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Keywords: Derivatives

  • ECONOMICS

    Banksters' deadly game of Sheldon's three-person chess

    • David James
    • 01 May 2013
    3 Comments

    In The Big Bang Theory Sheldon invents a game of chess which 'utilises a three-sided board with transitional quadrilateral-to-triangular tessellation to solve the balanced centre combat-area problem'. This gobbledegook sounds suspiciously similar to the application of mathematical models to financial securities in derivatives markets.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Don't bet on the Australian dollar

    • David James
    • 08 February 2013
    4 Comments

    This week the Australian dollar reached its lowest point in three months. Tangible factors such as interest rates and trade with China influence its strength. But what really determines the direction of our currency is the whim of the currency traders. In that sense, the Aussie is is arguably the most 'unreal', or virtual currency in the world.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Best of 2012: The upside down world of global capital

    • David James
    • 09 January 2013
    1 Comment

    Money is not like water, that 'flows' around the world, reaching 'equilibrium', or experiencing 'volatility'. It is transactions between people, based on trust. It enables the cooperation that forms the basis of social life. Human beings should be at the centre. Yet that is the opposite of what is happening. Monday 27 August 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Australia's bad job of asylum seeker policy

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 15 November 2012
    11 Comments

    You can tell bad policy making by the trail of broken human lives it leaves behind it. The image of asylum seekers held in tents on Nauru, many on hunger strike and at least one now in risk of death, will surely be followed by images of people withering from depression and resentment and needing medical care.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Debunking the global financial con job

    • David James
    • 12 November 2012
    12 Comments

    Even after the most dangerous financial crises ever seen, finance industry lobbyists still argue that the sector should not be too heavily regulated as that would be counterproductive. This is nonsense. Money is rules. It is a question of who sets the rules and what kind of rules they should should be.

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  • ECONOMICS

    The upside down world of global capital

    • David James
    • 27 August 2012
    5 Comments

    Money is not like water, that 'flows' around the world, reaching 'equilibrium', or experiencing 'volatility'. It is transactions between people, based on trust. It enables the cooperation that forms the basis of social life. Human beings should be at the centre. Yet that is the opposite of what is happening.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Hail to the climate geeks

    • Frank O'Shea
    • 22 August 2012
    27 Comments

    The word geek has changed from a term of derision to one of smiling respect and even a badge of honour. The members of the Climate Commission would no doubt be happy to be called geeks. Unfortunately there is far too little 'geek' representation in the halls of power.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Regulation as solidarity not censorship

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 13 August 2012
    10 Comments

    The Prime Minister has demanded states regulate the price of electricity. News Ltd continues its campaign against further regulation of newspapers. Regulation brings into play two values that stand in tension: individual freedom and solidarity. The trick is to regulate so that personal freedom is enhanced in a way that serves the good of all. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    If Dickens were alive today

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 08 February 2012
    6 Comments

    If Dickens wished to address the deprivation and discrimination suffered by Indigenous Australians and asylum seekers today, he would need to turn to the popular media. But even though he was superbly gifted for the genre, his telly series would most likely flop. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The heroes and villains of Michael Moore's world

    • TIm Kroenert
    • 12 November 2009
    9 Comments

    Michael Moore makes documentaries only in the sense that Today Tonight does investigative journalism. That's not to say he doesn't land a few well-deserving kicks while he's at it.

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  • ECONOMICS

    It's time to ditch GDP

    • John Wicks
    • 23 September 2008
    9 Comments

    The 'trickle down' of wealth proclaimed by neo-liberalism is debatable, and hardships flowing from sub-prime activities descend on the disadvantaged with the finesse of a freight train. Some economists have demanded the GDP measure be replaced by goods and services data that promote the common good.

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  • RELIGION

    Capitalism's ingenious immunity to the guilty conscience

    • Scott Stephens
    • 27 February 2007
    9 Comments

    Every attempt to curb capitalism's voracious appetite, to ‘humanize’ its world-wide dominion, to place the world economy back in the service of the greater good, and thus temper its lust for unregulated growth, has not only failed, but has been assimilated.

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