Qantas is NOT the national carrier

 Qantas is a public company and thus not the national carrier.

The Government of the day should NEVER try and protect it. This will only lead to higher prices for consumers.We should remember Qatar airways brought more aussies home than Qantas! Qantas is now price gouging customers/ It wasn't always this way. Way back when I remember at business school how good qantas was at keeping and gaining customers. no more!

The government of the day should only try and get lower prices for consumers. If the Minister of the day cannot show what the national interest is then clearly they do not know!

Around the Traps 16/9/23

 It is time for Around the Traps again.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• Institutional Economics on rba-governor-philip-lowes-final-act
• croaking cassandra on he-immediately-repaid-the-money-spent-putting-the-matter-right-at-the-first-opportunity, fiscal-impulses-and-fiscal-spin, how-much-revenue-might-nationals-foreign-buyer-tax-raise
• Ross Gittins on how-philip-lowe-was-caught-on-cusp-of-history, big-business-should-serve-us-not-enslave-us
• John Quiggin on the-ageing-alarmists-wont-let-go
• Kevin Bonham on voice-referendum-polling-how-low-can-go
• Ian Douglas and Seena Sarum on under-open-skies-the-market-not-the-minister-would-decide-how-often-airlines-could-fly-into-australia
• Andrea Carson et al on the-no-campaign-is-dominating-the-messaging-on-the-voice-referendum-on-tiktok-heres-why
• Brendan Coates on the-greens-were-right-to-agree-to-pass-australias-housing-future-fund-bill-the-case-for-further-delay-was-weak
• Shae McCrystal on high-court-ruling-vindicates-sacked-qantas-workers-but-doesnt-stop-the-outsourcing-of-jobs-in-the-future
• Kevin Bonham on does-losing-mid-term-referendums-help-governments-win-the-next-election
• Connor O'Brien on critical-minerals-critical-choices-australia-s-role-shaping-green-revolution

OZ Climate

• the-australian-solar-tech-that-may-have-found-a-low-cost-solution-to-deep-storage
  
• wind-and-solar-hit-record-share-of-main-grid-as-curtailment-underscores-need-for-more-storage
  
• solar-reaches-record-120-per-cent-of-electricity-demand-in-south-australia
  
• nuclear-energy-remains-weapon-of-choice-for-climate-deniers-and-coal-lobby
  
• south-australia-slashes-red-tape-for-new-wind-solar-and-hydrogen-gold-rush
  
• solar-batteries-and-microgrids-essential-for-disaster-prone-communities-study-finds
  
• carbon-credits-are-not-the-enemy-says-head-of-markets-lobby
  
• big-batteries-and-solar-push-new-boundaries-on-the-grid
  

Northern America

• rightlandia on the-trilateral-shitpost-fire Thanks Brad
• Menzie Chinn on recession-probabilities-using-data-through-end-2022
• Liz Zhou on government-shutdown-republicans-house-freedom-caucus, biden-impeachment-inquiry-kevin-mccarthy
• Bill Haskell on supply-side-expansion-driving-the-decline-in-inflation
• newdeal democrat on paul-krugmans-goldilocks-economy-is-likely-to-prove-transitory
• Ian Millhiser on texas-abortion-travel-ban-unconstitutional
• Dennis Aftergut on mark-meadows-donald-trump-court-fail, judicial-trend-donald-trump-legal-trouble
• Dahlia Lithwick on ginni-thomas-ethics-supreme-court-hats, mitt-romney-hero-coward-trump
• the conversable economist on the-utilities-that-will-need-to-carry-out-electrification-governance-issues, the-remarkable-steadiness-of-us-economic-growth
• Jeet Heer on elon-musk-threat-democracy
• Mark Stern on democrat-lujan-grisham-new-mexico-gun-ban
• Adam Serwer on prager-u-indoctrination-public-schools-1619-project
• Brad DeLong on how-is-our-current-state-different
• Andrew Prokop on hunter-biden-indictment-gun-david-weiss
• noahopinion on whos-afraid-of-the-huawei-mate-60
• newdeal democrat on august-consumer-inflation-confirms-goldilocks-soft-landing-may-well-be-transitory
• Amelia Thomson-Devaux on americans-oppose-biden-impeachment-house-republicans
• Mark Stern on hunter-biden-second-amendment-legal-defense
• Paul Renfro and Mathew Stanley on bill-clinton-history-legacy-centrism

