Some TV Shows

 The Capture

I will simply say watch it. There are three seasons and they are all brilliant. It is on Iview so binge it if you haven't seen it. Highly recommended.

Watson

A modern day version of Sherlock and Watson but with little of Sherlock. Watson is a highly trained medical specialist not the bumbling butt of jokes in the novels and he is black and it is based in the USA. He does have a beautiful ex-wife. After an episode you will like it or not. It is more of a medical drama rather than a crime drama.

Boston Blue

This is an offshoot of Blue Bloods one of the best us crime series and this does does not disappoint. In a word if you like blue bloods then you will like boston blue. A couple of minor criticisms. Sean is different and not as good and the writing on religion ( christianity and judaism) lacks knowledge.

Cooper and Fry

Another series on the ABC. Short seasons but interesting. You will either like it or not after the first episode.

The Odyssey

 I watched the odyssey last night with my two sons. It is three hours I wil never get back.

Given my greek background ( I have always enjoyed greek mythology even as a schoolboy)and given the rotten tomatoes rating of 98 I went full of hope.

It was in vain. The film is three hours and way too long and to be honest I thought it to a load of old cobblers.

My eldest son thought it too long but thought he needed to watch it. My youngest said it was soso but again you needed to watch it and the audience actually clapped at the end of the movie so yes I could be just one of the 2%!

There was quite a few black people in the film which would have been unheard of in greek society two of the wives and one was helen of troy/sparta. very inclusive!

I was surprised he didn't use the story to show the remnants of troy started rome!

Spain wins the world cup

Spain deservedly won the world cup. They started slow , like most champions of the past, but finished with a wet sail.

I really do not know what the Argentine tactics were, Perhaps playing for a penalty shoot out! Whatever but it was a one-sided contest. Clearly the previous games took a lot out of their players. Messi did very little. ( yamal had a quiet game as well.)

It will probably go down as the world cup where good coaches made inexplicable substitutions ,tuchel at the top of the heap. Overall there was only one game which was truly one-sided and therefore a blow out occurred. We do not know however whether this was a  one-off or a regular thing. blow-outs will reduce the credibility of the word cup. consistency on red cards are also important and thus the FIFA president needs to go.

The world cup now is so large few countries can host it. ( We cannot because of stadiums).

We await what occurs in four years.

Around the Traps 17/7/26

 It is time again for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• Kimberlee Weatherall on australias-government-has-woken-up-to-the-risks-of-ai-more-ambition-is-needed
• Anam Bilgrami on one-nation-says-photo-id-will-help-stop-medicare-rorts-heres-why-thats-wrong
• Peter Breadon et al on unfair-fees-and-low-competition-why-the-pharmacy-sector-needs-a-shake-up
• Kevin Bonham on demosau-could-hare-clark-help-one-nation-shift-tasmania-to-the-right
• Rita Matulionyte on australia-wants-to-manage-ai-what-will-that-look-like
• Peter Greste on its-the-abcs-job-to-be-accurate-and-fair-not-to-chase-the-dangerous-fallacy-of-balance
• Greg Jericho on one-nation-australian-economy-peoples-bank
• Becky Freeman and Michelle Jongenelis on despite-claims-smoking-has-made-a-comeback-just-5-6-of-australians-now-smoke-daily

OZ Climate

• its-nuts-wind-developer-forced-to-truck-giant-transformer-thousands-of-kilometres-after-port-refusal
  
• states-stand-alone-solar-fail-the-energy-transition-should-deliver-more-than-a-new-landlord
  
• starting-from-scratch-on-nuclear-in-australia-would-take-longer-cost-more-than-first-time-offshore-wind
  
• solar-and-wind-remain-backbone-of-least-cost-future-grid-as-batteries-squeeze-gas-to-a-fraction-of-the-mix
  
• we-cannot-wait-changes-made-to-renewable-tenders-to-ensure-wind-and-solar-projects-actually-get-built
  
• solar-and-wind-remain-backbone-of-least-cost-future-grid-as-batteries-squeeze-gas-to-a-fraction-of-the-mix
  
• coal-closure-plan-urgently-needed-as-unreliable-clunkers-push-power-prices-through-roof
  
• australia-is-running-a-data-deficit-on-evs-and-the-energy-shit-and-everyone-pays-the-price
  
• the-great-gas-disconnect-why-australia-needs-a-managed-exit-strategy-for-stranded-gas-network
• Andrew Watkins on what-happened-to-australias-snow-season-a-climate-expert-explains
• Graham Readfearn on coalition-and-one-nations-plan-to-ditch-net-zero-would-not-lower-power-prices-csiro-report-finds
• Mehdi Sayedmahmdian on the-data-centre-boom-wont-mean-higher-power-prices-if-we-unlock-stalled-renewable-projects

