Christmas – New Year Vids and Links: 27 December 2024

Leith and Damo

Martin North and Tarric Brooker

This woman makes plenty of valid points. It is about the US but in far too many ways it is about us too (H/T Skepticviewer)

Stephen Fry

Paul Krugman on declining trust in elites

Robert Reich making a lot of sense but still missing some things

Bernie Sanders teeing off

Yanis Varoufakis explaining how stuffed Europe is

ABC gloom locally

Marc Faber is always worth a listen

China and Xi Jinping

The Green economy and rare metals

Rest of the World

• Will Trump’s tariff threats protect the dollar’s dominance? – Guardian
• Is Labour to blame for slowing UK economy? It’s more complex than that – Guardian
• Canada’s government in shambles after Trump tariff threats – what can it do next? – Guardian
• Donald Trump will do something ‘crazy’ or ‘something great’ with bitcoin strategic reserve policy – ABC
• Economists say more room to fall as Canadian dollar continues downward trend – Financial Post
• Could tariffs fight climate change? – CBC
• Turkey, Syria tandem could mean piped Qatari gas for Europe and a supercharged Middle East clean energy transition – BNE Intellinews

Terra Specufestorus

• Australia’s inflation battle risks further rate rises – New Daily
• A return to balanced budgets is a decade away, our mid-year update says – New Daily
• Few voters think they have benefitted much from Labor in government – Pearls & Irritations, Waterford
• Our analysis of wealth trends suggests Australia’s middle class may be ‘shrinking’ – The Conversation
• Billions splurged in Christmas and Boxing Day sales could tilt RBA interest rate thinking – Guardian
• ‘National disaster’ if troubled Whyalla steelworks falls over, SA premier warns – Guardian
• Starmer under pressure over promise to drive growth as UK economy flatlines – Guardian
• The Australian dollar could be heading to a 20-year low, on risks of China, Trump and slow growth – ABC, Verrender
• Do Australia’s super tax concessions take from the poor and give to the rich? – ABC
• IMF warns of rate hikes as billions expected to be spent over Christmas – ABC
• Rates, inflation, jobs — the messy economy created winners and losers in 2024 – ABC

Something more abstract………

• A Baseline Scenario for the Global Economy in 2025 – Project-Syndicate, El Erian
• A Newly Declassified Memo Sheds Light on America’s Post-Cold War Mistakes – Slate
• The dawn of the anti-woke era – New Statesman
• France’s budget turmoil reveals an EU damaged by Brexit – New Statesman
• Leveraging AI to navigate ‘deglobalisation’ – VoxEU
• The one-in-a-thousand-day problem – VoxEU
• Labour market transitions in a greener economy – VoxEU
• The heat is on: Heat stress, productivity, and adaptation among firms – VoxEU
• Political distrust and the populist alt-view trap – VoxEU
• China’s military rise: Comparative military spending in China and the US – VoxEU
• Can you still be close to someone whose politics you despise? – Vox
• Christmas chocolate prices soar while cocoa farmers struggle – DW