Labor’s shadow Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has penned a letter calling on the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to provide a liquidity backstop for cash-strapped superannuation funds so that they can meet member’s redemption requests. Chalmers’ request has arisen following the Morrison Government’s announcement that it would permit Australians to access up to $20,000 in savings
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In the week ended 9 April 2020, the CoreLogic 5-city daily dwelling price index, which covers the five major capital city markets, rose another 0.19%: The rise in values was broad based: Quarterly dwelling values continue to rise, driven by Sydney followed by Melbourne: The rebound across Sydney and Melbourne has driven strong annual gains
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If you ask one million men that question, more likely than not you will get one million different answers. Nothing wrong with that. When I was a young bod, which does seem like a million years ago, I had no clear idea at all about what it meant to be a man. I grew up…
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Earlier this week reports went out that Israel’s Health Minister Yaakov Litzman has been diagnosed with Covid-19.
Many of the reports, including some in Australia, were pulled down as they focussed on commentary that Litzman is alleged to have made regarding Covid-19 being some kind of divine punishment for homosexuality. Previous reporting of his statements were not an issue until he was diagnosed with Covid-19 at which point his legal team seemed to put in the extra hours to ensure all the articles were taken down.
As soon as the government released its modelling of the pandemic a few days ago, I realised something was badly wrong. The modelling showed infections increasing even under lockdowns, which obviously wasn’t happening. The crucial parameter here is R, the number of new infections generated by each existing infection. If R is greater than 1, the number of infections grows exponentially, but if R is less than one, it declines, eventually approaching zero. The knife-edge case is R=1, when the number stays constant.
As part of my response to the pandemic, I’m looking at the way the undead ideas I attempted to kill off in my Zombie Economics have failed yet again. I;m doing it as a series in Independent Australia. The second instalment, Pandemic highlights problems with efficient-market hypothesis has just run.
On March 5, Hillsong began its twenty-fourth Colour Conference at the First State Theatre at ICC, Sydney, with a “capacity crowd” – which is around 9,000 according to the theatre website. Other reports put the crowd at somewhat less than this. After scheduled gatherings on Thurs-Sat at the theatre, and then Thurs-Sat the following week…
Champagne corks will be popping in the Trump Empire, for good reason. Whatever happens come November, the exit of Senator Bernie Sanders from the US presidential race will be a relief. The fractured republic can be reassured that the Democrats have not moved on, stuck, as it were, in the glades of vengeful melancholia and…
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Coronavirus: Is it too soon for a movie about it?
Today is Good Friday April 10, 2020. The latest modelling shows that although Australia’s COVID-19 curve is flattening, talk of its suppression seem as a glimmer of optimism from the hopeful days of this year’s Ides of March and St Patrick’s Day. Schools and universities are both closed and not closed. Happy social gatherings are…
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I have been spending my quarantine absorbing research on COVID-19 — especially economic research — and, in the process, have written a book, Economics in the Age of COVID-19 that will be published at the end of the month by MIT Press.
Here is what is interesting about the process. Clearly, this has been quick. I have only been working on this a few weeks. But MIT Press decided it was an opportunity to experiment with a rapid publication process. So here is what is going to happen:
Economic consultants, AlphaBeta have released interesting research showing that the Morrison Government’s stimulus is working to buttress the Australian economy from the coronavirus shutdown: Let nobody tell you stimulus doesn’t work. AlphaBeta & illion have teamed up to deliver Australia’s fastest tracker of economic activity through COVID19. The weekly real time tracker shows a dramatic
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Global Macro / Markets / Investing: How COVID-19 Has Impacted Media Consumption, by Generation – Visual Capitalist COVID-19 and the Failures of Capitalism – Canadian Dimension Coronavirus putting world on track for new Great Depression, says WTO – The Guardian The Coronavirus pandemic’s damage to the global economy could last decades – NY Times Banking
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The ritual killing of a water buffalo, by Ifugao villagers of northern Luzon, Philippines, the bloody, brutal slaughter of an innocent, sentient creature, a shocking intrusion of cinéma vérité (filmed by his Francis’ Ford’s wife Eleanor) spliced into the last, dark scenes of Coppola’s self-indulgent masterpiece Apocalypse Now presages the savaging of our body politic…
