The politics of taxation – or how to convince people to part with their money
Feb 15, 2016 00:50 am UTC| Law Politics
Treasurer Scott Morrisons recent struggle to hone a credible message on tax reform speaks to a far deeper set of issues than bad PR. Plumping for tax increases while promising tax cuts is a deeply cynical gesture, premised...
Corruption charges fail to faze Chinese investors
Feb 15, 2016 00:23 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics Law
In 2014 alone, more than 70 top executives of Chinas state owned enterprises (SOEs) were investigated for corruption, as part of Chinas anti-corruption campaign. If this happened in western economies, corruption...
Why are our progressive political heroes still old white men?
Feb 13, 2016 09:42 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
On both sides of the Atlantic, a reawakening of progressive politics is underway. In countries where until recently socialism was considered a dirty word, Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn are inspiring a growing number of...
Ted Cruz's linguistic chutzpah
Feb 13, 2016 01:56 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Chutzpah is making headlines again. This time its not because someone mispronounced it (as former congresswoman Michele Bachmann did a few years ago); its because Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz called it a New...
Did independent voters decide the New Hampshire primary?
Feb 11, 2016 08:33 am UTC| Politics
Last week, the diehards had their say in Iowa. Last night in New Hampshire, the independents took their turn. The Iowa caucuses are time-consuming, and only the most committed or ideological partisans show up. But...
Why the US presidential primary system is no way to run a democracy
Feb 07, 2016 15:41 pm UTC| Politics
The USs baseball season is infamously long. Each team plays 162 games from the first week of April to the last week in September. October is reserved for the playoffs and the World Series. Then theres the pre-season:...
Turkey's academics pay heavy price for resisting Erdoğan’s militarised politics
Feb 07, 2016 15:31 pm UTC| Politics
While the EU and the US have turned a blind eye to the Turkish governments brutal clampdown in Kurdish regions, Turkish academics who have spoken out about the regimes increasingly dictatorial policies have faced...
South Africa’s plan to move away from coal: 8 steps to make it succeed
Germany lowers voting age to 16 for the European elections
IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects