Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Not much has been written, in fact nothing at all, about the geopolitical significance of that controversial New Year cricket match at the SCG. Yes, geopolitical. It was about the emergence of India as the next economic super power and manifesting itself as a cricket super power as well. This is the elephant in the room that everyone is still not seeing.

Why is it that in Greece and other European countries, being on the Left or supportive of the Left is not met with ridicule, disdain or horror? Why is it that PASOK leader George Papandreou can say at the end of his election speech: ‘I ask all Greeks of democratic persuasion to vote against the Right’? And why didn’t every newspaper in the country attack him or laugh at him for saying it? (Jeana Vithoulkas)

One of the insights of behavioural economics - which is the study of the way people actually think about economic issues, not the way they should think - is that, unlike economists, most people don't add pluses and minuses together to get a net result. (Ross Gittins)

Future historians will look back on the current decade as a turning point comparable with that of the Seventies. No, not the 1970s. This is not going to be another piece pointing out the coincidence of an unpopular Republican president, soaring oil prices, a sagging dollar and an unwinnable faraway war. I am talking about the 1870s. (Niall Ferguson)

There is a gulf in Australian society between Muslim and non-Muslim, fuelled by fear and ignorance but, more significantly, by arrogance, says Aly, a lecturer in politics at Monash University.

Well, as I reported earlier, the Yorick papers are more engrossing all the time. These are the replies to his despatch of October 1807. Rum stuff.

December unsurprisingly quieter on the site than November ...