The record Arctic ice melt

Alexis C Madrigal reports on The Mystery at the Heart of This Year's Record-Setting Arctic Ice Melt.

Multinationals want the right to sue Governments

In Behind the smoke: The corporate war on us Peter Martin has blogged about the attempt of multinational corporations to have the right to sue sovereign governments:

They want what is known as an Investor State Dispute Settlement Mechanism. They want it in order to allow them to drag Australia and other sovereign governments before specially constituted international courts.

How not to cover a mass murder

Helen Lewis reports How the media shouldn't cover a mass murder.

Is eating meat environmentally friendly?

In short it's complicated, but meat production may not be as environmentally bad as some people claim. At least according to Asa Wahlquist in The Carnivore's (Ongoing) Dilemma.

Adele Horin's final column for Fairfax

In For richer and poorer, the battle goes on Adele Horin has written her last column for Fairfax. It's well worth reading and I think her contribution will be missed.

Why we need the NDIS

Read A column for a friend with a very special kid by David Penberthy. Then you won't need to ask why.

Is Australia going it alone on pricing carbon?

In Get Fact: is Australia ‘going it alone’ on pricing carbon? Crikey looks at claims by Tony Abbott on Australia going it alone in pricing carbon emissions. They conclude:

We rate Abbott’s statement that the ALP is “going it alone” on pricing carbon as “mostly rubbish”.

Some interesting posts on private vs public funding of education

Dave O'Neil accuse Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott of giving up on fairness in I see rich people.

Ross Gittins criticises the announcement of more funding for all schools in Productivity the loser in Gonski fight. He suggests that we could improve worker productivity by directing the extra funding to those who need it most.

David Gonski and his committee proposed increased funding of $5 billion a year for schools - government or non-government - according to their numbers of low-income, indigenous, disabled, non-English speaking or remote-area students.

According to the calculations of Trevor Cobbold, of the public-school Save Our Schools lobby group, Gillard's promise of extra funding for independent schools regardless of educational need could cost a further $1.5 billion a year.

See what happened? Successful lobbying by the independent schools ensured that, however much extra ends up being spent on federal grants to schools, more will go to privileged students who don't need it and less to underprivileged students who do.

Should Tony Abbott win the federal election, it's likely little or nothing extra will be spent on increasing resources for the education of the underprivileged. And that will be a lost opportunity to improve the future productivity of Australia's workforce.

The media and politicians who repeatedly lie

How do newspapers deal with politicians who go on repeating lies? looks at that very question:

But how do reporters who are doing their level best to tell their readers the truth cope when candidates move from spouting (just about acceptable) spin to telling (unacceptable) lies?

Unfortunately, he doesn't really come up with a solution. It's a bit of a shame really as we have an Opposition Leader who gets away with it repeatedly.

A simple explanation of economics

Jessica Irvine has a book out: Zombies, Bananas and Why There Are No Economists in Heaven. The Sydney Morning Herald has published an edited extract: A noble pursuit by any measure. Basically, economics looks for the most efficient way to allocate scarce resources. Have a read, it is a great and entertaining primer to an understanding of the point of the "dismal science".

Why Paris Aristotle has changed his mind on Nauru

Michael Gordon interviews Paris Aristotle in A change of heart. It makes for very interesting reading. I think Michael Gordon has done a good job with this article.

Australia's wage breakout...

... isn't happening, at least according to the facts (readers of The Australian and the Australian Financial Review are advised to check out Grog's Gamut's excellent post on the subject - as usual it also has graphs).

Great post on the NEM and carbon price

The NEM is the National Electricity Market. The blog post The NEM, Bidding Orders and the Carbon Price explains how the carbon price impacts on electricity generation. It is a good read.

Bloomburg calls for a carbon tax

In Carbon Taxes Cut Debt, Cool Planet the Editors of Bloomburg are calling for a carbon tax:

Absent some profound shift in our penchant for burning coal, oil and gas, the Earth is expected to warm as much as 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 100 years, causing more weather-related destruction.

It’s only responsible to force a shift away from fossil fuels by enacting a carbon tax. The U.S., which accounts for about 19 percent of global emissions today, should take the lead in doing so as part of broader tax reform.

