Morning roundup

This morning's worthies:

• Michael Reddell in defence of capital charges and higher public sector discount rates. Bottom line: you will have nonsense if public sector entities don't have to account for their costs of capital. 


• Construction and Corruption: the game. Based on Montreal's construction sector. 

  Each player is a Construction boss, responsible for a Construction contract on each turn. If you do not finish your contract, you keep it, and get paid again the turn after.
  
  The incentive is to keep your work unfinished as long as possible. Bosses can send their workers to opposing players’ sites, and finish their work instead. Thus the dynamic of the game is ‘screw your neighbour,’ with the added element that players’ cash totals are secret. Each turn also holds an election for mayor, who can punish their opponents, and reward supporters.

  Relevant to the environment in which SNC-Lavalin grew up.


• Insurance rationing in Wellington. Why is this market not clearing on prices? Are there just fixed costs in contracting for greater reinsurance coverage?


• The perils of woke governance. Kerry McDonald on some of the dangers in the wellbeing approach. 


• Duncan Greive on Ian Taylor and computer science innovation at Otago Uni


• 100 females for every 72 males in Australian universities in 2016.