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Showing posts from October, 2013
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News and views noted long the way. How climate change threatens the ability of global populations to rise out of poverty U.S. lawmakers call for action to curb internet child trading These 2 words will make you more selfish  — “Students were twice as likely to betray their partner in a Prisoner’s Dilemma if told they were playing a game called ‘Wall Street’.” One third of Australia’s media coverage rejects climate science, study finds  — “An academic study has found that 32% of articles dismissed or questioned the link between human activity and climate change.” The end of the British breakfast as we know it . The pressure for Britain to quit the European Union will surely grow now that officialdom in Brussels is seeking to reduce the minimum level of sugar that  a product calling itself “jam” or “marmalade” can contain. Lib Dem MP Tessa Munt argues that if the regulations change, as the government is proposing, “we’ll end up with something much more like the French and Germa

Those banking ticket clippers - this time it's foreign exchange

As the multibillion-dollar fines for international banks keep coming over past misdeeds, new questions are arising about the way they continue to fleece their customers. The latest potential scandal appears to involve foreign currency trading, with  Reuters this morning  referring to a number of senior traders from several banks being sent on leave. I say “appears”, because the reason for the gardening leave has not yet been given, but Bloomberg reported that two went on leave after regulators probing foreign exchange manipulation started investigating traders’ use of an instant-message group.

Reducing too quickly - US money printing

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The US Federal Reserve is continuing with its money printing as it endeavours to increase economic growth, with the Federal Open Market Committee warning overnight that “fiscal policy is restraining economic growth”. Translated, this means politician are concerned with reducing the government budget deficit and the policy of cheap money is needed to stop growth declining again. A measure of the brakes that the Congress has put on spending was shown by the latest update from the final budget results released by the Treasury and Office of Management and Budget.

Same old, same old - Labor's power brokers still in charge as new Senator chosen

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As they say, the more things change the more they stay the same. After the token experiment with letting ordinary members have a say in choosing the federal party leader, the trade union-based factional bosses are back in control of the Labor Party. In New South Wales there was nothing rank-and-file about choosing a successor to Bob Carr as a senator. The party executive imposed the defeated member for Robertson, Deb O’Neill, into the job after Left faction leader Senator Doug Cameron said there was no point party members nominating for the Senate vacancy because a cross-factional deal had already been struck. Hard to disagree with Shoalhaven party member Michelle Miran,  who declared : “ Sussex Street is like the politburo with its shady backroom deals. Again it’s the anointed who are chosen, someone who’s lost her seat, said she wants to recontest it, and they’ve decided to give her a job for the next three years. Why bother calling for nominations if you have no intention of hon

The price of privatisation

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They are having quite a debate in Britain about the pricing policies of oligopolist energy suppliers. From page one of the Daily Telegraph: Amusing, really, to find that headline in such a newspaper bastion of free enterprise. Maybe they were just giving their readers a definition of capitalism.

News and views for 30 October 2013 - home insulation incentives

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Drawing Australia into the phone tapping controversy . Diplomatic problems surely loom for Australia as south-east Asian nations begin to get agitated about the activities of the United States in electronic eavesdropping. The close links between our Defence Signals Directorate and the US’s National Security Agency will make it inevitable. Following further reports yesterday by  Der Spiegel , Asian newspapers are now featuring the story. Add the daily home index to the list . Capital city home prices in Australia went up just a tick less than 1% yesterday. Now surely that’s the kind of market news that might actually interest a listener to the on-the-hour every-hour radio news. But no. Not a mention of the  RP Data-Rismark Daily Home Value Index . Just the boring updates of the Hang Seng something or other, the price of Brent crude and how many New Zealand cents you can buy for one of our real dollars. So here is  Chunky Bits  showing news editors the way: Weapons of war . Britis

News and views for 29 October 2013

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News and views noted along the way. New Seamus Heaney poem published   —   ”Guardian publishes  In a Field  ahead of its appearance in anthology marking centenary of outbreak of first world war. It describes a man coming home from war: From nowhere, unfamiliar and de-mobbed, In buttoned khaki and buffed army boots, Bruising the turned-up acres of our back field To stumble from the winding’s magic ring. …” The global war on thinking bad thoughts   — “Can America really win the battle against Islamic extremism?” Government actively looking into reforming ganja law   — “Justice Minister Senator Mark Golding has said active consideration is being given to reforming the law relating to ganja in Jamaica to allow its use, but within certain parameters.”

Forget the polar variety - global warming helping the grizzlies

The polar bear stranded on an ever shrinking ice berg has become a symbol of the evils of global warming but in the interests of species balance I bring you this research. You could call, I suppose, a 10-year study by University of Alberta biologist Scott Nielsen and his colleagues that monitored 112 bears in Alberta’s Rocky Mountain region, “warm the world and save the grizzly”. The team found that warmer temperatures and easier access to food associated with forest disturbances helped the grizzlies to build more body fat, known to increase the chances of successful reproduction for mothers. The findings , to be published in  BMC Ecology , are that in years when warmer temperatures and less late winter snow brought on earlier spring conditions, the body size of bears as adults was larger. Smaller bears were found in colder and less productive environments or years that were abnormally cool. “ We hypothesize that warmer temperatures in this ecosystem, especially during late winter

Snouts in the trough - perks for Chinese politicians

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So we have politicians going to a wedding or two, peddling a little on expenses and doing an occasional vineyard tour. Small beer really compared with some of their Chinese peers who really know how to get their snouts in the trough. Or maybe the word should be should be trotters not snouts. Whatever. Communist Party officials in Henan province are giving a new meaning to the term “government pork.”  They ran up a bill for $US115,000 at a locally famous pig trotter restaurant over the course of three years while entertaining visiting cadres on “inspection tours” which determined the size of government grants. Henan’s culinary largess ran into problems in this new age of official discouragement of corruption and excess when the restaurant proprietor, faced with bankruptcy because the bills were never paid, used a Chinese variant of whistle blowing to capture attention. According  to reports he tacked up two giant red banners outside his restaurant outlining how much the town Part

That feminine touch - Tony Abbott with women soldiers

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The Tony Abbott campaign theme of appearing with women continues. Yesterday in Afghanistan:

PUP in Tasmania

It should be difficult to imagine a more propitious time for the Tasmanian Liberal Party. With an election due next March the coalition Labor-Green government is deeply unpopular. The polls are showing it as a no-contest. Almost daily there are public calls from within the Labor parliamentary ranks for an end to the alliance. That rare thing in the island state — a majority Liberal government — looks a certainty but for one thing — the Palmer United Party. Tasmania’s multi-member electorates provide the PUP with a great opportunity to build on the success of its recent federal Senate campaign which saw it win a seat in the state. Should the big fellow Clive find  a few more millions to spend on a campaign his party might once again become the holder of a balance-of-power.