The moon waxes and wanes, the tide ebbs and flows, empires come and go but some empires come more than once. This is, once again, China’s time. While there have been moves to prevent this from occurring, one recent event proves they are unsuccessful. In August 2022, Biden signed Executive Order 14080 ostensibly aimed to Continue reading »
Economy
The real American terror is not that the Chinese economy will grow bigger than the American economy – if it is not already – but that the Chinese mixed economy model will prove superior to the rampant free-market, greed model US billionaires and their peddlers promote. Western journalists and commentators have long struggled to explain Continue reading »
It is time for government to get the suits back under control and manage the economy for the benefit of us all. When my brain was switching to idle on my recent break, I thought of two central questions. First, for whose benefit is the economy being run – a handful of company executives at Continue reading »
In May 1971, I published a full-page letter in The Australian addressed ‘To Those Who Shape Australia’s Destiny’. It was signed by 730 Australian scientists including Sir Mark Oliphant and Sir Macfarlane Burnett. The letter concluded with these words: “For biological and ecological reasons civilisation based on the present western technology cannot survive much longer. Continue reading »
Current articles on the government’s climate policies increasingly use words such as reckless, hypocrisy and betrayal referring to approval of coal mines. But it is even more difficult to find words to describe the gas industry’s infliction of pain on humanity by the approval of gas mines. It is a shock to many that coalmine Continue reading »
In orthodox theory, oligopolies are big, lean and efficient. Their size and efficiency should produce price cuts. Instead, in the real world, oligopolies undermine economic democracy. They price gouge. They outflank regulatory laws while regulatory cops sit on their hands. Can Andrew Leigh and Jim Chalmers limit the damage economic concentration imposes? As Jim Chalmers Continue reading »
At a political fundraiser in Utah on 10 August, U.S. President Joe Biden described China’s economy as a “ticking time bomb”, adding that “That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things”. It’s not only an unusually undiplomatic comment, but an unfair one that borders on the ridiculous. It’s true that Continue reading »
Australia has no business playing the victim when the lines between strategy and economic interests have become increasingly blurred. Beijing should treat with caution renewed efforts to get relations back on track, and avoid rewarding Canberra for its coercive behaviour. Representatives from the Australian government embarked on a trip to Beijing last week, signalling the Continue reading »
A majority of voters believe "nothing in Britain really works" and say Rishi Sunak's party has made public services worse, according to an exclusive new poll
One of the most important aspects of the government’s Fair Work Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill is the detailed provisions covering gig workers. Those provisions account for 100 pages of the 284-page bill. The ‘Loopholes Bill’ fulfils promises Labor made before the election to regulate two types of workers: road transport owner-drivers (one of the original Continue reading »