Club Troppo

Amidst all the depressing events of last week's failed leadership coup in the Northern Territory, there was at least one redeeming feature, at least for constitutional lawyers. Adam Giles' refusal to resign as Chief Minister, despite losing the confidence of the majority of hi...

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I've occasionally raised the issue of the class people travel on planes on this blog - and business class as conspicuous consumption. Anyway, I have just been made aware that Yanis Varoufakis's shuttle diplomacy is being done economy class. Good on him. (I'm naturally disposed...

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I saw The Imitation Game last night and enjoyed it very much. Engaging and really well paced. Go see it if you can. Keira Knightley was a disappointment. Her fate is a little like Helena Bonham Carter's. Spectacular looking Young Thing HBC ended up parlaying her prim young ing...

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*First published as "Abolish NT self-government". Last section now significantly rewritten. Political chaos continues in the Northern Territory in the wake of last Monday’s failed leadership coup against incumbent Chief Minister Adam Giles. Today’s Northern Territory News repo...

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Well folks, you heard the news late last week . The Troppo Crikey Subscription is on again. I've negotiated a rock bottom deal for Troppodillians. Again. Frankly the people at PrivateMedia never had a chance. But this year it was embarrassing. In fact they rolled over and inst...

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NB This post makes extensive use of the footnote plugin. The footnote numbers are very small, but they are hyperlinks so you can jump to them by clicking. NBB The fact that I argue below that a major reason for the demise of the Newman government was the standard template oppo...

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https://youtu.be/Zw3XfwyWU14 (If this video doesn't work try this one ) When the French and Russian Revolutions occurred, the existing order asserted itself through the intervention of foreign nations. Recognising this, and decrying it is not to endorse either revolution, but...

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Yes folks it's on again. The Annual Crikey Group Subscription. It's from this modest beginning that we funded Troppo's now world renowned garage of vehicles from the famed "Dave Sorenson" Mercedes Benz Sports which seems to spend more time at the panel beaters than on the road...

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Domestic violence is constantly in the news these days which can lead to the impression that the problem is increasing. To the extent that scrutiny and public discussion shines light in dark places, we might have expected the real underlying rates to be tapering. So I was more...

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As readers will know, I've been a fan of the way in which the internet generates reputational information which greatly improves the efficiency of markets. Still it's surprising how tricky these things are, something I've been pondering while using Airbnb for quite a few stays...

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When The Australian published Gary Johns' opinion piece ' No contraception, no dole ' nobody should have been surprised by what happened next. On 7's Sunrise program commentators described Johns' proposal as "off the planet" and "outrageous and backwards" while One Nation foun...

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On any trip one takes in a bunch of movies, at least on the plane. I've seen two that I heartily recommend. Belle dramatises (meladramatises?) the true story of a girl who was the product of a British military seaman in the 18th century and a black west indian woman. Before he...

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I meant to put this up earlier, but it's sat in 'drafts' for a month or more. Now it can be a new year's present to yourself. If you missed it last year, make this Four Corners doco on transgender kids the first doco you watch this year. The kids, and one adult interviewed are...

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqoXrjQQ9x8 There comes a terrible moment to many souls when the great movements of the world, the larger destinies of mankind, which have lain aloof in newspapers and other neglected reading, enter like an earthquake into their own lives — wher...

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I have always assumed that the outrageous prices for global roaming on telcos is the problem of double marginalisation. Each of the monopolists takes their cut and here there's your domestic carrier and then the others in the other market. Perhaps there are some other carriers...

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It's the time of the mid-year Economic Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) and we're told that we're about 11 billion deeper in the red this financial year than we thought, with the treasurer blaming the dropping iron price and the reduced wage growth. I have gone over the MYEFO documents...

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[O]n the behavioral side, clearly people aren’t perfectly rational — but there are lots of ways to be slightly stupid, and it’s very hard to come up with a general theory about which of these ways they will choose in any given situation. Behavioral economics is a fine thing, b...

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Middle-East watchers have been surprised by the events in Syria and Egypt the last 2 years. The betting markets in 2011 and 2012 expected the collapse of the Syrian regime, but it didn’t happen. The West and most Al-Jazeera commentators thought the coup that deposed the Morsi-...

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In an outbreak of cross-pontification Tim Cook thinks that Facebook and Google customers should be pretty suspicious of them because they collect a lot of data. Not to be outdone, Mark Zuckerberg thinks that Apple should cut its prices so it doesn't make as much money. He does...

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[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="570"] Source: Urbanization and the Good News About World Poverty [/caption]

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