Club Troppo

Hillary is hopping into Obama any way she knows how. Jonathon Chait takes up the story. The morning after Tuesday's primaries, Hillary Clinton's campaign released a memo titled "The Path to the Presidency." I eagerly dug into the paper, figuring it would explain how Clinton wo...

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HT: Henry Ergas for the picture

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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 via Terry Sedgwick Pommygranate summarises former Treasury Secretary John Stone's arguments on why John Howard was Au...

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Watching The 7:30 Report last night, I found myself quickly checking the remote to make sure I hadn't accidentally switched over to A Current Affair or Today Tonight . The ABC's slant on a story about the "need" for enforced ISP filtering to protect the kiddies from porn was e...

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Picking up on Nicholas Gruens posting of 4 March on Bowles and Gintis essay ("Is equality passe?"), I notice that B and G point to opinion survey evidence that Americans, while hating welfare, support many redistribution measures which are consistent with reciprocity norms, in...

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Whats the difference between James Lovelock environmental scientist and inventor of the Gaia hypothesis, and Andrew Bolt Herald Sun columnist and inventor of such useful terms such as red mist, green gods and compassion industry? Well... less than you might think. James Lovelo...

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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 via Bastards Inc John Quiggin rejoices in the Federal Government's decision to buy water from irrigaters and give it...

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The Boston Review is a good thing. I found this article on Alexander Hamilton , which is a serious debunking job on the hagiographies of Alexander Hamilton. I'm not well read enough to arbitrate between this guy and those he's taking on, but despite the occasional intemperance...

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The architect Victor Gruen 'invented' the shopping mall. He was the first person to come up with and execute the idea of a hermetically sealed shopping area - something that dovetailed with the imperatives of property development, retailing, as well as ideas of femininity and...

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Paul Krugman's theory is that the Bush administration and the Replublican Party are so bad, so partisan, that the Democrats should be unafraid of a little populism of their own to knock them off. No objections there. They're a very special breed, US Republicans. But then they...

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The SMH which published an op ed of mine has just sent me their editorial ethics policy. I have no trouble agreeing to it. But I have some concerns about their journalists. This isn't a criticism of them. And it's not a criticism of the policy - but there is a bit of a disconn...

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From yesterday's Fin Many Australians are mesmerised by an inquiry into Wollongong City Council and some of its councillors and staff and developers. NSWs Independent Commission Against Corruption is unveiling a plot which links sex, bribes, blackmail, greed, abuse of office a...

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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 The Victorian Government's big new land release won't solve the housing crisis if people can't get there, argues Jere...

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In recent months, in newspaper articles and letters and in Club Troppo positings, I have been hammering the theme that (a) the short term inflation risk is largely cost push and only marginally driven by excess demand (as reflected in wages and profit margins) (b) the RBA and...

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"Is equality passé " by Bowles and Gintis is a terrific essay which I thoroughly recommend to all who've not read it. It's a much stronger foundation for what has often been the flailing around of the 'third way' than some of the more widely acknowledged high priests like the...

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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 tigtog believes that a Federal Government scheme for national registration of medical professionals will help to weed...

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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 Does D.S. stand for "diced and sliced" or ... ? Nicholas Gruen finds time off from zig-a-zig-ahhing to compare and co...

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" Now listen, you queer . Stop calling me a crypto Nazi or I'll sock you in your goddamn face and you'll stay plastered..." Everyone agreed that William F Buckley was good television. When the American Broadcasting Company were looking for a conservative commentator for the 19...

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I am a state in the US. A higher proportion of my economy is given over to research and development than any other comparable area. I am unlikely to be where you'd think. Which state am I? And what proportion of gross state product is given over to research and development?

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Henry Ergas is in my pantheon of 'most' Australian economists. Of the Australian economists I've known, Glenn Withers knows most about Australian (and other countries') public policy, John Quiggin is probably the cleverest and most academically and polemically productive, and...

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