In noting that debate about Australia Day began early this year, Henry Reynolds has made a very strong case for not celebrating on that day. That case is well made, however, the simple problem remains that 26 January 1788 remains the single most significant day in Australian history. It is the day from which everything Continue reading »
history
Brian Latham looks at the very different attitudes to migration in Southern Africa compared to the UK
Jimmy Carter called the US ‘the most warlike nation in the history of the world,’ and said that ‘peaceful’ China is ‘ahead of us in almost every way’. Japan bashing, depicting atrocities committed by the Japanese empire, serves to further shift public opinion to support Australia’s military alliance with the US, preparing for war against Continue reading »
With Japan just having taken over the presidency of the Group of 7 at the beginning of 2023, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has wound up a six-day visit to Britain, France, Italy, Canada and the United States. One of his main aims was to gain support for the rearmament of Japan, justifying it on the Continue reading »
The longer we look at this traditional music, the more we see that its very malleability is its strength and its challenge, writes John Mitchinson
Things are going to break and central banks are going to have to respond, but the mental frame that most people will be using is not well suited for understanding how the world now works
Why does the apparently prescient and correct “key currency” view remain an embattled minority view?
In his June 1945 Congressional testimony in opposition to the new Bretton Woods institutions, John H. Williams outlined his own “key currency” view of the postwar international monetary system, which he explicitly tagged as quite definitely a “minority” view (1947, p. 266). Money is inherently hierarchical, not multilateral, and the central monetary problem for postwar reconstruction was to stabilize the dollar-sterling exchange rate as the core of a new global dollar system, which other currencies could join as they were able.
Anzac Parade in Canberra is Australia’s major ceremonial avenue, a grand boulevard commemorating (heroic) service and sacrifice. Yet at least one of its monuments represents war crimes, racism, torture and murder. Few nations are as strident about their military history as Australia. There is no more admired symbol in our national psyche than that of Continue reading »
