It is dismaying to know that the next US presidential election will be held as soon as next year. Call for either the Valium or the 2007 Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque. Or both.

A scaffold erected in Collins Street. And bankers brought, two-by-two, to met Hangman Hayne's noose. With a hooded Rowena Orr QC close at hand, with an alternative of axe-and-block at the ready. Following the efficacious use of which the bankers' heads then impaled with due ceremony upon spikes at the city gates.

Chinese Emperor Xi Jinping wants his place in history. And domestic prestige. An invasion of Taiwan would achieve both goals. And the world will watch.

UK PM May will step down after Brexit is finalised. And so it's a great pity that there is not a wannabee UK PM named June. But there's not, so after May will come...

2018 saw brainlessness raised to previously unheard of heights, the new peak being achieved by Andrew Broad, a National Party MP of small IQ but large, err, ego.

Global share markets have got a bad case of the jitters: the year's gains on the ASX have gone.The Australian parliament has descended into a scene from The Party.