Modern Crucifixion Oil on canvas board 24 '' x 16 " Signed, Left Hand Side Cardinal Pell's trial, where he was declared guilty by a jury of pedophile actions, was a deeply curious event. I expect appeal before by three judges will present a more believable judgment of 'Not guilty'. But even so, a modern crucifixion will have been perpetrated. Now we are awaiting a possible review by Australia's High court. If the verdict is 'Guilty', either by explicit decision or refusal to

Check out Pete's 2018 exhibition of EcoArt here. Geoffrey Blainey Oil paint on canvas 550 cm X 750 cm Signed bottom left, 2019 Geoffrey is the artist's great friend, in my view one of the great historians of Australia with a wonderful feel for matters economic. As well as his Australian history he has written an acclaimed book about the causes of war and another, called The Great Seesaw about the swings of optimism and pessimism in the world economy. This provided great help

When God is reduced to The Cosmic Therapist and we combat the culture wars' defeat of Christian conservatives with a middle-class moralism that prescribes being happy with oneself and nice to others, as Rod Dreher's The Benedict Option argues, we are bringing knives to a gunfight Review of The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by Rod Dreher Sentinel, 2017, 288 pages, $30.99 _______________________ Archbishop Eric D’Arcy, who retired as

A lifetime's hard work, mostly pro bono. 'Thank your mother for the rabbit' type of activity. Contents Preface 1. Practitioner 1.1 On the edge of chaos, 1995 Biographical account of the rise and fall of a central banker 1.2 Money, Prices and Output, 1975. [Link to be provided] New wine in old bottles, the role of 'monetary disequilibrium'. 1.3 Reflections on Central Banking, 1988. On leaving the RBA - a failed central banker who was punished for being right about the stat

Henry’s readers are no doubt aware that ASX: MINING has comfortably outperformed all other sectors, especially the BANKS & TELCO. The reason that the Raff can think of for the outperformance of the likes of BHP and South32 is that stocks in this sector got sold down heavily and it would seem that investors have jumped the gun seeing rosy times near at hand. Rosy times reflected in a positive change in dynamics are probably not before 2018 at the soonest. In another life the R

It seems Oil Shale production has peaked in the US and according to some, has started to decline, leading one to muse that US energy dependency is back on the table, and the search for secure oil supplies will be restarted, or so a recent contributor to David Stockman’s ‘Contra Corner’ writes. This comes as no surprise to me since the West, and now the East, continue to believe that petroleum is biological in origin and thus limited in quantity. This despite the fact that th

Larry Summers has said: ‘If interest rates are negative, all the verities are up for grabs' Mervyn King has warned: ‘The economy is behaving in ways we did not expect, and new ideas will be needed if we are to prevent a repetition of the Great Recession and restore prosperity’, (The End of Alchemy, P 6) Robert Gordon notes in The Rise and Fall of American Growth the much slower growth of USA productivity than in the ‘successful century’ from 1870 – 1970. As well as slower pr

Spring cleaning and Henry has moved house to a new web service; Henry’s Spring as it were, to coin a hackneyed phrase. So we have survived another federal election and I have to say that the winning margin of one seat in the House of Representatives with an increase in independents in the Senate means our ‘lurch-to-the-left’ Liberal National Party will find it difficult to enact new legislation. And then on the other hand if the L-NP and the ALP are now indistinguishable poli

Another big week of private sector economists and businesspersons pleading with the Turnbull government to behave like a serious government. Paul Keating’s heroic effort to turn the budget deficit into a surplus to head off ‘Banana Republic #1’ cannot be overemphasised. Now we are definitively heading to ‘Banana Republic #2’ and this means our children and grandchildren will be left with a pile of debt they cannot repay. So sad, especially as the next generation and the gen

Henry's editor, Pete Jonson, has recently decisively wound back his corporate involvement. He is now fulfilling the promise he made to himself as a young part-time landscape painter that he would, later in life, spend more time painting. This time has arrived; and Pete has been painting seriously for several years now, gradually devoting more and more time to this most pleasurable activity. Pete recently opened his first exhibition, an eight week solo showing at Whitehill Gal

Economics Crocodile tears are being shed for Australia's too buoyant exchange rate, which keeps trying to creep upwards despite interest rates being cut to levels that threaten economic stability. Henry regrets that the RBA did not take seriously his early 2013 call for a tax on capital inflow, available here. Such a tax would have meant that a lower exchange rate could have been achieved without cutting interest rates by a level that threatens to keep asset inflation bubblin