Uncomfortable Collisions with Reality Nicholas Gruen

Competition policy created jobs and economic growth but sometimes it harmed smaller communities as rural services were rationalised. So Australia Post thinks it's on a PR winner when it argues that other logistics firms should be denied access to the 'last mile' of their rural network (from rural post office to home address) to deliver parcels to rural customers.

But whereas the letter monopoly is legislated specifically to fund a cross-subsidy from the city to the bush, Australia Post's monopoly on its last mile of delivery to the bush is a 'natural monopoly'. It only exists because it's uneconomic for anyone else to invest in that infrastructure — because it's not heavily utilised.

In fact Australia Post can't take advantage of the monopoly without charging the bush a monopoly price — which it does. This podcast explains why the government should require Australia Post to grant access to its facilities and how that would be great for rural post offices, generate around two thousand new jobs with half of them being in the bush.

Most of us have heard of the idea that, for a proposition to be scientific, it must be falsifiable — an idea associated with Karl Popper. And Thomas Kuhn's idea of 'paradigms' slid into the language following the publication of his book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions". In this podcast, I argue that Polanyi should be as well known as Kuhn (Kuhn seems to have got his core idea of the incommensurability of paradigms from Polanyi). And Polanyi scholar Martin Turkis and I ask why that is. I think the answer is also related to another somewhat surprising phenomenon. A remarkably large number of those studying Polanyi today have a particular interest in religion. Though religion was very important to Polanyi, he only mentioned it as a parting thought at the end of his major publications.

The corresponding video is here.

I talk with Seamus O'Mahony who has written a unique and marvellous book. It's about the origins of psychoanalysis, and it's the first serious history I've ever read that is written as a comedy! O'Mahony brings this off brilliantly, and it enables him to skewer the madness and quackery of the early psychoanalysts without any self-righteousness. In the background of all this is O'Mahony's experience as a (now retired) doctor, older and wiser than when he began. The hero of the book is the now obscure Wilfred Trotter, a man of prodigious natural gifts both intellectual and practical. He baled out of psychoanalysis early and went onto become the greatest English surgeon of his generation while remaining a model of modesty and self-restraint, unlike the other two protagonists of the story. In the end, he stands for the centrality and the indispensability of care in medicine. And yet, as O'Mahony laments, care receives short shrift in modern medicine. All up a marvellous conversation. If you want to dive in from the deep end, start from the 16.04 minute timestamp below.


00:00 Trailer
01:00 Unlocking the Writer's Journey: From Medicine to Literature
06:21 The Intersection of Medicine and Writing: A Personal Reflection
11:24 Critiquing Modern Medicine: The Golden Age and Beyond
16:05 The Making of a Masterpiece: Trotter, Jones, and Psychoanalysis
21:26 Behind the Book: Unearthing Letters and Lives
26:53 Psychoanalytic Pioneers: The Congress and Contrasting Views
31:14 Wilfred Trotter: The Surgeon-Thinker's Legacy
36:01 Empathy in Surgery: Trotter's Influence on Medicine
41:16 Literary Inspirations: Embracing a Comedic Lens
46:28 Reflecting on Medical Evolution: The Primacy of Patient Care

If you prefer the video, you can find it here

Here's the audio from a great event in London held on the 15th of November in which I outlined my proposal for a privately funded standing citizen assembly. You can find the video at this link.

In this episode I chat with Brink Lindsey about his ideological trajectory — he began as an adherent of schlock philosopher Ayn Rand and has gradually transitioned towards the centre of the political spectrum via libertarianism and Hayek. (Rand regarded Hayek as poisonously, treasonously left wing). Sadly Hayekian libertarianism had embarrassingly little to say about the emerging problems of our time — noticeably cultural, political and environmental degradation.

We built the conversation around the title of Brink's Substack, "The Permanent Problem".

This was inspired by Keynes's essay "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren", in which Keynes sketches out the problems he expects to emerge by around the early decades of the new century. For by then, as Keynes prophecied, we'll have solved the economic problem — and that leaves us with the permanent problem — how to live agreeably and well.

Brink's 2007 book, "The Age of Abundance," was optimistic, speaking of a time when humanity underwent a revolutionary change with the advent of mass affluence. However, Brink admits, the world didn't turn out as he'd hoped.

Timestamps
1:27 Introduction and getting our bearings.
8:07 The social and economic challenges we face now.
14:47 Technology's impact on social structures and behaviour.
21:27 The interplay between political and societal changes.
28:07 Widening class divisions and social cohesion.
34:47 The mental health crisis.
41:27 The changing roles of education and employment.
48:07 The rise of identity politics, and its effects on societal norms and values.
54:47 Potential solutions.
1:00:27 Final thoughts, summarizing key points and reflecting on the future outlook.

If you prefer video, it's here.

In the wake of my column proposing that central banks should hold open forecasting competitions - and particularly suggesting it for Bernanke's review of the Bank of England's forecasting, Gene Tunny and I discuss the issues in more detail and some of the reactions to the column appearing in the comments section.

Kenneth Grahame and Wind in the Willows comes up. And why not?

I think you’ll find it pretty interesting.

If you'd like to watch the video, it's here.

00:00 Trailer

00:53 Proposal for Economic Forecasting

06:19 Comments & Criticisms

10:05 Modeling & Judgements

13:47 Feedback on Gene's Article

16:12 Museum Visit and Kenneth Graham

17:13 Closing Remarks



If you'd like to watch the video version, find it here.