When reform stops so does Australia; or why Quiggin and Tanner are wrong. STONE the crows! No wonder the Gillard Government can’t be bothered with economic reform - it does not work and the media has neither inclination nor ability to address anything other than ephemera. According to John Quiggin and Lindsay Tanner, that is. [...]
Taxing the rich until their PAYE pips squeak is pointless STONE the crows! The Treasurer is talking spending cuts in a tough budget because energy exports are not generating revenue the way they did in the Howard years.[i] It sounds improbable. The Reserve Bank index of commodity prices rose 30 per cent in Australian dollar [...]
Rent seeking resurgent STONE the crows! What’s next on the policy agenda, White Australia? Perhaps not, but other elements of the bipartisan economic agenda that shaped Australia for the first 80 years of federation are back in fashion. The old arbitration system, now badged as fair work, is re-regulating employment. We are now hearing protectionist [...]
STONE the crows! Julia Gillard is giving another big speech on Wednesday night. Rather than a door stop or collection of Q&A adlibs, it’s a dead-set oration, to The Sydney Institute, no less. Smart woman Ms Gillard, (and a bit of respect please, could everybody stop addressing her as Julia?). A formal address is the [...]
Buying cheap and selling dear STONE the crows! When it comes to property why do we expect to succeed on the swings and make a motza on the roundabouts but still want the kids to be able to buy flash digs cheap? Ask any Deborah Cameron listener (although they generally don’t wait to be asked) [...]
STONE the crows! The digital pirates have put Proudon back in business. The nineteenth century anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon argued property is robbery, by which he meant state sanctioned title over assets, rather than stuff we use in our houses or to make a quid.[i] Today it seems just about everybody agrees with him, what with [...]
Who gets to cook the magic carbon pudding? STONE the crows! A magic carbon pudding is on the policy menu! But what the crows want to know is who will do the cooking. Ross Garnaut released the new episode of his climate change version of Blue Hills last week.[i] The sixth in the series, it [...]
STONE the crows! If Charlie Sheen lived in Australia the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme would pay for his barmy blockers, just like the government pays for everybody else’s meds. The PBS cost Canberra $8.3 billion in 2009-10 and the drug companies are happy to keep coming up with more medicines. While underlying outlays were largely stable [...]
We are in peril of Pauline Stone the crows! People are taking political pot shots at Tony Windsor over his role in the carbon reduction policy debate; some even talk of upping the ante with ammunition.[i] Violent threats against MPs are unacceptable affronts to democracy – who gets to decide that their opinion is so [...]
Count ideas not the numbers Stone the crows! What a bunch of brawling badgers! The crows refer of course to a blue in Wisconsin, the “badger state”, where the Republican governor is in a stoush with the teachers union. Ostensibly the argument is over employment conditions, the state is broke and Governor Scott Walker wants [...]
