Blogotariat

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) claims that international education is Australia’s fourth largest export, earning the country $51 billion in 2023–24. The ABS calculates this fantastical education “export” figure by summing expenditure by student visa holders on tuition fees and goods and services. In 2024-25, the ABS estimated that $30.2 billion was spent by

On March 4, 2018, Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian intelligence officer turned British defector was allegedly poisoned with Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury, England, along with his 33-year-old daughter Yulia.

Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.

I’m now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow me on Mastodon here.

A major reason for the decline in Australia’s productivity and living standards is that Australia has grown its population rapidly via mass immigration (i.e., 8.7 million population increase this century, the fastest in the advanced world) but has failed to provide the extra workers with extra tools, machinery, and technology; extra homes for the millions

The post Why Australia’s productivity growth won’t recover appeared first on MacroBusiness.

News reports about Schwarzenegger's father, Gustav, Nazi links first surfaced in 1990, at which time Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an organization he had long supported, to research his father's past.

read more

By Lucinda Jerogin, Associate Economist at CBA The RBA cut the cash rate by 25bp to 3.60% in a unanimous decision and was widely expected. The Wage Price Index printed broadly in line with expectations, rising by 0.8%/qtr in Q2 25 to be 3.4% higher annually. The unemployment rate retreated to 4.2% in July. The

The post The economic week ahead appeared first on MacroBusiness.

There is a hypothetical alternative version of the 12-minute joint press conference between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump where the leaders announced they had in fact reached an agreement and it was one that bargained away parts of a country not permitted entry to the negotiating room. 

There has been a spate of vandalism and arson of synagogues, cars, a child-care centre, and sundry other sites in the last year or so. Politicians have labelled these attacks as antisemitic and at least some of them may be politically motivated, while the motivation of others is not so clear.

Based on the original article I published in 2022, in light of the subsequent shift away from “representative democracy,” we need to be clear about what democracy really is. Otherwise, how can we know what we want or what we are willing to defend?

English farmers used controlled burns of gorse 300 years ago. Too hot and dry even for cacti. Urbanisation induces genetic evolution in birds. China powering ahead with the roll out of wind and solar.

Peter Sainsbury

Environment: 18th century vicar describes controlled burning in English countryside

Putin shares the view that allowing voters to send in ballots by mail undermines the validity of elections, Trump has told a US private TV broadcaster.

"Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can't have an honest election with mail-in voting," Trump told Fox News Channel's "Hannity" after the two leaders met in Alaska. "He said there's not a country in the world that uses it now."

The biggest and most powerful battery in Australia has smashed its output record again as it continues to work through the commissioning process ahead of reaching full capacity by the end of the year.

DEAL-MAKING COULD BE THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTIC OF HOMO SAPIENS — MORE THAN INVENTING THE WHEEL OR WHATEVER. WHEN GORBACHEV DECIDED TO "MAKE THE USSR GIVE UP THE COLD WAR", INSTEAD OF A SITUATION WHERE WE KILL YOU IF YOU TRY TO KILL US, THE DEAL BECAME LOPSIDED: THE WINNER OF THE COLD WAR WAS NOT GOING TO BE "NICE"... IT'S THE BASEST HUMAN NATURE: WE WIN THE RIGHT TO RAPE YOU... AND THE WEST TRIED TO DO THIS TO RUSSIA UNTIL PUTIN CAME ALONG....