Club Troppo

Well you've seen me grizzle about Microsoft before now, and in particular Office 2007 including a debate with Joshua Gans on the subject . Well I've now taken the extra-ordinary step of uninstalling Word 2007. It was better than Word 2003 in lots of small ways, but the ribbon...

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When I first saw this portrait, I thought it was a damn good portrait and - though you could see it as unflattering - those narrow eyes, I didn't see it that way. The eyes could equally be visionary - scanning the horizon for those new vistas that George was going to take us t...

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Here are a couple of monuments , the first recently errected in Dublin, the second on the drawing boards. They're by the same architect. Where Melbourne got the angular yellow beams of Denton Corker Marshall, Dublin and soon Wales will have the gleaming spires of Ian Richie Ar...

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Jen's brother Stuart is a lifelong Hawthorn supporter. His wife Jo is an equally passionate Collingwood fan (there's no accounting for taste). Jo is 9 months pregnant with twins. They were due almost exactly today, but they hadn't turned so Jo was booked in for a caesarean nex...

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Courtesy Brad DeLong's site , packaged up understandably enough in Brad's Why Oh Why Series under the heading "Why Oh Why Does Tom Friedman Still Have a Job?"

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This article - now many years old - discloses that Peter Singer gives away one fifth of his income. That's a very very fine thing and a damn site better than me. According to his own calculations, which I have no reason to doubt, that means he's saved thousands of lives. Perha...

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Writing op eds you often wonder how the subbie will bugger up your meaning by putting a headline on your piece that effectively prejudges the way people will read what you say. Still Catherine Deveny has struck it lucky. The subbie has captured the essence of her writing and h...

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The Chinatown area of Cavenagh Street, Darwin just before World War II (This is the second in an intended series exploring Australian federalism (the first part is here ). In this part I test the proposals of those who think we would be best advised to abolish the existing Sta...

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I got this email from an old friend currently living overseas in response to the notes I posted on manufacturing. I haven't thought much about manufacturing. But I would start with trying to see what Australian people can offer others. Trade surely is more that ever the way of...

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Australian rugby guru Rod Macqueen, one of the architects of the Stellenbosch rules Missing Link arts editor and Sidelined sports pundit Amanda Rose habitually refers to rugby as "yawnion", and this commenter received short shrift from Chris Sheil for expressing similar sentim...

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A few hails and farewells to kick off today's issue of Missing Link. Condolences to the family of Charles Murton, erudite proprietor of Diogenes' Lamp . Charles died after a lengthy battle with cancer, and will be remembered for his astute engagement with all comers across the...

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Last night on the 7:30 report Mr. Howard gave us the truth. We know this because he said so several times. He levelled with the Australian people last night. Its a new tactic to seize the initiative. The Honest John tactic. The question is will it work? In a way its refreshing...

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Because I managed to say some things in the interview of the report on Regulation and Innovation more compellingly than had been said in the report (pdf) or in the op ed of the report , I was about to try to hunt someone down in India to transcribe the relevant part of the pro...

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For the record - over the fold. Crikey asked me to edit some notes of a keynote speech I gave at Kevin Rudds Manufacturing Roundtable which I posted the night before on Club Troppo. In addition to the micro-economic agenda I quoted yesterday, I raised some macro-economic and t...

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The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades by Nathan Nunn Abstract: Can part of Africa's current underdevelopment be explained by its slave trades? To explore this question, I use data from shipping records and historical documents reporting slave ethnicities to construct...

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Martin Feldstein wants to cut US interest rates by one percent. I agree with him for all the reasons that he puts. And disagree with the opponents of a rate cut for the main reason he does. The idea of a 'Greenspan put' is pretty silly when the put, or the implicit guarantee,...

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Well, two afternoons after actually. This post is here as a matter of record as it's largely a repetition of a story posted here on Sunday . Anyway, Crikey asked me to write the notes up and what with their word limit it's serialised into two parts - the first of which appears...

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During yesterday's Constitutional Law lecture, I noticed that one of my students was quite distracted and continually fiddling with his mobile phone. I wasn't entirely surprised, because I was talking about section 109 inconsistency, which isn't the world's most rivetting topi...

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A befriended blogger made a careless comment recently that American newspapers (with the New York Times on top) were 'unquestionably the best in the world'. Being from European stock, and hence growing up with the equally silly idea that everything European is better than anyt...

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