Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Predictions

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The Booker Prize and why it matters

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 12 November 2024

    As the Booker Prize winner is announced, the perennial questions resurface: What does winning truly mean for writers — and for readers? As public values shift, literary prizes ignite fierce debate about artistic merit, cultural relevance, and the commercial impact of awards. Can a prize still shape the future of fiction?

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Pope against the machine

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 23 May 2024

    When Pope Francis delivered a message for the World Day of Social Communications, he focused on AI. The pope posed a wide range of questions including how to regulate its development and use in order to avoid the manipulation of truth and the inevitable centralisation of wealth and power.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    The Russia-Ukraine war two years on

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 28 February 2024
    5 Comments

    After two years, the attack on Ukraine by Russia on February 24 has left half-a-million dead, traumatised a generation, and promises little in the way of a halt to hostilities. The unpalatable reality to this conflict is that some diplomatic solution will have to be found in this war of murderous attrition.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Black swans and the art of expecting the unexpected

    • Max Jeganathan
    • 24 January 2024
    2 Comments

    Even the best forecasting gets it wrong, and every year has its own 'Black Swan' events, characterised by their unpredictability and impact. They remind us that the future is unpredictable, perpetually lurching between prediction and confusion.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Projections and predictions for the year ahead

    • Barry Gittins
    • 18 January 2024
    1 Comment

    It’s that time of year when futurists and prophets play fast and loose, projecting visions rife with both promise and peril, weighing the possible against the improbable. As we contemplate competing pictures of the future, although every forecast risks missing the mark, one thing is certain: 2024 won’t be a year for the faint-hearted.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    The RBA's man with the hammer

    • James Massola
    • 13 June 2023
    2 Comments

    In a year defined by surging living expenses, RBA Governor Philip Lowe finds himself the object of public ire, his failed rate predictions and aggressive anti-inflation measures becoming a litmus test for the enduring effects of a global crisis. Will the Labor party dare sever ties with Lowe, or will they allow him to continue wielding the hammer, regardless of the mounting human cost?

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Remembering the people represented by a percentage point

    • Joshua Lourensz, Vin Martin
    • 15 May 2023
    2 Comments

    Budget papers reveal an expected rise in the unemployment rate from 3.5 per cent to 4.25 per cent by June 2024. While the increase is portrayed as modest, it translates to an additional 144,900 people becoming unemployed. The focus must remain on the human stories behind the numbers during this uncertain period of economic recovery.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    A vote against contempt

    • Julian Butler
    • 21 November 2022

    If democracy relies on a shared commitment to reaching consensus, to making accommodations even as, and precisely because, I hold things dearly, sacredly, then contempt necessarily corrodes democracy. Others stop being moral agents whom I must value and seek to share public space with. How do we overcome this corrosive element in our common life? 

    READ MORE
  • ECONOMICS

    In finance, story matters most

    • David James
    • 16 November 2022
    1 Comment

    Financial markets are made up of human beings and human beings have always been storytellers — long before science, or modern finance, or accounting even existed. Accordingly, the main skill of successful analysts, advisers, financial gurus and commentators is the construction of compelling narratives. They are, if not exactly creators of fairy stories, not too far removed from it. 

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The book corner: The Matter of Everything and the Premonitions Bureau

    • Juliette Hughes 
    • 28 June 2022
    1 Comment

    How do we know that what we call knowledge is knowledge? How do we know that we know? The two books I have been reading here are both about kinds of knowing. Suzie Sheehy is a particle physicist from my old stamping ground, Melbourne University. Sheehy’s story is of passionate hunters for nothing less than the meaning of everything. 

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Let slip the dogs of war: A tale of futility and bloody-mindedness

    • Dorothy Horsfield
    • 22 March 2022
    8 Comments

    Moscow-based Director of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC)Dr Andrei Kortunov warned of its tragic consequences for Russia in an article published four days before the launch of his country’s invasion of Ukraine. The de facto partition of Ukraine, he said, as a result of the Kremlin’s recognition of the independence of the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, will signify ‘the final formalisation of the division of Europe’ from which there may be no easy retreat.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Our hopes and fears for 2022

    • Barry Gittins
    • 14 January 2022
    4 Comments

    We’ve been in a pressure cooker, these past two years. More than a score of historians had memorably described 2020 as the sixth-most ‘stressful year ever’. Predictions and speculations look ahead; I looked at the past trends of the past two years and make these humble observations. With the stage set for dire times, here are six trends to look for in 2022. Here’s hoping.

    READ MORE