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Interview: Staying Alive
CPSU national secretary Adrian O'Connell talks about the fight to keep the public service - and the union movement - alive.
Bad Boss: The Ultimate Piss Off
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Industrial: Last Drinks
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National Focus: Around the States
If Tampa told us that John Howard circa 2003 is the same spotted rabid dog from 1987, this week’s assault on Medicare confirms it reports Noel Hester in this national round up.
Politics: Radical Surgery
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Education: The Price of Missing Out
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Legal: If At First You Don't Succeed
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History: Massive Attack
Labour historian Dr Lucy Taksa remembers the general strike of 1917 to put the recent anti-war marches into perspective
Culture: What's Right
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Review: If He Should Fall
Jim Marr caught Irish folk-rock-punk legend Shane MacGowan at Sydney’s Metro Theatre. He was surprised but not disappointed.
Poetry: If I Were a Rich Man
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Satire: IMF Ensures Iraq Institutes Market Based Looting
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to monitor the Iraqi economy to ensure that the reintroduction of looting into the economy conforms with free-market theory.
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Reader Marlene McAlear penned this tribue to May Day and worker solidarity.
Solidarity
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The Numbers Game
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ZNet's Marie Trigona reports from the streets of Argentina in the rundown to last week's presidential election. Bosswatch
The Costs of Excess
Some tall business poppies had their heads lopped this week as the laws of economic gravity applied their always chaotic theory.
Solidarity Forever
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 Mystery Men Behind Pan Bungle
Charities Brace for Medicare Backlash
Court Throws Out Cole Prosecutions
Child Actor Dodges Broken Voice
Rio Tinto: $40 Million for Boss, Eviction for Workers
Child Care for Oldies Too
Winning Poster Shouts at Freeloaders
May Day Tragedy Claims Union Lives
Westfield Cleaners to Down Mops
Question Marks Over Nursing Home
Burn Payout Highlights Compo Fears
Costa Blows Whistle on Canberra Raid
Hoops Bet on National Body
Tear Us Down, Buttercup
Activist Notebook
Is Labor History?
Bob Gould Sprays Gerard Henderson
War and Peace
A Strange Light
A Little History
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Satire
IMF Ensures Iraq Institutes Market Based Looting
Extracted from The Chaser
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to monitor the Iraqi economy to ensure that the reintroduction of looting into the economy conforms with free-market theory.
The IMF issued its initial report today citing optimism at the current developments.
"The looting we are seeing is highly unregulated and favours the strongest individuals in the market," reported IMF economist Saul Kemp. "So, yes, we are very pleased."
The IMF gave particularly high points for the looting regimes dedication to shrinking government, a major goal of the IMF.
"The infrastructure of the government is slowly been returned to individuals," Kemp added, showing a slide of several utilities full of tables and chairs looted from government offices. "This along with the very physical shrinking of government achieved by the coalition forces allows for growth, without the market failure normally attributable to political distortions."
The IMF has however warned Iraqis that they must work to ensure that their looting remains efficient.
"These looters have to open themselves up to foreign investment," insisted an IMF spokesman. "Your family based looter working with a single donkey just can't compete on the global market these days. They need capital to buy trucks and forklifts. That's when a looter can really make some money."
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