to develop online opinion markets. These are interesting because they're not principally prediction markets. They're d...
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That's David Marr's verdict on the national song, and he asserts that many of his fellow best and brightest agree: EXTENSIVE soundings among delegates confirm I was not the only one who suddenly realised on Saturday morning as I was singing Advance Australia Fair that among th...
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I'm reading one of the better Web 2.0 books around instructively and amusingly called Here comes everybody which Peter Gallagher told me today came from Finnigan's Wake. I thought I was terribly clever when I discovered this book on the net within a day or so of it having been...
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I didnt want to let the Summit pass completely without sharing a few thoughts about it from an overseas Australian. Australians at home may be sick of the saturation media coverage of the 2020 Summit, but for many overseas Aussies these are exciting times. I cant obviously spe...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Terry Sedgwick commits the ultimate act of Photoshop self-abuse 2020 Roundup Bernard Sl...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill Politics Australian Terry Sedgwick comes up with a strangely disturbing thought - the Bolter for Lord Mayor...
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The Fin asked me to write my summit idea up for them - so I did. 150 years after Adam Smith first expounded the miraculous way the markets invisible hand transforms private self interest into social prosperity, some economists argued that we could achieve the same result with...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian Andrew Leigh summarises some of his favourite results from an ANU-run Governance poll . dr. fa...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian How dumb is Liberal Frontbencher Christopher Pyne? Asked and answered at North Coast Voices ....
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian Jacques Chester has scathing words for the Government's mealy mouthed excuses for formalising...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian Australia is to get its first female governor general, with the announcement that Kylie Quenti...
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In an earlier blog, Mike Pepperday argued that equal opportunity programs enhance individual freedom - indeed that equality of opportunity (EP) is an essential pre-condition of effective choice and self-reliance. I instinctively agree with Mike. And I suspect most Australians...
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I don't know the ins and outs of gambling in Victoria. But I was amazed at the article by Stephen Mayne in Crikey! Victorian Premier John Brumby has acted to break the duopoly that holds licences to host poker machines in Victoria. Clubs will be able to bid for licences as wel...
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I read on that other (more illustrious) CT that Tom Lehrer turned 80 recently (on the 9th April). I guess most Troppo readers know him. I can't think of a greater talent for satirical music ever. Prodigious in quality rather than quantity - he performed 109 shows, and wrote 37...
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Ructions in Boganville: the first Camden protest, back in November A keen follower of events in Camden, I didn't overlook the news that the Camden/Macarthur Residents' Group, led by that great community bridge builder Emil Sremchevich, has announced plans to hold more protests...
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Yesterday, BG picked up one thread of the "mega blog discussion" kicked off by Don Arthur. I want to pick up another. In the discussion on Arthur's post, BG and I seemed to agree that, apart from a firm safety net which encouraged able-bodied people to work, the social policy...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian Gary Sauer-Thompson provides a health update on the Murray River. Darryl Mason discusses an un...
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Subject to my usual caveats , Kevin's next post on tagged money is below the fold. An efficient private/public transport market Over the last three weeks this series of posts have shown the utility of "tagging money" with information as a tool to help implement policy. My inte...
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In the recent mega blog discussion kicked off by Don Arthur, I ventured the opinion that "the truly remarkable thing is that the Gini coefficient of equivalised disposable income has only increased from 0.28 to 0.31 in the last 30 years of so." Given the underwhelming response...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian Pavlov's Cat demanded a photo of Nicholas, Ken and James in swimwear to balance the ledger aft...
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I'll be giving a seminar to the CIS tomorrow on Hayek and regulation. Somewhat to my surprise, The Australian asked me for an op ed, but then the editor got squeezed for space. As she wanted to run it on the day I gave the paper it got quite chopped about , though I hope the m...
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For better or worse, here are my answers to the two compulsory questions for those wishing to make it to the summit. No surprises for regular Troppo readers - I've learned the art of repetition. But they could have had any number of other ideas. A few ideas promised for Troppo...
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Swan Lake , so second hand, on TV, in Darwin, yet even still, there are tears rolling down my face as the final act resonates. From beginning to end this ballet is a grand romantic gesture reconfigured with Murphy's grand contemporary choreography. This interpretation dips its...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian Hmm. Can we engineer a feminism snark thread two days in a row, thereby consolidating ML's tit...
