Club Troppo

On today's RN News, the ABC reported that Lindsay Tanner had told the Insiders program that Kevin Rudd would lead the ALP to the next election. This was one of the six most important things to tell us at 10.00 am this morning. Why is that news? What was he supposed to say? "Ac...

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The case for more independent fiscal policy has always struck me as bleedingly obvious. I still think it is kind of inevitable but we're certainly taking our time. The adventures of the last decade both here and in most other developed countries are a nice illustration of why...

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Several nations -- including Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, and Colombia -- have used subsidized programs to get personal computers into poor households. Governments have promulgated such programs despite little credible evidence that the technology improves children's academic perfor...

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According to Will Wilkinson , "the U.S. welfare system is very generous". And compared to the welfare states of most African countries, that's obviously true. But Wilkinson is comparing the US to the Nordic nations. So what's going on? It all starts with a Freakonomics post by...

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Last week, the Minerals Council Australia (MCA) came up with a KPMG report (download here ) that suggested that the newly introduced Resource Super-Profit Tax (RSPT) would lead to many future mining projects being non-viable. This is of course a cornerstone in their scare-camp...

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This film won both the Palme D'Or and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film last year. Paul Martin endorsed it a couple of months ago, but since it's approaching the end of its run in Australian cinemas, I thought one last recommendation wouldn't hurt. I find myself in comple...

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Here are the first three dot points in the UK Coalition's new agreed policy document (pdf) on "Business". We will cut red tape by introducing a ‘one-in, one-out’ rule whereby no new regulation is brought in without other regulation being cut by a greater amount. We will end th...

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Paul Bloom raises a fascinating question in his recent essay The Pleasures of Imagination : Do we enjoy imaginative experiences because at some level we don't distinguish them from real ones? Bloom's question makes me wonder about the way politicians harness the imaginative te...

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Arthur C Brooks launches a creative defence of small government in the National Review . He argues that people value money because it is a symbol of earned success. And because it is earned success rather than money that makes people happy, redistributing income from the rich...

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Andrew Leigh has posted on what a good idea it would be to do some random tax audits. "Don't they already do this", I hear you cry. No they don't, not in Australia. As part of our 'we know what we're doing' approach, the ATO pursues people whom it's modelling, and perhaps its...

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Well, after a week and a half of our HIV progression comp we beat the best available model of HIV progression. Now the best entry in our Eurovision comp picked the winner. That's not so amazing because it was a pretty one sided affair. What was worthy of note is that Kaggle 's...

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Yes folks. I've mentioned this before on Troppo. Having read of this bout , I can see how it could be quite exciting. Strange business. Play through the game here and the commentary has a little spice to it - as the two players get up from the board and try to beat each other...

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On a recent visit to Washington, or 'D.C.' as our aficionados (and efficionados) call it, I had my iPhone stolen. So I need a new smart phone. Here are my impressions of the market and I'd be happy to be corrected and/or have my knowledge extended with a view to deciding what...

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Sinclair Davidson has extracted a concession from David Gruen at the Treasury regarding some purported evidence for the efficacy of recent fiscal policy, that appeared in the Budget Papers. But before we consider the specifics, it's worth thinking through how one would discove...

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The recent signings of Rugby League players to the expansion clubs of the AFL has me thinking about the history of football (used here generically for all codes) and just what makes Aussie Rules distinctive in the current world. Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson has a i...

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Well, the Israelis have been at it again. Boarding a humanitarian flotilla that was bringing humanitarian supplies to a besieged population on the Gaza strip, the Israeli military shot at least 9 people dead and once again displayed a worrying degree of disdain for UN resoluti...

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