Author Archives: rchirgwin
The price inquiry may be impotent, but it’s also important
The first time, as a journalist, I looked at international price discrimination was in the 1990s – I guess 1997 or 1998, for a publication called Australian Communications, in conjunction with the English office of another magazine, Data Communications, and what we found is exactly in line with what still exists today: American-domiciled companies routinely […]
The elephant in the demographic
In case nobody’s noticed the elephant in Western Sydney, it’s here: Hillsong has 21,000 regular attendees – read that number again – has spawned sub-branches, including a dozen “extension services”, has sold twelve million records, pulls donations into the tens of millions, and is a very strong influence in the WASP “McMansion” mindset. It has […]
Drones over the high seas? Why I think it’s a good idea
There’s much activist outrage (PS I do not consider “activist” a pejorative) at the government spending $2 billion on drones to watch out for refugee boats. I vehemently oppose both major parties’ attitudes to refugees; they are inhumane, vicious, and small. But I’m not so sure that unmanned flights to try and spot boats is […]
“Retail suffers in election years”
Well, of course Eli Greenblat is sympathetic to what retailers say. He’s the Fairfax “retail reporter” after all (one of the great dangers in specialisation is that the reporter identifies with the speciality instead of the reader. I try to pay attention and avoid this myself). Here’s the article: http://www.theage.com.au/business/election-call-a-disaster-says-specialty-20130218-2emld.html “Election call a disaster, says […]
Getting rid of coal fired power: the market might overtake The Greens
A recent story that was commonly misunderstood on the Twitterverse was analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance which suggested that wind power is now cheaper per Megawatt-hour than new fossil fuel power plants. The misunderstanding was over that word “new”. Today’s existing stock of coal- and gas-fired power stations are still the cheapest way to […]
Swan’s touching faith in Treasury
There’s a “Wayne Swan competence” story in the mining tax’s anaemic $126 million collection in its first six months, apart from the one Joe Hockey is telling: since Treasury had revised its forecasts down not once but twice since 2011, why on Earth didn’t he chuck their forecasts back and demand a spreadsheet he could […]
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