Open mike 07/09/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 7th, 2010 - 21 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

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It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

Comment on whatever takes your fancy.

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21 comments on “Open mike 07/09/2010 ”

  1. Pascal's bookie 1

    True facts

    • Carol 1.1

      oooo, well, here’s something for martial law conspiracy theorists:

      http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=181902

      The minister now in charge of the earthquake recovery says the army will be in Christchurch for some time.

      Gerry Brownlee has just been appointed to the job and has given an outline of the big job ahead.

      Mr Brownlee says the army has been instrumental in helping those involved in the clean up and are on stand by for anything needed.

      The Government is giving an initial pledge of five million dollars to the recovery process and may give more.

      One of the new Minister of Earthquake’s first comments is about the great contribution of the army???!! eg, not about all the ordinary citizens, student volunteers etc, who have been helping others, for instance. Nor does his first concern seem to be for people who may not be getting paid and wand so may be struggling to survuve.

    • Great site. It is almost as bizarre as that WOBH Slater site although slightly more believable.

    • NickS 1.3

      Damn, that’s quite a few timecubes of delusional stupidity…

  2. Jenny 2

    On Breakfast this morning, Paul Henry displays his brutal class outlook again.

    Who cares about them? he asked his audience.

    “Less prisoners to worry about, I say”

    This was Henry’s comment when told that Christchurch prisoners might be at risk.

    Let’s hope that Henry’s attitude is not shared by many other rich and privileged power brokers in this country.

  3. Jenny 3

    Henry thinks it is acceptable and even commendable if prisoners were purposely put at risk of burning to death in their cells.

    This disgusting right wing bigot has had too many chances.

    Obviously TV 3 think Henry serves a purpose in reinforcing a brutal class outlook that embodies the values of the comfortable and privileged over everyone else.

    water pressure would not be adequate for sprinklers to work effectively in the event of a fire at the prison.

  4. Jenny 4

    More nasty thuggery from Henry:

    “It is the people with guns who will survive”

    This irresponsible thug should be taken off the airways especially in a time of national emergency when his crude prejudices could be acted on by the impressionable.

  5. BLiP 5

    So what happens when you take irrefutable evidence of widespread systematic corruption to the authorities?

    Well, if it involves the wholesale whale meat business and you’re in Japan, the corruption proceeds uninterrupted and the crusaders for justice get sentenced to jail . Says one of the “Tokyo two”:

    This sentence is totally disproportionate and completely undeserved,” Suzuki said after the ruling at Aomori district court. “We set out to reveal the truth about the government’s whaling programme, but instead have been punished, while those behind the misuse of public money walk free”

  6. happynz 6

    Paul Henry? Urgghhh….

    My wife watches the Breakfast programme for the sole purpose of getting the weather report from that nice Tamati chap. After Tamati’s usually friendly report it is a competition on who can reach the TV off switch first (the remote control died yonks ago).

    • pollywog 6.1

      On a side note…

      does anyone know the address of the state house in Bryndwyr John Key grew up in ?

      if i was TVNZ, i’d send Paul Henry round there with a film crew, show us where the lil blighter was raised, the room he slept in and see how it fared in the shake up.

      of course if there’s still a bed there, i wouldn’t put it past the chipmunki looking jonkey fanboy to climb in and crack one off when no ones looking.

      • Kevin Welsh 6.1.1

        Comedy gold 🙂

      • prism 6.1.2

        Brilliant pw.
        As far as Henry is concerned I have come to the conclusion that his appearance is an illusion – he’s actually a very short man with a large gormless head, red neck connected to an awesomely big a….le.

        Made me think of Gormenghast as the place Henry may have risen from, a suitable sinister pile. (Looked up Wikipedia – Peake died before writing the follow-ups in this saga and wife’s contribution to finish it. “The Peake family rediscovered this novel at the end of 2009 and are planning to have it published in 2011, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Peake’s birth.[1”)

    • nzfp 6.2

      Yeah I don’t know how someone like Tamati can stand Henry – he makes the most inappropriate comments all the time.

  7. nzfp 8

    The UK daily, the “MailOnline” is reporting that “Earth’s surface ‘lurches 11ft to the right’ as New Zealand earthquake rips new fault line” which is appropriate really as it accurately describes the New Zealand Government. This morning – Tuesday, 7 September 2010 8:19 a.m – Radio New Zealand’s Nigel Sterling reported that the “Quake pushes up Govt’s borrowing costs”. Sterling stated [0:55]:

    […] The Government Debt Management Office expects to borrow 12.5 Billion dollars on behalf of tax payers this financial year. It’s manager – Phil Combes – says “that figure could be higher if more is needed for reconstruction, potentially putting more pressure on interest rates”.

    During a recent tour of Australia, American Economist Professor Michael Hudson wrote an article on May 24, 2010, titled “Australia’s Needless Foreign Borrowing”. This article describes an economic situation which closely parallels New Zealand’s. Hudson could just as easily be writing about the New Zealand governments response to the collapse of South Canterbury Finance, the sale of the Crafar farms and the Christchurch Earth quake.

