Harry Clarke

I have a new site at WordPress : http://www.harryrclarke.com/ Readers please adjust your browser settings. It is goodbye Blogger for ...

This is power shepherding .  Literally brilliant. Thanks Bernd

Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon's friendship links with a Chinese national seem to have gone well beyond the point of occasional, frien...

This pessimistic - though I think accurate - piece from conservative columnist/journalist Doug Conway appeared in today's Manly Daily : ...

I heard this remarkable man - ex president of Iran 1997-2005 - speak at La Trobe University this evening.  Mr Khatami is a Muslim cleric who...

The value of world trade will fall 9% in 2009 compared to growth of a miserable 2% (not 4.5% as forecast) in 2008 the WTO said on Monday.  ...

Jonathon Jarvis provides this exceedingly clear view of the global financial crisis .  One of the best I have seen.

This is a fun blog that has been operating for a bit more than a year .  I'll add it to the blogroll. Moleskine notebooks - expensive ...

Given that the US has been so slow to come to the party to even think of seriously addressing climate change it seems almost hypocritical o...

Both of my university-age kids are studying economics.  When intelligent young people ask for advice on what to study at university I often ...

Fairport Convention is one of my all-time favourite bands. They still perform although their early album with Sandy Denny Liege and Lief r...

7.59pm : Despite some good swings to the new LNP I believe Labor will be returned with a much-reduced majority.  In the old Parliament Labor...

I enjoyed this oldie from BoingBoing .

Former head of Human Rights Commission and perennial liar Marcus Einfeld has gone to jail for at least two years.  The left loved him as a...

I had forgotten how good both of them were . Here goes Zappa on the Illinois Enema Bandit . And a totally disgusting version (with Captain B...

Tiger Woods will play in the Australian Open this year in Victoria.  He will be paid $4.5 million for his 3 day effort half of which will be...

The famous Harvard-based economist Professor Martin Feldstein is on the board of the American insurer AIG that received $200 billion in han...

Last year I reviewed one of the best wines I drank that year, a 1991 St Hubert's Cabernet .  I thought I had exhausted my stock of these...

Here are the Terms of Reference for the Productivity Commission inquiry into executive remuneration in Australia.  It is a sensible inquir...

The Pope has reiterated his opposition to the use of condoms in AIDs ravaged Africa . The inhumanity of the Pope's position is self-evid...

A former boss of mine ( now deceased )* collected jokes. He wrote them down and filed them and, on having enjoyed a few drinks, could recite...

China is 'worried about' its $1trillion holding of US Treasury Bills .  The Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Wen, complains that the US ha...

I drove along the Hume Highway going to and from Albury over the past two days following a teaching assignment there. The fire damage along...

For the right to operate the Australian Grand Prix in two weeks time the Victorian Government will pay Bernie Ecclestone $47 million .  In ...

A lot of printer's ink has been spilt on the issue of the future of newspapers.  I buy three each day (The AFR , The Australian and (on...

In my youthful past when I sent an article to an academic journal and it was rejected my reaction was often one of fury.  This was often amp...

An elegant and incisive attempt to put the current financial crisis in perspective is provided by Amartya Sen .  How should 'capitalism...

I am interested in - though rather late in responding to - Bettina Arndt's view that a few year's after having children 'most...

The Rudd Government was elected in November 2007 with a me-tooist approach to policy. Policies were replications of those of John Howard. T...

Julia Gillard's moves to reregulate Australian labour markets should be rejected by the Senate. The proposed moves helps trade unions ...

Its only a small sample but 78% of Australians still have climate change concerns despite the economic crisis - only 35% want action deferre...

I'd got back from Canberra last night about 8-30pm.  It had been a long day and I was wearily sitting in my office at home in the north...

The extraordinary massacre on US equity markets continued Thursday with a 4% decline to levels not seen for 11 years. The Aussi market (abo...

The attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore cannot be condemned too forcefully .  Very plausibly it is Islamic terrorists who have ...

An issue I have addressed in some of my recent research is whether having an additional country commit to mitigating their carbon emissions ...

I've praised Julia Gillard's abilities in the past but, at core, she is just a politician. In fact a politician who seeks to use our...

I don't agree with the gist of the message here - the US need a more inclusive healthcare system, probably need more public spending on ...

(Correctly measured, quarter-to-quarter) Chinese economic growth in final quarter 2008 was zero or negative .  The US economy shrunk at an a...

Despite the global financial crisis sales of carcinogens remain strong with BAT profits growing 20% in  the year to December 31 .  BAT is ...

Barack Obama has an enormously expansionary fiscal program to get demand moving but promises to halve the budget deficit by the end of his (...

I heard the economist Professor Ed Leamer's rapturous appreciation of the Obama speech (& here , here , here , here ) (on the 7-30 ...

My colleague Prof Sisira Jayasuriya made some sensible and balanced remarks on the current disasterous situation facing the Tamils in Sri La...

The Age reports this morning that the Government has been urged to scrap the 30% private health insurance rebate and to, instead, spend the...

Robert Holbrook in 1972 drew attention to the issue of policy instrument instability .  Essentially an economic policy can become infeasible...

Generally I found Penny Wong's support for an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) based on 'cap and trade' to achieve a specific leve...

I am visiting Auckland New Zealand for the 27th Economic Theory Workshop at Massey University . The weather is humid and warm and the coas...

Despite some silly protestations over at Catallaxy I think Peter Costello is quite right to oppose the deal by Chinalco to purchase key Rio...

I haven't been posting as trying to prepare for my teaching year - research and golf had high priorities this summer and the procrastina...

I was intrigued to learn from a current affairs show that those insured in the bush-fire crisis paid about 40% of their property insurance p...