Club Troppo

Take a look at the job advertisement below the fold . The pay is good, but not great by UK standards (though I guess you couldn't complain at the top of the scale). They do seem to have a rather comprehensive set of requirements for the right applicant. Anyway if you were thin...

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Billy Joel Masterclass Concert 2001 (Pt.2 of 12) Uploaded by denimel . - Watch more music videos, in HD! If you click through to the source, you'll find twelve of these segments from a 'master class' of 2001. And I'd never heard the song featured in this final segment. Billy J...

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Who doesn't like awards? When Alexander first went to school becoming Cool Kid of the Week was pretty much the major priority. After having earned the award a few times, resentment set in when Alex realised that the award seemed pretty randomly passed around and that in fact i...

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[caption id="" align="alignright" width="800" caption="Will Longstaff's thoroughly spooky and fabulous Menin Gate at Midnight. If you haven't seen it in the AWM, go now, right now!"] [/caption] A very balanced and interesting article on the subject, even if it could have been...

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White to play J Klinger vs Blatny 36. ? See game for solution. I really don't want to turn this into a chess blog. So this is overdoing it a bit. Then again, I've been surprised at the number of people I encounter who enjoy these posts, so I won't feel too bad. Anyway I enjoye...

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Amongst others, I recently argued that the Federal Government should pay its bills within 7 days rather than the 30 that they were speeded up to with much fanfare as part of our efforts in fighting the recession. I don't think there's been any progress on that at the Federal l...

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Famous for his swashbuckling attacks, Mikhail Tal was one of the most talented players never to really hold down the world championship. He won it and held it for just a year or so in 1960. From Wikipedia I learned this: In 1960, at the age of 23, Tal thoroughly defeated the r...

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Google docs is a Good Thing. It's not a great substitute for a rich client word processor or a spreadsheet, but both the word processing and spreadsheet parts of Google docs are great to have something simple in a cloud. Peach Home Loans and Lateral Economics operate from home...

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In New Matilda Ben Eltham asks "Yesterday's GDP figures show the Government's fiscal strategy has worked, writes Ben Eltham. So why isn't Labor saying so?" Well yes, they do show that they worked (like some of us commonsensically suggested they would) and Labor is saying so. WTF?

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Yum. My favourite. I just got sent this by email from in inimitable Tim Harkowitz. Others please feel free to add to Troppo's stock of Jewish jokes in comments. There is a very pious Jew named Goldberg who attends synagogue every Sabbath. Every Sabbath, he prays: God, I have b...

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Well that's an overstatement, but there's been a long standing idea - going back to before Adam Smith that there's something 'good' about "making things" to use some words that have suddenly become very popular. In reaction against this the economic establishment is of course...

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I have a credit card with a limit of just $500 for internet purchases and other risky transactions from the CBA. It is often in arrears and I don't bother paying it because I'd rather pay the usurious interest rate when the amount outstanding is $100 or whatever. So they somet...

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Shit Box Cardboard crapper Click to enlarge Little Jack - Blue Little Jack - Pink In Stock £14.99 Shit Box In Stock £15.99 Show prices in Euros and US Dollars Next Day Delivery is available. Order by 4pm > Poos. We all do them (except Her Maj, of course). The trouble is, dropp...

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The statement below appeared in the AFR today, and I've been travelling all day so hadn't had a chance to put it up. In Paul Krugmans words, right now, knowledge is our only defence against catastrophe. A natural reaction would be to retreat into timidity. But that would repea...

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From Usury Condemned (1643) by John Blaxton At a seminar yesterday the speaker described his project as one of discovering the conditions for an economy without interest on loans. In other words, what would the financial system of the ideal Islamic state be like? This raised a...

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I've been thinking for a while about retail and information flows. If sellers were performing their task in a socially efficient way, they would be conveying the best information they could to their customers. Of course retailers and marketers don't do that. They try to spin t...

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Someone asked me the other day for ten books on economics that they should read (not being an economist). I haven't given this a lot of thought, but here are some books - and some comments on them. I'm hoping the list can be filled out by other Troppodillians. John Kay, The Tr...

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Having just read this pussy footing review of this film, I am brought back to thinking about it, though not that much. I saw it last week in Sydney while killing some time before heading off to my hotel for the night. I was very keen to see it having seen it get five stars (th...

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By which I mean, one in which amazing, deep moves are made, and after a flurry of sacrifices, the king is slain, with each of its opponents' remaining pieces playing a role in dropping the final curtain. For those of you who care for such things, Enjoy!

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