West Ryde Smash Repairs

 My wife was unfortunately rear-ended by another teacher when leaving the school she teaches at.

He was insured by the NRMA and we ended up at West Ryde Smash Repairs.

I simply cannot speak highly enough of them. I was given all the information and more that I needed.

What I found interesting when I picked up the car was all employees are still on job keeper. I assumed given the traffic that their work would be back to normal. It is not. It is still well below normal levels.

Replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg

 Ruth Bader Ginsburg died late last week.

The major question is when should she be replaced.

Given it is essentially only one month and one week until the Presidential election, which is totally unlike Anthony Scalia  who died in February of the last presidential election year, it would seem logical that the winner of the election then nominate the successor to Ginsburg.

Let us leave the utter hypocrisy of the Republicans on this issue for the moment one cannot understand the haste of Republicans unless they believe Trump will lose.

The Senate Majority Leader now is in a pickle. If he goes ahead and attempts to put in a replacement post haste he will not only put the credibility of politicians further down the ladder but more importantly he will put some senate seats the Republicans hold up for grabs.

Around the Traps 18/9/20 birthday edition

It is time for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• Greg Jericho on regardless-of-covid-restrictions-if-people-are-dying-in-large-numbers-your-economy-is-stuffed, wishing-for-the-public-sector-to-shrink-is-wishing-for-less-economic-activity-when-its-most-needed
• Tanya Howard on the-nsw-koala-wars-showed-one-thing-the-nationals-appear-ill-equipped-to-help-rural-australia 
• renew economy on energy-incumbents-query-aemo-governance-in-move-to-clip-its-wings, i-dont-know-why-they-dont-get-it-lynham-laments-taylor-blindspot-on-renewables, morrison-casts-dark-shadow-over-energy-transition-with-massive-gas-intervention, arena-to-be-given-1-4-billion-as-coalition-channels-funds-to-ccs-evs-and-pubs, are-cannon-brookes-and-elon-musk-about-to-team-up-for-big-battery-plans, does-scott-morrison-have-any-idea-what-a-big-battery-can-actually-do
• Paul McInerney et al  on how-bushfires-and-rain-turned-our-waterways-into-cake-mix-and-what-we-can-do-about-it
• Tom Bridge et al on the-first-step-to-conserving-the-great-barrier-reef-is-understanding-what-lives-there
• Samantha Hepburn on no-prime-minister-gas-doesnt-work-for-all-australians-and-your-scare-tactics-ignore-modern-energy-problems
• Kevin Bonham on age-and-canberra-are-still-killing-state-governments, curiouser-and-curiouser
• croaking cassandra on productivity-and-gdp
• Saul Eslake on tasmanias-tax-system-is-broken-here-are-three-ways-to-fix-it
• Julian Savulescu on is-lockdown-worth-the-pain-no-its-a-sledgehammer-and-we-have-better-options
• Simon Holmes A'Court on angus-taylors-gas-plan-is-an-astoundingly-bad-idea-on-so-many-levels
• John Quiggin on to-get-the-economy-going-well-need-more-than-hard-hats

Northern America

• Eliza Barclay et al on california-wildfires-2020-orange-sky-august-complex
• the conversable economist on 100-million-traffic-stops-evidence-on-racial-discrimination, ceoworker-pay-ratios, why-foreign-direct-investment-was-already-sagging
• Ezra Klein on bush-iraq-financial-crisis-trump-coronavirus-government-small-draper-book
• Simon Jackman on the-us-presidential-election-might-be-closer-than-the-polls-suggest-if-we-can-trust-them-this-time
• Mubashar Hasan on bangladesh-fight-power-shut-up
• Andrew Prokop on woodward-rage-trump-coronavirus
• Jeremy Youde on where-us-went-wrong-pandemic
• Pamela Karlan on our-most-vulnerable-election
• Calculated Risk on comments-on-august-housing-starts
• Rod Lamberts and Will J Grant on science-is-political-scientific-american-has-endorsed-joe-biden-over-trump-for-president-australia-should-take-note

