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Archived news for July 2011 | Recent news
News of World: sideshows and political opportunism
The News of the World phone hacking scandal has spiralled out in a dozen different directions. No wonder. It's fun to talk about Rupert Murdoch....
Slim chance of global carbon market post Kyoto
Irrespective of whether Julia Gillard succeeds in selling her carbon tax plan to the public, eight months before the next federal election the...
Equality for all couples won't destroy society
The extension of marriage to same-sex couples needn't come at the expense of a stable society or religious human rights. In its fashionably early...
Energy costs, labour power block road to productivity
A recent AcilTasman report shows Australia's productivity performance has slowed, with Victoria, post-2005, collecting the wooden spoon. One cause...
Too many economists in the carbon kitchen
There's a lot of interesting material in the survey of Australian economists released last week. But the results are not much use as a guide for...
War to end war drugs gains allies on right flank
In 2011, the war to end the war on drugs is now being led by conservative voices, not radical ones. In March, three federal Liberal backbenchers -...
Sincere, but often wrong
In March 1981, 364 economists signed a letter to The Times. They were the luminaries of the British economic establishment. The previous year the...
Brown's global parliament: scary proposition
Bob Brown's call for a global parliament isn't crazy. That's the problem. Speaking at the National Press Club in late June, the Greens leader asked...
Suffocating the economy one tax at a time
If implemented, Julia Gillard's proposed carbon price starting at $23 per tonne will push us closer to economic stagnation. If the Government...
Boon for the carbonocrats
The Gillard government's carbon tax package is a triumph for fiscal churn and bureaucracy over wealth creation and, for that matter, the...