Club Troppo

Australia's unemployment rate is at 33 year lows. This achievement is far from unique. It is a global phenomenon and Australia has benefited from the world boom more than most because of the impact on our export prices. That said, it is quite possible that some of the Howard G...

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Guest Post by Dan Walsh of Kwoff.com.au. For some time I've straddled two digital worlds. My 'hi geek' dual monitor setup allows me to read my daily dose of Crikey on one screen and the constant stream of tech news from Digg.com on the other. One world is determined by an edit...

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I travelled overseas a while back. I was tasked with an important mission for private enterprise so I flew Business Class. Business Class Travel has a lot to offer the practiced observer of the human condition. Just arriving at the airport for example offers an appreciation of...

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I noticed a link at the bottom of a piece on Auden by John Clarke in an Age supplement which is a couple of weeks old but which I just read today. I figured his site must have been there for a while, but not so. It seems to have been launched on 17th October this year. Complet...

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A picture tells a thousand words (via Apathetic Sarah ) 1. News and Politics Stuff 2. Life and Other Serious Stuff 3. The Yartz 4. T.S.S 5. Mad, Bad, Sad and Glad We're running a day late again. My fault, but we'll still publish again late tomorrow (Friday). This edition compi...

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As a fictional character, I'm fascinated by people who don't exist . There are just so many of us -- fictional people , imaginary people , hypothetical people and people who will exist but don't exist yet . But despite our non-existence, we are able to generate facts about our...

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House prices in Melbourne and Sydney - particularly in better suburbs - have risen very fast in the last few months. At the same time, home lending is sharply down. As Peach business partner, financial e-newsletter The Sheet reports "The Australian Finance Groups mortgage inde...

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On a visit to an art gallery yesterday I was told why paintings of the same size are typically priced the same, even when the artist and the gallery think one is better than the other. Any guesses as to why she said this was? It made perfect sense in terms of 'behavioural econ...

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You get a lot from your parents. Money, 'human capital' as they call it these days. Language, political orientation (to a substantial extent). If your ideology is your 'values' then I'm sure that parents play a large part. But how public spirited are you? Turns out knowing how...

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Bicycles for carrying stuff Most Australians think of bicycles as children's toys or sporting equipment. The typical suburban bike shop is packed with full-suspension mountain bikes , lightweight road bikes and fat-tired retro cruisers . And as wonderful as these machines are,...

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This Krugman column reminded me of the strange role of lies in politics. With some they just roll along. Everyone knows them but they're not election issues. Then others become election issues. Read the Krugman column below the fold, but it put me in mind of a very strange int...

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I continue to be amazed at the way the market for computer laptops evolves. Around eight years ago I bought myself a fantastic little Sharp with an external CD drive which meant that since you don't use the CD drive much, you could cart this little beauty round in your briefca...

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1. News and Politics Stuff 2. Life and Other Serious Stuff 3. The Yartz 4. T.S.S 5. Mad, Bad, Sad and Glad This edition of Missing Link is a couple of days late, owing mostly to Ken Parish's broken Dell PC (don't buy one, their warranty service is truly appalling). It was comp...

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The week began with the combined forces of the Foam-O-Sphere directing their heavy artillery on a supposed weak spot in the hitherto impregnable defences of the Rudd campaign. Altitudinous egghead Peter Garrett, provided the foamers with their first big break when he neglected...

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I found this post from 2007 mysterious sitting deep in the bowels of the software on Club Troppo. I don't think it was published then - not that it's any great shakes. But it's published now. Tonight Alison Tate, the International Officer for the Australian Council of Trade Un...

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Oh, Darling... please don't ask.. it's too horrible! Here, for the record, are Troppo readers' election predictions from the last two editions of Missing Link. No more entries will be accepted unless they fall outside the current range, in which case they'll be accepted until...

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Recently, we had a policy discussion forum about the issue of whether Australia should follow most of the rest of the OECD and introduce the right to paid maternity leave. For the full slides, see here . During the discussion I introduced the topic of paid maternity in the con...

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From Crikey! (the figuring behind the blue line is set out here ).

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