Kayoz points to this story about how Howard blocked emissions trading three years ago. This makes interesting reading in the light of the recently-announced Task Force on Emissions Trading, consisting entirely of public-servants and representatives of carbon-intensive industries. As one might expect, farmers, and others who want action are Not Happy.
Castro and Pinochet
Pinochet is dead, and it looks certain that Fidel Castro will soon follow him to the grave. I don’t have the same visceral loathing of Castro that I feel for Pinochet, whose brutal coup in 1973 was one of the big political events that formed my view of the world, along with Brezhnev’s invasion of Czechoslovakia five years earlier.
Viewed objectively, though, the similarities between the two outweigh the differences. Any good they have done (education in Cuba, economic growth in Chile) is less substantial than claimed by their admirers, and in any case outweighed by the central fact that, to impose the policies they thought were good, they were willing to jail, torture and kill those who got in their way. And Pinochet’s gross personal corruption is matched by Fidel’s conversion of his dictatorship into a family business, to be inherited by his brother.
Moreover, Pinochet and Castro were two sides of the same political coin. Pinochet justified his destruction of Chilean democracy by the fear that Allende would turn into a new Castro. Castro used Pinochet’s coup (among many other US-backed attacks on Cuba and other Latin American countries) as a justification for repressing domestic dissenters. The world will be a better place when both are gone and, hopefully, democracy comes to Cuba.
Update Predictably, Andew Bolt defends Pinochet. It’s important to observe that Bolt is even-handed in these matters. He would be just as eager to excuse Castro’s crimes if Fidel happened to change sides (hat tip: Tim Dunlop)
Monday message board
It’s time, once again for the Monday Message Board. As usual, civilised discussion and absolutely no coarse language, please.
Pinochet is dead. Hooray!
Murderous dictator Augusto Pinochet is dead at 91. While he escaped a formal trial and conviction for his crimes, the last decade of his life was spent under the continuous threat of prosecution, and he died under house arrest.
What I’ve been reading
Multiethnic Australia by Celeste Lipow McLeod. It’s aimed at a US audience, and gives a potted history of Australia since European settlement, from a pro-multiculturalist point of view. More here. Written after the Cronulla riots, the book maintains an optimistic viewpoint, which I think is broadly consistent with our history in the long run.
It’s worth remembering in this context that until quite recently, resentment about immigration and multiculturalism was directed mainly against East Asians. This was true both of Pauline Hanson and of the previous big backlash in the 1980s led by among others, Katherine Betts, Geoffrey Blainey and John Howard. In the decade since Hanson’s famous maiden speech, this kind of prejudice has ebbed dramatically, even as the number of Australians of East Asian background has increased rapidly. And the still older prejudices against Southern Europeans have disappeared almost entirely, along with most of the feelings of resentment and exclusion that were once very strong among these groups.
It may be a while before we overcome our current problems, but I’m confident we’ll do so in the end.
The Missing Link
Club Troppo has a great new feature (actually, a revival of an old one from Ken’s days at the Parish Pump). Called the Missing Link, it’s an intelligent ‘best of Ozplogistan’ selection each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Here’s a recent example
Once my slow-motion site redesign is finished, I’ll add a link to an RSS feed, but you can probably pick this up over at Troppo.
The equity premium and the Stern Review
Brad DeLong carries on the discussion about discounting and the Stern Review, responding to a critique by Partha Dasgupta that has already been the subject of heated discussion. As Brad says, all Dasgupta’s assumptions are reasonable, and his formal analysis is correct
But … The problem I see lies in a perfect storm of interactions:
This brings me to one of my favorite subjects: the equity premium puzzle and its implications, in this case for the Stern Review. I’ll try and explain in some detail over the page, but for those who prefer it, I’ll self-apply the DD condenser and report
Shorter JQ: It’s OK to use the real bond rate for discounting while maintaining high sensitivity to risk and inequality.
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Future of the Family Farm
My piece in Thursday’s Fin was about claims that the family farm is doomed. This is one of these notions that seems impossible to kill, having been around for decades, it looks as if it will outlast me. It seems to appeal to just about everybody. Sometimes its pushed by farmers who want more government aid. At the moment though, it’s mainly being run by economic rationalists who want to sweep away these small and allegedly inefficient operations.
Weekend reflections
Weekend Reflections is on again. Please comment on any topic of interest (civilised discussion and no coarse language, please). Feel free to put in contributions more lengthy than for the Monday Message Board or standard comments.
Petition against the death penalty for Scott Rush and others
I’ve attached a copy of a petition I’ve signed opposing the imposition of the death penalty on Scott Rush and others of the “Bali Nine”. Apart from general issues concerning the death penalty, I agree with the petition’s view that the actions of the Australian Federal Police in this matter have been deplorable. Although the primary offence being committed was against Australia, and the AFP was in a position to arrest Rush and others on their arrival in Australia, they chose to hand them over to the Indonesian police instead. As noted in Rush’s case, the police ignored an approach from his parents to prevent his committing the crimes.
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John Quiggin 