Grand poobah


Bipartisanism shock: all hands in the pork barrel

Nick Minchin acted to gag the Australian National Audit Office. So did Robert Ray, writes David MacCormack.

Greenspan reveals: 1.2 million lives traded for oil

Alan Greenspan, the Grand Poobah of American finance, has written in his memoirs that the Iraq war is “largely about oil”. But it won’t matter, Murdoch, Wolfowitz and several million anti-war protesters have all made the same connection, and yet any mention of the oil-war nexus still causes sniggers amongst the commentariat.