Club Troppo

(cross-posted at Core-econ) Whilst it is fairly clear that the current climate change policies of Australia and other countries will do next to nothing to avert climate change (see here for a latest update on the debate), there is a key element particular to Australia that has...

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Now that my days of writing and blogging are over, I am spending my time reading books. I have almost finished reading John Howard’s book on Lazarus Rising, which is easy to read and generally quite enjoyable (although at times self-righteous). One thing about the book struck...

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Krugman again : Think about what’s happening right now. We have a crisis in which the right is making insane demands, while the president and Democrats in Congress are bending over backward to be accommodating — offering plans that are all spending cuts and no taxes, plans tha...

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The right wing think tanks have been having a ball denouncing dreadful things like fiscal stimuli which saved a good hundred thousand odd jobs in Australia. Meanwhile New Matilda carries a story about life in Ladakh: Sun-drenched images of rural life in Ladakh in the 1970s whe...

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From the Atlantic Monthly . Paul Keating's line comes to mind. "Where do you people get off?"

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If it had happened in the US it is inconceivable that a great deal of the emphasis would not have been on Justice for the Killer. "We'll hunt him down . . . " Well no hunting down required in this case but you get my drift. I can't recall what we said about it in Bali, but we'...

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The COAG Reform Council wanted some lateral thinking done about cities - so who you gonna call? Being Dr Lateral can be a bit tedious from time to time. You know, spending all that time outside the square. What's wrong with being inside squares anyway? But like those birds ins...

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Around the blogosphere and the media people are trying to make sense of the bombing and massacre in Norway. At Larvatus Prodeo Mark Bahnisch offers some advice : I think there is a duty to analyse why these things happen, and why they are talked about in the way they are, but...

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When best selling German author Thilo Sarrazin arrives in Australia for the Centre for Independent Studies Big Ideas Forum his hosts will promote him as a courageous opponent of political correctness while his critics will denounce him as a racist. Sarrazin's 2010 book Deutsch...

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Don't post crap! Troppo readers were up in arms about Rafe Champion's post on the Monckton and Dennis climate change debate . Rafe wants to know "how the warming lobby and Greens managed to inflate a possible temperature increase of a degree or two over the next century into t...

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As ABC 7:30 highlighted last night , it appears that the Gillard government is about to formally sign the deal with Malaysia that will see boat-arriving asylum seekers returned to the back of the queue in that country without processing. Assuming that UNHCR accepts it (apparen...

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Fisking is "the practice of savaging an argument and scattering the tattered remnants to the four corners of the internet (named after Robert Fisk of The Independent)" who was a victim. A verbal equivalent of the process was demonstrated last night by Christopher Monckton. Per...

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Which isn't to complain. He gives a great speech. [ted id=1190]

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If anyone wants to come to an event put on by the Australian Business Foundation and Deloitte, on the new R&D Tax Credit - they can come along to an event in Melbourne this Friday. Details are below the fold. The new R&D: the future of innovation and development in Australian...

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Since some episodes are good and others bad, I could never see the point of being either a declared friend or enemy of Q&A. But the bad have so thoroughly outnumbered the good this year that I'm about ready to concede it's not worth watching. It hit rock bottom last night with...

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I don't know much about this picture except that it seems to be begging to have a caption competition about it. And here at Troppo, we're never afraid of a challenge. Nothing is too serious to trivialise. So please supply us with a caption. The winner of the comp will be flown...

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A major component of the government’s clean energy plan is a package of assistance measures to compensate households for higher prices. The government will provide assistance through increases in pensions, allowances and family payments, as well as through income tax cuts. Fro...

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At #76 on the Things Bogans Like list , McMansions are a symbol of the culture of overconsumption and a triumph of marketing over common sense. Built on the urban fringe, kilometers away from services and public transport, McMansion owners are doomed to spend hours in their ca...

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. . . [T]here has been, I have to admit, an element of comic relief — of the black-humor variety — in the spectacle of so many people who have been in denial suddenly waking up and smelling the crazy. A number of commentators seem shocked at how unreasonable Republicans are be...

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Disclaimer: This ended up roughly 4500 words longer than I expected when I sat down. A while ago, following the start of the Arab Spring, John Quiggin wrote a post declaring " Fukuyama, F*** Yeah ". Apart from showcasing an appreciation of both late 20th century political thou...

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