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I did not apply to participate in the 20/20 summit but I did submit a 500 word piece on employment policy. Although Club Troppo readers would have heard my views before, the submission is set out below. I also had an interesting disagreement with The Australian editorial write...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian This is an entry in a contest to match new products with old advertising visuals. Check out al...
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Ignominious isn't it? You get invited to the 2020 Summit as one of the (cough) 'best and brightest' and they ask you just a few questions, and the leave the hardest till last. What have you been wrong about in the last 10 years? I could say that I was wrong in expecting that m...
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Here is a book review that has recently been published in Policy Magazine . Book Review: Full disclosure: the Promise and Perils of Transparency, Cambridge University Press, New York. By Fung, Archon, Graham, Mary and Weil, David, 2007. Over seventy years ago Friedrich Hayek p...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian Saint just doesn't see the funny side of this unofficially sanctioned Toyota ad : In as much a...
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What shape is the income distribution of Andrew Leigh's dreams? Even he doesn't know. "I don’t have a strong sense of what the right level of inequality is", he writes . "Indeed, I'm not even sure I have the right intellectual framework for answering the question." The questio...
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BBC TV screened a debate yesterday on the future of old and new media. Panellists included Google founder Sergey Brin and Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein. I'll certainly be watching when the streaming video becomes available in the next day or two. It's a popular topic int...
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In writing this article , it occured to me that one way to describe my own approach to economics is the search for the $100 bill on the pavement. That is, if you can find ways of bringing new ideas into some well developed framework (well new-ish ideas or just ideas that are c...
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One of the best investments my wife and I ever made was $1,000 for a midwife for the delivery of our second child. For this we got a stream of advice and a few visits before the delivery and then she was with us throughout the delivery. The woman in question had been head nurs...
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Today's Herald reports that the NSW Treasury has done its own estimates of the costs of achieving various targets for carbon emissions. The NSW Treasurer, Michael Costa, said it would cost $430 billion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80 per cent as outlined by Ross...
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A truly lovely space non? As I've been thinking about all the exigencies of making 'continuous improvement' a feature of our regulatory culture and institutions, I read an intriguing and, in such circumstances inspiring essay by Glyn Davis (pdf), cleverly titled "A city of two...
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In all the relevant senses of the word. I've not said anything about the Summit here mainly because I don't think there's much to say about it until we see more of what it does and doesn't achieve. And even if it isn't a great success I can't see how it will be a big failure....
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Subject to my own reservations outlined in the introduction to Kevin's first guest post, here's his second. Improving the Health Industry Market Place by Kevin Cox The general theme in this set of blogs is how to overcome market failures or to create markets with tagged money...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian Brendan Nelson asks: " What is the suffering of the people who are evicted by banks, compared...
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I was delighted to hear Radio Eye's bio on the late and thoroughly great Campbell McComas . I first heard him in his prototypical role as the Cambridge Criminal Lawyer Granville Williams. A bootleg tape of a marvellous lecture he gave impersonating this fictitious person - the...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian To keep his hand in while he waits for the next election to bring on another season of bungled...
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Under John Howard, the Liberal Party embraced a form of big-spending conservative social democracy, says Andrew Norton . The most formidable opponents of limited government are conservatives. In a comment on Andrew's blog , Winton Bates wonders whether this might lead to a rea...
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I can't really blame Australian Young Labor for attempting to clamp its collective lips on the public tit in the wake of the Rudd government's accession to power. I don't even violently object to their proposal that students be allowed to add the cost of textbooks to their HEC...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian Andrew Bartlett reports on the Senate Inquiry into housing affordability : The first day of he...
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In a recent post I argued that "Over the very time we were clearing away the detritus of the various collectivist institutions we cobbled together under the name of the Australian Settlement, or ‘protection all round’, while we proceeded with economic reform by deregulating ma...
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It seemed like a reasonable enough idea. Responding to fears of a terrorist attack by ' dirty bomb ' or nuclear weapon , US Customs and Border Protection installed hundreds of radiation portal monitors at seaports, land border ports of entry and crossings across the United Sta...
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Quite a while ago, Kevin Cox approached me with an idea he had called 'energy rewards'. Kevin may wish to chime in on comments with an appropriate link to the best explanation of the idea. In any event it's a method of generating purpose specific permits or certificates which...
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, Gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian Mark Bahnisch tries to avoid taking an obvious approach to the 2020 summit . Robert Merkel sho...
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