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John Menadue has had a long and distinguished career in both the public and private sectors. These days he’s an active blogger – holding and advocating strong views on a range of issues. In this conversation he discusses Australia in 2016 which he says is a far better place than the one he grew up Continue reading »

The 2020s was once described by former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd as a “decade of living dangerously”. He was talking about the bilateral tensions between the U.S. and China. I would suggest that it’s a dangerous decade in large part because the collective west, led by the neocon political elite in Washington, are experiencing Continue reading »

In Asian media this week: Debate gets serious about North Korea’s intentions. Plus: Another Thai progressive party beaten by the court system; Pakistan’s shameful history of removing PMs; India’s Hindu temple celebration will help government; HK’s security law at sprint stage; Interest surges in Oppenheimer’s devastation Over the past 10 days North Korea has launched Continue reading »

Onshore student visa policy gets relatively little attention as it deals with people who are already in Australia, but it is critical to how the overseas student program operates. The new migration strategy released late last year says the Government will: “restrict onshore visa hopping that undermines system integrity and drives ‘permanent temporariness’…the Government will Continue reading »

How the government’s tax changes plan will affect Lamborghini sales. What the CPI really means. Everything economists don’t know about productivity. The case for an Australian king. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Tax cuts Sound economics from tweaking an Continue reading »

With its decision to suspend or “pause” funding to the United Nation’s key organisation that is providing assistance to Gaza’s famished, desperate population, New Zealand could open itself up to a charge of participating in a genocide. I first read we had “suspended” assistance to UNRWA in the Times of Israel, the Jerusalem Post, the Continue reading »

President Biden is reportedly preparing to begin a new weeks-long bombing campaign in the middle east in retaliation for a drone attack which killed three US troops this past weekend. These strikes are expected to include Iranian targets, tempting the nightmare scenario of a full-blown war with Iran, despite the public acknowledgement that there’s no Continue reading »

Backed by real estate money, Gov. Kathy Hochul refused to make public the secret, problematic companies that own a wide swath of New York.

“The Messenger, a digital media company that launched less than a year ago, has shut down following multiple reports that it was set to do so.” — The Hill

Our new digital media platform is changing the way people consume content. We’re a one-stop-shop location for breaking news, long-form journalism, and in-depth art criticism. We’re also currently shutting down without any notice whatsoever.

We’re giving audiences a combination of bite-sized listicles and long-form interviews, all presented on a blank white screen that says “Page Not Found.”

We’re led by a dynamic team, including our editor-in-chief, who is bold and decisive and is currently hiding from federal agents in Belarus.

All your favorite journalists and commentators are hard at work in our Midtown Manhattan offices, getting to the bottom of hot-button issues like “Why don’t our keycards work?” and “What do you mean we’re not getting severance?”

Nobody on planet Earth has more chutzpah than former president Donald Trump. After claiming over and over again that the stock market would crash if Joe Biden became president, in light of the market reaching yet another high this week, he had the audacity to claim, in all caps no less, “THIS IS THE TRUMP STOCK MARKET BECAUSE MY POLLS AGAINST BIDEN ARE SO GOOD THAT INVESTORS ARE PROJECTING THAT I WILL WIN, AND THAT WILL DRIVE THE MARKET UP.” He always finds a way to blame others for his failures and take credit for others’ successes. And his followers never seem to notice how obviously dishonest he is about it. Joe Biden, on the other hand, is brushing off the stock market’s stellar performance even though he could take credit since every president is largely held responsible for economic conditions during their term, whether it’s fair or not. But unlike Trump he is required to act like a normal human being and the stock market isn’t really relevant to most people.

Buoyed by the staying support of American officials, Israeli forces have continued to commit atrocities in Gaza.

The post Israel Has Killed Nearly 900 Palestinians Since ICJ Order to Prevent Acts of Genocide appeared first on The Intercept.