Northern America

• institutional economics on can-us-exceptionalism-survive-demographic-decline 
• Samuel Rubinstein on jd-vances-convenient-catholicism Thanks Nick
• Andrew Kemp on an-australian-perspective-on-the-fourth-of-july Thanks Nick
• noahpinion on magas-attack-on-science-is-even-worse-than-it-looks , i-have-never-been-working-class , the-american-suburbs-are-better-than-you-think , why-i-didnt-sign-the-we-must-act-now
• Kruggers on ai-in-an-age-of-oligarchy , suddenly-hormuz-is-less-crucial-than-it-was , the-forever-war-gets-scary , democracy-in-an-age-of-powermaxxing , trump-cant-get-no-respect
• Menzie Chinn on the-sustainability-of-ai-investment , ppi-and-cpi-again
• Benji Sarlin on lindsey-graham-dead-donald-trump-legacy-senate-ukraine
• Anne Applebaum on lindsey-graham
• Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Stern on supreme-court-voting-tariffs-trump-shameless
• John Cassidy on donald-trumps-needless-war-with-iran-is-his-biggest-economic-blunder
• Brad De Long on crosspost-claudia-sahm-what-will-it-take-for-the-fed-to-hike
• David Rhode et al  on trump-classified-intelligence-midterm-elections-2026
• Hady Mawajdeh and Sean Rameswaram on ice-killing-houston-araujo
• Adam Serwer on the-see-no-evil-supreme-court
• Alexis Romero on supreme-court-justices-senate-barrett-kagan-ethics
• new deal democrat on june-cpi-never-look-a-gift-horse-in-the-mouth
• Liz Dye on todd-blanche-confirmation-hearing
• Greg Barton on backed-into-a-corner-by-iran-over-the-strait-of-hormuz-trump-may-resort-to-even-more-reckless-escalation
• Andrew Prokop on israel-democrats-polling-gaza-genocide
• Fred Kaplan on pete-hegseth-testosterone-testing-military
• the conversable economist on how-much-does-federal-rd-pay-off
• Tom Dannenbaum and Eliav Lieblich on international-law-response-rubio-icc
• Jeet Heer on lindsey-graham-obituary-trump , trump-election-fraud-speech-reaction-analysis

Europe

• Cory Alpert on the-alliance-trump-built-trying-to-break-it
• mainly macro on how-right-wing-populism-came-easily-to-the-conservative-party
• Simon Shuster on ukraine-denys-shtilerman-drone-missile

Asia

• Jessica Genauer on despite-trumps-wishes-iran-is-dragging-the-us-into-a-long-war
• Rodger Shanahan on how-an-assassination-by-trump-and-netanyahu-became-a-victory-for-their-enemy
• Gabriela Bernal on behind-pyongyang-s-boom
• Muhammed Rizwan on afghanistan-s-exportable-threat
• Andrew Prokop on trump-strait-hormuz-guardian-fees-iran
• Amin Saikal on the-us-and-iran-are-back-at-war-and-with-one-main-sticking-point-theres-no-end-in-sight
• home and away on special-edition-a-strategy-for-iran
• Henry Storey on can-china-create-the-next-apple-or-nvidia
• Menzie Chinn on china-macro-indicators-as-reported

Wonk

• Felix Martin on good-bad-ugly-ais-economic-impact Thanks Nick
• David Dayen on great-ai-repricing-isnt-going-well Thanks Nick
• Martha Nussbaum on the-professor-of-parody Thanks Nick
• Pete Buttegieg on a-terrible-thing-happened-to-my-family Thanks Nick
• Menzie Chinn on five-facts-about-the-uncovered-interest-parity-premium , kim-ruhl-rethinking-free-trade
• Alexander Howard on friday-essay-cultural-marxism-is-a-conspiracy-theory-for-our-time
• Christopher Pollard on antonio-gramsci-his-philosophy-explained
• Tyler Cowen on progress-against-dementia , markets-are-competitive-if-and-only-if-p-np
• Brad De Long on crosspost-art-goldhammer-the-unbearable-vacuity-of-the-moment
• Marina Zhang on when-tech-giants-exercise-state-power
• David Nellor on ai-regulation-answers-the-wrong-question
• Shannon Brincat on the-trump-administration-wants-to-dismantle-the-international-criminal-court-can-it
• Abhinandan Kumar on at-the-world-cup-as-in-life-football-nationalises-success-and-ethnicises-failure
• Sarah Diepstraten and John La Marca on no-evidence-mobile-phones-cause-brain-cancer-new-study
• David Pritchard on how-controlling-and-tolling-a-narrow-waterway-near-ancient-troy-changed-history

General

• Anne-Sophie Levidis on what-the-annales-taught-me-at-the-kitchen-table Thanks Nick
• Bikesh Upreti et al on var-was-supposed-to-take-the-messy-human-element-out-of-refereeing-how-did-it-go-so-wrong
• Daryl Sparkes on remembering-the-quiet-genius-of-sam-neill
• Philip Almond on philistine-is-a-byword-for-boorish-ignorance-but-the-real-philistines-were-cultured-who-were-they
• Greta Hawes and R Scott Smith on the-odyssey-is-set-in-a-fantasy-world-but-the-ancient-greeks-mapped-it-onto-what-they-knew
• Anthony Macris on ive-been-reading-the-odyssey-my-whole-life-nolans-film-version-is-exhilarating-but-not-perfect

