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In his 2015 interviews with Kerry O’Brien, former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating describes being approached by Canadian newspaperman Conrad Black, who told him in 1992 that Kerry Packer had acquired 23.5 per cent of the Fairfax Media organisation, owners of the Sydney Morning Herald, despite being restricted by media ownership rules to 14.9 per […]
The international theological journal Concilium has recently published, open access, a special issue "Masculinities: Theological and religious challenges", tackling the old problem of the connections between religion, men and patriarchy. There's interesting material in it, even for the theologically challenged! Among other things discussions of sexual abuse in the church, Putin's regime in Russia, masculinity & race, clerical masculinities, and more. I wrote the lead article, about social-scientific approaches to the issue. You'll find it all here: https://concilium.hymnsam.co.uk/issues/20202-masculinities-theological-and-religious-challenges/.
Vitamin D and Covid 19 personal experiment
In a series of 2015 television interviews, veteran ABC journalist Kerry O’Brien probed former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating – who had always insisted he would never write an autobiography – on what made him and how he governed. Born in Darlinghurst in 1944 and growing up in Bankstown, he left school at 14 and […]
Modern money shows how wage values can drop below goods values
The MMT Balance Sheet View in a nutshell
The progressive economics community, in Canada and around the world, lost a wonderful colleague, comrade and friend with the passing of John Loxley on July 28, 2020. Here I would like to share some personal reflections on John’s impact on my life as a progressive economist, and the very rich legacy he has left our shared community. (I also commend [...]
Working at SCU back in 2007-8 was a quiet gig. I had plenty of time to mull over things. I would cycle to work in the morning and have my day’s work mostly done by smoko. In the …
This food timeline started as a way to explore the revolution in Australian food that has occurred during the baby-boomers’ lifetime, but has since expanded to include more about the previous decades (and century) as well. Also included are overseas events and trends that had an impact here. The entries are brief, but there are lots of links if you want more information.
In July 2020, the convenience store chain opened an 8sqm store on the 27th floor of a high-rise office building in Brisbane. The 7-Eleven mini store is cashless and cardless and only available to employees within the building. The concept is based on a trial store in 7-Eleven’s own headquarters in Melbourne. The Brisbane building […]
The MMT analysis shows that inflation is controlled by a buffer stock. That can either be an buffer stock of unemployed people, or a buffer stock of employed people. Here we explain why an employed buffer stock, the Job Guarantee, is superior.
There is a recent written attack on libraries that I find odd and somewhat dangerous– libraries overlap too much with new-book bookstores. At first I thought it was trolling, but I now believe it is sincere. More worrisome is that … Continue reading
DWCA Publishing is back in action, following some unfortunate COVID-19 delays, with Data Extract #246 shipping next week. This latest release kicks off the celebrations for the publication’s 40th anniversary. It was November 1980 when a two-page newsletter was sent to Australian fans, leading with the shocking headline “Tom Baker Quits!”. Not even called Data Extract yet, headlined instead simply as the Australasian Doctor Who Newsletter, none could have known it would still be going strong four decades later. In fact, creator Dallas Jones started the premier editorial with the words: “This will be my first and probably last editorial”.… Continue reading
And They’re Back! Shut down at the height of the pandemic in the UK, Big Finish have returned to shipping collector’s edition CDs and box sets to clear the backlog of orders. Big Finish warehouse staff returned to work on June 8 – with the company taking steps to protect workers including providing safety equipment and a regular schedule of deep cleaning. Big Finish company chairman Jason Haigh-Ellery thanked customers for their patience. “Our listeners have been extremely patient over the past three months, while our warehouse staff have been furloughed, and as we operated a digital-first release schedule,” he… Continue reading
Price competition breaks peer reviewed mainstream agent model
Hierarchical structure of banking as described by Modern Money Theory
Kudos to the Australian contingent getting this sketch on The Weekly. Can’t see the BBC doing something like this - either about MMT or a decent comedy show.
On July 21, the Alternative Federal Budget Recovery Plan was released. The document aims to provide public policy direction to Canada’s federal government, in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. I was author of the Recovery Plan’s chapter on affordable housing and homelessness, which can be accessed here.