Why governments should not insure against disasters
I admire SA independent senator Nick Xenophon hugely. He's a rare combination of brains, enterprise and principle. I knew him at Adelaide University; he had all...
Glenn Stevens suggests we think about managing the boom
RBA governor Glenn Stevens always goes to the big issues. His latest speech notes that we are becoming more dependent on China and India buying...
The broadband cargo cult, dissected
Occasionally a report comes along which should give people a whole new way of looking at a public policy debate. A new report on universal...
Why Obama excites
If you want to know why Senator Barack Obama excites so many US Democrats, take a look at the video below. Speaking in late 2002...
Militant Islam: Less soldiering, more policing
Back in 2002, then aspiring US presidential candidate John Kerry began arguing that "the war on terror is far less of a military operation and...
Iraq: Too late to fix
Back in late 2005, a brilliant young US moderate-left commentator named Matthew Yglesias and his colleague Sam Rosenfeld penned a prescient essay for The American...
Iraq: When will responsibility bite?
George Bush's announcement of extra troops for Iraq is significant not for its announcements of actions, but for its official admission that Iraq is a...