Climate

• David Appell on short-but-moving 
• ocean acidification on the-effects-of-single-and-multiple-climate-driven-stressors-exposures-on-the-seagrass-posidonia-oceanica-phenological-cellular-and-genetic-adaptations , climate-change-and-ocean-acidification-outweigh-local-stressors-in-mediterranean-mussels-a-multi-method-convergence-analysis
• Tim Harford on how-did-air-conditioning-become-a-heated-debate
• stochastic trend on long-run-benefits-of-electrification
• Kit Prendergast on big-bees-have-the-most-to-lose-as-global-co-levels-rise-new-research
• skeptical science on deadly-france-heatwave-future-risk , home-batteries-next-must-have
• open mind on historys-hottest-heat-n-hemisphere-extratropics-edition
• Menzie Chinn on june-temperature-anomaly

Andrew Gelman (mainly stats)

• more-bad-science-from-jama
  
• archaeology-cant-give-social-scientists-population-or-gdp-but-here-are-some-things-we-can-measure-that-might-be-useful-for-social-science
  
• archaeology-cant-give-social-scientists-population-or-gdp-but-here-are-some-things-we-can-measure-that-might-be-useful-for-social-science
  
• interesting-statistical-example-of-flaws-in-a-voter-impact-index
  
• making-statistics-work-information-theory-and-bayesian-inference 
  
• survey-statistics-quantifying-uncertainty-in-ranked-choice-voting-polls
  
• a-ranked-choice-election-in-maine-using-voting-data-to-understand-preferences
  
• reviews-of-our-bayesian-workflow-book-from-bin-yu-david-spiegelhalter-brad-efron-christian-robert-and-rohan-alexander
  
• Kaiser Fung on drowning-in-colors

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

• nuttin

vox wonk

• trapped-home-climate-stress-more-likely-immobilise-poor-move-them 
  
• innovation-without-borders 
  
• ned-phelps-and-modern-macroeconomics
  
• how-large-current-account-imbalances-unwind-evidence-historical-adjustment-episodes 
  
• climate-fairness-economic-development-and-europes-responsibility 
  
• macroeconomic-impact-recovery-and-resilience-facility-analysis-italy-spain-and-greece
  
• opening-black-box-europes-new-fiscal-rules 
  
• harmonising-access-and-reinventing-procurement-innovative-medicines-europe 
  
• higher-utilisation-explains-recent-surge-productivity-growth 
  
• after-credit-suisse-markets-find-bail-less-credible
  

It is Spain V Argentina

 The semi-finals are over and we know who the finalists are. Spain will start favourites. They have conceded only one goal, whilst they stated slow they have gotten better with each game and they know how to control the ball.

Whilst spain were very good against france we should acknowledge france were poor. It seemed they were unaware ( like when they played paraguay) of the tactics spain would use. everybody else knew. His substitutions made little sense. The left back was bad and should not have been selected.

argentine deservedly won the other semi-final. england had one chance and scored. argentina had plenty and hit the post twice! The english substitutions made little sense.He brought on defenders when up only 1-0. Strangle the defence got worse. Also despite an immense advantage in height argentina always looked dangerous when a cross came over and consequently won because of a messi cross. England's crosses were poor.

I favour Spain. Unlike england they can control the game if they score. Their defence is the best in the competition and they can attack quickly. Lastly Messi looks quite tired which is understandable given his age and the heat.

bring on monday morning ( 5am)

The strait of hormuz

 This will be very short.

You will not get any ships going through the strait until they get insurance. NO insurance company will write a policy at present because of uncertainty the the very high risks involved.

Thus the present imbroglio is helping Iran not the USA.

The USA

 Minnesota

I read the governor had pardoned a child rapist and said to myself what the hell is going on. I then found out the victim asked Waltz to pardon him. This was vital information yet it was missing. Why? So-called conservatives thought it irrelevant to the story showing they are not journalists but poor propogandists. Poor because once it was known they would be seen for what they are.

Iran

Trump is now planning to charge a toll on any ship using the strait of hormuz. Strange but when Iran threatened this people pointed out it was illegal. The more I think about it the more I cannot see a solution to the war Trump declared.

How many patriot and tomahawk missiles have been wasted on Iran? Iran was never a threat to any country. Those missiles could have been used well by Ukraine

Lindsay Graham

He died from a heart attack on the weekend. his great claim was on foreign policy yet he was very poor on this. He fervently supported the war on Iraq despite Iraq not being a threat to anyone. He wanted Trump to invade Iran! that was nuts. At least he was right on Ukraine but even here he was impotent. His very last journey was to Ukraine. The Whitehouse was still saying russia held all the cards and was advancing on all fronts.  The white house believed russian disinformation rather than the facts on the ground.

