The Great Malaise
A Great Malaise is haunting the world. It is partly an economic illness, and partly a state of mind. The two are related, and bound to each other in a …
Read MoreTag: economy
“The Daily Chrenk†and Donald Trump caught in a tax scandal
I have a cunning plan. I’m intend to withdraw all my savings and invest them in “The Daily Chrenkâ€. Then, when the current financial year comes to a close and …
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How we stopped worrying about the financial apocalypse and started to enjoy life (beyond our means)
Malcolm Farr asks the question this afternoon, “How does the Coalition sell its budget cuts when our economy continues to grow?†The short answer is: not very well. As Farr …
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Can you run the Dutch oven on renewables?
News from Holland to warm one’s heart and the atmosphere: Dutch greenhouse gas emissions rose by 5 per cent in 2015 from a year earlier, Statistics Netherlands says, again highlighting …
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Capitalism, big and small
Lung Wo Road and Connaught Road Central reach for the sky. The ground erupts here with steel and glass and stone buildings that tower 20, 40, 60 storeys over the …
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In her shoes, or some thoughts about welfare
A short “putting human face to a political debate†article appeared in “The Australian†this morning that bears quoting almost in full: Melbourne mother of eight Helen Liumaihetau thinks Scott …
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Should Brisbane bid for the 2028 Olympics?
As everyone knows, there are a few things that bore me more than sport, and particularly reading and writing about it, but we’re talking about my backyard (literally; I think …
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$19,400,000,000,000
While all the children in both the Republican and the Democratic Parties are throwing sand around, pulling faces at each other and pissing in the sandpit, the US federal debt …
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The Great Malaise: First the US and the UK, France next
We are living in the midst of the Great Malaise, the time of cynicism, disenchantment and distrust. The elites are revolting against the masses and the masses are revolting against …
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Chrenk’s election post-mortem-palooza
It’s possible that with Malcolm Turnbull as the Prime Minister, the Liberal/National Coalition avoided a landslide defeat at the hands of Bill Shorten’s Labor. It’s possible that had Tony Abbott …
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Of roots in brothels and dreadful campaigns
Earlier today I set up two A-frames on the side of a busy local road and campaigned for my old mate Trevor Evans, if standing next to two A-frames on …
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Shock new EU memo, or why the EU still doesn’t get it
The European Union says they get it. Then they show they don’t. This is pretty much the only conclusion I can draw from reading a leaked copy of the post-Brexit …
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Real tradies, and the really real tradies
So the Liberal Party put up a tradie ad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fse0sm05V-8 The ad was mercilessly ridiculed on the social media, in part because the tradie was supposedly a fake tradie. Though he …
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Labor’s 10 Year Plan For Making The Shit Up
Earlier today, Labor have released a 32-page booklet called “10 Year Plan for Australia’s Economyâ€, probably because “5 Year Plan for Australia’s Economy†is no longer considered a thing on …
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Does socialism work? Asking for a friend
Young kids come to me on the street these days and ask: “Hey, Arthur, you were born and grew up in a communist country, didn’t you? So tell us, does …
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The experts have spoken
As most of you might be aware by now, over the last few weeks and in the course of the federal election campaign, I have developed a deep and personal …
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Our revolting elites
Just in case you’re still wondering what is causing the Donald Trump phenomenon, you could do worse than read any of Michael Lewis’ recent books. Not that people who support …
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Why we’re in the shit we’re in…
Want to know why Trump is about to become the Republican nominee and why Bernie is almost the Democrat nominee (though is unlikely to get there in the end)? Thanks …
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The end of the end of certainty
With apologies to Paul Kelly, the era of economic reform in Australia is over. As is the era of a smaller, if not exactly small, government. Twenty-four years ago, Kelly …
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On missing the 1990s
I miss the ’90s. I never thought I would say that, but there it is. As a Gen X, I’m a child of the ’80s, albeit as experienced on the …
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