12 thoughts on “Sandpit”

  1. How can the ALP win the election with policies questing for a fiscal surplus, an ongoing credit crunch, and a significant increase in capital gains tax? Such policies will impact on household wealth big time. Will the ruling oligarchs allow this to happen?

  2. Because the ALP has won many elections in the past, I imagine it’s still possible for it to win another one, especially as the opinion polls predict that outcome to be the more likely one; the opinion polls are fallible predictors of election outcomes, but there are no better ones.

  3. Professor Quiggin, I bought your book this evening. The proprietor at my local bookstore said that, technically speaking, he wasn’t allowed to sell books imported from the United States. I thought they had abolished parallel imports or the “Louise Adler Tariff” as I called it. Surely parallel imports no longer makes sense in an age of internet shopping, when you can buy any book at Amazon or even directly from Princeton. Anyway, it’s a beautiful looking book. The man and I agreed that the US University presses certainly know how to make beautiful books. I am very much looking forward to reading the book over the Easter long weekend. I noticed Andrew Leigh praised the book on the dust jacket. I’ve always had immense respect for Leigh. I think you can level many criticisms against the ALP, but they certainly have more talent and intellectual heft than the other mob. I don’t think anybody in the LNP would read an economics book let alone a book (have they made a movie version of Atlas Shrugged?).

  4. It is too bad that Australia does not have any old Spanish Missions like San Xavier del Bac or San Juan Capistrano. It might not yet be to late to improve Austraiia’s architectual heritage before the planet’s expiration date is reached. Political conflicts could be really heating up soon not only in Venezuela but also in Columbia and even Equador not to mention Brazil. Ok maybe I should not mention Brazil because the lingua fraca there is Brazilan.
    The heating up of this region (South America) is going to create a new large group guerrillias as well as refugees. If Australia were take in just a small percentage of these people who need a new place to live as a result of the developments in South America, say 2 million, these new arrivals could teach Australians how to build Spanish colonial architecture. All the materials needed for these projects are already available in Australia in abundance.
    Not only that but the increase in people looking for homes will increase real estate values which will increase the net wealth of those Australian families that actually own Real Estate.
    Well of course living in Europe I can not speak about the environmental impact of 2 million new South American refugees arriving in Australia. For Australians to just say no we will not serve as a destination for a bunch of losers, people who could not even win a military conflict against the USA, might be a perfectly reasonable position. On top of that those seeking shelter after their homes have been set aflame will probably be a bunch of commies, right? It makes a lot of sense for Australia to appease the USA and not get involved with the conflicts in South America. That is not the doorstep of Australia.
    To set fires in Australia because of what is happening on the other side of the date line would be totally off the wall.
    Since Australia is sure to vote to create millions of South American refugees, by doing nothing to prevent it. I guess the only question left for it to decide is does it want ot use the opportunity to improve its architectual heritage.

  5. I would like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in penning this blog.
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  6. Brazilians have no more compunction in calling their mational language Portuguese – portuguès do Brasil – than Americans and Australians do in calling their language English.

  7. There have been several earlier waves of South/Central American refugees arrive in Australia already fleeing the impact of imperial USA Inc machinations. Those machinations often utilise the endemic
    South/Central American societal architecture of oligarchic family rule, just as they already do here. Would swapping the cladding on the colonial architecture present amount to a substantive difference worthwhile doing?

  9. J-D, Julie T, Svante and all elephants…

    Colin Street says – and a great comment :
    “Also: if you come out of a conversation with the same knowledge and beliefs that you went into the conversation with, you’ve gained nothing and cost yourself time. To “lose”, to change your mind, is to win, is the only win.”
    http://crookedtimber.org/2019/04/08/pinker-polymathic/#comment-747480

    KT2 says:
    APRIL 17, 2019 AT 10:00 AM
    A dangerous self unseen elephant.

    https://johnquiggin.com/2019/04/08/sandpit-132/comment-page-3/#comment-209355

  10. …”…information is detrimental to meaning; it directly destroys meaning and signification. This is the most controversial of the three hypotheses as it opposes all common opinions, due to the fact that currently socialization and development are measured by exposure to the media. Furthermore because this is seen as a positive thing its binary opposite – underexposure to the media – has negative connotations of desocialization. It is believed that information creates communication, but Baudrillard argues that there is a huge loss of meaning, he likens the belief to the commonly accepted myth that material production produces an excess of wealth regardless of its drawbacks/dysfunctions. Our belief that information produces meaning, Baudrillard claims, will be our downfall;. ..”…
    https://postmodernismandbaudrillard.blogspot.com/2012/01/baudrillard-implosion-of-meaning-in.html?m=1

  12. JAF asked rhetorically: “have they made a movie version of Atlas Shrugged?”

    Of course they have. In fact, in keeping with the old adage “you can’t have enough of a bad thing”, they made three.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged_Part_III:_Who_Is_John_Galt%3F#Reception
    “The film was universally panned, and is one of the few films to hold a 0% at review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 10 reviews for an average rating of 1.4/10.”

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