Wayne Swan:
David Lovejoy writes: Re. “A surplus of rhetoric as the government chases battlers” (yesterday, item 1). Politically unaligned economists say that insisting on a budget surplus as Wayne Swan has done will lead to stagnation, hardship and further social inequality.
But I think this cynical exercise in appeasing the Australian mouthpieces of the IMF and World Bank is also designed to be an ornament on the CV of Swan himself, who will be out of a job next year and looking for a cushy corporate career.
Arrrrr, pirates:
David Hardie writes: Re. “Copyright cartel: want to cut filesharing by 40%? Here’s how” (yesterday, item 9). They are not “pirates”. To use the language of the right, they are “individual consumers attaching what they see as an appropriate value to their media consumption”.
A key character in Betty Smith’s acclaimed 1943 novel ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ says of his union badge that he ‘wears it like a rose’. Seems to me the ALP should do likewise with Murdoch’s nakedly partisan front page lead on the budget, in today’s ‘Oz’. Time for the party to worry is when and if News Inc and its ilk start praising us.
Arrr!
Do away with the absurd zone publishing system, and see the number of copyright violations (mis-aka ‘piracy’) drop.