Om jag ska plocka fram det som jag i efterhand har värdesatt mest från min ekonomiutbildning så var det kursen i ekonomisk historia … Framför allt så fick vi läsa boken ”Manias, Panics and Crashes: A history of Financial Crises” av Charles Kindleberger. Den gav ett mycket intresseväckande perspektiv på kapitalismen och den ekonomiska utvecklingen […]

The Romantic poets, writers, and philosophers of Western Europe — borne out of the mechanising cauldron of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries — were among the first critics of bourgeois modernity, the civilisation created by the triumph of capitalism. Romanticism — a “cultural movement” cutting across literature, philosophy, the arts, politics, religion, and history — […]

… is bad news for Biden, of course Cable news was on in the background Thursday night when, responding to a right-leaning critic of some Democratic policy or other, an on-air pundit doubted the critic could name three examples to support the claim. “Oh yeah? Name three,” we said in unison. (“Oh, yeah? Name five,” is a running joke around here.) It’s standard fare for politicians to complain about adversaries’ “failed policies” without naming a single one. It lets the public fill in the blanks with sins real or imagined. The behavior is so rote that reporters never challenge speakers to provide examples. In the Politico article cited in my post below, a Trump spokesperson, on cue, slammed Joe Biden for his “failed policies.” Ya mean, like this one? (CNBC): Job growth posted a surprise increase in January, demonstrating again that the U.S. labor market is solid and poised to support broader economic growth. Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 353,000 for the month, much better than the Dow Jones estimate for 185,000, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

The decision to axe thousands of jobs at Port Talbot steelworks is nothing short of industrial vandalism. It is a further hammer blow to an area already devastated by deindustrialisation.  Sadly, Cymru has suffered this faith before. The former coal mining valleys continue to suffer higher than average levels of unemployment and lower real incomes, […]

Joe’s from Scranton, remember? If anything, President Joe Biden has been too polite with Donald “91 Counts” Trump, indicted private citizen. . Gossip from Politico: President JOE BIDEN has a reputation for salty language behind closed doors. But it nearly slipped out in public during his speech at Valley Forge last month to mark the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Animated and angry, he derided DONALD TRUMP and his followers for drawing glee from political violence. “At his rally, he jokes about an intruder, whipped up by the Big Trump Lie, taking a hammer to Paul Pelosi’s skull,” Biden said. “And he thinks that’s funny,” the president continued. “He laughed about it. What a sick …” Biden let his voice trail off as the crowd cheered and chuckled. In private, he doesn’t stop short. The president has described Trump to longtime friends and close aides as a “sick fuck” who delights in others’ misfortunes, according to three people who have heard the president use the profane description.

A 2023 Column Contest grand-prize winner, Laurence Pevsner’s Sorry Not Sorry investigates why we’re sick of everyone apologizing all the time—and how the collapse of the public apology leaves little room for forgiveness and grace in our politics and culture.

Imagine, for a moment, a world where President Trump apologized for defaming E. Jean Carroll.

No, really, try to visualize him on Fox or Newsmax or in a grainy vertical video on Truth Social. See, in your mind’s eye, his sly grin transformed into sincere sorrow, while he says, “I am truly sorry to E. Jean Carroll, whom I raped many years ago and have defamed many times since then. I did something horrible back then and have only made it worse ever since. I know you may never forgive me, but I will regret what I have done to my dying day.”

The exercise I just asked of you is, of course, impossible. Trying to imagine Donald Trump apologizing sincerely is like asking you to picture the edge of the universe. You can describe it in theory, but it’s impossible for our puny minds to process.

Dear Mr. Driving Examiner in the Blue Ford Fiesta,

I’m Lily Brubaker’s dad. If you don’t remember, you failed her on her driving test yesterday, and I got really angry.

I’m sorry for jabbing my finger in your face like that. I shouldn’t have yelled at you or called your hat “dumb.” But I had no choice. Please let me explain.

When my daughter told me that you flunked her for “lurching” the car forward too quickly, I was so overwhelmed with relief, that I ran over to you to give you a big hug. But then I remembered that Lily was watching me, so I had to act like I was furious. Admittedly, I may have gone too far when I tossed your cowboy hat on the ground and stomped on it. (Sorry, didn’t realize it was made of straw and would crunch like that.)

You can’t imagine the stress I’ve been going through. It’s a well-known fact that a person’s brain isn’t fully developed until the age of twenty-five. I’ve been worried sick that Lily’s going to text or drive impaired and get in a crash. Teens have no impulse control, and that’s why I had to totally lose my shit on you.