As a summer exercise I've been thinking about places where more lotteries might be a good idea. By lotteries, I mean a decision maker selecting an option randomly, albeit perhaps from a selected pool, rather than using flawed criteria. After all, in a complex and uncertain wor...
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White to play B Kovanova vs N Pogonina 22. ? See game for solution. about our puzzles But you can look up the game, and the computer analysis on chessbomb if you're curious.
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Being in holiday mode, my brain is deeply immersed in trivial thoughts, not least who the Australian selectors could sensibly pick to begin the process of rebuilding a competitive cricket team. However an even more burning question is this: why are there so many cooking progra...
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When debating policy and strategy within firms for instance, the debate takes place as if the discourse will get us to truth or falsity. In fact our decision making is riven with biases, so an alternative to this would be to look for one's biases and to try to counteract them...
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Computers are very clever beasties - at least most of the time. Sadly their matches against each other are deadly dull. The games virtually never have strong strategic lines of thinking - which is the main thing that makes chess absorbing (for me anyway - a battle is waged: a...
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Banks privatise the gains they make and in times of crisis initially socialise their losses (amongst the private providers - so that larger more solvent banks mop up after smaller less solvent ones), and failing that us customers get the bill as taxpayers. Back in the days bef...
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It's a pity we lost Troppoarmadillo, not the blog so much (for ClubTroppo lives on) as it's archives. Anyway, I had occasion to look up the post and comments below, and they are safely encoded at archive.org, even if we don't have any backup of the blog archive itself. I don't...
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As readers may have noticed, I'm much of a one for the panto morality in which political leaders are urged to be 'leaders' at the expense of their own political viability. Yes, acts of political heroism occur. Some of them are even worthwhile, though they're mostly of little c...
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Kasparov v Anand 1990. No prizes for guessing who won. And while I'm about it, here's how to get yourself into the mother of all zugswangs.
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Why am I not surprised? An interesting new article in the Nov 2010 QJE Stock-Based Compensation and CEO (Dis)Incentives Efraim Benmelech, Eugene Kandel, Pietro Veronesi The use of stock-based compensation as a solution to agency problems between shareholders and managers has i...
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From the conclusion of huge survey of courts around the world. We present an analysis of legal procedures triggered by re- solving two speci?c disputes—the eviction of a nonpaying tenant and the collection of a bounced check—in 109 countries. The data come from detailed descri...
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Meet Joel Waldfogel. Joel published a now much quoted article on the deadweight loss of gift giving, the basic idea being that if I buy you a present I have to guess what you want. Since you'd be better at doing that than me, there's a loss of consumer satisfaction. Fair enoug...
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The other day I bought a hat. I had been intending to buy a hat for a while, but I bought this one because I happened to walk past it in the shopping centre I went to. I don't usually go to shopping centres (I don't drive much and I find them inconvenient and sterile), but thi...
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From McKinsey's . It would be similar here presumably.
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Once upon a time, masterclasses were things that were put on by people who were obviously masters at their trade. A masterclass was put on by someone whose technique everyone admired even if there might be inevitable disagreements about taste and artistry. World renowned music...
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Here is an interesting Aust Parliamentary Library write up of the law of rape in Sweden (HT: Paul Barratt) with reference to the current legal peregrinations of one Julian Assange. My inexpert take on the law of rape is that the ordeal to which women were subjected before the...
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I'm hunting round for a Canberra gerontologist for my 88 year old Mum. Any suggestions and reasons for those suggestions would be gratefully received. Very gratefully received.
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I've asked this question of people who know lots more than me about telecommunications economics. And they say 'double marginalisation'. Anyway, David Levine is a clever fellow and he's had a crack at answering this. It's an outrage of course. And is so egregious the Gupment s...
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Here's a proposal for another one. The governance of financial regulation: reform lessons from the recent crisis Date: 2010-12 By: Ross Levine URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:329&r=reg There was a systemic failure of financial regulation: senior policymakers repea...
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By now you've probably heard about social media and how it's making celebrities out of mild mannered public servants and chirpy journalists who think in 140 character bursts . Maybe you're wondering whether a witty and intelligent person like yourself could also become an inte...
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Adobe and me only barely get on. Their readers keep crashing. Anyway they've recently upgraded their reader and in chrome it displays pdf files very much as if they are html files - rather than bringing up the clunky old reader within the browser. All very nice. But there's a...