Europe

• Mathew Sussex on as-russia-woos-nations-to-support-its-war-in-ukraine-will-fault-lines-deepen-around-the-globe
• Tim Harford on the-uk-is-going-about-reclaiming-city-streets-the-wrong-way
• Tennyson Dearing on ukraine-has-moscow-its-crosshairs-shouldn-t-make-us-squeamish
• Mainly Macro on its-economy-but-is-it-good, the-next-time-someone-says-government-cannot-borrow-to-invest-just-mention-RAAC
• stumbling and mumbling on the politics of stagnation
• renew economy on uk-renewables-still-cheaper-than-gas-despite-auction-setback-for-offshore-wind
• Tim Judah on black-swan-times

Asia

• Sanya Dinghra on g20-spectacle-domestic-imperatives-modi-s-global-ambitions
• James Chin on malaysia-60-one-country-three-visions
• Ian Hall on india-pushes-china-margins-g20
• Rahaam Yaacob on asean-china-trust-deficit
• Thu Anh on sea-robbery-singapore-strait
• Brad Setser on will-chinas-economic-slump-hit-the-u-s Thanks Brad
• Zack Beauchamp on israel-judicial-overhaul-supreme-court-hearing-netanyahu
• Alex Tabarrok on india-gets-rid-of-its-jones-act

Wonk

• Chris Bertram on chile-50-years-on
• the conversable economist on earning-the-commute-effects-of-the-pandemic-on-real-estate, some-economics-of-global-migration-wdr-23
• noahopinion on the-next-phase-of-globalization-is-going-to-be-awsome
• Angus Deaton on how-misreading-adam-smith-helped-spawn-deaths-of-despair
• can we still govern on the-dismal-return-of-the-avocado-toast-guy Thanks Nick
• Dan Rodrik on global-economy-biggest-risk-is-geopolitics-not-protectionism Thanks Nick

General

• Josephine Chau on is-standing-at-your-desk-actually-better-than-sitting-heres-what-the-evidence-says
• Brad Tucker on signs-of-life-why-astronomers-are-excited-about-carbon-dioxide-and-methane-in-the-atmosphere-of-an-alien-world
• Benjamin Kooyman on a-haunting-in-venice-is-kenneth-branaghs-20th-film-what-do-we-make-of-his-prodigious-output
• John Homer on are-we-about-to-see-a-rare-green-comet-light-up-the-sky-an-expert-on-what-to-expect-from-nishimura

Climate

• Bruno Stefani and Mathew Wright on solar-panel-technology-is-set-to-be-turbo-charged-but-first-a-few-big-roadblocks-have-to-be-cleared
• Rebecca Leber and Umair Irfan on climate-change-stocktake-cop28-dubai
• Umair Irfan on heat-wave-south-america-brazil-australia-argentina-hemisphere-winter
• noahopinion on our-climate-change-debates-are-out-of-date
• sceptical science on GW-juiced-idalia-40-50-percent , at-a-glance-does-cold-weather-disprove-global-warming, ClimateAdam-if-we-stop-emitting-then-what
• and Then Theres Physics on the-bad-boy-of-science, scientific-shenanigans
• met office on what-do-we-mean-by-a-climate-tipping-point
• Andrew King and Andrew Dowdy on faster-disaster-climate-change-fuels-flash-droughts-intense-downpours-and-storms
• Edward Doddridge and Arriaan Purich on devastatingly-low-antarctic-sea-ice-may-be-the-new-abnormal-study-warns
• Kevin Trenberth on how-rising-water-vapour-in-the-atmosphere-is-amplifying-warming-and-making-extreme-weather-worse
• Allie Gallant and Kimberly Reid on we-just-blew-past-1-5-degrees-game-over-on-climate-not-yet
• Stochastic Trend on my-climate-change-policy-assumptions
• Moyhu on giss-august-global-temperature-up-by-0.05

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

• improving-survey-inference-in-two-phase-designs-using-bayesian-machine-learning
  
• the-authors-of-research-papers-have-no-obligation-to-share-their-data-and-code-and-i-have-no-obligation-to-believe-anything-they-write
  
• using-forecasts-to-estimate-individual-variances
  
• crypto-scam-social-science-thoughts-the-role-of-the-elite-news-media-and-academia
  
• better-than-difference-in-differences-my-talk-for-the-online-causal-inference-seminar-tues-19-sept
  