The benefits of such a tax are clear: It would raise immediate revenue for a strapped nation, curtail the use of fossil fuels and, as a result, drastically lower emissions. A carbon tax of $15 a ton that rises at 4 percent above inflation annually would raise $310 billion by 2050 and cut emissions 34 percent (or 2.5 billion metric tons), according to a recent report by the Brookings Institution. The biggest hit would come from gas prices, which would initially rise by about 13 cents a gallon and increase gradually from there, according to other estimates.

To avoid one of the biggest downsides of a carbon tax -- slower economic growth -- as much as 50 percent of the revenue should be used to lower corporate tax rates for all companies. Such an offset could boost economic output by giving business a bigger incentive to invest and hire, research by Brookings and others shows. The remaining revenue should be used to help reduce the federal deficit and make the tax code more progressive, easing some of the bite from higher electricity and gas prices.

Shift in views by climate sceptics

In Climate sceptics shifting their views Sara Phillips looks at how some climate change sceptics now seem to be arguing that if the planet is warming it's not by very much.

Olive oil may help prevent osteoporosis

At least as reported in Olive oil may help strengthen bones.

When a bronze medal can be better than a silver

In Why Bronze Medalists Are Happier Than Silver Winners Jason G. Goldman writes that studies show that often the bronze medalist seem happier than the silver medalists:

Psychologists Victoria Medvec and Thomas Gilovich of Cornell University, and Scott Madey of the University of Toledo think that this phenomenon can be explained by counterfactual thinking. This means that people compare their objective achievements to what “might have been.”

The most obvious counterfactual thought for the silver medalist might be to focus on almost winning gold. She would focus on the difference between coming in first place, and any other outcome. The bronze medalist, however, might focus their counterfactual thoughts downward towards fourth place. She would focus on almost not winning a medal at all. The categorical difference, between being a medalist and not winning a medal, does not exist for the comparison between first and second place.

It is because of this incongruous comparison that the bronze medalist, who is objectively worse off, would be more pleased with herself, and happier with her achievement, than the silver medalist.

Goldman then goes on to note a study of the Judo competition in the 2004 summer Olympics that had similar findings. However, I'm not sure that other factors don't come into play in sports like Judo. In Judo judoka have to win the bronze medal contest to claim the medal. So a bronze medalist has by definition just one their last bout. By contrast, the silver medalist has just lost their last bout. I'm sure that has an effect.

131 years of global warming in 26 seconds

Go to Watch 131 Years of Global Warming in 26 Seconds to see how the impact of carbon emissions.

The powerlessness of Presidential rhetoric

There is an idea in politics, especially American politics, that a good speech by a country's leader can help him achieve his goals. Ezra Klein, in The Unpersuaded, examines this proposition. Klien looks to the work of George Edwards who finds the opposite is actually the case.

This, Edwards says, is the reality facing modern Presidents, and one they would do well to accommodate. “In a rational world, strategies for governing should match the opportunities to be exploited,” he writes. “Barack Obama is only the latest in a long line of presidents who have not been able to transform the political landscape through their efforts at persuasion. When he succeeded in achieving major change, it was by mobilizing those predisposed to support him and driving legislation through Congress on a party-line vote.”

That’s easier said than done. We don’t have a system of government set up for Presidents to drive legislation through Congress. Rather, we have a system that was designed to encourage division between the branches but to resist the formation of political parties. The parties formed anyway, and they now use the branches to compete with one another. Add in minority protections like the filibuster, and you have a system in which the job of the President is to persuade an opposition party that has both the incentive and the power to resist him.

Jim Cooper says, “We’ve effectively lost our Congress and gained a parliament.” He adds, “At least a Prime Minister is empowered to get things done,” but “we have the extreme polarization of a parliament, with party-line voting, without the empowered Prime Minister.” And you can’t solve that with a speech.

Article on Productivity and Industrial Relations

Ian McAuley at New Matilda has written Can We Be Any More Productive? It's an interesting look at labour productivity. He also explores the issue of industrial relations - in particular the need for a cooperative approach rather than the traditional adversarial approach.