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On Super Bowl Sunday, President Trump announced that the penny, a coin that has been in circulation since 1792, will no longer be minted. For as long as America has had a penny, it has also had a national debt, and there has recently been a discussion of how much debt is too much.

The penny has become a microcosm of our financial issues. We collect a penny in revenue but incur three cents in costs. The penny-minting business runs a deficit, just like much else in Washington.

In order to keep our financial system operating smoothly, it is time for Washington to address the question of the debt limit.

Always a political minefield, Congress is supposed to set the credit limit on its own credit card. But for eight of the last ten years, it has given itself unlimited credit by suspending the limit altogether. Congress is now considering raising the debt limit beyond the existing $36 trillion.

But how far can Congress safely go?

In our personal lives, we are all aware that there is a limit to how much can be borrowed on a house or automobile. A banker will ask two questions before approving your loan: how much you earn and what you owe. He is seeking to determine if you have the capacity to handle a certain amount of debt.

Gentrification:  Here’s your all-purpose list, from artists to zoning, of who and what’s to blame

We first published this list in 2019, but the realm of suggested scapegoats has expanded, and now includes fire, gray paint, little libraries and microbreweries.

When bad things happen, we look around for someone to blame.  And when it comes to gentrification, which is loosely defined as somebody not like you moving into your neighborhood, there’s no shortage of things to blame.  We’ve compiled a long—but far from exhaustive—list of the things that people have blamed for causing gentrification. (This task has been made easier by the seemingly inexhaustible editorial/journalistic appetite for stories pitched as exploring the gentrification of “X”, although an essay at Jacobin branding graphic novels as the “gentrification of comic books” seems to represent the moment that this meme has jumped its shark.)

Introduction

Protest is powerful! This guide connects you with resources about the impact of protest, how to organise protests, making protest strategic, and protecting the rights and safety of protesters.

I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept. – Angela Davis

Before you jump in we’d like to remind you that protest can take many forms. Gene Sharp defined 198 Methods of Noviolent Action and there are many more. All kinds of people engage in protest, for all sorts of reasons. Protests can channel outrage and anger as well as grief, compassion, solidarity, humour and more.

Protests are important for the messages they send to powerholders, but also for the connections between the people taking action. Feeling part of something bigger than ourselves, instead of being isolated individuals, can be empowering and life changing.

Independent Senator David Pocock and Tony Windsor AM, former independent parliamentarian who held the balance of power during the Gillard minority government, join Amy Remeikis to discuss how they negotiate with the major parties, the growth of the independent and minor party vote, and why there’s so much fearmongering about minority governments in Australia.

This discussion was recorded live on Wednesday 26 February 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

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

Guest: Senator David Pocock, Independent Senator for the Australian Capital Territory // @davidpocock

Guest: Tony Windsor AM, former Independent Member for New England // @TonyHWindsor

Host: Amy Remeikis, Chief Political Analyst, the Australia Institute // @amyremeikis

Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebonybennett

Show notes:

The American Mind’s ‘Editorial Roundtable’ podcast is a weekly conversation with Ryan Williams, Spencer Klavan, and Mike Sabo devoted to uncovering the ideas and principles that drive American political life. Stream here or download from your favorite podcast host.

Cell Phones in Schools | Cincinnatus Series Ep. 5

New analysis from The Australia Institute has found that private health insurers are making a killing but have managed to convince the government to let them make even more.

According to the latest data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the biggest of them all, Medibank, recorded a pre-tax profit of $785 million last year, yet has been given permission to increase premiums by 3.99% from next month … above the average increase and above the rate of inflation.

Medibank’s profit represents a 45% return on equity, which means – in one year – it made almost half the overall amount the company’s shareholders have invested in the company.

BUPA made $607 million and is putting premiums up by 5.10%, while NIB made $289 million and will hike premiums by 5.79%.

“While Australians struggle through a cost-of-living crisis, health insurers are raking it in,” said David Richardson, Senior Research Fellow at The Australia Institute.

“They know their customers are struggling. But they obviously care more about profits.

“How much profit is enough? Medibank made three-quarters of a billion dollars yet is still putting premiums up by more than most.

“When they’re making a fortune, there is no justification for increasing premiums above the rate of inflation.

“Do they even live in the real world? This is a dud industry which is milking profit from customers’ pain.”

While Australians struggled with the cost-of-living crisis, the three largest private health insurers of Medibank Private, BUPA and NIB made pre-tax profits of $1.7 billion in 2023-24, according to APRA data.

Even with this these huge profits they continued to ask for more. The private health insurance lobby had been pushing for increases in insurance premiums beyond inflation. On 26 February the Minister, Mark Butler, permitted an average premium increase of 3.73%, which will apply from 1 April 2025. The Minister also claimed to have considered the insurers “years of record profits” yet Medibank, BUPA and NIB all received approval for above-average increases of 3.99%, 5.10% and 5.79% respectively.

The profits of Medibank, BUPA and NIB contradict the insurance industry’s claims that “nearly every dollar that comes into health insurance goes back out to hospitals, to doctors, to physiotherapists to dentists”.

