Big Batteries have a lot of benefits

 Batteries are getting bigger, much bigger and the benefits are immense.

One of these is the displacement of gas plants which are quite costly.  There are a lot more so read the article it is very interesting

Trump supporters are not conservatives

 Okay let us put this claim to bed.

If you support Trump then you maybe a lot of things but being conservative is not one of them.

Conservatives fully support rules based trading systems both internally and externally. Trump does not. He is a protectionist and believes might is right!

Conservatives are strong defenders on institutions. It is the Institutions that make the country however Trump wants to tear them down.

Conservatives accept the will of the electorate. Trump does not.( See HERE) Trump's attempt to show fraud has been frankly embarrassing. It also enables would be dictators to subvert election results. ( This is PERTINENT).

Conservatives understand the importance of the fourth estate. You simply so not have a democracy without a free press. Trump again has enabled would be dictators to manipulate the press. Do you think China would be 'changing' Homg Kong so much if not for Trump and 'fake news'.

All in all Trump has been a disaster for conservatives but at least we know who the true conservatives are now!

Australia's day of Shame

 Australia's elite SAS division has indulged in disgraceful behaviour. Some of the people have committed war crimes. Some enjoyed killing people.

I cannot help but wonder as Daniel Flitton has australia-s-mission-afghanistan-what-was-it-again.

One cannot help but thinking the heavy drinking and the rest were echoes of what occurred in Vietnam. This is exacerbated by being a different war. Are the people you are seeing typical civilians who want to embrace you or terrorists who want to kill you. Are villagers you friends or foes?

We must always remember Australia is part of civilisation. We NEVER EVER should adopt actions or tactics like either the Taliban or ISIS or whoever who simply are not civilised  and are  plain evil.

When we become like them we indeed become just as evil as they are.

This is why we should embrace the report and strongly desire for wholesale culture change. We need leaders of soldiers to be leaders. Thus if they did not know what was going on they should be sacked as they damn well should have.

Around the Traps 23/11/30

 It is time again for Around the Traps.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• Michael Grose and Lynette Bettio on prepare-for-hotter-days-says-the-state-of-the-climate-2020-report-for-australia
• John Quiggin on why-zero-interest-rates-are-here-to-stay
• Mark the Ballot on reflections-on-polling-aggregation
• Kevin Bonham on recent-state-election-polling-does-not-skew-to-labor
• renew economy on agl-sets-new-storage-benchmark-with-1000mwh-big-battery-in-south-australia, nsw-to-transform-hunter-coal-region-into-states-next-renewable-energy-zone, regulator-suggests-big-battery-alternative-to-huge-network-infrastructure-spend, australias-climate-effort-slammed-as-simply-embarrassing-among-worst-in-the-g20
• Tony Wood and Guy Dundas on flame-out-the-future-of-natural-gas
• Institutional Economics on avoiding-us-style-demographic-stagnation?
• Patricia Ranald on weve-just-signed-the-worlds-biggest-trade-deal-but-what-exactly-is-the-rcep
• Peter Whiteford on robodebt-was-a-policy-fiasco-with-a-human-cost-we-have-yet-to-fully-appreciate
• Greg Jericho on gas-wont-fuel-australias-recovery-or-reduce-emissions-its-a-mirage
• C Raina McIntyre on exponential-growth-in-covid-cases-would-overwhelm-any-states-contact-tracing-australia-needs-an-automated-system
• Darren Pennay on how-can-australia-reduce-the-risk-of-another-systemic-polling-failure
• Anthony Jorm on the-productivity-commission-says-mental-ill-health-costs-australia-billions-its-time-for-a-proper-investment-in-making-things-better
• Catherine Bennett on south-australias-6-day-lockdown-shows-we-need-to-take-hotel-quarantine-more-seriously
• Kevin Bonham on queensland-2020-final-results-and-polling-accuracy
• David Letts on allegations-of-murder-and-blooding-in-brereton-report-now-face-many-obstacles-to-prosecution
• Damien Powell on changing-the-culture-of-our-sas-forces-is-no-easy-fix-instead-we-need-to-face-the-true-costs-of-war
• Michelle Grattan on australias-war-crimes-in-afghanistan-how-could-those-up-the-chain-not-know

Northern America

• Menzie Chinn on treasury-borrowing-rates-nominal-and-real
• New Deal Democrat on lack-of-inflation-in-september-consistent-with-weak-demand-real-wages-increase-but-will-the-pandemic-derail-the-gains, democrats-the-less-unpopular-party
• the conversable economist on extraordinary-spending-in-2020-campaign
• Brad De Long on do-i-really-need-to-say-again-that-judy-shelton-does-not-belong-on-the-federal-reserves-board-of-governors-apparently-i-do
• Calculated Risk on note-employment-situation-is-worse-than-it-appears, comments-on-october-housing-starts
• Perry Bacon on what-trumps-refusal-to-concede-says-about-american-democracy, how-georgia-turned-blue
• Victor Abramowicz on democrats-voter-problem
• Walter Shaub on the-presidential-transition-meets-murphys-law/
• Fintan O'Toole on democracys-afterlife
• Amy Davidson Sorkin on republican-officials-have-got-to-start-telling-their-voters-the-truth-about-the-election
• Stephen Duckett on how-the-us-health-care-system-works-and-how-its-failures-are-worsening-the-pandemic

