Issue 16 of Cosmic Masque is now available to download - please click the link opposite
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The Australian Council of Trade Unions is sponsoring a series of webinars for union members, delegates, officials, and leaders on the current crisis in the cost of living in Australia. The surge in inflation since economic re-opening after COVID lockdowns has obviously intensified that crisis. But the seeds for it were planted long ago: by a decade of historically weak wage growth, a speculative property price bubble, and a systematic efforts to weaken collective bargaining and unionisation.
The post Webinar on Wages, Prices, and Power appeared first on The Australia Institute.
The logical outcome of the UK’s current political situation is for a large section of Conservative Party MP’s to defect to Keir Starmer’s well right of centre, pro-Brexit, New Labour Party. Every now and then a number of Westminster MPs change party, to long term political effect. In 1886 The Liberal Unionists, opposed to Gladstone’s […]
The post The Great Crossing appeared first on Craig Murray.
An obsession with economic growth is driving us towards catastrophe. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 12th October 2022 As a founder member of the “Anti-Growth Coalition”, I’m delighted to discover how fast it has, ahem, been growing. From small beginnings on the political margins, our grouping, according to the prime minister, now ranges […]
In the past twelve months low-income earners have seen their real wages fall faster than ever before, their mortgage interest rates rise faster than ever before and, here’s the real kicker: their average tax rates actually increase. To be clear, someone working on the minimum wage has seen the amount of tax they pay rise
The post Even if you were a neoclassical ideolouge, Stage 3 ain’t it appeared first on The Australia Institute.
The ABS have released their second tranche of data from the 2021 Census. Glenn walks us through what’s in the second-release datasets, and the national stories they tell us. The 2021 Census second-release datasets...
The post Connections appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
New research published by the Australia Institute, in partnership with RMIT, shows there is legal ambiguity surrounding the non-consensual removal of a condom during sex, also known as stealthing, that could be fixed through nationally consistent laws. The report Stealthing: Legislating for Change finds that while an overwhelming majority of Australians support criminalisation, many Australians do not
The post Push for Nationally Consistent Laws to Prevent Stealthing: Research Report appeared first on The Australia Institute.
In this strategic analysis, Institute President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Senior Scholar Gennaro Zezza, and Research Associate Nikolaos Rodousakis discuss the medium-term prospects for the Greek economy in a time of increasing uncertainty-due to the geopolitical turbulence emanating from the Ukraine-Russian conflict, with its impact on the cost of energy, as well as the increase in international prices of some commodities.
Looking up, as have been most indicators since the rate hikes, which continue to add serious amounts of interest income paid by government (deficit spending) to the economy: Calculated Risk: Leading Index for Commercial Real Estate “Rises” in September (calculatedriskblog.com) Still high enough for the Fed to keep raising rates, etc: Higher than expected: New […]
In the papers of economist Charles Kindleberger, Perry Mehrling found notes on the paper that won Ben Bernanke his Nobel Prize.
In the 1983 paper cited as the basis for Bernanke’s Nobel award, the first footnote states: “I have received useful comments from too many people to list here by name, but I am grateful to each of them.” One of those unnamed commenters was Charles P. Kindleberger, who taught at MIT full-time until mandatory retirement in 1976 and then half-time for another five years. Bernanke himself earned his MIT Ph.D. in 1979, whereupon he shifted to Stanford as Assistant Professor. Thus it was natural for him to send his paper to Kindleberger for comment, and perhaps also natural for Kindleberger to respond.
The fact that the Friede-Gard Prize is awarded in Trier, the town where Karl Marx was born, is entirely coincidental: it just so happens that the creators of the Prize (which began in 2021) live near Trier. Nonetheless, it’s a fitting coincidence for me to receive the prize here, since my academic career began with … Continue reading "Receiving the Friede-Gard Prize in Marx’s home town"
The private sector may slightly underestimate the short-term impact of monetary policy surprises on inflation but may predict longer-term effects fairly well.
John Lewis Cryptoassets and the crypto ecosystem as a whole has to face many of the same challenges as conventional assets and the regular financial system do. The same classic problems which are staple of economics textbooks (and history books), such as maturity mismatch, liquidity shortages, credibility, and collateral feedback loops. But whereas the conventional … Continue reading Old problems with new assets: some of crypto’s challenges look strangely familiar
The legal right of secession of states, outside of a situation of “classic” colonial occupation, has developed enormously in the last thirty odd years. South Sudan, Montenegro, East Timor, Eritrea, North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine are […]
The post The White Flag Hearing appeared first on Craig Murray.
As pressure builds for the Albanese government to scrap the promised Stage Three tax cuts, discussion has shifted around who would lose out. The Australian said it would mean “2.5 million middle income Australians will pay thousands of dollars in additional tax,” but describes middle income Australians as individuals earning between $120,000 and $160,000 a
The post Where’s the middle (income)? appeared first on The Australia Institute.
The Election Deniers on the Ballot: What You Need to Know
Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans allies who tried to overturn the 2020 election results are now just one step away from taking control of the election process itself.
BUT we can stop them if we turn out in full force for November’s midterms.
If we don’t stop them from taking over the election process, we can kiss what’s left of our democracy goodbye.
Here is a clip from one of our live songwriting sessions on our Twitch channel. We just turn on the camera and try out ideas and see where they take us.
Here is a clip from one of those sessions we posted to our YouTube Channel.
Play it like The Strokes or Journey (Live Stream Clip)
Don't play it like you would instinctively want to play it
I wrote a piano line that I liked, but I didn't want it to just be a slow mellow thing.
I thought it could be something more.
So I asked that band to play something with this piano part and ignore any urge to play it as a slow song.
