The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Best blog posts of 2010

For the last five years Club Troppo and Online Opinion have sponsored an annual independent blogging competition. I am pretty sure I was a finalist last year. You can read more about it and nominate posts here. For what it is worth, some of my more widely read posts are listed below. My personal favourites are probably (in no particular order): running with ASIO circa 2001; why we urgently need critical thinking on the NBN (which ended up shifting the editor-in-chief of The Australian's view on the whole subject and shaping the coalition's defence strategy); The Australian's war on everything and the Doomsday code (two companion pieces); some thoughts on Malcolm Turnbull staying; the housing productivity myth; and house prices for dummies. One that did not make the list below but which was nevertheless very influential in 2010 was my NECR idea for creating an electronic exchange for all credit transactions, which the government backed in its banking reform package.

at 4:56 AM