Issue 72: 25 Nov to 2 Dec 2021
## Economy, Environment, Uncertainty
The economy is getting back to normal? We don’t even know what that looks like any more
Greg Jericho | The Guardian
You don’t need to be an economist to know that something weird is still happening out there.
What does Shell’s takeover of Powershop mean for green energy?
Mike Seccombe | The Saturday Paper
Shell is one of the worst polluters in the world. What does that mean for Powershop, the green energy provider in which it just bought a 100 per cent stake?
How to turn the Great Resignation into the Great Revolution
Emma Fulu | The Saturday Paper
Bartenders, sales assistants, healthcare workers, teachers and tech developers are calling it quits – a record 4.3 million American workers in August alone. It is unclear whether Australia will have the same kind of worker revolt, but some predict we may see a similar trend in early 2022.
When house prices soar, everyone forgets who suffers most
Ross Gittins | AgeSMH
If you define housing as having a place to live rather than to own, renters also suffer when house prices soar. The relationship between house prices and rents is far from one-to-one but, even so, rising house prices usually mean rising rents.
APRA is helping the rich borrowers again
Michael Pascoe | The New Daily
Jobs and a just transition can deliver climate ambition
Sharan Burrow | Pearls and Irritations
## Power and/or Neglect
COVID reveals an amoral world devoid of global governance
Guy Rundle | Crikey
As countries scramble to contain and control the Omicron variant, all thoughts of caring and sharing vaccines collapsed in a shameful heap.
Pfizer refuses to share vaccine knowledge as it announces $US36 billion in vaccine revenue
Patricia Ranald | Michael West Media
Omicron emerged because rich countries neglected global public health
Binoy Kampmark | Pearls and Irritations
‘This is a torture hotel’: Inside the Park Hotel outbreak
Elle Marsh | The Saturday Paper
The hotel is a Covid crime scene that should be closed. Two years ago they were transferred from Nauru and PNG for medical treatment, but instead they have been subjected to medical neglect and exposed to Covid.
Glass houses? MPs and staffers post under aliases on fake social media accounts
Amber Schulz | Crikey
Australia’s Religious Discrimination Bill Is About Attacking Workers’ Rights
Chris Dite | Jacobin
## Freedom and Masculinity
A Problematic Convergence: Permaculture and the Far-Right
Dr Rachel Goldlust | Meanjin
What happens when communitarianism, the classical orientation of the left, falls in with the hyper-individualism of the neo-right, and where does this leave ideas of fairness, public good and collective, not individual, freedom and rights?
Ash Barty’s nice engagement to a nice man may signal a refreshing change
Van Badham | The Guardian
This gendered context to the new I’ve-spent-the-past-two-years-in-tracksuit-pants unpretentiousness theme that’s bubbling through other parts of the culture, goes far beyond the sporting couple’s happy snaps.
‘Freedom’ protests are a far-right con
Jacob Andrewartha, Sue Bolton | Green Left
For the previously marginalised far-right, this movement has been a breakthrough moment.
## Vale Stuart Macintyre
Stuart Macintyre Was Australia’s Foremost Left-Wing Historian
Michael Lazarus | Jacobin