So, I have been quiet, but I"ve been busy. Partly writing books and a new subscription column to make up for a pretty dire collapse in my other income. Thanks Rona! But also, partly building a new blog, or rather a new version of The Burger.
I was having real trouble finding the time to post here because I was so busy everywhere else. It was really getting me down.
I"d also been struggling with what to do about my mailing list/bookclub.
And then I thought.
Sawing off the branch you sit on can hardly be the best of policies. But that all depends on the nature of the branch. US President Donald Trump has huffed himself into another small historical moment, going on the offensive against social media companies using the very language his faux progressive opponents use against them.…
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A colleague wrote to me today asking about the case of Drew Pavlou, a student suspended by the University of Queensland for two years as a result of actions in the course of protests against the policies of the Chinese government in Hong Kong. Here’s my reply
I had an interesting
discussion with someone online in which I attempted to explain how deep the poo
is in which the United States finds itself. I initially reiterated the data about
Taiwan and Australia which I had written before, on April 21 (when Australia had
6645 cases and 72 deaths)1. As I said then, the country which most effectively dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic was
Taiwan (population 23 million) which has 441 cases and 7 deaths. Australia
(population 25 million) now has about 7,150 cases and 103 deaths. The Unites
Herewith a weekend half-hour read. Comments and corrections appreciated.
A culture survives principally, I think, by the power of its institutions to bind and loose men in the conduct of their affairs with reasons that sink so deep into the self that they become commonly and implicitly understood – with that understanding of which explicit belief and precise knowledge of externals would show outwardly like the tip of an iceberg.
Philip Rieff, 1966. The Triumph of the Therapeutic.1
COVID-19 has hit the Australian economy hard. By some estimates the Australian economy will shrink by approximately 7 per cent in 2020. Maybe more. That’s a virtually unprecedented recession. Shutting down workplaces: hospitality and tourism, higher education and some manufacturing: comes at an enormous cost. We can’t put a price on peoples’ lives and peoples’ health. But many people…
The management of the University of Queensland, and in particular Peter Hoj and Peter Varghese, stand condemned today by the international media, by bot
The disastrous collapse of the UK’s pandemic response has been caused by the deliberate evisceration of our health services. Worse is coming.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 27th
May 2020
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Markets fall as Trump plans to hold a news conference Friday on China – The Hill Plunging solar energy prices spell bright future for clean electricity – DW A Universal Basic Income is Essential and Will Work – DW Fed Why Main Street is bleeding while Wall Street Soars
The post Weekend Reading: 30-31 May 2020 appeared first on MacroBusiness.
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After a successful phase one, Ausgrid launches second phase of household battery-based virtual power plant, with two new "aggregator" partners – ShineHub and Evergen.
Prologue: Trump as Big Brother You do not need me to tell you that Donald Trump has a distant relationship with the truth. The man says what he needs to say at that particular moment as if nothing he said in the past ever happened. The truth is what he says it is on any…
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Following my post on pandemic whataboutery, James Joyner had some interesting thoughts, noting that
Interestingly, Quiggin doesn’t circle back to the third example from his introduction: influenza. Will Americans, having been conditioned to lockdowns during this pandemic, be more likely to implement them again for lesser ones? Or will this be a Never Again moment?
A flat end to the week as the window dressing month end meme takes place across risk assets with most stock markets pulling back here in Asia. Besides the usual end of month reshuffle, risk is still waiting Trump’s policy announcement on China, but it seems he’s too busy having a dummy spit about Twitter
The post Macro Afternoon appeared first on MacroBusiness.
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