Category: Opinion

Why Getting Your Car Repaired Is Nearly Impossible

Commentary The word “market” is usually associated with the stock market or perhaps a farmers’ market. This is a truncated view based only on what we see or hear reported in the financial press. The market in the real world is a vast collaborative effort involving exchange relationships all over the world, designed by no…


Biden’s Weaponizing the Dollar Against Russia Has Backfired

Commentary In the full panoply of the Biden administration’s foreign policy errors aned gaffes, perhaps none was so stupid as its failed attempt to weaponize the dollar—the world’s reserve currency—against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. It’s telling that during World War II, neither the United States nor the United Kingdom—when the British pound sterling was…


Pump the Brakes on the AI Hype?

Commentary The hype, as they say, is real with AI. Everyone is bullish on the potential created by generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its slew of competitors and alternative contenders. When ChatGPT was released late last year, more than 100 million users signed up within two months. Since then, Alphabet Inc….


How Bidenomics Generates More Debt and Inflation

Commentary Estimates of U.S. growth have improved, but remain massively below the Federal Reserve’s projections. After the largest monetary and fiscal stimulus in recent years, growth remains well below trend and debt is significantly higher. It is interesting to hear Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen say that “trickle-down economics did not work,” when in reality this…


2023: A Year of Surprises

Commentary Bank failures, an artificial intelligence-led bull market, persistent inflation, eurozone recession, France engulfed in riots, and perhaps the biggest U.S. presidential corruption scandal ever. Looking back on the first half of 2023, it is hard to believe the extraordinary events and outright surprises of recent months. Some of the possibilities I forecast in January…


Are There Too Many Arts Graduates?

Commentary I can vividly remember the afternoon of my university graduation ceremony, not least of all because I got lost on the way to pick up my academic robes. I had hired them out from the University of Queensland (UQ)—for not an insignificant sum, I might add—and spent more than an hour desperately trekking across…


US Military Can’t Afford to Fool Around With Feel Good Green Initiatives

Commentary The U.S. military is in decline and now faces a peer competitor, China, that vastly outmatches the United States in terms of military–industrial capacity. And in research, China has a “stunning lead” over the United States in 37 out of 44 critical and emerging technologies, many of which are directly defense related. Yet our military…


ANALYSIS: UK Population in Decline

News Analysis As Pope Francis calls on young Italians to have fewer pets and more children, the issue of a declining fertility rate has also been brought to the fore in the UK. Backbench MP Miriam Cates declared the approach of a population collapse at the UK’s first National Conservatism conference. Charity Population Matters, which campaigns against population…


The Voice Proponents, Australian Universities Should Heed U.S. Supreme Court Race Ruling

Commentary The United States Supreme Court has rendered an important decision on race-based admissions to colleges and universities which, at least indirectly, is relevant to Australia’s debate on the proposed entrenchment of The Voice in the Constitution and necessitates a reflection on Australia’s university admission policies. On June 29, the Supreme Court decisively banned race-based…


Advocates of Changing Australia’s Constitution Should Heed the US Supreme Court’s Race Ruling

Commentary The United States Supreme Court has rendered an important decision on race-based admissions to colleges and universities which, at least indirectly, is relevant to Australia’s debate on the proposed entrenchment of The Voice in the Constitution and necessitates a reflection on Australia’s university admission policies. On June 29, the Supreme Court decisively banned race-based…