ICE

ICE has killed yet another person and blatantly lied about it. They repeat the same lie after they kill some-one. The white house seem oblivious to polls showing how deeply unpopular this policy is. It is the single issue that has completely changed the 'latino' vote.

The similarities of Platner and Farage ( and Le Pen?)

 For those living on another planet Graham Platner recently resigned as the democratic  senate candidate for Maine. Nigel Farage resigned his seat for election but will re-contest it where his main opponent is count binface! Marie Le Pen will contest the French presidency but with an ankle bracelet!

Platner had a nazi tattoo for which he had no intelligent explanation for. Surely amber lights were flashing. then we had secting scandals and finally we had him accused of rape which was the final straw.

Farage has so many allegations of corruption I will outsource it.

Le Pen also has problems with corruption.

Both Platner and Farage pleaded innocent of all charges BUT said it was all the work of the 'ESTABLISHMENT'.

Both Farage and Le Pen wanted the voters to make decisions on their charges not courts or parliamentary committees specifically designed for such work.

Both Platner and Farage have been found out . When the heat was on then they had no satisfactory explanations and lashed out.

Both Farage and Le Pen want nothing to do with a proper investigation of their offences. They want voters to make a decisions whilst being uninformed. ( hopefully Count Binface will embarrass Farage to the hilt. Farage does have the look of a slimey crooked person!) Why is it the right wing populists are so open to corruption?

In Farage's case if he is found guilty by the parliamentary committee He will have to miss ten days of parliament and thereby  be recalled and hence a new by-election.

John McLaughlin and Jean Luc Ponty

John McLaughlin was one of the all-time great guitarists. Jean Luc Ponty the same with the electric violin.

They toured together here with the Mahavishnu orchestra and Ponty also played here with Frank Zappa  (when norman gunston was guest on mouth harp) both were at the hordern pavilion.

Around the Traps 10/7/26

 It is time again for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• institutional economics on too-lowe-for-zero
• Nick Feik on ruthless-cost-cutting-furious-staff Thanks Nick
• John Quiggin on class-not-cohortwhy-intergenerational-inequity-is-the-wrong-frame-for-thinking-about-access-to-housing-and-home-ownership-in-australia , telstras-triple-zero-failure-is-a-result-of-prioritising-neoliberal-competition-and-reaping-none-of-its-benefits
• Charles Livingstone on how-gambling-companies-use-the-grey-area-of-sponsorship-and-ads-to-reach-world-cup-viewers
• Alan Duncan and Steven Rowley on australias-housing-market-is-cooling-perhaps-our-expectations-should-too
• Steve Georgakis on the-socceroos-defensive-approach-ended-their-world-cup-dreams-they-have-some-tough-decisions-to-make
• Nicki Hutley on ai-artificial-intelligence-benefits-costs-datacentres-energy-water-environment
• Faraz Hasan on how-does-a-telstra-outage-bring-down-trains-a-telco-expert-explains
• Fei Gao and Richard Krever on how-australias-new-negative-gearing-rules-might-accidentally-favour-some-property-investors
• Peter McDonald on australias-migration-system-lacks-something-crucial-a-plan
• Alan Sunderland on abc-and-sbs-coverage-of-the-middle-east-isnt-perfect-but-the-proposed-solutions-are-ill-conceived-and-dangerous

OZ Climate

• thin-white-strips-on-brown-slopes-manufactured-ski-seasons-are-fuelling-the-climate-problem
  
• only-so-much-you-can-do-with-hydrogen-and-batteries-jet-fuel-made-from-cooking-oil-to-be-used-at-australian-airport
  
• planning-meeting-over-solar-and-battery-project-cancelled-after-none-of-133-objectors-bothers-to-show-up
  
• solar-sharer-free-power-offer-is-being-undermined-by-higher-network-charges-and-complex-tariffs
  
• renewables-remain-cheapest-new-power-option-and-avoided-us480bn-in-fossil-fuel-costs-in-2025
  
• electric-trucks-mines-and-farms-low-carbon-fuels-key-to-break-australias-foreign-fuel-dependence
  
• struggling-wind-projects-warned-their-unused-capacity-will-be-returned-to-future-cis-tenders
  
• coal-closure-interventions-are-stifling-investment-in-the-very-projects-needed-to-replace-them
  
• home-battery-market-undergoes-healthy-reset-as-rooftop-solar-lingers-in-record-territory
  
• home-battery-market-undergoes-healthy-reset-as-rooftop-solar-lingers-in-record-territory
  
• David Roche on after-home-batteries-could-the-humble-water-heater-be-the-next-big-step-forward
• Hussein Dia on fragmented-and-incomplete-why-isnt-anyone-in-charge-of-australias-ev-charger-rollout
• Em Murdock and Lucas Zeppetello on a-big-el-nino-is-likely-australia-needs-to-get-ready-now-for-drought-fire-and-the-unknown

