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Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
The Australian economy has changed dramatically since 2000: The way we work now is radically different – John Quiggin
My latest piece in The Conversation is one of six looking at changes in various aspects of Australian life since the turn of the century. Most of it is a recounting of the history, but I have a few things to say at the end about the information economy The most striking feature of the…
Dispensing with US universities: ready or not – John Quiggin
It’s been evident since Trump’s inauguration that the US, as we knew it, is over. I’ve been looking at some of the US-centred organisations and economic dependencies that will need to be rebuilt. But I hadn’t given much thought to the university sector, where I work, until I got an urgent email asking everyone at…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
Dispensing with the tech-bros – John Quiggin
As I type this, Trump is threatening tariffs on anyone who challenges the interests of America’s technology oligarchs, all of whom are now paying obeisance at this court. Technology is the US biggest weapon against the free world of which it was formerly part, and the right place to fight back. But what can be done? I’ll…
Dispensing with the US-centric financial system – John Quiggin
Quick quiz. Suppose you read a headline in the online version of the Wall Street Journal (or NY Times etc) stating that, from now on, US Treasury bonds would be redeemed in crypto. Would your response be (i) That’s absurd. Either it’s April Fools Day or someone has hacked the website (ii) That’s unlikely. Surely…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
Trump has thrown out the global economic playbook. It’s time for Australia to write its own rules – John Quiggin
My latest from The Guardian =With the resumption of parliament this week, and an election only months away, we have seen even more of the usual point-scoring about the cost of living, tax breaks for long lunches and budget deficits. But since the return of Donald Trump to the White House, the assumptions on which Australian economic policy…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
How to dispense with Trump’s US – John Quiggin
This is a follow-up to my previous post on the end of US democracy and its implications. Here I will discuss how what’s left of the democratic world can respond. Surprisingly in many ways, the military part of dispensing with the US is the easiest bit, in each of its major areas of operation: Europe,…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
The dispensable nation – John Quiggin
“The cemeteries are full of indispensable people.” In one form or another, this observation has been made many times over the last century or more. What is true of people is true of nations. In the past 25 years or so it was often claimed (and , admittedly, often denied) that, in the modern world,…
Australia (Act) Day (annual repost) – John Quiggin
As usual, 26 January has been marked by protests, denunciations of those protests, and further iterations. Even apart from the fact that it marks an invasion, the foundation of a colony that later became one of Australia's states isn't much of a basis for a national day. A logical choice would be the day our…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
Should economists know their own history > – John Quiggin
There’s been a recent fuss in various media arising from a tweet from economist Ben Golub regarding astonishment that economists haven’t “worked through” Smith and Marx. English professor Alex Moskowitz chimed in with a claim that economics can’t be a real discipline because economists don’t know the history of their own discipline. This claim is…
Australia’s social media ban for under-16s: The evidence (crosspost from my Substack) – John Quiggin
This is the second in a series discussing the Australian legislation banning people under 16 from using social media. The previous post is here . I’m writing from the perspective of a longstanding user of new media and also as someone with personal experience of dealing (not very successfully) with problems of under-16 screen addiction. On the…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
Australia’s U16 Media ban (crosspost from Substack) – John Quiggin
This the first in a series discussing the Australian legislation banning people under 16 from using social media. I’m writing from the perspective of a longstanding user of new media and also as someone with personal experience of dealing (not very successfully) with problems of under-16 screen addiction. On the other hand, I’m not a…
Y2K: Apocalypse averted or pointless panic ? – John Quiggin
Safe to say this issue will never be resolved Twenty-five years ago, the world waited for the dawn of a new millennium (a few pedants grumbled that the millennium wouldn’t start until 2001, but no one paid much attention). The excitement of the occasion was tempered by concern, and, in some quarters panic, about the…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
Angry white men – John Quiggin
I’ve avoided post-mortems on the US election disaster for two reasons. First, they are useless as a guide to the future. The next US election, if there is one [1], will be a referendum on the Trump regime. Campaign strategies that might have gained the Democrats a few percentage points in November 2024 won’t be…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
RBA policy is putting all our futures at risk – John Quiggin
I wrote this for a Guardian panel. The published version was cut for space reasons, so here’s the full version The central concern expressed by the Reserve Bank in defending its high-interest rate policy is that expectations of higher inflation may become entrenched, requiring a further, more painful round of contractionary monetary policy in the future. Even…
Suggestions for a small experiment – John Quiggin
Last week, I gave a presentation at the 2024 Australian Basic Income Fellows Workshop. Most of the talks were about Basic Income trials, which have been undertaken around the world. I focused on something more modest but perhaps more achievable: getting evidence on the effects of Scrapping or Scaling Back Mutual Obligation and Income Management. You…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
Trump’s dictatorship is a fait accompli – John Quiggin
What can Americans do? What should Australia do? A few weeks ago, I drew up a flowchart to estimate the probability that Trump would establish a dictatorship in the US, which looked, at the time, like an even money bet. We don’t need to speculate any more. Trump has announced the dictatorship, and there is…
Armistice Day – John Quiggin
The Great War continues, more than 100 years later Yesterday was November 11, the anniversary of the armistice which ended fighting on the Western Front of what was then called the Great War. It’s always an occasion for sad reflection on my part, thinking about the pointlessness of the massive sacrifices of the War, which…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
The 35-hour week is overdue[1] – John Quiggin
Back in 1947, the standard Australian working week was reduced from 44 hours to 40. In 1983, 36 years later, the working week was reduced to 38 hours. That was more than 40 years ago, and there has been a lot of technological progress since then. It makes sense to take some of the benefits…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
The end of US democracy: a flowchart – John Quiggin
I spend a lot of time these days thinking about what I, and Australia as a nation, should do if the US ceases to be a democracy. But, it doesn’t seem as if lots of other people are thinking this way. One possibility is that people just don’t want to think about it. Another, though,…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…
Deputy sheriff or imperial outpost ? – John Quiggin
Via Peter Hartcher in the Nine papers, I learned the other day that Albanese snubbed President Prabowo of Indonesia to meet King Charles. The immediate decision before the Albanese government was how to deal with two important heads of state asking for attention at almost exactly the same time. The prime minister had a long-standing invitation…
Monday Message Board – John Quiggin
Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I'm now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I'll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow…