Farewell NZ Institute

14 comments on “Farewell NZ Institute ”

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1. Colonial Viper 1

   21 December 2011 at 10:58 am

   Money talks and the Left doesn’t have any.
   • queenstfarmer 1.1

     21 December 2011 at 12:35 pm

     The Labour Party here may be broke, but in the US for example the Left is raking it in:

     Obama amassed a record $750 million as he surged to victory in 2008. His 2012 campaign total is expected to hit $1 billion or more, even without a major Democratic primary opponent or the emergence of a strong Republican contender.
     • KJT 1.1.1

       21 December 2011 at 12:36 pm

       Bit of a stretch calling Obama, Left!
       • Colonial Viper 1.1.1.1

         21 December 2011 at 1:52 pm

         His largest campaign contributors include Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JP Morgan.

         Now, remind me again how many executives from those firms have been put behind bars for mass financial fraud? Roughly none. Zero cases brought up against executive officers from any of them.

         In comparison, hundreds went to jail in the S&L fraud scandal in the 1990’s.

         Obama’s a protector of the top 0.1%, and a military ruler to boot.

         Election year next year: expect Iran to be the new ‘Axis of Evil’.
       • queenstfarmer 1.1.1.2

         21 December 2011 at 3:16 pm

         It’s an interesting question. Here’s two views:

         Obama revealed: A moderate Republican
         Perhaps this is just the logical endpoint of two years spent arguing over what Barack Obama is — or isn’t. Muslim. Socialist. Marxist. Anti-colonialist. Racial healer. We’ve obsessed over every answer except the right one: President Obama, if you look closely at his positions, is a moderate Republican of the early 1990s.

         The other view

         Little ‘left’ of O craze
         Obama is by far the most liberal president since FDR, with a competence level to match Jimmy Carter’s. Obama’s first two years, when Dems controlled Congress, were a left-wing fantasy of taxing, borrowing, spending, regulating and government expansion. Throw in his apologies to the world for America’s history, and there is no precedent in modern times.
     • prism 1.1.2

       21 December 2011 at 2:40 pm

       That money that Obama had was just to get elected wasn’t it? Donations accumulating so he could get a necessary public profile and people knew something about him. It seems hard work penetrating the concrete of some of the USA right who would rather recite stupid lies about him.

       That’s not the same as having ongoing funds to fund a broad-thinking planning and analysis group. Of course we have Treasury?

       I find some sanity of thinking from listening to Rod Oram.
       • prism 1.1.2.1

         21 December 2011 at 3:13 pm

         CV There’s a lot I don’t know about Obama it seems – some being that the big moneybags backed him and it wasn’t all the little people getting together to get their man on high.
         • Gosman 1.1.2.1.1

           22 December 2011 at 10:19 am

           Perhaps the members of the Occupied movement could get off their backsides and actually campaign for a candidate or candidates from the left then. Oh no that’s right, it is much easier blaming all the world’s problems on that big bad 1% than actually doing anything practical like getting involved in the actual system.
       • fmacskasy 1.1.2.2

         21 December 2011 at 3:56 pm

         Ditto, Prism…
     • fmacskasy 1.1.3

       21 December 2011 at 2:55 pm

       Obama, “left”?!

       What part of him? His hand and foot?
2. insider 2

   21 December 2011 at 11:26 am

   It’s an odd one alright. Seems a better deal for the BRT as an opportunity to potentially soften their image now that Roger is no longer with us. NZI lost a lot of headline space after Skilling left. Election might have had something to do with it too as he was popular with Labour I think, a bit like Peter Neilson’s crowd who have suffered a big funding downturn.
3. randal 3

   21 December 2011 at 1:40 pm

   the funny thing is I cant think of one business that the business round table was responsible for creating or mentoring.
   they were only ever a group of rich right wing nutbar provacateurs who wanted to attack workers and wages and conditions.
   basically would be upper class scum.
   • prism 3.1

     21 December 2011 at 2:42 pm

     @randal
     You’ve got to acknowledge that they have been successful at that though.
4. Jenny 4

   21 December 2011 at 7:30 pm

   Is the BRT on it’s death bed as a credible public lobby group, are they about to face their biggest loss of credibility ever?

   Could part of the reason for the merger, be New Zealand’s pending biggest ever criminal fraud case being brought against unnamed individuals involved in the South Canterbury Finance bailout?

   Roger Kerr the late chairman of the BRT at the time, was one of the single biggest beneficiaries of the Bail Out – gifted by the taxpayer the staggering amount of $100 million dollars.

   Are there any other insiders in the know, who got away with the tax payers money, still lurking inside the ranks of the BRT?

   If the secret list of names of those facing charges over the alleged SCF fraud ever comes out, might it reveal a roll call of the top luminaries of the soon to be defunct BRT?

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