Club Troppo

Some things seem to need no explanation, but are not obvious at all on reflection and, if you wonder about them, suggest something of interest about the economic system. Consider the question of why the informal economy is so small, leading to the question of how much more pro...

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From the State Government that brings car racing to our most idyllic park, turns nature reserves over to shooters, refuses to cap political donations, reneges on public transport promises faster than it makes them, and philanders while its health system burns, it's nice to see...

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Bobby Cheng is pretty good on the Melbourne primary schools under 12 chess circuit. In fact he's pretty good on the Melbourne under 14, under 16 and a few other circuits. With a rating of 2,200 not far from international mastership he went off to the world championships in Tur...

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[caption id="attachment_9707" align="alignleft" width="484" caption="Pope's Odyssey as it appears on your Kindle"] [/caption] I wrote previously about two of my sub $300 IT purchases. The Livescribe continues to amaze and delight - amazed that it's not simply taken over univer...

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Magnus Carlsen is not only now the highest rated player in the world, but like a lot of chess geniuses seems to be a cut above the others when it comes to lightning. Have a look at him taking apart a couple of super-grandmasters. If you enjoy chess, it's fun to watch him slowl...

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Julia Gillard has announced that the new national website for schools will include average NAPLAN scores. Principals hate the idea, as do some education academics . The Minister has responded to the criticisms by being uncharacteristically evasive . She invokes 'transparency',...

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Richard Ronald Brautigam:'What's really remarkable is not so much that he could compose something like this, but that he could play it.' I've only just managed to see In Search of Beethoven , and it's probably nearing the end of its inevitably short season. But it's still show...

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[caption id="attachment_9654" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="This coupon available for books about rabbits (and for other books)"] [/caption]

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Although labour demand is not quite keeping up with jobs, the labour market remains broadly stable. This is hardly surprising, given the strong fiscal and monetary stimulus. This is now expected to decrease gradually in the next few months. Yet we are still left with very high...

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The High Court has ruled that people serving alcohol are not at risk of of massive claims for damages if a drinker comes to grief on the way home. One would hope that commonsense will prevail and folk will conform with responsible serving guidelines. Some of the claims were a...

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Peter Coleman described the rise and fall of the Congress for Cultural Freedom which started at one of the darkest moments of the Cold War. In the Preface to The Liberal Conspiracy: The Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Struggle for the Mind of Postwar Europe he wrote In J...

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This is best viewed with its pair . Twenty years on, where do East Germans stand in economic terms? The Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft has reportedly published a study estimating that GDP per capita has risen in the east from 30 percent of that in the west in 1991 to 70 per...

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As we celebrate the Fall of the Wall 20 years ago we should remember the effort that was put in by the friends of freedom in the West during the Cold War. I am thinking of the worldwide network of groups which resisted the propaganda efforts of the communists and their fellow...

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Interesting development! Last week a UK High Court gave the green light for a green activist to sue his employer, who had sacked him for refusing to do an errand because it conflicted with his green beliefs. For intellectual ballast, the judge quoted no less or, should I say,...

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George Soros picked up the idea of the open society from Karl Popper at the London School of Economics and he spent a great deal of money promoting the idea through Open Society Institutes in Eastern Europe. Lately he has moved on to target market fundamantalism as the great t...

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The chances of the forthcoming UN Climate Change Conference actually reaching a workable global agreement to reduce greenhouse emissions sufficiently to make a major impact on warming are remote. In an article at Online Opinion , three academics from the Centre for Global Stud...

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In case anyone's interested, here's an interview I did on the Government 2.0 front. Just checking out the 'embedded' media player. Let me know if it all works.

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For a bit of commentary, explanation and another very different closeup of the crystalline surface, click here .

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With Rudd Labor's sudden slump in opinion polls this morning, I can't help saying "I told you so" (in my recent post about asylum seeker policy ): Indonesia is doing all that it can to stem the flow, but with partial success at best. It is unlikely that action by Indonesia alo...

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