Club Troppo

"The concept of utility in economics refers to the pleasure, or relief of pain, associated with the consumption of goods and services" writes economist John Quiggin . Another economist, Robert Frank, suggests that it is closer to the idea of satisfaction. In Luxury Fever he wr...

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How will Paul Samuelson be remembered? This is the positive side of the story, the glowing record of the Nobel Laureate and author of the most widely read textbook in modern times. History may be kind to Samuelson. He had the good fortune to surf three waves that carried all b...

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It seemed like a simple enough question. What do economists mean by 'utility'? But after scouring the literature I'm more confused than when I began. The Penguin Dictionary of Economics defines it as: "The pleasure or satisfaction derived by an individual from being in a parti...

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Kopenhagen is currently witnessing two comic relief shows. One is regularly seen in the amusement area known as Tivoli, and the other is the climate change conference. The core element of pure humour in the second circus is that the actions of many governments are diametricall...

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As usual I'm a year behind the publicity machine, so I missed the original reviews of this book , as well as the fanfare during the Sydney Writers' Festival, which the author Mark Rowlands attended. This post is for any reader who might have encountered The Philosopher and the...

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Here's yesterday's column in the Financial Review coinciding with the release of the Draft Report of the Government 2.0 Taskforce. The Fin's headline was "Web and open government a way to a better world". The expression Web 2.0 connotes the internet as a platform for collabora...

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Balmain is not just the city of basket weavers it is also a place to find thinking drinkers and binge thinkers. Put this in your list of favorites. Shaken and Stirred , the brainchild of Parnell McGuinness and Leonie Phillips, is a space for the free exchange of opinions witho...

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Every December since 2002 Sydney's Pinchgut Opera has produced an obscure baroque opera at the City Recital Hall. The company employs top-notch instrumentalists wth period instruments that produce an incredibly haunting and evocative blend of sounds; they gather outstanding so...

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Suppose you believed the world was getting warmer due to humanity's greenhouse gas emissions and you worried about it but you cant get yourself to believe that the 200-odd countries in the world are ever going to agree to drastically reduce their emissions via some joint schem...

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''Hang on, woah woah woah woah!" If you believe Paul Sheehan we can thank Alan Jones for the demise of Malcolm Turnbull and the derailment of the CPRS. Every time a Liberal backbencher is asked why he or she withdrew their support for Ian MacFarlane's deal, the answer is the s...

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For four years now (ages in blogosphere terms) Club Troppo and On Line Opinion have sponsored a showcase of Australian independent blogging, which we call Best Blog Posts of <year>'. With Christmas fast approaching, the time has come to launch 'Best Blog Posts of 09'. On Line...

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My particular problem at the moment is which chess clock app to download. There are oodles of them. I've also downloaded a business card reader, but where do I find out which of what is often many competing apps are the best ones?

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I've been reading RG's strange columns with increasing incredulity. About how raising interest rates will drive house prices up. Now he doesn't seem to understand that you can compensate someone for increased energyprices and they might still reduce their energy consumption (b...

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Mike Steketee was one of several commentators echoing Turnbull's point that the ETS is basically the policy that the Howard Government took to the 2007 election. He infers from this that the poor old Liberal Party has been captured by a rump of reactionaries who have taken adv...

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Steve Horwitz at The Austrian Economists is running a series of posts to show how the poor in the US have become better off over the last thirty years or so. This table shows how real wages have improved to shorten the time required to pay for some household goods. He notes th...

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Last week the Prime Minister made a plea to the House, for the members to vote in the national interest, not their party interest. Where are the members of the ALP who are voting in the national interest?

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I appreciate that this has been posted before and nobody has to read it again, it is just for the benefit of new people and those who like to be reminded of the achievements of this remarkable man. Barzun's work represents a major and pioneering contribution to cultural studie...

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It now looks as if Malcolm Turnbull is gone for all money as federal Liberal leader (a shame from my viewpoint). Meanwhile, Rudd Labor is ramping up the rhetoric hinting at a double dissolution election. But is that really likely? There are a couple of major factors suggesting...

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