While Canberra is reportedly negotiating with Papua New Guinea for a joint naval facility on Manus Island, Australia could greatly expand investment in its island neighbours by creating a Pacific infrastructure development bank.     Reports of negotiations over the Manus Island Lombrum Naval Base as a joint facility with PNG come as senior defence analysts confirm that the greatest strategic challenge for…

SEX SCANDAL: The Drive to Abolish Male and Female by Ashley McGuire Regnery, New Jersey Hardcover: 256 pages Price: AUD$47.99 Reviewed by Christopher Murray Common sense tells us that men and women are different. There are physiological differences that cannot be denied. But any person who has met both men and women and had any interaction with them will also…

PHISHING FOR PHOOLS: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller Princeton UP, Princeton, New Jersey Hardcover: 288 pages Price: AUD$54.99 Reviewed by David James Mainstream economic theory is riddled with circular arguments, the most prominent of which is the idea that markets, and the consumers in them, are rational. Restated, the idea is…