The rise of the 'strongman', shame vanishing from public life, the precarious position of central banks and what George Orwell might make of today's post fact world.
James Rickards: how to protect your wealth
Who is going to re-liquify the world when the central banks need bailing out? The US Federal Reserve is running out of bullets, says economist James Rickards.
Photo: supplied
Frank Dikotter: ruling with the cult of personality
Dictatorships have always exploited the ‘cult of personality’ to achieve the illusion of popular approval. But just how do they do it?
Photo: AFP Archive / AFP files / Collection Roger-Viollet
Laurie Penny: today's fascism hides in plain sight
The extreme far-right movement does not operate through the democratic political system, says author and activist Laurie Penny.
Photo: Wiki Commons: publica/Jan Zappner CC BY 2.0
Jonathan Freedland: 'The man without shame has tremendous power'
Those in power now brazenly discount all the tenets of evidence and truth and fact, says political columnist Johnathan Freedland.
Photo: Saul Loeb / AFP
Donald Trump and the rise of the "Strongman"
Authoritarianism is on the rise, and likely to remain in the ascendancy for three decades, says Professor Robert Wade.
Photo: AFP / FILE
Banking Bad - the journalist who sparked a Royal Commission
Journalist Adele Ferguson's investigation into the behaviour of Australian banks over the past five years helped bring about a Royal Commission.
Photo: Twitter
The life and death of Jamal Khashoggi
British journalist Jonathan Rugman details what happened to the Washington Post columnist in Turkey and what it reveals about the Saudi regime.
Photo: AFP
Bill Andersen's lifelong fight for workers rights
Auckland trade unionist and communist Bill Andersen (1924 - 2005) was at the heart of the 1951 waterfront dispute and a famously outspoken Robert Muldoon opponent.
Bill Andersen (1994 - 2005) was one of New Zealand’s most visible and influential trade union leaders. Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library / Reference: PAColl-7327-1-155
Revisiting Orwell's 1984 in a post-fact world
Why is George Orwell’s 1984 still relevant in 2019? Jesse Mulligan takes a deep dive into the novel with Melbourne University’s Robert Hassan.
George Orwell Photo: BY 2.0
