John Quiggin

Another Armistice Day and the prospects for peace are bleaker than they have been for years. Not only are militaristic demagogues in the ascendancy just about everywhere, but the cult of the military is increasingly unchallenged, even in countries generally seen as peaceable, like Canada. Then there’s the threat of nuclear war posed by a much more capable North Korea, and the erratic responses of the Trump Administration. It’s a day on which I feel increasingly alone. It seems obvious to...

Over the fold, my latest irregular email update. If you’d like to be on the mailing list, write to me at [email protected] Hi all, It’s been quite a while since my last email newsletter. A variety of things have kept me too busy to do more than keep up with essential obligations, but I’ve managed a little bit of free time, so here’s a summary of some of the things I’ve been doing. As usual, I’d appreciate any compliments, brickbats, suggestions on things I should say more or less about...

Questioned about the obvious arithmetical impossibility of his promises to increase spending, cut taxes and greatly improve the budget balance, Queensland LNP leader Tim Nicholls had two responses. First, he claimed that he could balance the books by not renewing some unspecified programs as they aspire and by cutting government advertising expenditure. This is laughable. The savings from discretionary programs expiring in any given year are going to be tiny in relation to the billions...

LNP promises don’t add up It is common for political parties to promise more than they can deliver at election time. Even by the relative lax standards of Australian campaigns, the LNP Plan “Getting Queensland Back in Business” stands out for its unreality.  The Plan only promises to create 500 000 jobs through a fiscal policy that involves * Cutting taxes; * Increasing expenditure; and * Improving the budget balance These are all desirable objectives, but it’s a matter of simple...

A new sandpit for long side discussions, conspiracy theories, idees fixes and so on.

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.

That’s the title of a UK podcast on which I appeared recently, talking about Zombie Economics Soundcloud stream: https://soundcloud.com/connectedanddisaffected/season-2-episode-1-the-grand-relaunch Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=165173310736451&id=114184012502048 Twitter: https://twitter.com/CandDPodcast/status/925800309351428097 It can also be found on ITunes and other podcast directories.

The great citizenship debacle rolls on, and it’s hard to see anyone coming out of it looking good. The primary blame goes to the High Court which decided to use an absurdly literal interpretation of the Constitution to knock out a couple of independent candidates back in the 1990s (they’d been naturalised but hadn’t properly revoked their previous citizenship). If the first person to fall afoul of this interpretation had been a senior government minister, I have no doubt the Court would...

Expanding on a post a little while ago, I have a piece in Inside Story arguing that multi-factor productivity, the Holy Grail of microeconomic reform for the last few decades, is a residual that is and should be equal to zero. From getting the idea to publishing it took me a few weeks. That’s a huge contrast from last century when the best I could have hoped for is an article in a low-prestige journal, taking a year or more and reaching an audience of, at most, a few hundred. That’s...

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.