Here are two practical and useful lectures about climate change for those of us who take the time to discuss such things with other people. These talks have given me some incredibly quotable ideas, and I have used the arguments in Carmen Lawrence's talk for five years now to understand this issue. How to win a fight about the budget: How economic modelling is used to circumvent democracy and shut down debate A public lecture by Richard Denniss, Chief Economist, The Australia Institute The Federal Budget and much economic discussion is based on economic modelling. People who use economic models want you to think that modelling is boring. The last thing they want you to do is to pay attention. Economic models claim an amazing degree of precision and this is used by the people who commission them to build a case for their preferred policies and projects. The recent Intergenerational Report (IGR) used modelling to scare the public into accepting that we can never afford to t