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In this week's Missing Link Friday -- a former Costello adviser compares Australia's tax and welfare system to a platypus (follow the links to find out why), Tyler Cowen starts a debate about inequality in America, bloggers worry about the demise of serious political journalis...
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ABC The Drum/Unleashed editor Jonathan Green a couple of days ago: Waiting until just after 3.30 this afternoon before fronting the media and addressing today's asylum seeker tragedy made Opposition spokesman Scott Morrison look the model of restraint. "A day of sadness as wor...
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For five years now (ages in blogosphere terms) Club Troppo and On Line Opinion have sponsored a showcase of Australian independent blogging, which we call Best Blog Posts of <year>’. With Christmas fast approaching, the time has come to launch ‘Best Blog Posts of 2010?. On Lin...
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Last of the year. We're going into recess until after New Year. BTW We'll be doing Best Blog Posts again in conjunction with Online Opinion. I'll post a more detailed notice later today. Sinclair Davidson on Oakeshott's peddling "rumour" that govt colluded in sinking Xmas Isla...
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During the Government 2.0 inquiry a Web 2.0 enthusiast in the Qld police force wrote me an email suggesting that life wasn't easy for web 2.0 inside his agency. I stayed in touch but wasn't really able to do much other than encourage in various ways. Anyway, he says that thing...
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A recent Op Ed originally published in the business pages of the Melbourne Age, 15th December 2010. The re-emergence of the mining boom, temporarily de-railed by the global financial crisis, as a key driver of Australia’s economic prospects has been accompanied by a revival of...
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF0USo9vaGw I've decided to start posting the Missing Link Daily Twitter production here as a daily digest. Note that I cover "alternative media" (non-MSM fairly loosely defined) as well as blogs. Feedback welcome. Anyway I'll be suspending it fo...
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiuQDyGrp-g Apparently thirty or more asylum seekers drowned as SIEV sinks under Christmas Island cliffs. It's bound to have huge domestic political ramifications. Andrew Bolt is already fulminating and demanding Gillard's resignation. He's an od...
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Yes folks, progress might be painfully slow, but we're gradually moving the idea of independent fiscal policy from "you dreamers just don't understand the real world" category to the "you've gotta get hip, you've gotta get real reform" category. The OECD has published another...
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Not so long ago economist Paul Frijters mused about drug legalisation here at Troppo. It seems that Paul is an international trendsetter. Now economist elder statesman Gary Becker and the world's most prolific judge/legal academic Richard Posner are musing on the same topic at...
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Nicholas Gruen posted on the weekend about a South Australian defamation matter called Manock v Channel Seven Adelaide Pty Ltd which has been going for almost 7 years and still hasn't even reached trial. Nicholas quite rightly cited the case as a good example of the deplorable...
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Fatuous Sydney 2UE radio reporter Latika M Bourke not only won the 2010 Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year award but has now been employed by the ABC as its Social Media Reporter . I've unwillingly been inflicted with Ms Bourke's vacuous style of "journalism" whil...
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American conservatives hate welfare. But under President Bush, they willingly expanded food stamps -- a program that hands out over than 64 billion of dollars worth of assistance a year to low-income Americans and legal immigrants. The reason? Many conservatives don't think th...
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT6n1S-xBhY&feature=player_embedded
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I guess the coming of Master Chef was 9 parts good and one part bad. Great that people got into cooking, but all that stuff about 'plating up' was a bit much for me. A nicely presented meal is nice of course, but 'plating up'? A tad overblown methinks. Anyway, I just thought I...
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In a piece of news some will regard as predictably disappointing, the Cancun Climate Conference has reached an agreement , but its targets are both non-binding and fairly modest (reputedly a [combined] reduction in emissions of 13-16% by 2020), and include both developed and d...
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Canberra Times readers were left to think up their own 5 deck headline for this story by AAP medical writer Danny Rose.
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Here is the first paragraph of a recent interlocutory judgement. Check out the dates. The judgement is dated 22nd November 2010. Six years and there's no sign of a trial. Not much more need be said really. I'd add that litigating defamation ought to be a relatively straightfor...
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This week at Missing Link Friday -- bloggers tangle with the Wikileaks story, Ad Astra expresses his disappointment in Tony Abbott, Mr Punch falls victim to political correctness and the War on Christmas continues. Tangling with the cables guy A lot of bloggers are writing abo...
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One of the more surprising newspaper stories of recent times was Peter Martin’s article of November 15 on OECD takes aim at Labor policies which quoted the OECD Economic Survey of Australia as saying that Australia’s unemployment benefits are too low. Along with a number of ot...
