Regular Features

Monday Message Board

John Quiggin26 Comments

I’m back in beautiful Brisbane and, I hope, back to normal blogging. It’s time for your comments on any topic (civilised discussion and no coarse language, please).

As a starter question, I’ll ask – should I join the general trend, and give this blog a name? If so, any suggestions? (I know I’m leaving myself wide open here, but that’s what blogging’s all about!)

26 thoughts on “Monday Message Board”

  7. 1)quiggin’s quanta of quintessence

    2) quarks from muster quiggin*

    (with apologies to Murray Gell-Mann and James Joyce)

    3) more intelligent than britney jones

  8. Oops, meant to also point out something I heard about just yesterday: the British Library’s apparently quite spectacular online excerpt from Leonardo da Vinci’s original notebook. You need to have Macromedia Shockwave installed to view it but, if you don’t, the BL’s link will download Shockwave automatically for you before displaying the item.

  9. If you must give it a name, I think “Quog” is quite good, short and to the point. I don’t know if I see much point in renaming it now, though, unless you’re planning a major change in direction for the blog…

  11. With a royal phonetic cousin I would be tempting to christen it as Greg suggested but stretch it further…
    Queen of Blogging

    You will also get mother of all etraffics
    (smile)

  13. Have you noticed how Costello’s(?) surplus of $7.5bill has aroused all sorts of suggestions as to what to do with it. The cynics are suggesting that the Govt will use it for election tax cuts. Of course I think we can all agree it is almost axiomatic that no Govt gives us back our hard-earned as soon as they take office.(however the last Howard Govt tax cut could not be seen as cynical vote buying, given its timing)

    In the absence of income-tax scale indexation, Govts of all persuasions have, from time to time, to legislate income tax cuts if we are not to have increased taxation by stealth. Another source of increasing tax take, can take the form of new or significantly different taxes like the GST replacing WST. So, in a period of high Govt expenditure due to Timor, Iraq and the Solomons, coupled with the down-turn in economic activity due to SARS and the drought, there is no doubt the Govt is rolling in it. With some of these factors disappearing off the radar, it is reasonable to assume that future Govts are going to be awash with cash. Q: What should they be promising to do with it in the next election campaign?

    I personally supported the introduction of the GST largely for 3 reasons- 1.The economic efficiency benefits of a domestic only(not on exports) value added tax over the WST 2. The equity benefits of a tax on services 3. The increased revenue base which could be used to offset a stretched PAYE tax system with its increasing disincentives for average income-earners.

    Now the opponents of the GST argued long and loud that it was an inequitable burden for the little bloke. May I suggest to all those now, that a great opportunity presents itself to ‘roll-back’ the GST with all the benefits to the little bloke you so fervently argued. Come on Labor, Greens, disenchanted Dems, etc. Get off your bums and stand for reducing the impact of the GST by 1% or 2% for the little bloke, at the next election. What say you now knockers?

  22. Gianna, yes it is a bit small unfortunately. I made the comment before actually going there myself. [And Shockwave doesn’t appear to be a Macromedia product either – they have different websites (macromedia.com and shockwave.com) – though there is a ‘Shockwave reader’ (whatever that is) at Macromedia’s website.]

    John, to extend James’s suggestion:
    Quoggin

    To follow Andrew’s train of thought and incorporate reference to the main discussion topics:
    Blogonomics
    Blogginomics
    Quogginomics
    Quigginomics
    Try saying all those quickly!

  23. I don’t really see the need, John, but if you’re determined I suggest, in total seriousness: Professor Challenger.

    Perhaps you know this character, from The Lost World by Conan Doyle. He is a man of undisputed scientific achievement who makes a habit of challenging the orthodoxies of his complacent colleagues. And the physiognmony matches perfectly. I tried in vain to find on the web the picture that serves as frontpiece to the 1930s edition of the book which I have on my shelf. Here, anyway, is the narrator E.D. Malone’s description:

    “He had the face and beard which I associate with an Assyrian bull; the former florid, the latter so black as almost to have a suspicion of blue, spade-shaped and rippling down over his chest. The hair was peculiar, plastered down in front in a long, curving wisp over his massive forehead. The eyes were blue-grey under great black tufts, very clear, very critical, and very masterful.”

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