Europe

• stumbling and mumbling on our-priorities

Asia

• Roshin Kapur  and NazNeen Mosina on india-trolls-hindu-nationalist-fringe-majority-complex
• Holmes Chan on end-road-hong-kong-s-opposition-camp
• Nikola Mikovic on why-russia-will-not-return-kuril-islands-japan
• Jen Kirby on hong-kong-pro-democracy-lawmakers-quit-beijing-claudia-mo
• Aarti Betigeri on putting-caste-system-in-its-place

Wonk

• Dennis Muller on courting-the-chameleon-how-the-us-election-reveals-rupert-murdochs-political-colours
• Elliot Zaagman on biden-s-clean-energy-plan-versus-china-s-green-tech-dominance
• Stephen Kinsella on patrick-honohan-on-macro-financial-crises
• Corey Robin on worst-colleague-ever
• Mainly Macro on how-the-electoral-system-is-biased-towards-social-conservatism
• Erin Watson-Lynn on g20-s-existential-crisis
• Umair Irfan on moderna-vaccine-effective-side-effects-temperature-covid-19
• the conversable economist on public-private-partnerships-importance-of-contract-design, the-super-rich-and-how-to-tax-them
• Nick Gruen on how-culture-war-is-destroying-public-reason-covid-edition
• Dick Grant on rcep-revives-the-art-of-the-deal
• Croaking Cassandra on funding-for-lending-and-other-myths
• stumbling and mumbling on full-employment-capitalism-regress
• Kyle Quinn on very-convincing-evidence-pfizer-now-has-the-data-it-needs-to-apply-for-covid-vaccine-approval

General

• Lizzy Lowe and Samantha on its-getting-hotter-so-spiders-are-emerging-should-i-be-alarmed
• Sebastian Leuzinger on climate-explained-what-would-happen-if-we-cut-down-the-amazon-rainforest

Climate

• and Then Theres Physics on a-little-domain-knowledge-can-go-a-long-way, climate-change-doesnt-work-like-that
• Skeptical Science on human fingerprints on climate change rule out natural cycles, what is cuasing the increase in CO2
• Stochastic Trend on prepaid-metering-and-electricity-consumption-in-developing-countries

Andrew Gelman ( mainly stats)

• pfizer-beta-prior-vaccine-effect
  
• the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-of-randomized-controlled-trials-rcts-in-international-development
  
• you-dont-need-a-retina-specialist-to-know-which-way-the-wind-blows
  
• election-polls-another-example
  
• estimating-efficacy-of-the-vaccine-from-95-true-infections
  
• authors-repeat-same-error-in-2019-that-they-acknowledged-and-admitted-was-wrong-in-2015
  
• is-vs-ought-in-the-study-of-public-opinion-coronavirus-opening-up-edition
  
• mister-p-for-the-2020-presidential-election-in-belarus
  
• are-female-scientists-worse-mentors-this-study-pretends-to-know
  
• statschat on value-of-a-degree, effectiveness-of-masks

Econometrics

• freakometrics on reconciling collective risks and individual decisions

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

• the-2020-enlightened-economist-prize-very-longlist
  
• Tim Harford on what-ive-been-reading-economic-comedy-and-the-power-of-decency
• Doc's books on the-luckiest-man-life-with-john-mccain-by-mark-salter Thanks Jim Rose

Vox Wonk

• localising-value-chains-after-covid-would-add-economic-losses-and-make-domestic-economies-more-vulnerable
• paul-milgrom-price-discoverer-and-nobel-laureate
  
• mandatory-energy-efficiency-disclosure-housing-markets
  
• emerging-markets-sovereign-spreads-and-country-specific-fundamentals-during-covid-19
  
• covid-19-school-closures-hit-low-achieving-students-particularly-hard
  
• protecting-lives-and-livelihoods-early-and-tight-lockdowns
  
• school-holidays-accounted-half-rise-covid-19-infections-germany-over-summer
  
• vaccine-challenges
  
• proposal-auction-based-sovereign-debt-restructuring-mechanism
  
• monetary-policy-effects-times-negative-interest-rates
  
• urban-economics-historical-data-and-machine-learning
  
• cross-border-fallout-pandemic-policy-overdrive
  
• how-protect-jobs-during-covid-19-lessons-greece
  
• pre-distribution-versus-redistribution
  
• macroprudential-ring-fencing
  
• loneliness-happiness-and-love-times-covid-19
  
• how-allied-bombing-and-propaganda-undermined-german-morale-during-wwii
  

On Trump being an immature schoolboy

 I could write a lot about this but Perry Bacon from 538 has beaten me to it.

He makes a lot of good points. I suspect Trump will continue to say there was electoral fraud  even when all his lawsuits have been thrown out.  This never made sense. What sort of fraud occurred that only involved the Presidential election. What about the Senate and Reps?

The worst thing is quite a few stupid people will believe trump and believe their vote is worthless. This can lead to violence as we see in Third world countries.

The republicans in Wayne County who certify the results were not going to do so until an outcry forced them to certify the results.  This too is Third world country stuff.

Thank you Trump Thank you Republicans

Robodebt was a disgrace

 Robodebt was an unmitigated failure. It is beyond comprehension this policy was ever enacted. Ministers obviously had no brains at all.

Who is to blame. Apparently no-one. No resignations and apologies through gnashed teeth is simply not good enough.

The government picked on the most disadvantaged in the nation.

It was a disgrace from start to finish and has cost us over $1b and no-one but no-one is to blame.

How convenient.

It aint classical Gas

 The Grattan Institute has a new report out on the future of gas.

In essence although they think gas prices may fall it won't be by a lot.

The government has criticised the report but only in general terms and thus nothing specific whch suggests it has hit a nerve.