Category Archives: Economics and public policy

John Quiggin and the Overton Gradient

(Not to mention Overton’s Elephant and Overton’s Mouse) With inflation stuck at 4%, what a terrible problem that it will probably take a deliberately engineered recession to get it back into target. If only the optimal rate of inflation were … Continue reading

Posted in Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy | 3 Comments

Sleep promotion takes off globally

I recently published this musing in my Substack newsletter. And coming across a further free kick from the policy world — something that would have negative costs and do a lot of good — I thought I’d publish both. Think … Continue reading

Posted in Economics and public policy, Education, Innovation, Politics - national | Leave a comment

Figuring out the strange new rules of resource constraint

Just a decade ago, Australian labour was easy to find and infrastructure projects were often no-brainers. Now our economic times seem to have changed – and policymakers may need to adjust to a new set of rules. The world is … Continue reading

Posted in Economics and public policy, Employment, Immigration and refugees, Politics - national | 3 Comments

Democracy: doing it for ourselves

Above is the video of a presentation I made at NESTA in London on 15th November with discussants Claire Mellior and Martin Wolf. I reproduce (AI generated) timestamps in the shownotes of the video below. 00:00 – Introduction and Overview … Continue reading

Posted in Democracy, History, Innovation, Politics - international, Politics - national, Sortition and citizens’ juries | Leave a comment

Wellbeing: can we escape the iron law of business-as-usual?

I really enjoyed this week’s uncomfortable collision with reality with colleague Gene Tunny. We covered a lot of ground talking about the use and abuse of the wellbeing agenda. Where does it come from? Why is it taking off as … Continue reading

Posted in Economics and public policy | Leave a comment

How did the Chilean left crash their referendum?

I’ve been looking for an explainer of what’s been going on in Chile and, thanks to Brad Delong for pointing it out. Of particular interest was the way a government won 55 percent of the vote and then held a … Continue reading

Posted in Economics and public policy, Political theory, Politics - international | 6 Comments

AI: is it coming for us? (No) Is it a big deal (Yes)

I’ve started posting things here that I’m drafting for my weekend newsletter — which you can subscribe to here — so here’s another tidbit. This is an excellent podcast featuring an ‘industry expert’ and then someone who’s introduced as an … Continue reading

Posted in Best From Elsewhere, Economics and public policy | Leave a comment