Europe

• Mainly Macro on whether-its-covid-or-brexit-this-government-is-continuing-to-fail-terribly-at-everything-it-does
• Daniel Woker on australian-solution-wont-fix-johnson-s-europe-problem
• Nikola Mikovic on protests-power-struggles-russia-s-far-east
• stumbling and mumbling on conceptions-of-politics

Asia

• Nishank Motwani on real-peace-afghanistan-needs-plan-b
• Barkley Rosser on the-bahrain-israel-mutual-recognition
• Titlu Basu on making-prime-minister-suga
• Donna Weeks on suga-steps-in-at-least-now
• Ben Rich on is-it-too-soon-to-herald-the-dawn-of-a-new-middle-east-it-all-depends-what-the-saudis-do-next

Wonk

• Brad De Long on five-books-on-the-classical-economists-five-books-expert-recommendations
• Ben Saul on exchanging-killers-for-peace-in-afghanistan-is-wrong-and-could-have-lasting-consequences
• Dirk Baur and Allen Trench on in-gold-we-trust-why-bullion-is-still-a-safe-haven-in-times-of-crisis
• Jacques Raubenheimer on now-everyones-a-statistician-heres-what-armchair-covid-experts-are-getting-wrong
• Tim Harford on we-wont-remember-much-of-what-we-did-in-the-pandemic
• stumbling and mumbling on the-hayek-question
• Institutional Economics on p/the-myth-of-stealth-qe
• the conversable economist on africa-is-not-five-countries, stock-buybacks-leverage-vs-managerial-self dealing
• Menzie Chinn on nominal-income-targeting-and-measurement-issues
• Richard Holden on vital-signs-50-years-ago-milton-friedman-told-us-greed-was-good-he-was-half-right
• John Quiggin on firm-specific-skills-and-working-from-home

General

• Laurau McKemmish on life-on-venus-traces-of-phosphine-may-be-a-sign-of-biological-activity

Climate

• David Roberts on climate-change-west-coast-fires-cause-charts
• and Then Theres Physics on cosmopolitan-knowledge
• James Shulmeister on climate-explained-will-the-tropics-eventually-become-uninhabitable
• Moyhu on giss-august-global-down-by-005-from-july
• Real Climate on new-studies-confirm-weakening-of-the-gulf-stream-circulation

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

• why-we-kept-the-trig-in-golf-mathematical-simplicity-is-not-always-the-same-as-conceptual-simplicity
• congressional-representation-accountability-from-the-constituents-perspective
• what-are-my-statistical-principles
• 2-economics-nobel-prizes-1-error
• figure-1-looks-like-random-variation-to-me-indeed-so-it-does-and-figure-2-as-well-but-statistical-significance-was-found-so-this-bit-of-randomness-was-published-in-a-top-journal
• coronavirus-disparities-in-palestine-and-in-michigan
• election-forecasts-the-math-the-goals-and-the-incentives-my-talk-this-wed-afternoon-at-cornell-university
• taking-the-bus
• low-rate-of-positive-coronavirus-tests
• in-case-youre-wondering-this-is-why-the-u-s-health-care-system-is-the-most-expensive-in-the-world
• everything-that-can-be-said-can-be-said-clearly
• election-scenario-explorer-using-economist-election-model
• we-want-certainty-even-when-its-not-appropriate
• James empty blog on weekly-rrrrrrreport
• statschat on bogus-skincare-surveys, undetected-covid-cases
• Kaiser Fung on story-first-thinking, what-to-make-of-the-vaccine-pledge, i-feel-sad-for-those-who-had-to-roll-out-the-methdology-change-bls-seasonal-adjustment, confusion-over-case-trends-and-positivity-ratios-an-aftertaste-of-targeted-testing

Econometrics

• No Hesitations on lawrence-r-klein-at-100
• Marc Bellamare on new version on paper

