Club Troppo

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="262" caption="Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos displays the Kindle 2 e-book reader at an event Monday."] [/caption]" They don't have the right to read a book out loud. That's an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law " Paul Aiken, ex...

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I often wondered why The Tragedy of the Commons was such a recent article. After all, it's not as if the idea is especially difficult or new. Sometimes an obvious idea does the rounds and gets put in in asides and so on but someone has the chutzpah to write it up as their own...

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The most recent column in the Fin. We wont criticise Kevin Rudd for his Christmas break, but it was ironic that on the first day after his months leave he could only say, The government stands ready to take whatever action is necessary in the future. This must have been import...

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STOP PRESS: $55 last day! Offer closes Tuesday 24th February 2007 (told you!) Now Closed. Hi all, It's on again this year - with our group subscription running out, it's time to resubscribe - if you want to. The amount you'll pay is a function of how many takers we have. Here'...

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Right now we're trying to reduce savings (increase consumption) in the short term before doing the opposite in the long term. So far so good. How might one use the tools of 'behavioural economics' to help. Here are a few ideas - none of which will surprise readers of this blog...

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I should emphasize at the outset that my participation in this Inquiry is strictly in a personal capacity and that the views I express here should not be interpreted as being those of my employer or any of its executives. In the last few months it has become increasingly appar...

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An interesting debate has kicked off on executive remuneration in Economists View It is not yet clear how Obamas proposals on executive remuneration will pan out. It may include a $500,000 cap on salaries for financial institutions receiving aid - subject to a reporting mechan...

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Today's Column from the Fin: In a stand-up routine, Woody Allen is about to be lynched by the Ku Klux Klan. His life passes before his eyes. The childhood in Kansas, swimming, fishing, eating cat-fish with gingham clad sister Mary-Lou. Does this sound like Woodys childhood to...

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Adam Smith had this idea that 'commercial society' made a lot of things better, particularly improving the politics and mores of earlier social structures. As I outlined i n a post long ago , he was particularly keen on the way in which the nascent capitalism of his day distri...

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A really first class post from John Quiggin.

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Brad has a category 'utter stupidity' on his blog. If any of us were as smart as Brad, we might chance one ourselves on Troppo.

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Geraldine Doogue had an interesting interview yesterday with Walter Russell Mead ( a Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations). He's recently written an essay for the Foreign Affairs journal entitled: "Change They Can Believe In: To Make Israel Safe, Give Palestinians Their...

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Lateral Economics is conducting a survey of bloggers and other sites that are trying to encourage debate in the oz-blogosphere and more generally. Im afraid I can't tell you the client it's confidential. However Im hoping that anyone who does or has run a blog, or been involve...

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" The American economy is on the edge of catastrophe, and much of the Republican Party is trying to push it over that edge." Paul Krugman. The rest of his impassioned column below the fold. Of course Australia's economy is not in the kind of dire straights the US one is in (at...

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John Clarke, living national treasure, is on ABC radio national again. On poetica this weekend, or downloadable here .

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