Rio Tinto says coal power cannot compete to power aluminium smelters. Well knock me down with a feather. Fancy that.
Nuclear power still way to expensive to generate electricity. There is no commercial SMR anywhere!
Mark the Graph likes New Keynesian models.
black holes anyone?
This book may explain why super is so political.
Noah likes India.
Sorry everyone but I feel I have to address this issue more fully as some people are telling porkies.
Let us get down to basics. It is bowlers who determine who shines the cricket ball and how they do it. If you give this job to a novice he could muck it up and thus the ball will do nothing and the bowlers are worse off. The person allocated to do something to the ball in SA was one Cameron Bancroft. In test terms he was a novice. The bowlers would make sure he knew exactly what to do or were told by someone they trusted he knew what to do.
What is more when they saw the ball being changed they would either ask questions or know the plan was working.
The context here is the kookaburra was not swinging much alah orthodox swing but the SA bowlers were using reverse swing much better than the aussies. Also important here is shine on one part of the ball also assists the orthodox spinner with their arm ball as well as swerve for all spinners.
Thus the bowlers in that test would most certainly had known what was going on and it is highly likely the 'plan' would have been discussed in the dressing room.
Having said all that I always believed the punishment was far bigger than the crime.
From where I sit I see no reason to disbelieve Uzzie at all. Please do not say it was for book sales because 1) he won't make money from the book 2) he is already very well off as his wealth is in the millions.
Let's start with Trump.
It is very hard to predict the unpredictable however the appointment of Miller as his new chief of staff is surely an indication he will play hard ball and ignore the HUGE vote against him.I can see heaps of vetos and the DOJ amping up its 'investigations. Also remember it is the DOJ that determines who can or cannot be prosecuted on the recommendation of congress. Miller has more power so deportation aint going nowhere. A person who calls democrats a terrorist threat is mad and he is trump's main man! He is not a negotiator either.
Thus it is hard to envisage Trump changing his policies!
Also important is the fact Trump WILL determine who the next republican presidential candidate is thus they will have to embrace trumpism.
The Democrats have to look ready to 'make deals'. If the public believe them then Trump will get the blame for any vetoes and Republicans will lose the next presidential election. It will be interesting to see if they can do anything about budget repair. From where i sit they only had at worst more spending proposals at best a change in spending priorities not a reduction ( and/or a rise in taxation).
The next democrat presidential candidate will be a moderate because if he/she wins texas then it will be all over red rover and a pressive won't win texas.
The republicans are in a bind. They need to reject trumpism but cannot because MAGA cannot accept reality ( 1932 anyone). States have swung to the democrats so gerrymandering is out of the question. They probably won't get much of a swing until 2030 and those mid-terms. ( They had better hope no conservative judges die given the senate numbers.
New Zealand
They had an election overthere and no-one won but but no-one lost! Late votes wil ldetermine who governs.
Israel
The President has asked Eisenkot to try and form a government. He does have time but his coalition is very wide and only agree on tossing Netanyahu. Few parties want Arabs in their coalition government
As Orwell might have said not all israelis are equal!!
USA
Trump gives the US electorate the middle finger by appointing Miller a racist bigot as his chief of staff signaling he will fight congress not attempt to govern with them.
He then tells the DOJ to examine those in congress who want to investigate the administration.
Sandpapergate
Well Uzzie said all the team was into this. Of course they were, the bowlers in particular. They are the most concerned with whoever is dealing with the ball. A person who does not know what they are doing can make for a dud cricket ball. The bowlers therefore would have a very close eye on what was happening to the ball. Only a wood-duck would have believed only three people were involved.
double minded people
Can people get their arguments straight. IF government spending is the problem by pumping up demand then we cannot be heading into a recession, nor can we feel like it is in a recession. If we are heading into a recession or fell like it then inflation will fall and fall by a lot! IF the government is taxing too much then that offsets spending somewhat.
If people want immigration to fall but nominate areas where they will rise then other areas such as Unis, Cafes and aged care will be cut drastically!!!
Here they are at woodstock doing on the road again. As the old saying goes if you remember woodstock you weren't there.
It is time again for Around the Traps.
Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy
OZ Climate
Northern America
Europe
Asia
Wonk
General
Climate
Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)
Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)
Vox Wonk
Let me pound my chest. When Trump won in 2024 I said he would lose bigtime in the mid-terms in september.
Let us go through a few things shall we.
Trump is terrible at politics
He won in a fluke in 2016 and courtesy of Comey's improper intervention. He got a minority of the vote. He badly lost the mid-terms and in other years. He won narrowly in 2024 when incumbent government lost big. He is an expert at choosing bad candidates.
Polling
Yes Trump over-performed in election compared to polling in 2016 (a little) and 2024 ( a lot) BUT democrats over-performed in mid-terms since 2016!
Policies
I stated when he won his policies were incoherent and would lead to disaster. Tariffs would lead to increased costs and therefore prices is just one example. He never understood tariffs and no-one was around to correct him.
He was in a bubble
He had a blonde printing out only good news. He simply did not know what the punters thought.
The major issues
He was badly behind on all major issues even immigration. See previous topic. When you arrest law abiding people rather than the worst of the worst and then kill people and lie in court about arrests it eventually hits home. Latinos hit with inflation and then this said bye bye to trump.
Corruption
He did not even try to hide his corruption as he thought he was bullet proof. He wasn't. Like Orbaan he got hit with this linked to inflation.
Incompetence
When you appoint people because of loyalty not ability shite happens. The DOJ is possibly the best example of this.
Revenge
It was only a small issue but simply added to others. You cannot deny lawfare when you openly state it and when the cases blow up it only made it worse.
Billionaires
They wasted a lot of money and actually made it a positive issue for Democrats. Musk for example is political poison
The gerrymandering by republicans was incompetent. they lost almost all the seats they thought they would win. One swing was over 70%.
Iran War
Whoopsy how could I forget this. An example of Trump incompetence in action that punished americans because he was too lazy to do his job properly. This and epstein meant the typical punter got sick of his lies.
