Club Troppo

A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, James Farrell, Gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint. Politics Australian RWDB JF Beck thinks this Guardian photo is typically misleading greenie propaga...

Continue reading →

Steve Randy Waldman's blog interfluidity is a good read. He's a knowledgeable fellow with a penchant for trying to work things out from first principles. He's good to read on what's wrong with hedge funds and much else besides in modern financial markets. Here's a parable of h...

Continue reading →

A fascinating review of Craig Venter's autobiography . Naturally I'm sympathetic to this guy who looks like he values scientific creativity and achievement above other things, and will improvise through the miasma of institutions that exist to further science to get what he's...

Continue reading →

I'm pleased to see that the apparent suicide death of the hideously disfigured and terminally ill Chantal Sebire seems to have reopened the debate about euthanasia in Europe. Pity the same isn't true here in Australia. Apparently her pain couldn't be reduced even with morphine...

Continue reading →

This post began as a comment on my previous Obama post which consisted of a trivial post by me followed by some great content from commenters. I was thanking Tim Lambert for his comments and the links he provided - to Charles Murray of all people, but it all got away from me s...

Continue reading →

Amazing what creatures of habit we are, and how powerful curiosity is. I was on Brad DeLong's Feedblitz email drip for a year or so and typically checked out the daily email's contents, and then followed up if there were items of interest. I took myself off it and didn't repla...

Continue reading →

James Farrell needs to take a break from Missing Link editing for a few months for work reasons. As a result, we need a replacement member of the Missing Link team, to cover his half of the "lefty" blogs. That involves reviewing articles from around 30 or so left-leaning blogs...

Continue reading →

If you haven't seen or read Obama's speech on the Reverend White, you should. Or if you're stretched for time, Clive Crook edits it down to the best bits - which are still pretty extensive. He really isn't just a pretty face.

Continue reading →

I missed this program on the ABC but I recommend it highly. Paul Woodley is a guy with a good grasp of economic theory who's spent a lot of time in the markets and has come to the simple conclusion that financial markets seem to be dysfunctional. He's presumably made a packet...

Continue reading →

Everyone knows by the now that Bear Stearns the venerable, bulge bracket, but not white shoe Wall Street firm basically went under earlier this week. For those who prefer a more redistribution leaning economic system you love this story. When Wall Street goes into redistributi...

Continue reading →

There's been something of a libertarian theme at Club Troppo this week, what with Fred Argy's rather unlikely characterisation of Kevin Rudd as a libertarian on any topic other than shameless self-promotion, and my snarky comment about libertarians' self-confessed lack of attr...

Continue reading →

Read this piece and cry. Steketee

Continue reading →

A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, James Farrell, Gilmae, Darlene Taylor and Saint. Politics Australian Andrew Bartlett puts the case for a "peoples' boycott" of the Beijing Olympics . It's a brave stance for a politician...

Continue reading →

A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, James Farrell, Gilmae, Darlene Taylor and Saint. Politics Australian John Quiggin responds to Ross Gittins' accusation that he and Nicholas Gruen didn't address the 'real reasons' for th...

Continue reading →

Prompted by the exchange between Gruen and Gittins on NSW privatisation, I asked myself a much broader and pertinent question: what should be the proper role of government in the allocation of capital in Australia? At the two ideological extremes, the answer is simple. The int...

Continue reading →

A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, James Farrell, Gilmae, Darlene Taylor and Saint. Politics Australian Gam and Currency Lad both posted fitting tributes on the finding of the wreck of HMAS Sydney after 67 years. CL, howe...

Continue reading →

Jonathan Powell, Tony Blairs former chief of staff, has given his first interview about life inside No.10 during the Blair government. For those unfamiliar with him, Powell (pronounced Pole) was amongst the former PMs longest standing consiglieres; he was there the day Blair e...

Continue reading →

The Love Gods are back after a much-needed rest to recharge their advisory potency. Replete with psychic Viagra they're ready again to hop into another romantically beset reader. This week we've raided the mailbag of Murdoch lovelorn columnist Kate de Brito, whose brother Sam...

Continue reading →

A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, James Farrell, Gilmae, Darlene Taylor and Saint. Politics Australian From Students for a Free Tibet - also see this CNN video Andrew Bartlett invites submissions to a Senate committee he...

Continue reading →

After Ross Gittins' recent generosity to me , I can't complain. But this column is a bit - um . . . simplistic. He begins thusly. YOU don't have to be very bright to pick holes in the arguments Morris Iemma and Michael Costa have been using to sell their plan to privatise elec...

Continue reading →