Northern America

• the weekly dish on dude-lmao-this-is-a-gas-station Thanks Nick
• kruggers on bicentennial-memories , pump-and-dump-and-trump , the-pain-in-spain-is-mainly-in-trumps-brain , the-heat-is-on
• noahpinion on the-american-age-was-the-human-age , jd-vances-crusade-against-gdp-is-wrong-and-bad
• the conversable economist on declaration-of-independence-track-changes-version , shifts-in-non-cash-payments
• Menzie Chinn on canadian-gdp-nfp-recovers ,canadian-tory-recession-call-beware-the-revisions
• Katherine Ott on how-did-it-feel-to-be-an-american-colonist-in-1776-probably-itchy-achy-and-slightly-nauseated
• David Frum on trump-july-4 
• Isaac Chotiner on how-political-is-this-supreme-court
• Brad De Long on trump-surrendered-the-strait-of-hormuz-to-iran-and emptied-the-shelevs-of -americas-arsenal , financial-markets-see-core-inflation-as-the-problem , semi-crosspost-joey-brookhart-crystal-huang-and-dylan-patel
• Daniel Engbar on lab-leak-payback
• Jonathan Chait on graham-platner-allegations-maine-senate , trump-communism-socialism-central-control
• Ian Millhiser on supreme-court-maga-backlash-amy-coney-barrett
• Tyler Cowen on just-wondering-what-the-correct-model-of-iran-is-here
• Zack Beauchamp on democrats-israel-rahm-emanuel-speech
• Lev Manaud on slaughter-categorical-rule-cook-exception
• Paul Waldman on trump-communism

Europe

• Louise Perry on gone-to-australia Thanks Nick
• Ian Hill on russia-ukraine-has-tide-really-turned
• Tim Harford on the-uk-is-stuck-in-a-rollercoaster-queue
• renew economy on renewables-covered-record-58-pct-of-german-electricity-consumption-in-first-half-of-2026
• Tim Bale et al on why-nigel-farage-is-resigning-as-an-mp-only-to-stand-again-expert-analysis
• Mainly Macro on the-uks-falling-debt-to-gdp-fiscal-rule-is-a-rule-to-suppress-public-investment
• David Appell on the-european-heat-bomb
• Tim Bale et al on why-nigel-farage-is-resigning-as-an-mp-only-to-stand-again-expert-analysis
• Chris Dillow on unbusinesslike-government

Asia

• kvetch on contra-robert-manne-on-israel Thanks Nick
• noahpinion on no-china-did-not-manage-to-avoid-a-crash
• James Dwyer on chinas-submarine-missile-test-looks-routine-the-real-story-is-the-panic-it-triggered
• Oliver Nobetau on beijing-s-own-goal-in-the-pacific 
• Graham Fletcher on yes-china-does-seek-hegemony
• Tanmay Kadam on beijing-s-welfare-bill-that-no-one-wants-to-pay
• Tom Nicholls on iran-controls-war-trump
• Jessica Genauer on despite-trumps-wishes-iran-is-dragging-the-us-into-a-long-war
• Nitya Labh on south-china-sea-if-you-can-t-beat-them-build-islands
• home and away on the-state-of-the-jewish-state-july

Wonk

• Brad De Long on programmer-productivity-chart-of-the-day
• sensible medications on why-should-i-take-these-medications Thanks Nick
• Robert Gilles on who-decides-what-a-good-is Thanks Nick
• CPJ on record-number-of-journalists-killed-in-2025-israel-responsible-for-two-thirds-of-deaths Thanks Nick
• Nikki-Anne Wilson on what-is-mild-cognitive-impairment-and-does-it-always-lead-to-dementia
• Catherine Ordway and James Connor on why-reports-trump-pressed-fifa-to-overturn-a-decision-are-so-alarming
• Omar Bartov on the-judeo-bolshevist-target-jochen-hellbeck
• Keith Rathbone on after-the-red-card-scandal-has-the-shine-come-off-gianni-infantinos-world-cup

General

• Claire Allfree on out-of-the-depths-songs-concentration-camps-yiddish Thanks Nick
• Benjamin Muir on from-the-godfather-to-middlemarch-8-of-the-most-faithful-adaptations-ever

Climate

• Thomas Gernon on why-antarctica-froze-millions-of-years-before-the-arctic-new-research
• ocean acidification on assessing-early-oil-industry-awareness-of-the-impacts-of-fossil-fuels-on-coral-reefs-using-a-novel-ai-agent , reassessing-the-climate-mitigation-benefits-and-environmental-risks-of-coastal-seaweed-farming
• Bill McKibben on an-inconvenient-moment-for-an-extreme-global-heat-wave 
• skeptical science on new_research

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

• a-new-episode-in-the-francesca-gino-case
  
• 2015-vintage-replication-crisis-junk-science-floats-into-the-news
  
• n2
  
• turning-chaotic-sensitivity-from-a-bug-into-a-feature-using-physical-modeling-and-deep-learning-to-alter-the-paths-of-storms-and-mitigate-extreme-weather-events
  
• can-someone-forward-this-to-carol-tavris-please
  
• survey-statistics-toy-example-for-energy-balancing-weights 
  
• is-fabricating-data-worse-than-fabricating-results-is-failing-to-correct-a-known-false-report-more-or-less-serious-than-making-the-false-report-in-the-first-place
  
