I’ve been travelling and going to meetings, hence slow posting. Light posting for a while to come, but I thought I’d throw in a last minute reminder that there’s still a few hours left in which to support the Queensland Cancer Council and claim a tax deduction in the process.
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John Quiggin 
is it true that a condition put forward by the americans to a new free (hah) trade agreement is the elimination of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme?
Who wants a new ‘free’ trade agreement, apart from US farm interests and US IP owners?
Hello Mr. Quiggin,
Big fan of your book here and wanted to see if you were going to be in the U.S. anytime soon? I am currently making a documentary I’d love to interview you for.
Cheers,
Luis
@O6
On the IP issue, worth reading is an Industry Commission paper that Nicholas Gruen and others wrote in 1996 about the enormous gift that global (retrospective) changes to IP laws were going to give to existing IP owners particularly in the US, and for no economically justifiable reason.
http://www.pc.gov.au/ic/research/information/patents
A great piece of work that didn’t get the attention deserved at the time. Unfortunately governments tend to acquiesce to big powers, which is exactly why countries should be very careful about which assets they let be foreign owned. When citizens of a foreign power own a country’s assets, the government can only change laws to the financial advantage of those owners, otherwise subtle and not so subtle pressure is applied. Unfortunately, ‘leaders’ tend to acquiesce because, while it is not of advantage for the country, acquiescing can easily be made to their advantage, and rebuffing a big power is not without costs.