Norman Lindsay probably didn’t waste too much time studying economics in his young turn-of-20th century days, as the ‘dismal science’ hadn’t yet occupied our collective imagination. Although he may have read something of Adam Smith, its erstwhile 18th century godfather, who gave economists lots to chew on for the next three hundred years; and his contemporary Keynes, formulating soon-to-be influential economic growth theories; or even [...]
Archive for the ‘Economy’ Category
The Magic Pudding
Posted in Culture, Economy, Editorial, Environment, Society, tagged dismal science, economic growth, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding on May 25, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Real World: Germany 20 v Australia 5
Posted in Economy, Editorial, Environment, Society, World, tagged ABC Radio 702 Rear Vision 'Germany and Renewable Energy', Beyond Zero Emissions, renewable energy, What Matters to Australians on May 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Just after Anzac Day is a good time to reflect on our collective failure to meet the challenge of altering Australia’s energy mix. We all know coal is plentiful in the wide brown (oh yeah!) land, and that our polluting power stations produce cheap electricity, but that’s just the problem: it pollutes, to use an old-fashioned word. And [...]
Germany in Europe: Win/Win or No Win?
Posted in Diplomacy, Economy, Politics, World, tagged European financial woes, Eurozone, German dominance on November 30, 2011 | 1 Comment »
So much learned commentary on Germany’s role in Europe’s financial woes, that the simple mind is definitely boggling. And it all sounds so convincing. The most predictable conspiracy theorists argue that Germany has finally achieved its WWII objectives by stealth and peaceful means – that is, the economic domination of Europe, aka the Fourth Reich. [...]
Getting Fracked
Posted in Economy, Editorial, Environment, tagged Apex Energy, Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association, Beyond Zero Emissions, coal seam gas, Dart Energy, fracking, Gasland, George Wilkenfeld, NSW Coal Seam Gas Enquiry, Sydney water catchment on October 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes you get a really disturbing feeling that our governments have stupidly declared war on the environment and the people who are an integral part of it, which in this case means not only farmers but all the rest of us who need food and fresh water. A new mining ‘gold rush’ is on for [...]
Parsing Pollution
Posted in Economy, Editorial, Environment, tagged carbon tax, Jessica Irvine, pollution abatement, pollution permits, SMH on September 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
We’ve probably all had that uncanny experience, while roaming and pillaging through this over-stuffed media landscape, of reading an article, essay, opinion piece which expresses almost exactly what we have to say on that subject. A satisfying frisson of solidarity sparks those lonely synpases. Such a moment happened to me recently with a column by Jessica Irvine (in SMH), which described simply and clearly how the [...]
Banana Bending
Posted in Economy, tagged Banana Index, Banana prices on September 23, 2011 | 3 Comments »
As elsewhere Down Under, denizens of Kookynie are inveterate banana munchers, or were, until Cyclone Yasi wiped out crops and sent prices stratospheric at $15+ per kg - making fresh meat cheaper. Our national favourite snack became an unaffordable habit. However hardcore banana-addicts have resorted to high-strength substitutes for their fix: packaged banana chips. But they are a mixed blessing, like methadone for heroin users. At $3.68 for 400g [...]
Governor Glenn Gorges
Posted in Economy, Editorial, Society, tagged executive salary excess, Governor Glenn Stephens, J Ralston Saul 'Voltaire's Bastards', Reserve Bank of Australia on September 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Not gorgeous! Reporting of our erstwhile Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stephens is often deferential, maybe because he pulls the big lever on interest rates. Executive salary feeding troughs are smaller for public servants, but there’s still plenty of room for serious porkish behaviour. Actually ‘gouges’ could also describe the Guv’s new improved salary - paid out of the public [...]
‘New Spirit of Reward’ at QF
Posted in Economy, Editorial, tagged Alan Joyce, executive remuneration, Geoff Dickson, New Spirit of Reward, Qantas on September 9, 2011 | 2 Comments »
The company annual report season always seems to reveal porkish behaviour around the executive feeding trough, which was last reported by KC in 2009. Star porkers back then included outgoing Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon, but his replacement Alan Joyce had to get by then on a measly $3.7m. After a lean year in 2010 with [...]
Bluescope Blues
Posted in Economy, tagged BHP Billiton, Bluescope Steel, buy Australian, Chinese steel, resource rent tax on August 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes joining the dots in our free-markets (aka free-for-all) world does not require those dismal science practitioners known as economists (mainly still peddling so-called neo-liberalism or similar). A little observation and common sense will do. Bluescope Steel has announced a year end loss of $118m and shedding 1000 jobs from its Australian steel-making operations, citing [...]
One-Told? Can’t Recall!
Posted in Economy, Politics, Society, tagged Graham Richardson, James Packer, Jodee Rich, Justice Robert Austin, Lachlan Murdoch, One-Tel on December 1, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Justice Robert Austin’s 3,000 page legal judgement of Jodee Rich’s role in the One-Tel telephony company failure incidentally offers fascinating insights into the workings of Australia’s finest business minds and commercial strategies. Rich’s actions as a company director have been exonerated, but others with names like Murdoch and Packer are still to face the liquidator’s more focussed legal challenge to [...]
