Record high temperatures in Melbourne: Open heat-avoidance thread
It’s the dogs I feel sorry for. They’ve been lying around the less hot spots in the house – there are no cool spots – and looking at us accusingly. What is the matter with you O omnipotent humans? Why [...]
How might the Senate tinker with the stimulus package?
Simon Jackman has the good oil on what Bob Brown and Steve Fielding are putting on the table as Senate deliberations on Kevin Rudd’s fiscal stimulus continue. Both are emphasising the unemployed and job creation (with Brown arguing for green [...]
Saturday Salon
An open thread, where at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
Free insulation and emissions
On the policy merits of the stimulus package away from the nonsense coming out of Rudd and Turnbull, there have been some interesting points raised. John Quiggin was perhaps the first to note, and the Australia Institute has expanded on [...]
The Invisible (Moral) Hand
Well, I think for quite some time [Theory of Moral Sentiments] has not attracted due attention or attention that it deserves. I think it is as important as The Wealth of Nations. He made a reference to the invisible hand [...]
I defy you to not at least contemplate trying #15
25 Things I Didn’t Want to Know About You By Claire Suddath Thursday, Feb. 05, 2009 (TIME) Honestly, the way some journos react to Facebook memes is a dead giveaway that they’ve only just joined the digital social revolution. Memes [...]
A new Keynes for new times?
I was having a chat with a friend over dinner last night, and we were talking about transformational politics. The missing ingredient in Kevin Rudd’s discussion of social democracy appears to be any sense that there’s some goal ahead, other [...]
The Liberal bottom line
Since everyone else is, I thought I might add in my $950 two cents’ worth into the great stimulus package debate. I’m also in the camp of thinking Malcolm’s nuts, and while some have been decrying those who discuss the [...]
Shorter Masters of the Universe: GFC not our fault
[Via The Interpreter] Italian journalist Federico Fubini went to Davos and surveyed finance market wizards and banker types about the origins of the Global Financial Crisis. The result? They’re not taking much responsibility, and were much comforted by the “Black [...]
Stereotypes aren't always completely unfounded
Debra Mayrhofer at New Matilda examines the media reporting of a recent death of a cyclist on Sydney’s M7 motorway, and is disturbed by the premise underlying much of it: The segment briefly covered the crash and concluded by pointing [...]
Blindsided?
By Mark Bahnisch on February 7, 2009
[Via Gary Sauer-Thompson] Dennis Shanahan in The Australian claims that the Liberal decision to vote against the stimulus package: has blind-sided the Government over the $42 billion stimulus package… left Kevin Rudd politically flat-footed and frustrated…and given the Opposition an [...]
Posted in Economics, Media | Tagged ALP, bernard keane, Coalition, Crikey, deficit, Dennis Shanahan, fiscal stimulus, global financial crisis, GOP, Kevin Rudd, Labor, Liberal Party, Malcolm Turnbull, News Limited commentators, press gallery, Rudd government, stimulus package, tax cuts, The Australian | 31 Responses