Daily review 10/03/2025

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, March 10th, 2025 - 30 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

30 comments on “Daily review 10/03/2025 ”

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  1. joe90 1
    10 March 2025 at 6:05 pm

    lol

    .

    Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen Ministers, My dear colleagues,

    Europe is at a critical turning point in its history. The American shield is crumbling, Ukraine risks being abandoned, Russia strengthened.

    Washington has become the court of Nero, a fiery emperor, submissive courtiers and a ketamine-fueled jester in charge of purging the civil service.

    – Claude Malhuret

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/french-senator-speech-trump-ukraine-russia_n_67ca0a83e4b0404dff3019c7

  2. joe90 2
    10 March 2025 at 7:11 pm

    So there is a secretive cabal of wealthy influential men who want to rule the world whether they have the votes or not.

    It's just that they're not quite who the cookers have always reckoned they were.

    /

    A secret, men-only right-wing society with members in influential positions around the country is on a crusade: to recruit a Christian government that will form after the right achieves regime change in the United States, potentially via a “national divorce.”

    It sounds like the stuff of fantasy, but it’s real. The group is called the Society for American Civic Renewal (the acronym is pronounced “sacker” by its members). It is open to new recruits, provided you meet a few criteria: you are male, a “trinitarian” Christian, heterosexual, an “un-hyphenated American,” and can answer questions about Trump, the Republican Party, and Christian Nationalism in the right way. One chapter leader wrote to a prospective member that the group aimed to “secure a future for Christian families.”

    It’s an uncanny mimicry of the clandestine engine that, in the right-wing’s furthest imaginings, has driven recent social changes and left them feeling isolated and under siege: a shadowy network occupying the commanding heights of business, politics, and culture, open only to a select, elite few, committed to reshaping the United States to align it with the group’s radical values.

    The men TPM has identified as behind this group — and they are all men — have a few things in common. They’re all a certain kind of devout Christian traditionalist. They are white. They have means, financial and social, and are engaged in politics.

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/inside-a-secret-society-of-prominent-right-wing-christian-men-prepping-for-a-national-divorce

  3. Barfly 3
    10 March 2025 at 7:27 pm

    A diaper, a brainworm, an eyeliner and a bag of ketamine walk into a bar.

    It's not a joke but a true story – apparently there is a wine bar in the Whitehouse

  4. joe90 4
    10 March 2025 at 8:32 pm

    I doubt this will end well….

    //

    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:su7q6jngaiyjueenbbabq43s/post/3ljxwxfurik2e?

    As hundreds of career officials depart, the FAA has a fresh face in its midst: Ted Malaska, a SpaceX engineer who arrived at the agency last month with instructions from SpaceX’s owner, Elon Musk, to deploy equipment from the SpaceX subsidiary Starlink across the FAA’s communications network. The directive promises to make the nation’s air-traffic-control system dependent on the billionaire Trump ally, using equipment that experts say has not gone through strict U.S.-government security and risk-management review.

    […]

    The FAA’s turn to Starlink as a solution for its aging communications network poses a challenge to a $2.4 billion contract awarded to Verizon in 2023 to upgrade the agency’s network. FAA lawyers have been working 80-hour weeks to figure out what to do—whether they need to cancel or amend parts of the contract or else find the funds to supplement Verizon’s work with Starlink equipment.

    […]

    When the FAA selected Verizon after a competitive bid process in 2023, several factors recommended the telecommunications giant, among them that the company’s cloud and IT services had been approved for federal agencies based on a rigorous security review known as FedRAMP. SpaceX’s services have not.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/faa-trump-elon-plane-crash/681975/?gift=5EfEGpW7zq2VSVHWOJiI_5UcuZ4hCWuONevV8bGZbG8&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

    • joe90 4.1
      10 March 2025 at 8:50 pm

      The bit the screenshot loped off.

      …. to his own employer and starts installing hardware without statutorily required tests and assurances…

  5. weka 5
    10 March 2025 at 9:30 pm

    If NZ had a CGT, what sort of rate would it be?