Australia’s private health insurance industry is highly concentrated with the top five insurers (Medibank, BUPA, NIB and not-for-profits HCF and HBF) accounting for 79% of all premium income.

The extensive “Notes on the Crises Investigative Journalism Source Wish List” can be found here. The highest priority items on my “wish” list are currently Bureau of the Fiscal Service Parkersburg, West Virginia Budget Appropriations and current United States Treasury attorneys (including any Bureaus). All listed items are, however, important to me. As always, Sources can contact me over email or over signal (a secure and encrypted text messaging app) at my Signal username “NathanTankus.01” or with the QR code below. I will speak to sources on whatever terms they require (i.e. Off the Record, Deep Background, On Background etc.)

For nearly 15 years, American politicians have been clamoring for a “pivot to Asia” as they rightly recognize the growing threat posed by China, and the need to realign our strategic priorities accordingly. Yet across multiple administrations, the will fades. American leaders have instead dedicated much treasure and precious strategic attention to the latest developments in the ongoing reordering of Europe, or whichever Middle Eastern intrigue they are told will bring legacy-burnishing breakthroughs.

As the D.C. blob and the Reddit-screaming consultant class speed us toward disaster, the American people no longer countenance the breadth of international commitments their leaders cling to. The gap between what the elite wish for and what the people will tolerate is where America’s greatest risk lies. Folly, blunder, catastrophe: all are squarely in our future if we don’t act now to change course.

Our leaders’ unwillingness to make painful tradeoffs does not save us from pain—it only saves them from accountability. In fact, their choices make unavoidable pain more unpredictable, and more serious.

The Oval Office showdown between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance was perhaps one of the most consequential spectacles of modern political history. Now that the administration has announced an end to further aid to Ukraine, many believe that Zelensky’s outburst may go down as one of the worst diplomatic mistakes in recent memory.

The claim that Trump is simply adjusting America’s involvement in Ukraine because of one bad meeting, however, is an insult to the president’s capacity for statesmanship. The seemingly intransigent impasse that has been reached is a direct result of Trump intending to keep his campaign promise to achieve a realizable peace in Ukraine, while Zelensky continues to demand an unattainable victory.

Trump came to office recognizing that U.S. support for Ukraine was always intended as a relatively low-risk way to weaken Russia through an armed proxy. If the Putin regime did not collapse due to domestic pressures, then Moscow would have a pyrrhic victory forced upon it due to significant military losses, a weakened economy, and broader international ostracization.

Our second lived experience panel explores the outcomes of the current, inequitable system, as experienced by every day Australians with regard to climate change adaptation and resilience.

Recorded on the 21st of February as part of Per Capita’s Community Tax Summit, at Solidarity Hall at Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne. The Community Tax Summit bought together Australian NFPs, Think Tanks, Advocacy Groups and more to kick off a “big conversation” about Australia’s tax and transfer system. There our panels of experts and those with lived experience demonstrated that there is an genuine appetite for tax and transfer reform, which is both needed and wanted in the next term of Parliament.

The post Lived Experience Panel Two: Climate Change and the Regions appeared first on Per Capita.

Political economist, writer and advocate for economic system change, Dr Katherine Trebeck gives the final keynote address for the Community Tax Summit. Recorded on the 21st of February as part of Per Capita’s Community Tax Summit, at Solidarity Hall at Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne.

Katherine’s roles include writer-at-large at the University of Edinburgh, Economic Change Lead at The Next Economy, and Strategic Advisor to the Centre for Policy Development. She co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) and also WEAll Scotland, its Scottish hub.

The Community Tax Summit bought together Australian NFPs, Think Tanks, Advocacy Groups and more to kick off a “big conversation” about Australia’s tax and transfer system. There our panels of experts and those with lived experience demonstrated that there is an genuine appetite for tax and transfer reform, which is both needed and wanted in the next term of Parliament.

The post Katherine Trebeck: Keynote Address appeared first on Per Capita.

Tax Justice Network Australia’s Mark Zirnsak, Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research’s Jason Ward, Oxfam Australia’s Josie Lee, and Professor Grantley Taylor join the panel on International Taxation. Recorded on the 21st of February as part of Per Capita’s Community Tax Summit, at Solidarity Hall at Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne.

The Community Tax Summit bought together Australian NFPs, Think Tanks, Advocacy Groups and more to kick off a “big conversation” about Australia’s tax and transfer system. There our panels of experts and those with lived experience demonstrated that there is an genuine appetite for tax and transfer reform, which is both needed and wanted in the next term of Parliament.

The post International Taxation appeared first on Per Capita.

The final session in the summit, Emma Dawson, Terese Edwards, Iain Walker, and Peter Lewis combine to discuss how we can take what we’ve learned from the past two days and apply it to changing the Australian tax and transfer system.

