Economic reality has a habit of throwing you curveballs — events you didn’t anticipate when making your predictions. Specifically, most economists, myself included, expected tariffs to be the big economic story of 2025. After all, in just a few months Donald Trump has reversed ninety years of pro-trade US policy,
Elizabeth Harrower (1928–2020) was known for a long time as a writer who didn’t write. Before the age of forty she had produced all five of her novels, but after the publication of her most powerful book, The Watch Tower, in 1966, she stopped, to the frustration of her admiring
Every autumn, in September and October, the British parliament is suspended to allow the political parties to hold their annual conferences. Normally only two of these — those of the dominant Labour and Conservative parties — are of much interest to Westminster political observers. But British politics is in turmoil.
The federal Coalition appears miles, light years, away from regaining office. It attracted a record low number of primary and two-party-preferred votes and seats in May. It is seriously split, with an outsized right-wing flank that reflects the Liberal and National party memberships and Sky After Dark acolytes but not
This year marks the 150th birthday of Maurice Ravel and the centenary of Erik Satie’s death. The French composers knew and admired each other and their names appeared as dedications at the top of each other’s scores. Ravel, the younger man, was always happy to admit Satie’s influence — especially
It was much more sedate than most Murdoch headlines: “News Corp Announces Resolution of Murdoch Family Trust Matter.” That innocuous phrase, “family trust matter,” hid the deep schism within the family that burst into public view in mid 2024. The Murdoch family trust was created in 1999 during Rupert’s divorce
It was much more sedate than most Murdoch headlines: “News Corp Announces Resolution of Murdoch Family Trust Matter.” That innocuous phrase, “family trust matter,” hid the deep schism within the family that burst into public view in mid 2024. The Murdoch family trust was created in 1999 during Rupert’s divorce
Standing beside Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on 17 September, Fijian prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka declared that “the people of Fiji share a very close religious and cultural connection to the Holy Land. We deeply value your great nation, which is the birthplace of Christianity.” “We’re brothers, we help one another,”
When Papua New Guinea became independent on 16 September 1975, Australia departed with high hopes and quiet fears. After a colonial/protectorate/trusteeship role of nearly seventy years, Australia left questioning how well it had done and what might go wrong. Would chaos follow calm separation? Worst fears were realised. Mayhem arrived
One Nation is surging in the opinion polls. By the party’s recent standards that is, and by recent Australian standards to be exact. Back in 1998, One Nation 1.0 enjoyed similar surveyed support for a while, and its actual vote at that year’s federal election remains its highest to date:
“The whole issue is so complex. And there’s so many layers to it, because we’ve got serving police officers accepting money from a newspaper, people at the very top of the police being closely associated with politicians and playing a political game, and we’ve got politicians clearly in bed with
When I began my working life at the late and lamented Department of Trade and Resources I was still fresh from poring over The Crisis in Australian Capitalism by the economics journalist Peter Robinson, scourge of the “tariff bludgers.” This persuasive polemic made me a committed free-trader — a historically
Economic reality has a habit of throwing you curveballs — events you didn’t anticipate when making your predictions. Specifically, most economists, myself included, expected tariffs to be the big economic story of 2025. After all, in just a few months Donald Trump has reversed ninety years of pro-trade US policy,
Elizabeth Harrower (1928–2020) was known for a long time as a writer who didn’t write. Before the age of forty she had produced all five of her novels, but after the publication of her most powerful book, The Watch Tower, in 1966, she stopped, to the frustration of her admiring
Every autumn, in September and October, the British parliament is suspended to allow the political parties to hold their annual conferences. Normally only two of these — those of the dominant Labour and Conservative parties — are of much interest to Westminster political observers. But British politics is in turmoil.
The federal Coalition appears miles, light years, away from regaining office. It attracted a record low number of primary and two-party-preferred votes and seats in May. It is seriously split, with an outsized right-wing flank that reflects the Liberal and National party memberships and Sky After Dark acolytes but not
This year marks the 150th birthday of Maurice Ravel and the centenary of Erik Satie’s death. The French composers knew and admired each other and their names appeared as dedications at the top of each other’s scores. Ravel, the younger man, was always happy to admit Satie’s influence — especially
It was much more sedate than most Murdoch headlines: “News Corp Announces Resolution of Murdoch Family Trust Matter.” That innocuous phrase, “family trust matter,” hid the deep schism within the family that burst into public view in mid 2024. The Murdoch family trust was created in 1999 during Rupert’s divorce
It was much more sedate than most Murdoch headlines: “News Corp Announces Resolution of Murdoch Family Trust Matter.” That innocuous phrase, “family trust matter,” hid the deep schism within the family that burst into public view in mid 2024. The Murdoch family trust was created in 1999 during Rupert’s divorce
Standing beside Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on 17 September, Fijian prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka declared that “the people of Fiji share a very close religious and cultural connection to the Holy Land. We deeply value your great nation, which is the birthplace of Christianity.” “We’re brothers, we help one another,”
When Papua New Guinea became independent on 16 September 1975, Australia departed with high hopes and quiet fears. After a colonial/protectorate/trusteeship role of nearly seventy years, Australia left questioning how well it had done and what might go wrong. Would chaos follow calm separation? Worst fears were realised. Mayhem arrived
One Nation is surging in the opinion polls. By the party’s recent standards that is, and by recent Australian standards to be exact. Back in 1998, One Nation 1.0 enjoyed similar surveyed support for a while, and its actual vote at that year’s federal election remains its highest to date:
“The whole issue is so complex. And there’s so many layers to it, because we’ve got serving police officers accepting money from a newspaper, people at the very top of the police being closely associated with politicians and playing a political game, and we’ve got politicians clearly in bed with
When I began my working life at the late and lamented Department of Trade and Resources I was still fresh from poring over The Crisis in Australian Capitalism by the economics journalist Peter Robinson, scourge of the “tariff bludgers.” This persuasive polemic made me a committed free-trader — a historically
