John Quiggin

Back again with 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. If you would like to receive my (hopefully) regular email news, please sign up using the following link http://eepurl.com/dAv6sX You can also follow me on Twitter @JohnQuiggin, at my Facebook public page   and at my Economics in Two Lessons page Like this:Like Loading...

John Quiggin speaking on the COVID19 crisis - What Now, What Next and What After? John Quiggin is professor of economics at the University of Queensland, and well-known commentator and author. He blogs at johnquiggin.com where he provides, according to the header, ‘Commentary on Australian and World Events from a Socialist and Democratic Viewpoint’ His long list of academic and popular works includes Zombie Economics, a devastating critique of the persistence of disproven neoliberal ideas;...

John Quiggin speaking on the COVID19 crisis - What Now, What Next and What After? John Quiggin is professor of economics at the University of Queensland, and well-known commentator and author. He blogs at johnquiggin.com where he provides, according to the header, ‘Commentary on Australian and World Events from a Socialist and Democratic Viewpoint’ His long list of academic and popular works includes Zombie Economics, a devastating critique of the persistence of disproven...

In the last few days, there have been quite a few reports of studies suggesting that the number of people who have been exposed to Covid-19 is far larger than previously thought. These studies have been based on testing for antibodies against coronavirus (it is unclear whether they are specific to Covid-19, or might reflect exposure to other coronaviruses). I’m finding it difficult to square these estimates with inferences from direct testing, which (as I understand it) tests...

That’s the headline for my recent piece in Inside Story, responding to statements from the IMF that “the world is about to experience the worst recession since the Great Depression”. My complaint isn’t so much about the numerical estimates made by the IMF (which are actually optimistic) but about the framing in terms of the Great Depression. It’s almost certain that we will see a larger decline in global income and output in 2020 than we did in the GFC year of 2008. However, if things...

A couple of days ago, Adam Creighton had a piece in the Oz, downplaying the risks of the coronavirus pandemic, under the headline “Under 60, in good health? Crossing the road is more risky” Authors don’t choose headlines, but in this case, it’s an exact quote from the article. There was no supporting analysis, so I decided to do the numbers myself. I looked at Sweden (quoted as a success by Creighton) which seems reasonably comparable to Australia, except that they haven’t gone...

A couple of weeks ago, I recorded a video presentation about the likely employment effects in Australia, as part of my university’s response to the pandemic. The sound quality wasn’t great, what with reliance on my computer microphone, a spotty Internet connection and my accent, which is too strong even for some Aussies. The communications people at the Uni got back to me and said it might have to have subtitles, but they could improve things by lowering the volume of the background...

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

Back again with 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. If you would like to receive my (hopefully) regular email news, please sign up using the following link http://eepurl.com/dAv6sX You can also follow me on Twitter @JohnQuiggin, at my Facebook public page   and at my Economics in Two Lessons page Like this:Like Loading...

Unlocking Australia: What can benefit-cost analysis tell us? Now in The Conversation. Earlier version published here. Share this:Like this:Like Loading...