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

• the-joy-of-statistics, fictional-mobility
• Shane McCleod on book-review-where-borders-aren-t-always-badlands

vox wonk

• what-really-drives-inflation
• fallen-angels-and-indirect-contagion
• withering-cash-sweden-seems-special-rather-ahead-curve
• labour-market-effects-covid-19-sweden-and-its-neighbours
• role-prostitution-markets-domestic-violence-during-covid-19
• measuring-cost-living-mexico-and-us
• issues-arising-new-powell-doctrine
• capital-markets-covid-19-and-policy-measures
• testing-meritocracy-university-admissions
• international-tourism-and-short-run-growth
• why-we-may-trust-registered-clinical-trials
• china-s-mask-diplomacy
• building-strategy-resilience
• globalisation-and-fall-markups-poland
• modelling-evolution-trade-relationships-1970
• extracting-implicit-country-weights-ecb-s-monetary-policy
• immigration-and-top-1

more on reducing emissions and a sustainable economy

We examined the PM's bizarre proposal to have a large gas fired power station.

Everything would go swimmingly if we simply introduced a price on carbon. We both deal with the negative externalities  and ensure business knows what is occurring.

The electricity industry in particular would boom in terms of renewables.

Another industry to benefit would be transport. It would exacerbate the trend to electric and hybrid cars. Of course much stronger emission standards would help. As we have said previously if we had the same standards as say Europe car prices should fall.

Scott Morison is both mad and ignorant

Scott Morrison has announced if the private sector will not build a gas fired power station then the government will via the Snowy Hydro. He is worried that the closing of Liddell power will leave a void such as occurred with the closing of Hazelwood.

One big problem. AEMO said there was not a problem. Indeed AGL said they would replace the power with wind, gas, battery etc.

It does not work addressing the energy trilemma.

Let us go back to basics.

If gas power is the answer then why has not the private sector into it in a big way?

The reason is solar and wind power are vastly cheaper. It is useful on the margins but that is all. Not as expensive as coal fired power stations and not as unreliable as them either.

So in this case the government knows more than the market.

Also Snowy Hydro is a wholesale producer. If this power station went ahead it would be a high cost producer. That means it would only sell electricity if there was no other electricity. In other words it would be a very costly white elephant.

what happens when we have so much renewable power we can export it.

Stupid is as stupid does!

update:

Simon Holmes A Court

Superannuation.

Here in Australia we have a three tiered system of retirement Incomes. They are:

1. Compulsory Superannuation
2. Voluntary superannuation ( where you put in extra contributions)
3. The government pension

Paul Keating brought in compulsory superannuation many moons ago because of two reasons.

1. Superannuation was only available to public servants and some white collar employees usually on quite high incomes. It is important to note most people did not make any personal superannuation contributions at all.
2. The pension is adequate if you own your own home but only then.

Retirement incomes therefore was one of the clearest examples of market failure.

There was a timeline of the SGC gradually rising to 12% where it was thought most people could live as a self funded retiree. ( At present less than 20% of people in retirement are self funded retirees.)

I am always staggered that people who claim to want people to live free of government support in retirement support policies that lead to the opposite

John Barilaro is the most over-rated politician in Australia

The National party led by John Barilaro try to blow up possibly the most successful government in Australia.
This is despite the legislation had passed cabinet which he is in and in fact was not doing any of things he alleged.

Aunty Gladys stared him down and so he and his party had to backdown although that did not stop him saying black was white.

In the last election in NSW the Nationals went backwards and indeed lost two of the safest seats to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party principally due to water ( although to be fair the two successful candidates had completely opposite 'solutions' to the problem.
He is also aware there are independents waiting to compete for other safe National seats. They are confident because they believe they can represent farming interests where the Nationals cannot.

The Nationals problems these days is that leaders or potential leaders are not farmers. Think Barilaro or McCormack or Joyce at a Federal level.

Moreover whenever Barilaro  protests about government decisions he as part of cabinet approved it only weakens the government he is part of.

His behaviour before the Eden Monaro by-election again showed he is politically witless. And he had ambitions to lead the nationals at a national level!

quite easily the most over-rated politician in Australia