    • Incognito 5.1
      10 March 2025 at 9:39 pm

      Benchmark it against NZX with a small but significant offset to make it less attractive than investing on NZX, for example.

      • weka 5.1.1
        10 March 2025 at 9:42 pm

        ballpark rate?

      • SPC 5.1.2
        11 March 2025 at 12:05 am

        Company tax rate for local shares, top marginal rate for property?

        • Incognito 5.1.2.1
          11 March 2025 at 8:58 am

          Fine by me. Not all local shares are equal, but let’s start there. Any incentive to move from rentier investment to producing investment is worthy of consideration, IMO.

    • Michael Scott 5.2
      10 March 2025 at 9:43 pm

      The most common and simple assumption is that it would be set at the individual marginal tax rate, But some countries set it at a specific rate and in some it is dependent on how long you have held the asset as to how much you pay.

    • SPC 5.3
      11 March 2025 at 12:02 am

      The bright-line test tax rate is the top marginal rate of the taxpayer.

  6. SPC 6
    10 March 2025 at 11:59 pm

    The polls indicate the performance of the government. That is related to the impact of its policies. It's response to this is to continue to go down the the wrong path. The public has noted this. This is why they will be a one term government.

    It has nothing to do with Luxon being captain of their team. If they remain on their course, changing team captain will do them no good.

    Bolger sacked Richardson before 1993 and only just survived (the New Labour/Labour division and FPP).

  7. SPC 7
    11 March 2025 at 12:20 am

    Doing to Whanau Ora what was done to food in schools via centralised delivery providers?

    Four new entities, including Ngāti Toa and Ngāi Tahu, will deliver Whānau Ora services following a government tendering process.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/whanau-ora-is-a-love-story-and-it-is-about-falling-back-in-love-with-ourselves-helen-leahy/IES7FBTJSRBZZA7SNERZEO62Y4/

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/absolutely-gutted-whanau-ora-agencies-dropped-under-dramatic-overhaul-of-155m-contracts/XMDSV2UUZZDZNDKNKVQUGAD7GI/

    • alwyn 7.1
      11 March 2025 at 9:09 am

      If we have four under the new setup it will be one more than we have at present. That would be a step toward de-centralisation rather than increased centralisation wouldn't it?

      • SPC 7.1.1
        11 March 2025 at 9:42 am

        They are commissioning agencies – from one to 2 in the NI, still one for the SI and one for Pasifica.

        The issue is the loss of established connections (built up over a decade) to those who deliver locally.

        The change was said to have occurred because it was determined by this government to be appropriate to put the commissioning roles out to tender.

        For some reason the 3 existing agencies were then not continued with.

        This might be seen as a coincidence, or the purpose of it all. Ending experience in delivery of a system, so there is no institutional memory, is a neo-liberal tactic to gut out the public service.

    • Belladonna 7.2
      11 March 2025 at 9:42 am

      I read the article, but am still unclear over whether there was a specific reason for the existing funding distributor agencies to lose the contracts – or whether this is just part of the normal business cycle (contracts going out for re-tender after 10 years is pretty normal business practice)

      The comment from TPK

      "He also indicated a change in direction for Whānau Ora, including a greater focus on data-driven outcomes and more frontline delivery of services. Its $155m budget remained unchanged."

      Might imply that there is has been dis-satisfaction with the existing agencies in these areas.

      Or it might just be a tightening up of reporting requirements in a new tender (also very common business practice – reporting needs change over 10 years)

      From a business perspective, you can never assume that you'll retain a contract. You always have to be looking at broadening your base – and not being reliant on a single funding source.

      The negative commentary seems to be largely from the Tamihere-led and confusingly-named "Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency" (Whanau Ora is also the overall name of the programme) – which lost out in the tender process. And from Ngarewa-Packer – from TPM which has Tamihere as the president – a conflict of interest she doesn't disclose in the article.

      Ngarewa-Packer appears to be ignoring the fact that Ngai Tahu and Ngati Toa led organizations have been successful in the tender process. Just which 'Maori' is she representing?

      It all smacks of 'you didn't renew the contract of my mate JT"

      • SPC 7.2.1
        11 March 2025 at 11:24 am

        If it was only about tendering out, it is surprising that none of the three existing groups were retained.

