DOOMSAYERS who think the current global economic crisis spells the end of capitalism as we know it should think again.
For a start, instead of winding back after the failure of the globalising free marketeers, the stated aim of the G20 group of countries, enthusiastically endorsed by Kevin Rudd, is to extend the unregulated free market worldwide. In a similar manner, and despite the opposition of China, Rudd is pushing for all 21 of the Apec member countries to universally embrace ‘free trade’.
Rudd and other world leaders should look before …

There’s been a predictable black and white response over the last fortnight to former federal resources minister Ian Macfarlane’s advocacy of nuclear power as a realistic energy option for reducing greenhouse emissions.
But what has largely been ignored is the role of gas-fired energy generation.
The deleterious impact of emissions trading on our economy will be felt most severely in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria where such a scheme will result in significant job losses in a number of brown-coal fired power stations. The same applies to New South Wales, because …