History repeats: another despot rises to the top
Most pundits might have misread the US election. But one pundit read it very clearly, and well ahead of Tuesday.
Peter Hartcher is the political editor and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a Gold Walkley award winner, a former foreign correspondent in Tokyo and Washington, and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. His latest book is The Sweet Spot: How Australia Made its Own Luck and Could Now Throw it All Away. His 2005 book, Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the Missing Seven Trillion Dollars, foresaw the collapse of the US housing market and the economic slump that followed.
Most pundits might have misread the US election. But one pundit read it very clearly, and well ahead of Tuesday.
In the grand sweep of world events, the US election is a choice between two different approaches to managing the decline of US dominance.
When Malcolm Turnbull grasps Joko Widodo's hand to welcome him to Australia on Sunday, it will crystallise a remarkable contrast of political fortunes since they two leaders met in Jakarta year ago.
How much does it cost to buy an entire country? If the country is the Philippines, it seems that the answer is $US24 billion ($31.4 billion).
The Nationals aren't thriving despite the fact that Barnaby Joyce looks like a bumpkin, but because he looks like a bumpkin.
In the time that Australia has had four prime ministers, the Labor Party's organisation has had just one leader.
On Friday, China's richest man bought part-ownership of Sony Pictures, one of the Big Six movie studios that dominate Hollywood. He's the same man who last year bought Hoyts with its 450 screens in Australia.
The Western world this week crossed a threshold into a new intolerance. Australia, which has been spared the worst of the economic and social disarray of the US and Europe in the last decade, nonetheless seems to have crossed the ugly threshold too.
Julie Bishop is ready for her next assignment – the education of Donald Trump.
A war would be disastrous for all; but with such underlying animosity dating back centuries, it could well prove popular in both countries.
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