We’re stuffed anyway. Ye biggum financial tsunami can no longer be avoided. The economic growth of the US was not through wealth producing middle class jobs.
Those had been outsourced to China but in the finance industry. Speculating with securities, hedging and betting to the tune of a quadrillion and selling predatorial mortgages to unsuspecting idiots who believed you couldn’t loose with owning your own home because the prices would always rise followed up by tricking people into taking on ever more debt to borrow cheap shit made in China.

America is bankrupt because the banksters have been running amok in a totally deregulated market and now those same criminals want the bankrupt Americans to cough up to bail them out while still retaining the right to foreclose on them.

the FBI is investigating Fanny and Freddy and a couple of other subprime lenders and as far as I am concerned they should put all of them in jail.

And here they want to vote one of those irresponsible gamblers to become the next prime minister even though he already tells us he’s going to borrow money to pay for tax cuts. Go figure.
It is absolute mayhem and if George Bush looks like a deer caught in the lights that is because he really is petrified. not because of the economy because that’s a goner no matter what but because he and his banking mates really don’t want to be found out.

Captcha: penny thousand. No not even that is gonna help. LOL

LOL.

I’ll just say that those Clark things, while relatively harmless, do show that she can tell fibs when she thinks it best (I didn’t know we were speeding).

Ummm – I’ve seen Helen a lot over the decades. She always has her nose down reading or working on something. It is what she does. I saw her on TV at the netball the other night, and she was working, probably on her speech.

I’ve also worked with her a lot over the years on local campaigns. She doesn’t micromanage unless people raise issues or something shows up that indicates a problem.

I believe the “speeding” thing because she simply would have said that she’d like to get to X by Y, and if there wasn’t any discussion, then gotten down to work. Those cars and for that matter roads are pretty smooth so there wouldn’t have been anything much.

She doesn’t lie, but she will not always help reporters or opposition MP’s out if they don’t ask the right questions. That is pretty legitimate.

It’s a shame that so much media and public discourse gets wasted on (in my opinion) less important politics when many important issues get sidelined or politicised.

Agreed. But that is the state of a “talkback” media. They assume that the population isn’t capable of adsorbing anything more. I suspect that is where they are wrong.

I don’t know where SP and others find the time to write

With difficulty. I find that writing stuff that isn’t code takes me quite a while. But I can shove thousands of lines of code together in a short period of time. Different talents. I like moderating

People pretty much contribute whatever time they can spare. At this point most are concentrating on stuff to do with the campaigning of the ‘left’. If they are going to spend time on this rather than grass-roots then they use it as effectively as possible. I know I do.

I’d expect that after the election there will be more wide ranging pieces, and for that matter that we’d be able to pick up more posters. At present all of the really interesting people are engaged and so are we about having time to find them.

I might appear here like a Nat – but I’m not that simple. That probably applies to most NZers.

Who is simple in their beliefs? However around here you tend to get concerted attacks by the goon squad from the rabid right whenever you show any intelligence in posts.

As you probably remember I’m probably the most right of lefties you’re likely to meet outside of Act. It is just that I recognize that you have to work with people to do things. Act seems to want to coerce.

Incidently there was a lovely line that Wilson said the other night (referring to Act). Something like Labour has had to provide the ideas for both the Left and the Right.

http://www.overcompensating.com/posts/20080924.html

Thanks for the link, it’s a good article.

Hear, hear.

Especially with the economic meltdown not being a paltry US $ 700 billion. That’s just how much they can have outstanding at any given time if the bailout gets passed.

The actual amount of speculative crap that John Key and his Wall street mates have ratcheted up is closer to a Quadrillion (1000 trillion).

I don’t want a man who is that irresponsible borrowing more money from his mates to bail them out and gets us in debt.

Absolutely. I don’t like it, but i’m prepared to put up with it because, as far as I can tell, she hasn’t actually lied about anything that actually matters. I’m sure she WOULD if she had to, but at least she conducts herself in such a way that she doesn’t need to. I mean speeding is not too flash, but to be fair she did have a police escort. The painting thing is the ultimate in irrelevance – I couldn’t give a flying f*ck in a thunderstorm if she rips off a bit of sh*tty artwork for charity once a week. And as for Peters – she wasn’t open, but why should she be? It’s his grave, he’s been digging it just fine.

I’m worried about Keys lies because they seem like they could have a bigger impact were he prime minister – Insider trading being an obvious issue. And the part that really bothers me is that I think he genuinely believes he’s not really doing anything wrong, at least not for his customary values of wrong.

…

Anyhow, totally agree with you. If we could get more attention on the big issues it might help with drawing peoples focus away from the bullsh*t and onto the policy. I like Clark more than Key, despite thinking she’s pretty arrogant and has started to think of herself as “indispensable” which is always a bit of a worry, but the reason I’m supporting the left (and via Green, not Labour) is that 95% of their policy is just flat out better. National is flaky, and on the key issues don’t even believe in the policy promises they’re making. That points to a far more dangerous future for all of us than personality issues with a PM who despite possibly being a bit more full of her importance to the process than would be ideal is, ultimately, doing a pretty awesome job.

I guess that’s the point. It just adds some perspective to the Clark / Peters / Key honesty finger pointing Mexican standoff. [I think Winston has already been shot but refuses to play dead.]

Back on topic, SP has a bloody good post covering so many things at once (although education was left out – surely an important economic factor). Could easily be dozens of topics under similar headings. All things that affect the bulk of New Zealanders.
It’s a shame that so much media and public discourse gets wasted on (in my opinion) less important politics when many important issues get sidelined or politicised.

All of SP’s points have the potential to impact people just as much (probably more) than their pay packet. They are even more important factors if you are jobless.

I understand this is “The Standard” and I have read the About/FAQ. I don’t know where SP and others find the time to write – but some more posts from the fellow Standardistas with their views on similar apolitical topics would be welcome for the “free thinkers” among us (unless of course you prefer to keep the site as a conversation along other lines). You never know, you might broaden your influence. I might appear here like a Nat – but I’m not that simple. That probably applies to most NZers.

I strongly recommend the above to anyone nearing panic over the state of the international economy, or just anyone who’s interested in the background.

To all those who thing CEO’s are acutually worth all the money they’re paid – What do you think the CEO’s of all these banks were taking home? And what do you think they deserved to be taking home in retrospect, considering the standard of their corporate guidance?

Let’s take the case of Robert Willumstad, CEO of AIG. An annual salary of -$95Billion seems pretty reasonable to me in light of the reduction in market cap he’s overseen…

I’m amazed anyone still trots out the painting thing with a straight face.

I don’t see how anyone can think trying to raise money for kids is bad compared to lying about owning 100,000 shares of TranzRail while seeking sensitive commercial information about that organisation.

How a speeding cop makes Clark dishonest is equally unclear.

If this is the worst these folk have against Clark then she must be a saint.

Whereas: National wanted to whore the lives of Kiwi soldiers in the invasion of Iraq so we might get an FTA with the USA.

Whereas: National has – serially – attempted to deceive voters as to their real policy intentions after the election (2005 and today)

Whereas: National wants to introduce PPPs on a vast scale – despite overwhelming evidence PPPs lead to higher costs, less service and reduced transparency with public money…..precisely at a time when crony capitalism has been shown to be another name for corruption and a recipe for failure.

Winston Peters is master of his own fate. Trying to hold Clark or anyone else responsible for that is simply wrong……and being wrong does seem to be a defining characteristic of National’s crew of party hacks.