• a-medical-journal-says-the-case-reports-it-has-published-for-25-years-are-in-fact-fiction
  
• Kaiser Fung on its-all-there-even-if-you-cant-see-it

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

• Suzy Freeman-Greene on cant-get-enough-of-the-world-cup-here-are-the-best-books-about-soccer-chosen-by-experts
• Alex Tabarrok on what-to-watch-and-not
• Brad De long on the-centuries-of-eric-hobsbawm-ii

Vox Wonk

• generational-challenge-turning-record-youth-surge-jobs-dividend 
  
• early-life-experiences-labour-markets-faced-others-can-leave-permanent-scars-mens 
  
• economic-footprint-europes-defence-build
  
• perceived-inflation-wedge-why-households-experience-inflation-differently-official 
  
• how-households-reason-and-behave-when-deposit-rates-become-negative 
  
• housing-affordability-reshaping-europes-social-fabric 
  
• eus-recovery-and-resilience-facility-experience-and-lessons-next-multiannual 
  
• how-higher-pensions-shape-work-after-retirement-lessons-germanys-earned-income 
  
• when-frances-legion-dhonneur-awards-move-stock-prices-market-signal-political-access
  

Who does Trump think he is kidding

 Donald Trump is the lowest of low IQ Presidents in my lifetime. It showed up bigtime when he went to war with Iran. He di not ask any decent questions and ignored some advice. see Tom Nicholls.

The 'short' war blew up in his face ( pun intended). The USA wasted for example patriot missiles against Iran. Those missiles did not help in subduing Iran at all. the USA again showed it is poor against asymmetric warfare . This should not be a surprise. the white house still believes russia is winning well against Ukraine ( who need patriot missiles now).

Given an airforce is unlikely to win a war  and it didn't even given Iran's decrepit defences then taking control of the strait of hormuz and therefore hiking up petrol prices was always going to hurt Trump politically more so in a mid-term year.

Thus any threats from Trump towards Iran are hollow and Iran knows it. Unlike trump they neither have to worry about their citizen's plight nor care.

Any further increases in 'war' will lead to a rise in petrol prices and thus hurt Trump. Trump know this , Iran knows this add to this how unpopular the war is and y

You can see how trump is kidding himself.

FIFA is a disgrace (again)

 The decision to remove the one match suspension for the american forward was a disgrace. The only time I can remember a  player being sent off and then playing was the great Roger Garrincha however back in 1962 there was no mandatory suspension.

At this stage FIFA has not even bothered with the excuse why the suspension was over-ruled. It becomes more worrisome when both actors in this situation are corrupts.

The Belgians were obviously fired up for the match whereas Trump's efforts appeared to have the opposite effect on the USA. As it was most people were barracking for Belgium because if the USA won there would be a dreadful stench about the result ( and future matches).

The World cup thus far had been a success. We cannot say that now. hopefully FIFA will have a new president after the cup is over!

If you want to do something about affordability then house prices have to fall

 I was amused to hear Dan Tehan both cheering for falling house prices and bewailing the fact they are falling.

We have a housing affordability problem and this has come about because housing prices have raced ahead of wage increases.

Thus either wages have to increase bigtime , which is impossible because of the inflationary consequences, or housing prices have to fall.  Read THIS article 

Thus far housing prices have started to fall ( because of rising interest rates) and this has contributed marginally to reducing affordability. The main target is to reduce housing prices without inducing a recession.

This is why most people would like to see housing prices continue to fall!

Poppa got it wrong ( again)

 Poppa was a genius against Turkey however his selections made no sense in the next three games.

Let us just take the game against Egypt.

Behich was awful. He was constantly beaten down the ,left side and was responsible for the goal against us. Irvine was equally bad. He gave away silly freekicks and turned over the ball too often. We rarely looked like scoring a goal because of the formation. The substitutes made no impact and I thought were brought on for the penalty shootout. Why didn't specialist penalty takers take the penalties .Why were the three central defenders selected?

What was it with Irankunda. He played a blinder against turkey and scored, could have scored again as a WINGER. He was then selected as a striker. He is 5' 7"  thus he is rarely going to score from a cross. We had no creativity in the midfield. This was always going to occur after Robertson was told to go home.

On the positive side we have a young side. Beach is great. Our central defenders are superb. Bos is something special. We need a right back.

Give Robertson a chance in the midfield as we  need it.

Volpato and Yengi  should be partnered as should Irankunda and Toure.

We have to look forward to the Asian cup and we have the players to attack so we should.

Poppa is too defensive and thus we give our opposition too much respect ( and ball in matches ). It is ironic that Ange would be ideal now.

I should add I am sick of the socceroos being underdogs. We have the talent to be better. So when teams are in the same group they fear us and are worried they will get beaten.

The Asian cup will make or break Poppa.

