Wait for the bills. The opinion poll finding that an increased proportion of people think the introduction of the carbon tax will not hurt them should come as no surprise. In most cases, so far it hasn’t. The relevant measure will be after householders receive their first energy bills containing the increase caused by it.

From poor decision to vindication. On Friday she had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by not agreeing to a new tax. On Saturday, provided you read down far enough in the story, Julia Gillard was vindicated.

A mighty backdown that illustrates perfectly the quote of the day I included in my snippets last week:

‘So much punditry is the sound of previous mistakes being corrected.’ 

A quote of the day

Libor could well be the asbestos claims of this century

— James Cox, law professor at Duke University on the “ginormous” ramifications of misreporting by banks of the index used around the world to fix lending rates.

Some news and views noted along the way.