• how-big-problem-it-is-that-cross-validation-is-biased
  
• omid-malekan-on-why-crypto-is-not-a-scam
  
• the conversable economist on as-survey-responses-drop-where-can-the-economic-data-come-from
• noahopinion on how-not-to-be-fooled-by-viral-charts

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

• state-sponsored-cyber-crime
  
• middling-models-in-the-big-real-world
  
• brains-and-machines
  
• literary hub on 5-book-reviews-you-need-to-read-this-week Thanks Nick

Vox Wonk

• reviewing-three-years-covid-19-consumption-big-data
  
• financial-literacy-importance-new-field
  
• shadow-confederacy-culture-institutions-and-geography-racial-animus-us
  
• lessons-germany-shock-consequences-uncoordinated-economic-policies-currency-union
  
• non-economic-objectives-globalisation-and-multilateral-trade-cooperation
  
• panic-driven-bank-runs-and-public-communication
  
• when-credibility-not-enough-fiscal-dominance-monetary-policy-and-exchange-rates-early
  
• profits-time-inflation-some-insights-recent-and-past-energy-shocks-uk
  
• padma-desai-pioneer-more-ways-one
  
• long-term-effects-inflation-inflation-expectations
  
• use-commercial-real-estate-collateral-ties-firms-access-credit-real-estate-cycle
  
• us-capital-glut-and-other-myths
  
• community-networks-and-trade-evidence-india
  

The No case is losing the argument but not the votes

 Yesterday was disgraceful. Marcia Langton was verballed by the Australian. Three times it changed its story without once bothering to contact her. Here is her story.

Add this to the racist remarks of some and the racist cartoon and we have a disgraceful group simply giving out misinformation and disinformation.

It appears to be working.

I should add Linda Burney is a major weakness and she is the Minister. Replace her with McCarthy would be a decent start.

some strange things from US politics

 Some people say Joe Biden is too old to run for President, a statement I agree with. however if Biden is too old so is Trump.

Some people say biden's mental acuity has gone without providing proof. Trump lost a libel case to E jean Carrol because of his deposition where he was asked questions by her lawyer. He thought Carroll was one of his former wives in a photo.Thats  mental acuity put to the test.

Trump is making money of his mugshot in Georgia. It says never surrender. That's right it is a picture of when he surrendered!

You cannot make these things right.

Nuclear power as the saviour

 I am bemused by the embrace of nuclear power amongst climate denialists. Build SMRs they say in the old coal fired power stations they say.

The only problem is they never talk about the costs or the time it takes to build them.

They will never be competitive with renewables in terms of cost  or in the time to build them and they do not have the problem of nuclear waste. Former Chief Scientist Alan Finkel says why waste time on nuclear given how long it takes to build the stations given the cost of renewables!

Funny how there are no commercial examples of successful modular power plants.

Here is Renew economy

The Association

 I was fiddling around with YouTube and came across this song.

Close your eyes and go back in time to a much simpler world. To be honest I am amazed I like WINDY by the Association but I do and it is only 3 minutes. It is live in a countdown sort of way! They use a recorder and it works and the harmonies are superb.

Although it is an uplifting song I can't help feeling depressed in a nostalgic way about the song and even the band.

This song appeared both in Sesame Street and  Breaking Bad!!

They are just as good live

told ya!!

Around the Traps 9/9/23

 It is time again for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• croaking cassandra on policy-costings-a-case-study, making-the-prefu-more-useful, thinking-about-fiscal-policy-2, nz-in-fiscal-perspective-cross-country-and-across-time, just-making-stuff-up-the-chair-of-the-rb-board-and-the-blackball-on-expertise
• Paul Strangio on modern-prime-ministers-have-typically-left-parliament-soon-after-defeat-so-why-doesnt-scott-morrison
• Institutional Economics on why-is-the-australian-dollar-so-weak
• Peter Martin on whats-to-stop-philip-lowe-moving-to-a-private-bank-after-he-leaves-the-rba-its-what-his-predecessors-did
• Greg Jericho on australias-economy-has-got-smaller-on-a-per-capita-basis-like-it-did-in-the-gfc-and-1990s-recession-so-you-know-not-good
• Isaac Gross on were-in-a-per-capita-recession-as-chalmers-says-gdp-steady-in-the-face-of-pressure
• James Laurenson on australias-not-likely-to-catch-a-cold-just-a-sniffle-from-chinas-economic-downturn
• Trivess Moore and Lisa de Kleyn on on-hot-days-up-to-87-of-heat-gain-in-our-homes-is-through-windows-on-cold-days-its-40-of-heat-loss-heres-how-we-can-fix-that
• Kevin Bonham on australian-polling-denial-and-disinformation-register