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8y-_vaf6iY&feature=player_embedded Current developments in e-books and e-readers may end up having dramatic effects on the mainstream newspaper industry, about whose future I've been musing in recent days . A significant part of the problems bei...
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Anyone looking for a link between my post earlier today on the future of Fairfax and Paul Frijter's two posts on the Wikileaks saga need go no further than a story just published on both Fairfax sites: Rudd's revenge on US Kevin Rudd retaliates after diplomatic revelations abo...
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As predicted just a few days ago , Queensland-boy Julian Assange is now in police custody and has been denied bail pending his extradition to Sweden to answer allegations of having had consensual sex without a condom. In Sweden, American prosecutors will no doubt try to have h...
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Crikey boss and former Fairfax editor Eric Beecher published a scathing opinion piece about his former employer in yesterday's newsletter, in the wake of the sudden departure of Fairfax CEO Brian McCarthy . Of course, as a direct Fairfax competitor, we should take Beecher's op...
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There are some common elements between my recent post , which suggested a new asylum seeker assessment regime to take the place of universal mandatory detention during assessment, and proposals outlined last week by the Coalition Immigration spokesperson Scott Morrison in an a...
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John Foster has asked that I post a link to a paper he's recently co-authored (pdf) arguing for a different carbon regulatory regime to promote carbon abatement. I'm travelling and unable to subject the paper to any analysis, but it looks interesting. I hope you'll check it ou...
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Some readers may have noticed from the "sticky" permanent post at the top of Troppo's front page that we've revived the old Missing Link feature in two separate forms: a weekly themed digest by Don Arthur; a daily Twitter-based service compiled mostly by me and delivered via N...
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It's quite obvious, and has been so for a while, that the Chinese currency, the yuan, is undervalued. This is obviously of consternation to the United States, whom would desire a depreciation in their currency against the yuan - the policy is called beggar thy neighbour for a...
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It was billed as a debate over the size of government . But within the first few minutes Congressman Paul Ryan had changed the subject. Focusing "just on size entirely misses the point", he said, "We should not be asking how big should our government be, we should be asking wh...
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In this week's Missing Link Friday -- a brilliant idea for reforming the education system, old people, advice about grey hair and the need for teeth 2.0. Skinner Box kids "I was just thinking about schooling and I had a most brilliant idea", writes Joseph Clark . "If students...
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An article by David Mallard at New Matilda reflects on some observations (canards?) by the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Judge (!!) about the allegedly malign influence of the Internet generally and social media in particular on the integrity of jury deliberati...
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Peter Timmins reviews the progress through the Senate (or rather lack of same) of a proposed limited "shield" law to protect the confidentiality of journalists' sources. As Peter noted, I gave evidence and made a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee on t...
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Today is the anniversary of the battle of the Eureka Stockade. This is not a much remembered date. In fact, it was only brought to my attention by a letter in the AFR bemoaning the lack of recognition. This letter was penned by a Joseph Toscano of the Anarchist Media Institute...
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Letter to the Editor NT News: I don’t hold any brief for the CLP, or Labor for that matter (although I did a long time ago). However I have strong moral objections when I see someone’s reputation trashed unfairly. That especially includes politicians, a human sub-species about...
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As I've said before , if you want to understand Hegel, for goodness sake don't read what he wrote. You've got to find another way in. So I'm pleased to say that Alan Saunders has featured Hegel in his latest two Philosophers' Zones . I've not yet listened to last week's one ,...
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This is an article of mine that was originally published in the Melbourne Age on 29th November 2010. Saturday’s election of a Coalition government is unlikely to have much impact on Victoria’s economic direction. As The Age’s economics editor Tim Colebatch noted last Friday, t...
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Well, they’ve done it again. Queensland-boy Julian Assange and his band of merry journalists and IT-nerds have flooded the internet once again with sensitive information that embarrasses several governments, most notably the US, by releasing the content of several hundred thou...
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I couldn't agree more with FOI expert Peter Timmins about the latest Wikileaks "disclosures". I have no idea whether Assange is a rapist or not, but he's certainly succeeded in setting the cause of public sector whistleblowing back by a decade or more. The documents so far dis...
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Saul's recent column in the Age - I'm responsible for the headline (NG). For a country which accounts for less than 0.25 per cent (that is, less than one four-hundredth) of the world economy, Ireland has attracted a disproportionately large share of world attention over the pa...
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