capitalism

Categories under capitalism

1600 dead, power prices 2/3 higher than Oz/US: Market working – Ryall

Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, June 19th, 2012 - 81 comments

Independent energy analyst Molly Melhuish is putting out some facts that Tony Ryall will not find comfortable: we pay on average 28.1c per kWh from private companies and 24.79c per kWh from state owned companies. Why is the asset sales process being rushed through parliament, before Treasury can analyse Molly Melhuish’s research?

Cunliffe attacks Nats’ crony capitalism

Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, June 14th, 2012 - 79 comments

David Cunliffe went to the lion’s den yesterday with a speech telling a meeting of Kensington Swan’s receivership and liquidation lawyers that there would be a lot less work for them under Labour but saying “the Labour Party is not your enemy. Your enemy is inefficiency, corruption, and the wastage of both public and private wealth. Your enemy is a cosy corruption that helps a few friends of the government get very rich at the expense of the community.”

The end of growth

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, June 14th, 2012 - 26 comments

Five to fifteen years of economic turmoil. Peak oil. Climate change. For “Western” / OECD countries it’s time to start creating a world based on a different kind of growth.

The Nats’ agenda

Written By: - Date published: 11:23 am, June 9th, 2012 - 30 comments

You don’t usually see it stated as succinctly as this.

Sunday reading

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, June 3rd, 2012 - 12 comments

Last week I put up some Sunday reading – longer, thoughtful pieces I’d found.  I liked that other people also put up their links, with some very interesting topics.  So I thought I might make it a regular feature.  I’d put up a couple of interesting things that I’d come across in the week, and other people could share their links.

National’s war on the deficit – 2015

Written By: - Date published: 1:38 pm, May 30th, 2012 - 7 comments

Stockholm syndrome

Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, May 25th, 2012 - 22 comments

With enough conditioning, our psyches will adapt to believe almost anything. Like that pain is good.

Meatworkers win

Written By: - Date published: 7:21 am, May 22nd, 2012 - 38 comments

News in that Talley’s/AFFCO and the Meatworkers reached an agreement at 5am this morning. The workers will keep their wage and job security provisions and still be covered by a collective. The workers have displayed incredible strength with support from up and down the country. Next time, bosses will think twice before attacking their workers.

Saveloy Soup! Anyone?

Written By: - Date published: 6:17 am, May 12th, 2012 - 58 comments

Seems as though Dicken’s Oliver character was an ungrateful little ingrate who actually had it pretty good, all things considered. Gruel has to beat left over savaloy water, no?

All in the game

Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, May 9th, 2012 - 77 comments

Everyone’s leaped on the Nats’ contraceptives for benies bid to distract from banks.com. Guess I’ll jump in too. Capitalist morality goes: the world/God rewards the good, which is why capitalists are rich – so, the poor, like beneficiaries, must be morally bad – the world would be better without bad people. Eugenics has been and remains a logical endpoint of capitalist morality.

NRT: Bringing Ports of Auckland to heel

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, May 7th, 2012 - 11 comments

Over the past few months, we’ve seen Auckland City’s wholly-owned port, Ports of Auckland, waging war against its own workforce, costing the city millions of dollars in lost dividends. Now, the Auckland Council has acted, requiring its intermediate Auckland Council Investments Limited to impose “good employer” provisions on its subsidiaries.

Talley’s cracking

Written By: - Date published: 6:51 am, May 4th, 2012 - 36 comments

It is a fundamental injustice of our society that one family, which already has more than it can ever need, can hold 1,300 families, who have very little, to ransom just to make a little more cash. But the union makes us working people strong. By standing together, the workers are beating Talley’s in the AFFCO lockout. Talley’s cracked. Wants half them back. The workers have said ‘all of us or none of us’.

Into Black-Scholes: where all the money went

Written By: - Date published: 11:14 am, May 2nd, 2012 - 15 comments

A very interesting article on the BBC – the financial formula that ruined the world. Well, that’s a bit sensationalist, but it’s a formula that allowed intuition to be taken out of “options” trading and computers to move in.  And with the “understanding” of the maths of futures there was a move into more and […]

Will Dunne heed his own poll on asset sales?

Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, April 30th, 2012 - 46 comments

United Future are polling the public about their support for partial privatisation. Will Peter Dunne heed his own poll?

Banks’ secret donation from the ‘wide boys’

Written By: - Date published: 6:19 am, April 27th, 2012 - 101 comments

John Banks has had a miraculous change of heart on pokies. He used to say gambling bosses were “wide boys” who “sucked” the people of this country dry. Now, he’s rubbed up against John Key and become ‘relaxed’ about more pokies. Maybe the $15,000 undeclared donation from SkyCity helped. A donor Banks was legally required to disclose but didn’t. Labour’s laid a complaint. Update: donation has been referred to police.

