Why the elites heart China
While the eyes of the world remain firmly focused on eastern Europe and the very real prospect of a major conventional war between Russia and Ukraine brought about by Putin’s …
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20 + 1 Best Books I’ve Read in 2021
This is the last time I’m ever doing New Year’s resolutions. My resolution for 2021 was to read less – not because I hate reading but to have more diverse …
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Envy – the deadly sin of radical politics
I don’t know about money, but in the twentieth century envy has been the source of all evil, or at least most of it. It was envy that motivated the …
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Arthur and the Giant Bitch
Four days ago, I threatened to kill James Bond. Twitter banned me for it. Or at least that’s what it might seem like. What really happened was this post from …
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7 reasons why ScoMo is likely to lose the next election
Hello August. Of 2021; that disappointing sequel to 2020. Or perhaps we’re actually in the 20th month of 2020 – Augustember. Whatever’s the case, there’s no longer any talk in …
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In praise of invisible things
The other week, as part of my real job, I finished helping a big micro-mobility company (that’s not a contradiction in terms) from America who now wants to expand into Australia. …
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Eight trends to watch in 2021
Twenty-twenty, the year of the “cool number” previously associated with the positive (perfect vision), had been anything but cool and positive itself. A lot had gone wrong; most related to the …
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There ain’t no party like a Communist Party
This week’s superleak of a database of nearly 2 million members of Chinese Communist Party, most of them from around Shanghai, many of whom are working at the local offices …
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Honey, I swapped the party bases
Once upon a time, centre-left wing parties were the parties of working class and the poor, while centre-right parties were the parties of the wealthy, middle class and the educated. …
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Trump was a goose, but he laid golden eggs
For the first time ever, the Dow Jones index has passed 30,000 the other day. It came close to doing so back in February, peaking at 29,500. Then COVID happened …
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Trump’s agenda – a little bit nationalistic, a little bit fantastic
Donald Trump has released the agenda for his second term: A few random thoughts in response: 1) The biggest missing piece – as it has been from Trump’s agenda over …
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The Great Unrepayable
The perfect storm of more than a decade of fiscal mismanagement and a “once-in-a-century shock” (Treasurer Josh Frydenberg) – God helps if there is ever a real shock like a …
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Money for nothing and cheques for free
With the economies sliding past the Great Recession 2 towards the Great Depression 2 and with tens of millions suddenly unemployed throughout the developed world (with hundreds of millions throughout …
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COVID killed the radio star: the winners and the losers of the viralmageddon
Joel Kotkin, a sensible urbanist (rare, I know), has been sounding an alarm about the hollowing out of our economy and our society for a while now. His news book, The …
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The world after Corona
As the current pandemic crisis continues to unfold across the globe, more and more important people are heard making pronouncements that our world and our lives will not be the …
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5 ways the Corona crisis is conditioning us for authoritarianism
A word of clarification: I don’t believe that Coronavirus is some sort of One World Government plot to take over the planet by stealth and institute a permanent dictatorship. Nor …
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The Left’s hard-on for crisis
“Never let a good crisis go to waste”. This short and catchy dictum was articulated by Rahm Emanuel, former Clinton White House chief of staff and mayor of Chicago, at …
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We need a globalisation insurance
What has the virus wrought? In some ways it is a perfect weapon: it doesn’t kill that many people in a greater scheme of things but it terrorises whole societies …
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One Day In The Life Of Arthur Stanislawovich: Diary of the Toilet Paper Apocalypse
7:40am – My news day starts with reading that last night at 10pm, a double truck carrying among other things toilet paper from a warehouse to the stores has somehow caught …
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The Great Toilet Paper Panic of 2020 continues…
This afternoon, on the way back from the gym, I popped into my local Coles to get some fruit and veg. Having picked up everything I wanted, curiosity took me …
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