Around the Traps 3/7/26

 It is time again for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• Ryan Heath on oh-theres-a-gap-in-the-analysis-of-pauline-activity Thanks nick
• Kos Samaras on at-the-press-club-the-real-world Thanks nick
• Matteo Vergani et al on new-study-of-2-million-online-posts-shows-persistent-anti-jew-and-anti-muslim-hate-in-australia
• Emily Foley and Bec Strating on coherence-one-nation-would-bulldoze-australian-foreign-policy
• Louisa Jones on how-does-australias-migration-system-actually-work-5-common-myths-busted
• Mark Cully on australia-was-built-on-migration-but-its-long-been-a-love-hate-relationship
• Nicki Hutley on world-economic-crisis-government-response
• Emily Foley on migration-is-dropping-but-public-concern-is-climbing-why
• Patrick Commins on australia-mortgage-burden-above-1989-levels

OZ Climate

• swiss-commodity-trader-gets-approval-to-buy-zen-retail-business-and-ppa-deals-will-it-take-on-big-3
  
• game-changer-for-evs-australian-battery-pioneer-lands-45m-grant-for-silicon-anode-that-boosts-energy-density
  
• households-are-about-to-be-offered-3-hours-of-free-power-who-should-sign-up-and-who-should-think-twice
  
• if-australia-is-serious-about-1-5c-it-needs-to-shut-down-coal-by-2034-and-install-a-lot-more-solar-and-batteries
  
• landmark-deal-to-power-ai-factories-underwrites-much-needed-big-battery-on-australias-most-renewable-grid
  
• australias-abundance-of-renewables-can-power-future-industry-but-we-need-it-resilient-and-we-need-it-fast
  
• solar-sharer-is-here-offering-free-power-to-all-will-it-level-the-playing-field-or-benefit-batteries-most
  
• giant-remote-zinc-mine-aims-to-reach-at-least-80-pct-renewables-with-addition-of-wind-farm-and-big-battery
  
• one-year-on-cheaper-home-batteries-has-changed-the-grid-now-its-time-to-redesign-the-energy-market
  
• one-in-17-australian-homes-now-has-a-solar-battery-as-total-installs-sail-past-450000-at-one-year-mark
• Milton Speer and Lance Leslie on could-this-be-australias-warmest-winter-ever

Northern America

• Brad De Long on the-casual-destruction-of-usaid , i-am-glad-lisa-cook-rightly-gets-to-keep-her-job-as-federalreserve governor , is-kevin-warsh-as-bad-a-central-banker-as-he-seems-perhaps , what-exactly-is-sven-beckertian-capitalism , trump-surrendered-the-strait-of-hormuz-to-iran-and-emptied-the-shelves-of-americas-arsenal
• noahpinion on the-democrats-have-their-own-maga , stop-screeching-about-immigration-and-get-smart-about-it
• Kruggers on corruption-for-make-benefit-glorious-family-of-trump , the-court-sides-with-dictatorship , a-verdict-on-the-slaughter , there-are-very-few-socialists-in-america
• Ian Millhiser on supreme-court-trump-slaughter-cook-unitary-executive , supreme-court-watson-rnc-absentee-ballots-barrett-alito , supreme-court-birthright-citizenship-trump-barbara
• Mark Stern on supreme-court-john-roberts-autocracy , supreme-court-birthright-citizenship-scandal-brett-kavanaugh
• Richard Hasen on supreme-court-roberts-barrett-bonkers-voting-case
• Charlie Warzel on reflecting-pool-america-250-trump
• Zack Beauchamp on trump-power-agencies-slaughter-supreme-court
• David Graham on vance-watergate-news-cycle-comments
• Ruth Marcus on the-supreme-courts-check-on-trumps-power-was-too-close-for-comfort
• Tanvi Misra on the-unraveling-of-afghan-asylum
• Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Stern on brett-kavanaugh-trump-attack-birthright-citizenship-fail
• Maria Glover on supreme-court-trump-cases-power
• Fred Kaplan on donald-trump-spy-list-russia-china-cia
• Anne Applebaum on america-250-july-4-idea
• Ruth Marcus on the-supreme-courts-check-on-trumps-power-was-too-close-for-comfort
• Lisa Needham on birthright-citizenship-ruling
• new deal democrat on june-employment-report-weakly-positive-headlines-and-important-negatives-in-hours-and-payrolls
• the conversable economist on us-exports-imports-and-tariffs-the-250-year-perspective

Europe

• Felix Martin on uks-back-to-front-net-zero-plan-requires-revamp Thanks nick
• noahpinion on europes-resistance-to-ac-is-driving-it-insane
• Rob Mainwaring and Emily Foley on andy-burnhams-meteoric-rise-tells-us-much-about-how-politics-and-power-are-changing
• mainly macro on sowing-seeds-of-uk-revival
• Cory Alpert on ukraine-stopped-waiting-for-the-war-to-end 
• Claire Young on russia-s-antarctic-posture-provokes-but-don-t-invoke