Oz Climate

• Graham Readfearn on the-cheapest-reliable-energy-system-to-meet-australias-climate-targets-solar-and-wind-no-question
• Melissa Haswell and David Shearman on health-evidence-against-gas-and-oil-is-piling-up-as-governments-turn-a-blind-eye
• snowy-2-much-how-can-a-2-2gw-water-battery-be-worth-more-than-12-billion
  
• are-we-trying-to-go-forward-or-not-australias-renewable-transition-needs-clear-direction
  
• on-the-last-day-of-winter-australia-reached-record-37-5-pct-renewables-share-for-the-year
  
• scale-of-battery-of-the-nation-project-cut-in-half-after-huge-cost-blow-out
  
• rooftop-solar-market-closes-out-winter-at-a-new-high-as-households-keep-going-big
  
• queensland-to-hit-50-pct-renewables-two-years-early-but-warns-energy-wars-only-just-begun
  
• cheaper-and-quicker-distributed-networks-put-case-to-host-wind-and-solar
  
• nsw-to-open-talks-with-origin-on-eraring-streamline-new-wind-and-solar-projects
  
• marinus-link-is-a-boondoggle-cutting-it-in-half-wont-change-that
  
• eraring-is-more-about-bill-shock-and-equity-than-lights-going-out-batteries-and-bowen-can-help
  
• moving-beyond-baseload-nsw-turns-to-consumers-and-local-storage-to-fill-eraring-gap
  
• how-the-consumer-energy-sharing-economy-can-help-eraring-close-on-time
  

Northern America

• Institutional Economics on hedging-trump-there-are-no-good-hedges
• Menzie Chinn on whats-the-output-gap-2023-edition, guest-contribution-startups-create-fewer-jobs-and-do-not-survive-as-long-as-previously-reported
• noahopinion on hey-tech-folks-vivek-ramaswamy-is-not-the-one, is-it-time-for-the-revenge-of-the-normies, the-danger-of-another-american-civil-war-is-low
• angry bear on why-the-democrats-love-affair-with-free-trade-deals-is-over
• the conservable economist on learning-losses-during-the-pandemic-reviewing-the-evidence
• Kruggers on covid-climate-cryptocurrency-plutocrats Thanks Brad
• Tim Duy on Fedwatch Thanks Brad
• Mui Preston on misled-by-the-phillips-curve-how-inflation-predictions-went-wrong Thanks Brad
• Steven Lubet on clarence-thomas-ethics-republicans
• Mark Stern on alabama-defying-supreme-court-gerrymandering-whoops
• Quinta Jurecic on metaphor-legal-remedies-trump
• Eric Foner on seeing-was-not-believing-when-the-news-broke-hendershot
• sonecon on trade-agreements-have-created-u-s-jobs-and-raised-u-s-incomes Thanks Brad
• Ian Millhiser on wisconsin-gerrymander-republican-impeachment-justice-protasiewicz-supreme-court
• Dylan Scott on nfl-kickoff-2023-opening-day-sports-gambling-betting-odds-fantasy-football
• newdeal democrat on scenes-from-the-august-employment-report-and-a-warning
• Monica Potts on politicians-are-getting-older-and-voters-are-worried-but-not-that-worried
• Menzie Chinn on term-spread-watch

Europe

• Paul Cureton on ukraine-war-australian-made-cardboard-drones-used-to-attack-russian-airfield-show-how-innovation-is-key-to-modern-warfare
• Mainly Macro on its-economy-but-is-it-good
• Daniel Sailsbury on ukraine-war-two-good-reasons-the-world-should-worry-about-russias-arms-purchases-from-north-korea
• Jeet Heer on negotiations-end-ukraine-war
• Mick Ryan on why-ukraine-s-new-strike-strategy-has-putin-on-the-run
• Liz Zhou on germany-far-right-afd-comeback
• writing from london on brexit-why-cant-we-break-the-conspiracy-of-silence Thanks Brad

