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I- Nathan Tankus- have never mentioned it to my email list, but in the fine print of my website I’ve always listed that I’m available for paid speaking engagements. This came out of people reaching out to me organically inquiring if this was an option. I did it here and there, but never in a consistent fashion and it has never been a regular revenue stream for Notes on the Crises. Now that I have a physical office in Manhattan and that I’m looking to expand- and events have slowed down since the most intense phase of the Trump-Musk Payments Crisis- I think it's time that I finally put it out more publicly that this is an option. I’m especially interested in this because I’m set up to push speaking/consulting revenue directly into more investigative reporting. I was concerned that this sort of thing would distract me from reporting at a crucial moment, but now I think we have turned the corner where the revenue will do more for Notes on the Crises reporting than the time would.

Early last week I started working on a piece on why the Federal Reserve didn’t step in during the Trump Tariff Financial Panic. The basic idea of that piece is simply that “repo rates”- the interest rate at which you can, in essence, borrow funds with treasury securities as collateral- didn’t move outside of the Federal Reserve’s target range. In the language of Wall Street, the Federal Reserve didn’t step in because the “money market” didn’t meltdown. The Federal Reserve, as well as market participants themselves, knew the money market didn’t meltdown. But how did they know a meltdown wasn’t happening?

It was in the rural Victorian seat of Indi, encompassing Wodonga and Wangaratta, that independent Cathy McGowan was drafted by community group Voices of Indi.

In 2013, McGowan delivered the Liberal Party its only loss when she won the formerly safe seat from Sophie Mirabella.

The subsequent success of inner city “teals” – community independents like Zali Steggall, Monique Ryan and Kate Chaney – is evidence that Liberal neglect of classical-liberal and metropolitan voters has come back to haunt them.

But soul searching is due in the bush as well, particularly among Nationals. So far, they have been criticised for unforced errors (like quitting the Liberal-National Coalition only to rejoin it days later) rather than structural weaknesses, like their preference of mining interests over agricultural ones and their inability to win back seats lost since the 1990s.

Conditions are ripe for the Nationals to face challenges from independents on the same scale as those already faced by the Liberals.

And while Indi’s “Voices of” model of community organising and drafting candidates was an innovation, the country has long been friendly to independents.

Every time Oregonians are asked to pony up more money for roads, ODOT trots out a report saying that they’re definitely going to improve  their management and stop blowing through budgets.  And they’re doing it again.  In 2025, as Yogi Berra would say, “It’s deja vu all over again.”

There’s a multi-billion dollar transportation bill hanging fire in the Legislature.

ODOT’s managerial blunders and massive cost-overruns (quite logically) raise major questions about the wisdom of giving them even more money.

So the state throws money at management consultants, who generate a buzzword-filled report about how ODOT could improve.

The Governor promises that ODOT will implement these recommendations.

Voila!  Accountability.

That’s exactly what Governor Brown did just prior to the 2017 Legislature approving the last transportation package.  And Governor Tina Kotek and the Oregon Department of Transportation are following the same script in 2025, hoping a pledge to implement the consultant’s report will get everyone to overlook ODOT’s manifest managerial blunders and vote for the bill.

Here’s The Oregonian in 2017

On this episode, Paul Barclay is joined by former senator Christine Milne who brings her expertise and insights on how proportional representation and minority governments can be much more democratic, diverse, and help reduce corporate lobbying power.

This discussion was recorded on Monday 27 January 2025, and things may have changed since the recording.

Order What’s the Big Idea? 32 Big Ideas for a Better Australia now, via the Australia Institute website.

Guest: Christine Milne AO, Former Leader of the Australian Greens // @ChristineMilne

Host: Paul Barclay, Walkley Award winning journalist and broadcaster // @PaulBarclay

Show notes:

Power sharing in Australian parliament by Bill Browne and Richard Denniss, the Australia Institute (July 2024)

Representative, Still: The role of the Senate in our Democracy by Bill Browne and Ben Oquist, the Australia Institute (March 2021)

Last Tuesday Florida’s Board of Governors rejected Dr. Santa Ono for president of its flagship school, the University of Florida (UF). This came just one week after UF’s Board of Trustees (BOT) unanimously approved Ono. In what is typically a procedural process, it marked the first time in the 22 years since the Board of Governors was established that it had rejected a candidate in this fashion. It was a blow for not only Ono, but also UF’s BOT.

How did Ono nearly get approved as UF’s next president? The short answer is the almost childish simplicity of UF’s BOT, and especially its chairman, Mori Hosseini. They created a situation where only an establishment education administrator like Ono could be selected.

To the best of my knowledge, George Washington never explicitly offered his opinion of the First Amendment. It was proposed by Congress and ratified by the states during his first term as president but, per the Constitution, without his formal participation. Washington wrote to James Madison privately on May 31, 1789, stating, “I see nothing objectionable in the proposed Amendments. Some of them in my opinion, are importantly necessary; others, though of themselves (in my conception) not very essential, are necessary to quiet the fears of some respectable characters and well meaning men.”

The Constitution’s abolition of religious tests for office emancipated American Jews and Catholics from legal disabilities at the federal level, and decades before Britain did the same (this was only seven years after the devastating anti-Catholic Gordon Riots in London).

On this episode of After America, Dr Emma Shortis and Angus Blackman discuss Trump’s dystopian presidency, the administration’s renewed pressure on the Australian government to increase defence spending, and the end of the Trump-Musk bromance.

This discussion was recorded on Friday 6 June 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Our independence is our strength – and only you can make that possible. By donating to the Australia Institute’s End of Financial Year appeal today, you’ll help fund the research changing Australia for the better.

Host: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @emmashortis

Host: Angus Blackman, Producer, the Australia Institute // @AngusRB

Show notes:

‘Australia must resist US bullying to increase its military spending’ by Allan Behm, Guardian Australia (June 2025)