Recorded on the 21st of February as part of Per Capita’s Community Tax Summit, at Solidarity Hall at Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne. The Community Tax Summit bought together Australian NFPs, Think Tanks, Advocacy Groups and more to kick off a “big conversation” about Australia’s tax and transfer system. There our panels of experts and those with lived experience demonstrated that there is an genuine appetite for tax and transfer reform, which is both needed and wanted in the next term of Parliament.

The post How to Achieve the Change we Need appeared first on Per Capita.

Mass farmed salmon deaths are continuing in southeast Tasmania, with rotting corpses washing up along the state’s beaches.

Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority appears to know very little about what is going on.

A similar event occurred in Macquarie Harbour last year, with 10 per cent of farmed fish dying.

Concern among Federal Parliamentarians is increasing with Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie and Independent MP  Andrew Wilkie calling out the unsustainable practices of the salmon industry in recent days.

Meanwhile, the science remains clear that salmon farms are the number one threat to the endangered Maugean skate, recognised for its world heritage value.

Now, the salmon industry has admitted the real number of local people whose jobs would be affected if the industry moved out of Macquarie Harbour.

“The Australia Institute has shown the real number of jobs for west coast locals in Macquarie Harbour is fewer than 76 since 2023,” said Eloise Carr, Director of The Australia Institute Tasmania.

“Now the salmon industry has finally owned up and admitted it’s 60, not the 400 so often claimed.

“Jobs like those in processing and administration, already based elsewhere, do not have to rely on industrial fish feedlots that destroy world heritage.

“This misleading behaviour may have caused the government to invest in oxygenation trials when in fact it would be more economically prudent to destock and provide direct support to affected workers.”

In a poll of 2009 Australians, conducted before the weekend’s disastrous White House event with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, 31% rated Trump the greatest threat to world peace, compared to Russian President Putin (27%) and Chinese President Xi (27%). 15% were unsure.

Almost half (49%) said they felt less secure since the election of President Trump. 17% feel more secure.

Respondents were asked if they thought Australian interests would be better served by a closer alliance with the United States or a more independent foreign policy.

44% said they’d prefer a more independent foreign policy. 35% would prefer a closer alliance with the United States.

The research also found:

• 56% of women feel less secure since the election of Donald Trump
• 53% of Baby Boomers, 51% of Gen Xers, 44% of Millennials and 45% of Gen Zers say they feel less secure since the election of Donald Trump
• 48% of Labor voters would prefer a more independent foreign policy, while 30% would prefer a closer alliance with the US. Among Coalition voters, 49% would prefer closer ties with the US and 34% would like a more independent foreign policy

“This is a potentially seismic shift in Australian thinking about America,” said Dr Emma Shortis, Director of the International & Security Affairs Program at The Australia Institute.

On this episode of After America, Dr Emma Shortis and Angus Blackman discuss the shocking public disintegration of relations between the United States and Ukraine, why many Australians are feeling less secure with Trump in office, and what that means for the future of the Australia-US alliance.

This discussion was recorded on Monday 3 March 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

Read more about the research on the Australia Institute website.

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

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

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

Photo: Biden White House Archived/Flickr (US Government Work)

Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions

Some commonly used “rules of thumb” produce very bad results 

We all know and use rules of thumb. They’re handy for simplifying otherwise difficult problems and quickly making reasonably prudent decisions. We know that we should measure twice and cut once, that a stitch in time saves nine, and that we should allow a little extra following distance when the roads are slick.  There’s a second, and related metaphor involving thumbs:  “putting one’s thumb on the scale,” meaning to bias the results of a measurement by tipping the scale in one direction to achieve a desired outcome.  That’s equally applicable to many of these rules of thumb:  they exist and are crafted as they are to push decisions in a particular direction.  That’s especially true for many commonly applied planning rules.

What purport to be “standards” in the worlds of transportation and land use are in many cases just elaborate rules of thumb. And while they might have made sense in some limited or original context, the cumulative effect of these rules is to tip the scales so that we have a transportation system which is by regulation, practice, and received wisdom, “all thumbs.”

Sophia Cho and John C. Williams

Well, thank you, and thanks to all the gathered delegates and luminaries and media professionals.

And thanks especially to the hosts of the Munich Security Conference for being able to put on such an incredible event. We’re, of course, thrilled to be here.

And, of course, it’s great to be back in Germany. As you heard earlier, I was here last year as a United States senator. I saw Foreign Secretary David Lammy and joked that both of us last year had different jobs than we have now.

But now it’s time for all of our countries, for all of us who have been fortunate enough to be given political power by our respective peoples, to use it wisely to improve their lives.

I was fortunate in my time here to spend some time outside the walls of this conference over the last 24 hours, and I’ve been so impressed by the hospitality of the people, even, of course, as they’re reeling from yesterday’s horrendous attack.

And the first time I was ever in Munich was with my wife, actually, who’s here with me today on a personal trip. And I’ve always loved the city of Munich, and I’ve always loved its people.

And I just want to say that we’re very moved, and our thoughts and prayers are with Munich and everybody affected by the evil inflicted on this beautiful community. We’re thinking about you, we’re praying for you, and we will certainly be rooting for you in the days and weeks to come.