John Quiggin
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johnquiggin.bsky.social
John Quiggin
@johnquiggin.bsky.social
Economist & blogger @ http://johnquiggin.com, http://crookedtimber.org. http://johnquiggin.substack.com/?utm http://mstdn.social/@johnquiggin
I repost my content, using the #repost hashtag. You can go to settings/filters to avoid seeing the same post.
Coincidentally, this piece from 404 Media arrived just as I was about to renew my subscription to Reuters. I'll spend my money on something else (smashed avo?)
This App Lets ICE Track Vehicles and Owners Across the Country
Material viewed by 404 Media shows data giant Thomson Reuters enriches license plate data with marriage, voter, and ownership records. The tool can predict where a car may be in the future.
www.404media.co
November 17, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by John Quiggin
Calling for more ‘baseload’ in 2025 is like demanding more landlines because mobile phones drop out sometimes.”
November 17, 2025 at 10:33 AM
An AI-assisted exercise in evaluating possible revenue sources
Some revenue options for Chalmers
Alert: Produced by AI, not fully checked
johnquigginblog.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Appalling Russian propaganda in The Conversation, quoting Orban and Fico as if they are authoritative sources
By delaying a decision on using Russia’s frozen assets for Ukraine, Europe is quietly hedging its bets
The EU is not abandoning Ukraine, but it is recalibrating its risk exposure. There is growing doubt that Ukraine can win – even if EU leaders won’t say so aloud.
theconversation.com
November 16, 2025 at 11:15 PM
My take "it’s better not to have an administration that just uses tariffs more or less randomly as public policy,”
Australia welcomes Trump’s removal of tariffs on beef and other food imports
‘We maintain our position that tariffs on any Australian products are unjustified,’ trade minister Don Farrell says
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Reposted by John Quiggin
Maybe they could devote a wing of the new stadium
More than 90 Tasmanians who have been medically cleared to leave hospital are not able to because they are waiting for an aged care place or NDIS support. Premier Jeremy Rockliff says it's "not good enough" and is calling on the federal government to increase hospital funding.
More than 90 patients 'stranded' in Tasmanian hospitals
More than 90 Tasmanians who have been medically cleared to leave hospital are not able to because they are waiting for an aged care place or NDIS support. Premier Jeremy Rockliff says it's "not good enough" and is calling on the federal government to increase hospital funding.
www.abc.net.au
November 16, 2025 at 6:25 AM
Looking at the news around the world, it's clear we need more "woke cancel culture", not less. "Woke" means, quite literally, aware of what;s going on. And cancel culture is the polar opposite of impunity culture. It may not always be pretty, but it's more necessary than ever.
November 16, 2025 at 7:56 AM
I was going to use this headline for my next article archive.is/bRIET
November 14, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Can someone check my arithmetic, please. I saw recently that ChatGPT gets 2.5 billion queries per day. Rounding slightly down that’s 100 million queries per hour. An average query is said to use 0.3 watt-hours, so that’s 30 MWh of demand, about the output of a single small-medium gas turbine.
November 14, 2025 at 4:26 AM
This disaster has been going on for at least 15 years. Time to kill for-profit education and training (and all human services) once and for all.
At least 30,000 graduates lose qualifications in Australia’s vocational education crackdown
Since late 2024, registrations of 11 VET organisations have been cancelled, voiding diplomas, certificates and statements of attainment
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:02 PM
EXPERT REACTION: Libs dump net-zero (includes my thoughts on the need for Labor to adopt "real zero")
EXPERT REACTION: Libs dump net-zero
EXPERT REACTION: Libs dump net-zero The Australian Liberal Party has formally agreed to dump the 2050 net-zero target, with reports suggesting they will instead remain open to a carbon-neu
www.scimex.org
November 13, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Bullying through apps like Messenger, including group chats, is a much bigger problem for teens that anything that happens on Facebook. So, in an a**e-backwards kind of way, this wouldn't be such a bad outcome But there's always SMS, not to mention bullying in person #auspol
Messenger accidentally included in teen social media ban due to Facebook sign-in, Meta working on 'solution'
Despite the government promising an exemption for messaging apps, the teen social media ban law will unintentionally ban under-16s from Meta’s Messenger unless the company makes changes.
www.crikey.com.au
November 13, 2025 at 3:27 AM
When an article begins with "Republican leaders need to speak up now, loudly and clearly", it may as well say "abandon all hope, ye who enter here" #uspol
A Third Term Is a Legal Problem With a Political Solution - The Atlantic
Republican leaders need to speak up now, loudly and clearly, against any schemes to put Donald Trump back into the White House yet again.
www.theatlantic.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:42 AM
One small step in the necessary and painful process of breaking with the US.
UK pauses intelligence-sharing with US on suspected drug vessels in Caribbean
Rare rupture between military allies comes as concerns grow over Trump administration’s lethal sinking of boats
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by John Quiggin
"In total, the Gates Foundation (formerly known as the The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) has donated $3,519,491 to Lomborg’s think tank. The most recent tax filing on record includes a 2022 donation to the Copenhagen Consensus Center worth $1.25 million" - @rtakver.bsky.social, @desmog.com
Bill Gates Gave $3.5M to Think Tank Run by Climate Crisis Denier Bjorn Lomborg
Tax records reveal that the billionaire’s foundation has donated for years to Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Center.
www.desmog.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:13 AM
For once, some positive news on environmental policy. Barnaby Joyce killed voluntary buyback, the cheapest and fairest way to restore flows to the Murray-Darling Basin. But he's gone and buybacks are back

mailchi.mp/dcceew/dc...
November 12, 2025 at 7:16 AM
Five ways to fix social media for teens without a ban (and Australia can still do them all)
Five ways to fix social media for teens without a ban (and Australia can still do them all)
It's not a choice between a ban and doing nothing at all, experts tell Crikey.
www.crikey.com.au
November 12, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Reposted by John Quiggin
Yep
November 11, 2025 at 11:00 PM
This merger is a frolic of the SA state government, undertaken without reference to the federal government, which (along with students) pays the bills.
Students, teaching staff face challenges amid Adelaide University merger
From late next month, the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia will begin to cease operations and transform to become Adelaide University. But as the clock ticks, some students and staff are feeling the pressure.
www.abc.net.au
November 11, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Police screwed up (to put it charitably) by allowing this criminal display of racism to go ahead. But why aren't they arresting and prosecuting those involved. And why isn't Minns demanding it? #nswpol #nazis
What we just witnessed was state-sanctioned Nazism
What on earth did the NSW Police think a rally organised by the National Socialist Network would be about?
www.smh.com.au
November 11, 2025 at 4:50 AM
#Albo’s homage: abandonment of the #Republic, and of anything that might remotely resemble Whitlam's radicalism. All that's left is #Labor tribalism.
#auspol
Albo’s homage to Labor legend
The only prime minister to be dismissed by the Crown’s representative in Australia will be immortalised with a statue outside Old Parliament House, Anthony Albanese has announced.
www.news.com.au
November 11, 2025 at 12:50 AM

14 years ago, the guns fell silent on the Western Front, marking a temporary and partial end to the Great War which began in 1914 and has continued, in one form or another, ever since. I once hoped that I would live to see a peaceful world, but that hope has faded away. substack.com/@jquigg...?
John Quiggin (@jquiggin)
114 years ago, the guns fell silent on the Western Front, marking a temporary and partial end to the Great War which began in 1914 and has continued, in one form or another, ever since. I once hoped that I would live to see a peaceful world, but that hope has faded away.
substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:19 PM