In March 2001, I gave a talk to the Melbourne Media Club in which, as a final observation after talking at some length about a range of topical economic issues, and having been enjoined by the hosts to be ‘provocative’, I drew a link between the record low to which the Australian dollar was then sinking, and the fact that Australian culture seemed to assign a much greater value to success in sport than it did to success in other walks of life (a theme which I touch on more formally in a couple of later talks included in this section). These comments, when reported, triggered an extraordinary tirade from prominent sports and entertainment personality Mr Eddie McGuire – which was subsequently published, together with a transcript of my remarks, by the online news site Crikey.