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Monthly Archives: November 2013
The demographic crunch is still coming
Last week the usually boring Australian Government Productivity Commission briefly made headlines. Immediately the vested interests came out finding everything wrong with the policy recommendations in the Commission’s report “An Ageing Australia: Preparing for the Future“: You can’t raise the … Continue reading
Legacy of Rudd v Gillard
There seems little doubt that the primary reason Labor lost the last election was voters’ disgust with the tiresome leadership struggle. This ever present theme distracted from any real debate (on either side of politics) about the big issues, about … Continue reading
Posted in politics and leadership
Tagged Gillard, government, inequality, leadership style, politics, Rudd, Tony Abbott
5 Comments
Inequality … the Pope weighs in …
The referendum in Switzerland I wrote about last week went down 65% to 35%. The Swiss decided that top salaries in a corporation should NOT be limited to 12 times bottom salaries. It probably failed because of the overreach of … Continue reading
Posted in inequality
Tagged elites, group think, inequality, Pope Francis, priorities
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Unintended consequences – Greece
The tabloid news cycle tends to be dominated by the latest house fire, car accident, murder, sex scandal, sports result, and so on. It’s all so predictable. Even the serious traditional news media tends to be dominated by:
Posted in inequality, tough times
Tagged austerity, bank behaviour, consequences, Goldman Sachs, government, Greece, politics
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Swiss fat cats
I have commented before about the interesting democratic process in Switzerland. If 100,000 people get activated about a single issue they can petition for a country wide referendum. This is a way better concept that having politicians argue over ridiculous … Continue reading
Posted in inequality
Tagged bank behaviour, elites, fat cat salaries, group think, inequality, investment banking, Wall Street
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The kids get it …
Deforestation accounts for about 20% of global emissions of carbon dioxide. So what do you make of this from the BBC: “Brazil says the rate of deforestation in the Amazon increased by 28% … after years of decline. … The provisional … Continue reading
Posted in climate change
Tagged Brazil, climate change, deforestation, forests, politics, rate of deforestation in the Amazon, Tony Abbott
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Delusional dictator
Now here’s something completely different. If this doesn’t make you shake your head in disbelief I’ll be surprised. We’ve all heard about the Pentagon. Built during the Second World War, it is the largest public administration building in the world. … Continue reading
Posted in why do people do what they do
Tagged delusion, government, Pentagon, public administration building
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Freelance work
Last week saw the listing on the ASX of Freelancer Ltd It caused some excitement in the business media because the 50 cents shares shot up to $2.60 when the shares first listed last Friday before settling back to $1.60 … Continue reading
Climate policy mandate?
One of the eternal frustrations of the way our democracy works is that at elections we get just one vote. We are somehow expected to synthesise down to one choice our opinions and decisions on many complex issues ranging from … Continue reading
Posted in climate change
Tagged carbon price, climate change, government, politics, priorities, Tony Abbott
2 Comments
Banks. Don’t you just love ’em?
Before 2008 there were five enormous investment banks on Wall Street. These were not banks with tellers and branches looking after ordinary people and businesses. These were the deal makers. As the financial crisis unfolded, first Bears Sterns got into … Continue reading
something 2 ponder 