Journalism and other writing
JUST when the arrogant Telstra appeared to have shot itself in the foot, along comes the Government and foolishly lets it off the hook.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the Government’s expert panel would consider Telstra’s 13-page bid for the Australia-wide broadband internet project for which the taxpayer is forking out $4.7 billion. Continue reading “Govt letting Telstra off the hook”
The tax system can be made simpler, but only at a cost to fairness. The trick is to make it simpler where the cost to fairness is minimal. And that is at the lower end of the scale.
Treasury secretary Ken Henry was bemoaning last week that the system is too complicated. He said it had 128 different taxes and that nearly three-quarters of taxpayers used a tax agent compared under a third in New Zealand. Continue reading “Tax simplicity threatens fairness”
Forty-eight years ago, in another transition to a new and hopeful presidency, a prophetic and dire warning was given by a man who knew. His warning has not been heeded and America, and the world is the worse for it.
The question is whether Barack Obama can understand the threat — perhaps the greatest American faces — and resist it. Continue reading “Military-industrial complex still threatens”
Sorry to rain on the party, but covert racism appears to be still alive and well in America.
Yes, the Electoral College vote of about 340 to Barack Obama and about 160 to John McCain was apparently a huge victory for America’s first black president.
But it disguises some other facts and figures which suggest many US voters might have not voted for Obama because of race and others voted for him purely because of race. Continue reading “Figures show race played a part for Obama”
They are lining up on opposite sides. On one side, is the “we are all Keynesians now” mob who are delighting in saying: “We told you so; all this deregulation will end in tears.” Or, “Marx was right; capitalism is inherently unstable. On the other side we have those who say capitalism will rebound as it always does; capitalism is the least worst system; we should not re-regulate for that will sow the seeds of the next recession.
Neither is right. The seeds of this financial crisis lay not in too much de-regulation or too much regulation. Rather, in one poor piece of regulation and one poor piece of de-regulation. Both in the US in the late 1990s. Continue reading “Why did it happen and where did the $ go”