Category Archives: Politics – international

The Jester As King

Posted on July 8, 2020 by Antonios Sarhanis

Welcome to Antonios Sarhani’s first post. I’ve got a brief post welcoming him aboard immediately above this post. Nicholas Gruen The ceremony and the circumlocutions of the kingly court is cut by the jester. As long as the jester commands … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics - international | 10 Comments

What kind of crowd are we now seeing? The 5 surprises in this pandemic.

Posted on June 17, 2020 by Paul Frijters

There are 5 aspects of the covid-19 pandemic I really did not see coming, all pointing to a phenomenon that European sociologists of a century ago spent their whole lives describing, coming up with theories about crowds and their behaviour … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, History, Life, Philosophy, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social, Society, Theatre | 117 Comments

A seminar/workshop on wellbeing cost-benefit analysis applied to covid

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Find below the video of a seminar for the Australian Institute for Progress done a few weeks ago detailing the basic cost-benefit view of the current pandemic. The slides of this presentation are here: Presentation CBA Covid May 2020_V2 Most … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Employment, Health, History, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social Policy, Society | 79 Comments

Covid strategies for Australia: herd immunity or quarantine land?

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Let’s talk about some of the covid policy options facing Australia in the coming months and years. It seems to me we can either grasp the nettle and accept we will get a wave of highly visible covid-19 deaths before … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Death and taxes, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Education, Employment, Health, History, Journalism, Libertarian Musings, Life, Politics - international, Politics - national | 16 Comments

On Corona/Covid-19, herd immunity and WELLBY tradeoffs: key predictions and numbers

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Paul Frijters

[in progress: will add more references, links and latest numbers when I get the time] In this note, I want to deal with three related issues: the main lessons on the corona virus from the reported deaths across countries with … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Cultural Critique, Death and taxes, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Education, Employment, Health, IT and Internet, Libertarian Musings, Life, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social, Social Policy, Society | 52 Comments

What should Australia do in the coming recession?

Posted on April 28, 2020 by Paul Frijters

There is one hell of a recession coming for Australia. Economic activity has already reduced by 20% and actual unemployment will probably peak near 20% too, and about a million businesses have already applied for some sort of assistance. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Death and taxes, Economics and public policy, Education, Employment, Health, Politics - international, Politics - national | 9 Comments

How the Corona narrative will flip: two predictions.

Posted on April 16, 2020 by Paul Frijters

My first prediction is an easy one: many countries are going to ease their restrictions on social isolation in the coming weeks, including many countries with an ongoing corona problem. They simply have to if they want to have any … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social Policy, Society, Uncategorized | 83 Comments