Posts on sundry matters of life the universe and everything: Culture, Environment, Life, Politics & Government, Science, Social Science and Society, Technology etc.
Stuart Robert had to go. Ben Eltham goes through the detail and finds his defence “is somewhere between threadbare and farcical.” So Malcolm told him to resign, and he did.
So with Mal Brough and Jamie Briggs in the naughty corner, plus Warren Truss and Andrew Robb giving the game away, we now have five vacancies. Continue reading Saturday salon 13/2
New Hampshire told the political establishment they need to change or die.
American voters are grumpy, even angry with the politics that has been served up to them in recent years. Trump and Sanders prospered over the rest, who are seen as representing politics as they know it. Here are the results: Continue reading Poll stuff: New Hampshire edition
Last Thursday Andrew Robb and 11 other trade ministers signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, rejecting calls for an independent cost-benefit analysis after the World Bank estimated it could lift Australia’s economic output by just 0.7% by 2030.
You see, everyone knows that free trade is good for us, Labor agrees, it’s just the ignorant Greens, trade unions, green groups and lefty outfits like Getup that disagree.
Actually, as recorded in the AFR, the studies are all over the place. Continue reading Free trade or economic integration?
When Malcolm Turnbull was Minister for Communication he was often refreshingly honest about LNP policies he didn’t agree with, leading to an expectation that when he became PM policies would be modified. Now that politics is alive again after the summer torpor, several well-known commentators have taken a look at what the change to Turnbull means. Continue reading Turnbull: old policies immovable?
There’s been a fair bit of economic gloom lately, not shared by respected economics commentator Ross Gittins. When he got his knees back under his desk (look for the January 29 entry) he declared our economic prospects to be in pretty good shape. He reckons if you think you can learn anything from the nightly news, you’re a fool. Media organisations look for new ways of making us feel bad. Continue reading Saturday salon 6/2
Newspoll came out 53-47 in favour of the LNP, so support for Turnbull looks solid and enduring. Bill Shorten’s personal ratings were a smidgeon better but still disastrous at 57 points behind Turnbull. To make matters worse, internal ALP polling on Bill has been leaked. Continue reading Poll stuff 2/2
There is a new economic blockbuster out, The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War by Robert J. Gordon. In brief, his thesis is that 1870 to 1970 was a ‘special century’ of technological change yielding dynamic economic growth that transformed our lives. By contrast in America, nothing much has changed since then, growth has tapered right off and there is little prospect of significant change.
Is he right? Paul Krugman says, “My answer is a definite maybe.” Continue reading The end of economic growth?
We really didn’t need to see what Mitchell Pearce did with a dog on a couch. But we did, on the evening news, and it wasn’t pretty.
Peter FitzSimons raises some pertinent questions. Continue reading Saturday salon 30/1
“Playing and protesting”, that was the headline on the TV news as to how Australia spent its national day.
My brother and his wife hosted a street party where people hailed recently from seven different overseas countries. Yesterday one of my wife’s clients said she knew Aborigines who would just close their doors and cry. Continue reading Australia, a work in progress
In Goodbye Holocene, hello Anthropocene? I outlined the process being undertaken to consider whether the Holocene should give way to the Anthropocene. Now a few articles have appeared making the case.
Sam Wong in New Scientist give seven reasons: Continue reading The case for the Anthropocene
Scientists have discovered through gravitational effects on other bodies that a ninth planet almost certainly exists in our solar system. It is thought to be 10 times the mass of earth and takes 10,000 – 20,000 years to orbit the Sun.
Computer simulations suggest the ninth planet is located 20 times farther away from the Sun than Neptune. Continue reading Saturday salon 23/1
As far as I know Clive Palmer’s two main cash producing assets were Queensland Nickel and the Coolum Resort, known now mainly for the fibreglass dinosaurs he installed all over the place. Coolum is presently shut, and Queensland Nickel has gone into receivership. Terry Barnes thinks “Palmer and his political influence are going the way of the fibreglass dinosaurs inhabiting his defunct resort at Coolum.” Continue reading Will Clive Palmer and QNI go the way of the fibreglass dinosaurs?