Asia

• Nadeem Mookakal on can-taliban-contain-islamic-state-afghanistan
• Khang Vu on can-north-korea-play-russia-against-china
• Chih-Ling Liu on i-almost-lost-my-will-to-live-preference-for-sons-is-leaving-young-women-in-china-exploited-and-abused
• Dennis Roy on under-xi-party-winning-china-losing
• Drezners world on the-end-of-the-rise-of-china, the-rising-dangers-of-a-falling-china Thanks Brad
• Roland Rajah and robert Walker on china-s-troubles-may-well-get-worse-they-get-better
• Ved Shinde on why-india-keeps-foot-both-camps
• noahopinion on chinas-slowdown-and-the-incentives-for-war
• Geoffrey Roberts on chinas-concerning-new-strategy-on-human-rights-unite-the-world-behind-a-selective-approach
• Henry Storey on china-finally-getting-serious-about-hukou-reform
• Ankit Tiwari and Sidharth Raimedhi on ahead-g20-india-china-reconciliation-fails-launch

Wonk

• Folahamni Aina on coup-in-gabon-ali-bongo-the-eighth-west-african-leader-to-be-ousted-by-military-in-two-years
• Suman Majumdar and Brendan Crabb on long-covid-symptoms-can-improve-but-their-resolution-is-slow-and-imperfect
• Michelle Lyons on climate-justice-friendshoring-china-s-supremacy-america-s-ir-act
• Tim Harford on the-inconvenient-truth-about-productivity
• Desiree Desierto et al on the political economy of magna carta Thanks Tyler
• Uneasy Money on the-road-to-incoherence-arthur-burns-and-the-agony-of-central-banking
• Cornelia Tremann on coup-d-etat-gabon-oil-champagne-china-s-geopolitical-opportunity
• Stephen Grenville on building-bigger-brics
• the conversable economist on when-the-time-price-of-leisure-rises-the-linder-theorem, remittances-they-just-keep-rising
• Ammar Azzouz on my-home-city-was-destroyed-by-war-but-i-will-not-lose-hope-how-modern-warfare-turns-neighbourhoods-into-battlefields

General

• Aja Romana on concert-phones-livestreaming-etiquette-beyonce-taylor-swift-eras-tour-harry-styles-k-pop-fan-chants
• Lowrie Daithwaite-Walsh on women-are-less-happy-than-men-a-psychologist-on-why-and-four-things-you-can-do-about-it

Climate

• Amadine Scheaffer on marine-heatwaves-dont-just-hit-coral-reefs-they-can-cause-chaos-on-the-seafloor
• David Appell on uah-second-warmest-month-in-their-records
• skeptical science on clauser-latest-climate-denying-physicist, at-a-glance-pollutant
• Andrew King on not-burning-drowning-why-outdoor-festivals-like-burning-man-are-reeling-from-extreme-weather
• science of doom on natural-variability-attribution-and-climate-models-9
• real climate on as-soon-as-possible
• moyhu on august-global-surface-templs-up-0.056-from-july
• and Then Theres Physics on they-made-me-do-it

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

• advice-on-writing-a-discussion-of-a-published-paper
  
• latest-observational-study-shows-moderate-drinking-associated-with-a-very-slightly-lower-mortality-rate
  
• how-many-americans-drink-alcohol-and-who-are-they
  
• sources-of-bias-in-observational-studies-of-covid-19-vaccine-effectiveness
  
• a-client-tried-to-stiff-me-for-5000-i-got-my-money-but-should-i-do-something
  
• what-happened-with-hmos-an-update
  
• a-rational-agent-framework-for-improving-visualization-experiments
  
• forking-paths-in-medical-research-a-study-with-9-research-teams
  
• this-is-what-power-06-looks-like-visualized-by-art-owen
  
• when-i-said-judge-this-post-on-its-merits-not-based-on-my-qualifications-was-this-anti-bayesian
  
• Kaiser Fung on ethical-dilemmas-poll-results-post

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

• platforms-and-information
  

Vox Wonk

• just-time-just-case-global-sourcing-and-firm-inventory-after-pandemic
  
• devoted-minds-ramadans-influence-exam-performance
  
• effect-copyright-digitisation-and-availability-visual-artworks
  
• scholars-risk-professional-networks-and-escape-persecution-nazi-germany
  
• effect-copyright-digitisation-and-availability-visual-artworks
  
• global-lessons-demise-credit-suisse
  
• covid-and-cities-thus-far
  
• loquacity-and-visible-emotion-chatgpt-policy-adviser
  
• how-1918-influenza-pandemic-affected-voting-weimar-republic
  
• productive-and-unproductive-crises
  
• social-cost-carbon-under-stochastic-climate-volatility
  
• work-home-cities-tale-coordination-and-multiple-equilibria