This will hurt me...

A grey old day in Hobart today, but it is anything but grey in my heart! I thought after yesterday’s tale of poor parenting and the outrage that it prompted, I’d best switch on the positive vibe and look on the bright side of life. In order to do that, I felt it appropriate to post some lovely blossoms that I photographed right next to the bus stop this morning Congratulations are in order for Paul Krugman, on his receipt of the Nobel Prize for Economics. Krugman will be a familiar name to many – even those not interested in the dismal science , but I will forever remember him for helping convince me of the positives that can emerge from the on the liberalisation of trade, and more generally to the multiplicity of impacts related to the globalisation of capital. His work on Mexico and the Philippines in the mid-1990s, in particular, helped me broaden my outlook considerably and helped lead to the reconstruction of a lad who at that point was a wholly unreconstructed social democrat ...

Nothing bothers me more than the continual repetition of poor public policy choices. Whether it concerns the economy, education, public housing, drug laws, higher education, whatever , I like to think of myself as constantly open to diverse ways to engage with, and respond to, well, anything really. Thus, new ideas to enduring problems are always interesting to me. Australian economist Andrew Leigh (whose blog I have enjoyed for some time now) is someone who is always out there with interesting new ideas. In his blog today, he proposes five novel suggestions for PM Kevin Rudd's [that still sounds odd to me] proposed 'war cabinet' on issues related to Indigenous disadvantage. I can't say that I'm overly keen on all of them , but I like that people are prepared to think from left field. By crikey, if any public policy area is in need of fresh ideas, this is one!