Reading the official documents from the June 28 Summit, writes Charles Wyplosz, Professor of Geneva’s International Economics at the Graduate Institute, requires linguistic and divination skills. The texts are convoluted and clearly aim at giving various positive impressions while shying away from deep commitments. Professor Wyplosz’s conclusion is that useful progress was made, but this was far [...]
READ MOREJune, 2012
No interest change expected
The Crikey Interest Rate Indicator is pointing strongly towards the Reserve Bank making no change to official rates at its meeting next week.
READ MOREWhen Insiders fall out – Henderson v Farr
I appreciate that there are Crikey readers who have principled objections to reading Gerard Henderson’s blog on the Sydney Institute website and/or the musings of Malcolm Farr on the much lower brow news.com.au website of which he is political editor. Hence I feel duty bound to reprint in full the following exchanges from today’s Henderson and [...]
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How many drowned? Who cares.
So a boat load of asylum seekers capsized off northern Australia and there were many deaths. And the politicians have moved into their combination of damage control and blaming the other team. And what interest do the public have? The verdict at around 7pm Sunday.
READ MOREBob Carr, in full flight from the facts on Assange
Bob Carr appeared in Insiders this morning and discussed the Assange case. His words are worth examining closely. The transcript of his remarks is here. Carr makes some highly dubious or simply false assertions. One is that “there’s a view that it would be easier for the US to extradite him from the UK than it [...]
READ MOREThe decline and fall of narrative
Professor Biff Bondarchuk writes: The turmoil occasioned by recent announcements by feignstream media companies News Limited and Fairfax (even less astute readers will note the salient elements of those companies’ names – fair facts indeed, but what is fair and for whom [concepts of equity having long been a basic tool of oppression]; and facts, [...]
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Where the refugees are
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has just released its annual survey of refugees and displaced persons. Its listing of where they actually are shows that when it comes to asylum seekers Australia is well down the list.
READ MOREGeorge Brandis: the carbon price killed Fairfax
I’ve seen some long bows drawn and cynical exploitation of others’ misfortune in my time watching federal politics. But today’s effort by Australia’s finest jurist George Brandis in Senate Question Time to link the Fairfax announcement to the carbon price takes some sort of prize for crass opportunism and straight stupidity by an allegedly intelligent [...]
READ MORECraig Emerson rips into the ABC
Here’s the transcript of an interview of Craig Emerson this morning by ABC News 24. It speaks for itself. THE HON DR CRAIG EMERSON MP MINISTER FOR TRADE AND COMPETITIVENESS Transcript ABC NEWS 24 BREAKFAST 9 June 2012 E&OE Subjects: Craig Thomson, leadership, people-smugglers, Malaysia FTA, China. ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Well the New South Wales Labor [...]
READ MORESpiderman to Spain’s rescue
Bankia, the recently nationalised Spanish bank, is offering a free Spiderman towel to young savers if they can put away €300 by the end of the month.
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