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I was pleased to notice that my enthusiasm for Chinese Fa piao is taken up in a post at Marginal Revolution. Of course the streetwise Aussi economist got there first! I emphasised the nature of this unique Chinese mechanism as a tax avoidance device whereas Marginal Revolution see not collecting the Fa Piao as a [...] I heard this on the radio while driving through heavy traffic the other day. My younger daughter identified it for me -its “Somebody that you used to know” by an Aussi-Belgium singer called Gotye and accompanied by the georgeous New Zealand singer-songwriter Kimbra. I think they are pretty good – its certainly a catchy tune. I [...] A formidable interview with Tony Jones days before Hitchens’ death. A tribute from his brother. A brief tribute from Christian debating opponent Tony Blair. The Borowitz report here. Huddles with Advisors About Possible Affair
CONCORD, NH (The Borowitz Report)– Troubled by his fading poll numbers, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is considering a bold strategy to reboot his Presidential campaign: engaging in a high-profile extramarital affair.At a press conference in Concord, New Hampshire today Mr. Romney confirmed that he [...] The MDB Draft plan was released today. It is complicated and long – I have done little more than glance through it. The length and complexity has not stopped irrigators and conservationists from attacking it from different perspectives. Extra water diverted to the environment to flush out the system and provide therapeutic flooding is [...] Speechless after watching this. We are selling these guys nuclear fuels. HT Marginal Revolution Australia will have a carbon tax of $23 per tonne from July 2012. Thereafter the price will be linked to prices in international carbon markets since Australian firms will be able to buy half their permits in these markets. Setting a fixed tax rate now means that carbon prices in Australia are 2-3 times those [...] This article – extracted from New Scientist – provides a valuable summary of the anti-science attitudes of US Republicans. Its the usual stuff – climate change delusionism, giving equal status to Biblical and evolutionary theories of the origin of the human species, diseases caused by immunisations and so on. This type of irrational credulity created [...] Tony Abbott’s idiot populism can undo his apparently election-winning political ascendency. It is obvious from the opinion polls that the Julia Gillard Labor Government is ‘on the nose’ and faces the real likelihood of electoral defeat at the next election. But a surprising feature of the switch away from Labor is the continuing unpopularity of [...] Joe Stiglitz makes the sensible point that the “1%” society America has become cannot be sustainably successful. The prosperity of the 1% depends on the prosperity of the 99%. Gross inequality is also economically inefficient and distorts a country’s politics. Quote “It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. [...] I am not on top of the relevant literature but wonder whether high frequency trading is partly responsible for the extraordinary volatility of global stock markets in recent times. In some cases firms are transmitting thousands of stock market orders per second. 2 out of 3 stock market trades in the US are of this [...] The ragbags of the American right concede they are anti-science ninnies but seem to be claiming some kind of justification because Democrats also have some anti-science attitudes. Its a truly bizarre argument pursued at home here by one of the least interesting representatives of the right in Australia, Rafe. You do feel sorry for this [...] Why do many of us feel so sad about the passing of Steve Jobs? He was a remarkably successful entrepreneur and a visionary in terms of product design but he is scarcely a Thomas Edison. I don’t have a particularly clear answer to this question. I am a recent convert to the world of MAC. [...] I have been attending the Tax Forum in Canberra for the past two days. I made a submission to this Forum on congestion pricing on roads and I made a presentation based on this submission in the Environmental and Social Taxes session. To be honest this was the only session at the Forum where I [...] It’s here. Of course these positive stories are being outweighed in financial markets by strong fears about Europian financial stability. Certainly the evidence does not support fears of a second recession. Investment in construction is showing strong positive growth. In Bhutan, as Peter Singer points out, maximising happiness is not just an empty slogan – it is a serious objective. There are conceptual issues of course – whether you aggregate net sensory pleasures or life achievements – but the somewhat vague idea is being increasingly well articulated and pursued by public policies. I found Liao Yiwu’s “The Corpse Walker” to be one of the most fascinating books I have recently read on China. Yiwu chronicles the lives of China’s underclass – people traffickers, rightists during the Cultural Revolution, those who ‘walked’ corpses through China’s countryside. There are also real life stories of monks and other groups who [...] Stephen King – the non-Australian SK – writes that low interest rates suggest longer- term insolvencies in ‘developed’ economies. They do not provide the basis for fiscal borrowings but arise because of a flight from any assets which can depreciate. I heard reference on the TV news tonight that Qantas has introduced a policy of not seating men next to unaccompanied kids on its plane services. My understanding is that this policy has been around for many years so I am unsure why the issue has risen again now. I think it is a discriminatory [...] Over the past 5 years US bankers have been paid $2.2 trillion. That’s roughly twice Australia’s GDP. It is an astounding amount that was not invested in productive assets but spent on fairly useless business executives who drove their firms – and the world economy – to the point of collapse. This makes the rewards [...] |
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