Monthly Archives: March 2013

Public Private Partnerships 2.0

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Nicholas Gruen

Today’s column in the Age and SMH Public private partnerships (PPPs) haven’t been such a happy experiment. Using private money to build arterial roads just increases their cost because private capital requires much higher returns than government borrowing. But I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics and public policy, Innovation, IT and Internet, Web and Government 2.0 | 18 Comments

The future of the European Union?

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Paul Frijters

As a lifelong and warm supporter of the ideal of a United States of Europe (USE) stretching from the coast of Ireland to the Urals, I was interested to see the recent wrangling’s inside the EU about its future. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Impressions of Kolkata

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Paul Frijters

The smell of death, the river’s breath. The cones and arms of gods, the barks of thin grey dogs. Beggar guards that corner you underneath a spire, Niggards that tell you of child beggars for hire.   Students dreaming of … Continue reading →

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A new Cyprus deal and have the Russians been robbed after all?

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Paul Frijters

Word has just come in from Europe that there will in fact be a deal between the EU and Cyprus about keeping the banks in Cyprus alive. The basics of the deal are now that one of the two major … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

History’s damnation a Labor trait: Dennis Glover’s Friday AFR Column

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Nicholas Gruen

It takes a lot for a seasoned partisan pro like Dennis to react like this. It means he’s not ‘in the tent’ and that’s not much fun, especially if you still work for these guys on a freelance basis – … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Literature, Politics - national | 11 Comments

Guest Post by Mike Pepperday: Doing social science like natural science

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Nicholas Gruen

On a previous thread, my counter-intuitive claim that verbal definitions are superfluous to science survived objections. I have been wondering if some further unconventional notions would survive a Troppodile attack. Because natural science is effective, I suggested that we should … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Science, Society, Uncategorized | 44 Comments

Colour and favours on the bus? It matters if you’re black or white!

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Paul Frijters

Is there discrimination on colour in Queensland? In order to find out if black and Indian people are a discriminated ‘out group’ in Queensland, together with Redzo Mujcic I carried out a large-scale experiment involving bus drivers in Brisbane. We … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments