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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 pm, July 3rd, 2015 - 25 comments
Categories: Daily review -
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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For a future post I would appreciate some help. The post is about all the stupid spends the Government has made lately. The list includes:
1. $28 mil on the social bonds policy.
2. $11.5 mil on the sheep farm in the Saudi desert where many of the sheep die.
3. $11 mil on McCully’s or Groser’s future New York apartment.
4. $30 mil to Rio Tinto.
5. ??? to Sky City.
There are many other examples …
+26 mill – for new flag
Yep I meant to mention that particular spend.
check Bryan Bruce on Fb. He is keeping tab on the stuff that we are having money for. Its an interesting list.
Currently on top of his page …..What Is More Valuable?
This is the display screen in the foyer of Steven Joyce’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s building in Wellington.
It cost us $140,000
see we have cash, just not for the citizens.
Ta. Here tis …
https://www.facebook.com/www.redsky.tv
The limos, twice.
How about a post on where the asset sales proceeds went, last I saw they allocated a lot more then they received, especially after the genesis fire sale.
There was a lot of BS going down so be interesting to see where our generator proceeds ended up. It reminds folk every time they get a power bill.
Good idea. It appears that the proceeds have been spent many times over …
Novo pay remedial costs and it’s still to be sorted….like many idiotic management decisions on system rollouts they need to wear that one.
TranzRail $690m
Rather makes the other stuff look like loose change.
Citation please.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/2553607/KiwiRail-only-worth-369-million
I’d like to see Price Waterhouse rebuild our rail network for $369 m.
That’s a figure picked out of their arse for the benefit of their nice “friend” Joyce, who is going to help them line their pockets. Frankly they wouldn’t have a clue how to evaluate anything. They may know the price of everything – but they know the value of nothing.
+1
Yup seeing a lot of that also with KPMG being foisted on entities then they get a bill for whatever the crown entity was asking them to do which appears to be SFA most engagements.
Then there’s the likes of Ryall in his new law firm role doing similar, they certainly know how to milk the public purse as these events don’t add value just big city firm bills that line partners pockets.
So it was bought for $690 mil and subsequently had a book value of $369 mil. That suggests a change in value of $321 mil. But the problem is that you see a short term loss and I see a long term gain. And accountants are really bad at valuing community assets. But thanks for the comment and the heads up of the right’s likely response.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11316156
Thanks Labour.
Yeah train systems throughout the world lose money but all advanced civilised nations fund them because there is a community benefit that the accountants cannot measure.
It’s classic short-term rightwing thinking. All those community benefits have long-term economic benefits which they refuse to find ways to measure – because then the whole house of cards would fall over.
Who was it who sold our rail system that led to it’s collapse and the government having to step in to fix it?
Oh, that’s right – it was National. Of course, we should probably blame the fourth Labour government and it’s failed ideology of privatisation even for that fuckup.
Still, it does come back to the failed ideology that you believe in as to why the government had to step to fix rail.
It costs money to repair the damage national cause in government, each and every time.
Joseph Stiglitz: how I would vote in the Greek referendum
My bold.
And that really is what’s happening in Greece. The rich are trying to force Greece into accepting terms that will impoverish Greece and protect the paper wealth that they’ve built up and they’re using supposedly democratic governments to do it.
When this government is questioned on any details (today it was JK when asked about rent charged by the foreign buyers of social housing) they are totally at sea. The style of this government, and it is very worrying, is that they think up decisions on the hoof and wider consultation and planning with community and social experts is totally ignored.
I fear we are going to see the damage this on-the-fly government has done to our country well after the fact. It might take another decade to undo what they are doing.
Suicides up again, I see. These are the indicators of an unhappy society.
Stupid government spends… How about South Canterbury Finance
Chris Trotter published a piece on James Shaw Greens Co Leader on Thursday but it is probably still new to many. Something for me to think about, others may have already understood this point of view.
It has been clear (at least to me) that the Greens have, for some time, been growing increasingly irritated with their left-wing label. Since 2005, New Zealand’s overall political trajectory has been towards individualism, market-driven economic and social solutions, and an increasingly authoritarian state. Though many Greens have staunchly resisted these trends, a substantial number – probably a majority – have accommodated them. These rightward-floating Greens constitute Shaw’s political base: their expectations and his political future are inextricably linked….
As a Green politician, Shaw is anything but staunch and conventional. His experience in the corporate world projects itself ahead of him like a force field. And, in a party chock full of small businessmen and women, it’s a force field they want him to use…
Because the brutal political reality confronting the Greens is that the party’s residual collectivism is radically out of step with the young, tertiary-educated professionals who constitute the Greens’ electoral base. These voters do not want to be told that the market-driven system that employs them is fundamentally incompatible with planetary safety. They want to vote for Green Capitalism – not Red-Green Socialism. Even the trend towards increasingly authoritarian government and the National Security State may be turned to a Green purpose. After all, the sort of measures required to combat climate change will only be implemented with effect by a strong state that brooks no opposition.
What do others think of this assessment of today’s Greens?
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/