Why the Doha Round is failing

The Doha Round fizzer is an embarrassment. The past sixty years of GATT and WTO negotiations have seen a lot of rocky moments but talks have never died. Governments dont't want to damage the brand, so they go on resurrecting their 'determination' in press releases from the G-8 or the G-20. But they've privately calculated the…

Krugman’s take on protection

An attempt to scare people? I suppose he'd know.

Why we should pull out of Afghanistan now

The echoes here of the horrifying, pointless American/Australian war in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s are too loud and too precise to ignore.

Trade ‘imbalances’ are misleading

Revisiting the climate evidence

Although empiricism probably underdetermines the truth about climate—and as we know from Ross Garnaut's report, underdetermines climate policy—it is worth laying out the reasons seriously to doubt the 'man-made climate' claims once more because Gillard says she is seeking a national consensus. I think we should take no steps other than to seek a better understanding…