Asia

• the abrahamic metacritique on a metacritique of palestine  Thanks nick
• Jennifer Parker on despite-its-best-efforts-iran-wont-be-able-to-toll-the-strait-of-hormuz-heres-why
• Shannon Bosch on a-un-report-details-the-overwhelming-scale-of-children-killed-in-gaza-it-raises-grave-legal-questions
• Christopher Watterson on international-efforts-to-end-north-koreas-nuclear-weapons-program-have-failed-heres-what-comes-next
• Abhijnan Rej on why-india-s-roach-revolt-fizzled-out
• Lyne O'Donnell on five-years-after-returning-to-power-the-taliban-face-less-isolation-than-ever
• Jennifer Hsu on the-world-cup-china-is-winning-off-the-pitch

Wonk

• institutional economics on the-ever-lovely-and-the-oil-contango
• Luke Hartigan on central-bank-gold-holdings-are-at-a-50-year-high-whats-behind-the-jump-in-reserves
• Venkat Raman on the-new-political-logic-of-global-tech-and-trade
• Brad De Long on semi-crosspost-enzo-traverso-the-centiries-of-hobsbawn
• Mark the Graph on weekly-energy-update , update on the iran war 
• Alan Gamlen on what-is-migration-for-how-national-needs-wrestle-with-a-basic-human-desire
• Alicia Herrero on washington-and-beijing-cut-a-trade-deal-europe-picks-up-the-tab
• noahpinion on will-ai-make-companies-outsource-more-or-less
• the conversable economist on where-will-the-jobs-come-from-in-developing-economies , interview-with-mervyn-king-all-things-monetary-policy
• Eric Schliesser on on-humphreys-opacity-reverse-engineering-and-social-externalities-of-llms
• Mathew Ricketson and Andrew Dodd on how-the-murdoch-medias-loyalty-to-israel-births-hypocrisy-attacks-and-failed-journalism
• Katie Atwell on we-cant-entirely-blame-covid-vaccine-mandates-for-lower-vaccination-rates-today-its-not-that-simple

General

• Andrew Baker on we-checked-2000-museum-specimens-and-discovered-a-tiny-new-ferocious-australian-mammal
• Paul Giles on guide-to-the-classics-john-steinbecks-east-of-eden-has-always-been-controversial
• Md Ahmad on what-makes-a-star-a-star-a-strange-in-between-celestial-object-is-testing-astronomers-boundaries

Climate

• Larelle Bossi on global-ocean-protection-is-no-simple-equation
• skeptical science on new_research , ClimateAdam-is-climate-change-ramping-up-el-nino-risks
• open mind on not-just-another-summer , central-england-temperature , new_research
• Vito Burtardo on a-severe-el-nino-could-threaten-something-essential-to-half-of-humanity-rice
• ocean acidification on climate-change-and-aquatic-ecosystems-impacts-on-salinity-species-survival-and-ecological-resilience , entering-the-era-of-directly-supporting-society-with-observation-based-ocean-acidification-data
• John Quiggin on the-state-of-nuclear-power-in-2026
• Mathew England et al on the-worlds-oceans-are-the-hottest-on-record-for-june-and-el-nino-is-set-to-turn-up-the-heat-even-more

Andrew Gelman (mainly stats)

• bayesian-workflow-exists-as-a-physical-book
  
• cheapskate-evolutionary-biologist-underpays-his-statistical-help 
  
• ok-i-guess-lawrence-krauss-didnt-follow-his-brothers-advice 
  
• survey-statistics-big-changes-in-the-times-siena-poll
  
• the-optimizers-curse
  
•  whos-getting-the-big-money-donations-in-the-maine-u-s-senate-race
• the-high-cost-of-split-r-hat
  
• Tim Harford on the-surprising-power-of-simple-predictions
• Kaiser Fung on key-decisions-when-making-heatmaps

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

• David Zetland on our-man-in-havana
• Constance Grady on great-american-novel-250-moby-dick-huck-finn-beloved
• stoat on book-review-rise-of-western-world
• Tyler Cowen on what-ive-been-reading

Vox Wonk

• chinas-accession-wto-increased-pollution-coal-powerplants-not-exporters-or-their 
  
• ai-productivity-and-work-evidence-us-firms 
  
• when-trust-official-statistics-declines
  
• hedging-interest-rate-risk-when-it-matters-evidence-italian-banks 
  
• exchange-rate-communication-practice-evidence-two-decades-ecb-press-conferences 
  
• chatgpts-financial-advice-supply-demand-and-life-cycle
  
• monetary-policy-under-multiple-financing-constraints
  
• research-value-added-elite-economics-phd-programmes
  
• living-ghost-town-geography-depopulation-and-ageing
  
• price-delay-how-supply-chain-disruptions-spread-consumer-prices
  

The US Supreme court is corrupt

 The US supreme court made up some law to declare immunity for Donald Trump. No-one but no-one thought they would ream up some rubbish.

They have now upheld the 14th amendment which is very clearly stated but 4 justices want to argue black is white. It is a disgrace.

See:

• Ian Millhiser
• Mark Stern