    In the article Hudson comments on the global financial crisis that is burying foreign economies deeper in debt deflation each month. Hudson notes that:

    Australia has the means to protect its growth and to keep more of its income at home. But if it is to remain immune to the GFC meltdown, it must escape from the risky environment of foreign financial dependency. This requires new arrangements to take account of the rapidly changing character of credit

    Foreign credit is the most obvious yet also most needless form of Australian dependency today. It is created without cost on computer keyboards in Japan, the United States and Britain and lent out at LIBOR rates as low as 1% to arbitrageurs buying Australian securities yielding at least 4.50% and rising. The 2 or 3% arbitrage gain is a free ride for speculators – at Australia’s expense.

    Over and above being a domestic expense, it must be paid in foreign exchange. This repayment will cause future pressure to drive the A$ back down, perpetuating Australia’s roller-coaster exchange rate cycle.

    
There is a widespread impression that if Australia created a similar amount of credit at home, this would be inflationary. That may be true – but it is more inflationary to allow foreigners to manufacture credit and add an interest charge that domestic credit creation could avoid.

    
More immediately, the flow of foreign credit creation into Australian securities and loans to Australian banks pushes up the exchange rate. This makes Australian labor, products and services more costly in world markets. The strong dollar already has prompted companies to warn of lower earnings and employment in the immediate future.

    Australia requires investment for nation building. Some people believe that this investment requires saving out of current earnings. The national saving rate has indeed turned up recently, but this statistic is deceptive. It is the result of Australian banks cutting back their lending, requiring home owners to consume less and save more to pay off their loans.

    Does this mean that Australia needs to turn to foreigners to supply “savings”?

    Not at all because foreign economies are in the same boat, paying off the enormous debts that the global real estate bubble has obliged homebuyers and others to take on in order to obtain access to housing.

    
Where then does the foreign lending come from, if not saving? The answer is hard for many people to believe, but it is new electronic “free lunch” credit creation.

    
Australia can create credit itself just as easily as foreigners. It is merely a policy choice to let foreigners perform this task and extract income from Australia with its higher interest rates.

    Meanwhile, the balance of payments makes its manufactured exports less competitive, and even eats into the earnings of its mining industry. (Mineral prices are set in U.S. dollars or other foreign currency, which yields fewer Australian dollars as the latter’s exchange rate rises.)

    
No nation need borrow in a foreign currency for spending in its domestic currency. Whether loans are created in Australia or at home, only Australia itself can create Australian money and credit.

    The problem is that Australia runs a chronic current account deficit that needs to be financed with inward foreign investment if the exchange rate is to be held stable. Rather than “selling off the farm” and/or becoming indebted to foreigners, Australia should only spend as much foreign currency as it earns.

    To paraphrase Professor Michael Hudson, New Zealand can create credit itself just as easily as foreigners. It is merely a policy choice to let foreigners perform this task and extract income from New Zealand with its higher interest rates. only New Zealand itself can create New Zealand money and credit.

    • Draco T Bastard 8.1

      A few of us have been saying that for a long time.

      • nzfp 8.1.1

        Yes, I’ve seen and read your comments too as well as other frequent contributors to this site and others. Still, like all good memes it needs to be constantly re-iterated. You never know if someone fresh to this site has never been exposed to this concept.

  8. prism 9

    But NZ finance policy makers have been brainwashed as thoroughly, often in the USA at Harvard or Chicago?, as if they were communists who are always thought of as destroyers of thriving economies with too much central command etc. I don’t see us advancing, either as individuals or as a nation, under the so-called rational dictates of the near-free market which represents the best idea that capitalists have had.

    • nzfp 9.1

      True,
      But bear in mind the fact that you know this and I am sure you tell your family and friends. A few emails here and there to our MP’s wouldn’t go a-miss. In short it is up to us collectively to force the policy change. Whether you vote National or Labour (or Maori Party, NZ First, United, ACT, Greens, Progressives, NZDSC … te mea, te mea) is irrelevant, we should always be asking our candidate what their monetary policy is. If it’s no good – don’t vote for them.

      It is worth noting that the Green Party of the United States has just adopted a montary policy of the sort suggested by Professor Michael Hudson. If a party as significant as the Greens in a nation as corrupted by “Big Money” as the USA can do this, then our parties in NZ can do the same.

  9. freedom 10

    9/11 Truth, nine years on and the truth is still waiting
    with the media doing its annual regurgitation of the ‘official story’, here are two recent links for those wanting an honest objective argument of the facts
    facts, remember what they are people? you may not recognise the word because it so often overlooked these days

    http://buildingwhat.org/

    http://beforeitsnews.com/story/161/908/Left-Leaning_Despisers_of_the_9_11_Truth_Movement:_Do_You_Really_Believe_in_Miracles_Left-Leaning_Despisers_of_the_9_11_Truth_Movement:_Do_You_Really_Believe_in_Miracles.html