        This comment

        "He also indicated a change in direction for Whānau Ora, including a greater focus on data-driven outcomes and more frontline delivery of services. Its $155m budget remained unchanged."

        is indicative of selling a new beginning story by not retaining any of the three. if so one wonders about direction to that outcome and a dodgy tender process.

        They could go to the AG, or such.

        • Belladonna 7.2.1.1
          11 March 2025 at 3:11 pm

          I don't think that a focus on data metrics and front-line delivery signals a structural change. It may, however, signal the fact that the three unsuccessful groups were not delivering well in those areas.

          Holding an existing contract isn't always an advantage when it comes to re-tendering in .government or local government contract awards. It's not at all uncommon for existing service delivery agencies to miss out – speaking from painful experience, here. There are pros and cons to being a current provider. On the one hand, you know the systems and metrics thoroughly (or you darn well should); on the other hand, any issues with quality or timeliness of delivery are equally well known to the tendering agency.

          Given that none of the parties have come out and said 'our offering was best in market and therefore there is dodgy tendering processes going on' – it seems that this is unlikely to be the case. Also government procurement processes in NZ are pretty strict in adhering to measurable decision-making criteria (of course, there have been exceptions – but they're really rare)

          It really reads more like sour grapes – especially when TPM is only addressing the issue of the unsuccessful candidate – and not the (equally Maori) successful ones.

          Also Ngarewa-Packer is pretty dodgy over not declaring her conflict of interest over Tamihere.

          • SPC 7.2.1.1.1
            11 March 2025 at 4:33 pm

            Again, there were three unsuccessful candidates, not one. And one was Pasifica.

            They have said there were no existing problems with the status quo, presumably why it was renewed by Labour without tender.

            • Belladonna 7.2.1.1.1.1
              11 March 2025 at 5:10 pm

              And now there have been 4 successful contracts awarded.
              It's standard practice for government contracts to go out to re-tender after a period. If a contract has been successively rolled over for 10 years, then it's routine for it to be publicly tendered.

              Who said there were no problems with the status quo? However, the absence of 'problems' doesn't mean that there is not another organization which can do a better job. That's what a tender process is designed to find out. Having a government contract isn’t a job for life….

              The fact that non one in the article, apart from two of the unsuccessful organizations, and a politcal figure closely tied to one of them, is commenting – suggests more sour grapes than malpractice.

  8. SPC 8
    11 March 2025 at 12:53 am

    I asked AI why ANZ was such a bad bank, the worst bank.

    AI

    ANZ is sometimes perceived as a "bad bank" due to high complaint numbers, issues with customer service, and negative reviews, but it also has strengths like strong asset quality and good liquidity.

    Profit before service to customers.

    Here's a more detailed breakdown of why ANZ might be considered a "bad bank" and some counterpoints:

    Reasons for Negative Perceptions:

    • High Complaint Numbers:

      ANZ consistently receives a high number of complaints compared to its market share, suggesting a need for improvement in customer service and product/service quality.

    • Negative Customer Service Reviews:

      Many reviews highlight issues with customer service, including long wait times, difficulty resolving issues, and a lack of empathy from staff.

    • Specific Incidents:

      There have been instances of negative publicity, such as a spreadsheet error in accounting software and a recent incident involving traders and supervisors.

    • Kiwisaver Performance:
    • Some ANZ Kiwisaver funds have underperformed, leading to customer dissatisfaction.

    It does not attract competence, probably underpays its empoyees.

    • Counterpoints and Strengths:
    • Strong Asset Quality and Liquidity:

      ANZ is rated highly for its strong asset quality, high levels of capital, and good liquidity.

    • Market Reach:
    • ANZ has a strong presence in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia, offering a wide range of financial services.
    • Customer-Facing Features:
    • ANZ is known for its digital banking services, which have received positive feedback.

    It actually obstructs payment by card online and has very poor connection with companies for online bank account to bank account payments – from internet providers to retailers.

    It will be the last to comply with new open banking regulation.

    This enables customers to flee their bad customer service bank to another one.