The lucky ticket

Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, April 24th, 2012 - 52 comments

By popular acclaim we’re putting this comment by rosy up as a Guest Post. Rosy describes success in life by analogy to winning various divisions of lotto…

Genesis boss living it up on your money

Written By: - Date published: 6:48 am, April 24th, 2012 - 51 comments

The FYI project and I/S at No Right Turn have uncovered what appears to be massive abuse of expenses by Genesis CEO Albert Brantley, whom we pay $1.2m a year. It puts me in mind of Marie Antoinette. And we know what happened to her. Almost as shocking is the small stuff. Lucky Genesis is subject to the OIA, for now, so this guy could be found out.

A society that works for the few doesn’t work

Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, April 23rd, 2012 - 76 comments

This country produces $200 billion of wealth a year. Yet half of adults have incomes less than $29,000 a year. 200,000 kids live in poverty, may in working families. A tiny few – the 1% – pocket the lion’s share. There is no justification. It is bad for society and the economy. Helen Kelly confronts the greed irrational of one rich family, the Talley’s, and how it’s hurting 1,300 poor working families.

Gaming industry whistleblower

Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, April 23rd, 2012 - 8 comments

Very interesting article on Stuff yesterday, about ex cop Martin Legge and the information that he has on the practices of the gaming industry in NZ. Someone is trying to sweep this case under the carpet. They shouldn’t get away with it.

SkyCity’s convention centre would need $10m+ subsidies – MED

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 am, April 22nd, 2012 - 46 comments

Key’s selling our gambling law to SkyCity in return for a convention centre with no government capital contribution. But, MED says, we would be subsidising that convention centre with $10m for starters. Plus marketing costs. And, then, ongoing subsidies both if convention numbers fall short and as a kickback when it does host conventions.

Pokies: the crack cocaine of gambling

Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, April 21st, 2012 - 111 comments

A sad story in the Herald today of a man who got hooked on pokies. It has destroyed his family and relationships. He’s started ripping off clients at work. All to put money in the machines that SkyCity profits from. SkyCity has so many addicts customers it says it needs more machines. SkyCity is a cancer. We shouldn’t just stop its expansion. We should excise it.

Sold out

Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, April 20th, 2012 - 107 comments

As expected, the Nats kept on pushing until they got the answer that they wanted on the Crafar farms. A bit more of NZ has been sold out…

Key ups the ante on an empty hand

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, April 19th, 2012 - 77 comments

Back before John Key’s political nous deserted him (circa mid-November 2011), he would have run a mile from the dirty pokies deal with SkyCity. Instead, he’s claiming the dirty deal as his own and SkyCity’s chairman bragging about his access to Nat ministers. All to build a useless convention centre that will demand ongoing subsidies. Not worth the political capital.

Sack or be sacked

Written By: - Date published: 11:39 am, April 16th, 2012 - 15 comments

Ports of Auckland management admit they gave Slater/Lusk the confidential employment details of a worker who criticised the bosses’ disastrous bargaining strategy. At least 2 other workers were victims of the same misdeed. CEO Tony Gibson needs to sack the senior staff responsible. If he can’t or won’t, he’s incompetent or complicit and ought to go himself.

A(nother) bad day for the dynamic duo

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, April 13th, 2012 - 40 comments

It was a bad day yesterday for the ‘heavy hitters’ of the Collins faction, Slater and Lusk. First, Ports of Auckland admitted supplying them with a workers’ private details. Then, the smear on the Meatworkers that they had orchestrated with Talley’s was shot down by the SFO in record time. Finally, Michelle Boag gave them a public serve on RNZ, fueling civil war talk.

Easter trading

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, April 7th, 2012 - 297 comments

It’s the annual Easter ritual – a slap on the wrist for the many shops caught flouting the trading law.

On incompetent management

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, April 1st, 2012 - 28 comments

Once upon a time, decades ago now, ports were run by a person called the Harbourmaster. He used to be a highly qualified and experienced Master Mariner, who had extensive knowledge of shipping and decades of experience, at sea and within the port. All this competence and experience came at a wage,  at most, five times the average wage.

Rortwatch: closing prisons to justify Wiri

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, March 23rd, 2012 - 15 comments

1,200 prison beds, 1 in 8, are empty plus the 1,300 bed reserve. Prisoner numbers are projected to keep falling. So, why are the Nats spending a billion dollars on the Wiri private prison? And where will they get the prisoners? By closing existing public prisons. Rather than upgrading what we have more cheaply they’ll let a foreign company make a profit off locking people up.

Port developments

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, March 17th, 2012 - 97 comments

Ports of Auckland management may be starting to realise that they have bitten off more than they can chew.  Faced with international union action, they have called a halt to the redundancy process.

On those that need to work harder

Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, March 15th, 2012 - 14 comments

Recently, an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal describing how CEOs around the world spend their time.  The article drew on data from a larger study, the Executive Time Use Project . This project relied on reports of time use by CEO’s personal assistants; making it more accurate. It came across my usual reading and I thought I might share some of the findings with you.

Port thuggery

Written By: - Date published: 6:51 am, March 14th, 2012 - 168 comments

Looks like Ports of Auckland have been unlawfully passing workers’ private information to Cameron Slater.

It’s just another example of the intimidation and thuggery the port management is becoming well known for.