Category Archives: Economics and public policy

Universal basic income: notes of an agnostic

Posted on June 22, 2022 by Nicholas Gruen

Michael Haines, who has previously posted on Troppo, is campaigning for universal income funded from the adoption of sovereign money — which would yield a large amount of seigniorage like revenue to government. Geoff Croker is campaigning for something similar … Continue reading →

Posted in Democracy, Economics and public policy | 7 Comments

How Economics Found Science …and Lost its Subject Matter

Posted on May 17, 2022 by Nicholas Gruen

Re-evaluating the “equality-efficiency” trade-off Herewith an article that was published by INET a couple of weeks ago, and Evonomics more recently. I’m republishing it here as it’s my ‘blog of record’ as it were, but also because it enables me … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, Methodology, Philosophy | 2 Comments

Labor Undermining Labour?

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Antonios Sarhanis

I’m a Labor voter and I’ll do as I’ve always done at the upcoming election by voting Labor again. Nonetheless… I think there are at least three Labor Party policy pillars that made sense once upon a time but now … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics and public policy, Politics - national | 10 Comments

How Shorism might win Australia’s federal election

Posted on April 5, 2022 by David Walker

Looking at Australian politics right now, one thing stands out: the federal ALP has become a little Shorist. I don’t know how long it will last, or whether it’s even a conscious strategy. But it’s definitely happening.  What does “Shorist” … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics and public policy, Education, Employment, Inequality, Politics - national, Social Policy | Tagged , | 11 Comments

Metaphysical Animals: a feminist masterpiece?

Posted on March 25, 2022 by Nicholas Gruen

‘A wonderful, important and also a necessary book, which sets the records straight… and celebrates a remarkable quartet of women thinkers’  Peter Conradi I’ve previously mentioned the two books on the Golden Age of female philosophy at Oxford and how … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Innovation, Isegoria, Philosophy | 2 Comments

Theorisation: Reinventing Orwell and smothering him in verbiage

Posted on March 7, 2022 by Nicholas Gruen

I’ve spoken about what I call “strategisation” before. This involves dressing something up as particularly strategically apposite. The example I gave is this assertion: Services will continue to make a growing contribution to economic activity in Australia. It is therefore … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, Philosophy, Political theory | 1 Comment

Will you join me in the alt-centre? 

Posted on March 6, 2022 by Nicholas Gruen

It’s a funny thing with names. Names given in jest and contempt are adopted by their targets. After over a decade of marketing consulting services as “Lateral Economics”, I decided it wasn’t so much a brand as a method and … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Philosophy, Political theory | 10 Comments