Open mike 11/10/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 11th, 2010 - 82 comments
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82 comments on “Open mike 11/10/2010 ”

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  1. Bored 1
    11 October 2010 at 7:45 am

    Pushing the bounds of reality seems to be the norm this month: first we hear that the economists got it wrong with their predictions for “growth” (surprise surprise)….and this morning in Granny Herald we see that an Auckland developer is going to sink $125 million into a hole in the ground in Queenstown (ex Henderson the Chch bankrupt IRD wrangler).

    The gist of this rather fantastic attempt to go against the ebb and flow of todays econo / energy zeit geist is that it Gapes (the developer) has obvious faith that the future of Queenstown, tourism, holiday chalets, happy motoring and most of all retail therapy is here to stay. For this a further $125 million will be sunk into putting a mall onto top of a 1200 car hole in the middle of an alpine field. It raises a lot of questions, a few too many for me as to the economic and social sanity of our current “business” elite and the political structures that let them operate. What a way to start the week.

  2. mickysavage 2
    11 October 2010 at 7:51 am

    Kia ora Standard readers

    After reading yesterday’s post and smhead’s principled arguments why I should disclose my real identity and given that commentators on other sites have accurately identified me and also given that I now hold an elected office I wish to formally confirm that I mickysavage am also Greg Presland.

    I am sure that the internet will now be scoured for information and comments to be used against me but hey that is politics.

    • Bored 2.1
      11 October 2010 at 7:56 am

      Micky you may be ****** to other people, but here in Blogland it would be nice if you remain the reliable lefty and considered contributer Mickysavage…..good luck and keep posting.

    • just saying 2.2
      11 October 2010 at 8:25 am

      Kia ora Greg/mickeysavage

      Hearty congratulations – keep up the good work 😀

      • pollywog 2.2.1
        11 October 2010 at 9:51 am

        awww…what a wannabe famous using your real name guy.

        …any relation to Elvis Presland ?

        On a related side note. I seem to be having trouble posting at the dim post

        I posted a comment that appeared then disappeared later when i checked and subsequent ones dont even show. Maybe my interwebz is on the dodge or i’m on his blacklist or whatever but it’d be nice to know either way.

        I’d hate to think i’m paranoid and got banned cos someone there is powertripping and doesn’t have the common decency to give warnings 🙂

        • pollywog 2.2.1.1
          11 October 2010 at 10:28 am

          hmmm….strange alright

          meanwhile, a post by another of my legion of nom de plumes using a proxy has been retrofitted in the timeline but my initial comment has not and it wasn’t nearly as bitchy as that ranapia guy’s

          go figure…

        • mickysavage 2.2.1.2
          11 October 2010 at 9:56 pm

          Talofa PW

          …any relation to Elvis Presland ?

          Not that I know of but my sister had a cat called Elvis Presland once.

    • Carol 2.3
      11 October 2010 at 8:25 am

      Congratulations! Part of Future West! Yes! Glad to see the successes in getting elected on this ticket. And, this may seem a little premature, but in the run up to the next election, a word with futurewest about fielding a counsellor candidate for Whau would be good. I feel we have kind of been cut off from the rest of the west by Rodney’s gerrymandering. Glad that Catherine Farmer got elected to the Whau Board though, and hope she will be looking beyond Avondale to represent New Lynn.

      • Carol 2.3.1
        11 October 2010 at 8:43 am

        Whoops. Should be “councillor” candidate. I don’t expect free therapy from our elected representatives.

      • mickysavage 2.3.2
        11 October 2010 at 8:49 am

        Thanks Carol

        Futurewest wanted Ross Clow to run for us and discussions were pretty advanced. Ross thought his chances as an “independent” were better but he missed out. I think if he had run under the banner he would have made it.

        Really good about Catherine Farmer winning. She is principled and reliable, just what you want.

        • Carol 2.3.2.1
          11 October 2010 at 8:56 am

          Thnks for the Farmer recommendation. Yes, agree it would have been probably a better outcome if Ross Clow had been with future west. I only knew to vote for him after asking a question on the futurewest blog. Other voters probably wouldn’t have bothered to check the candidates out and just gone by the info in the vote pack booklet. Clow did pretty well, just not well enough.

          • Draco T Bastard 2.3.2.1.1
            11 October 2010 at 11:17 am

            Other voters probably wouldn’t have bothered to check the candidates out and just gone by the info in the vote pack booklet.

            That what most people will do and it’s irrational as we just don’t have enough information to make an informed decision. That’s one of the reasons why I like political parties – they tend to be known better than individuals.

            • prism 2.3.2.1.1.1
              11 October 2010 at 11:44 am

              I agree DTB the info on candidates is woeful for local body elections and I definitely do not want to see STV voting brought in as I found it hard enough to make a reasoned, informed decision reading about new people without having to carefully dot numbers giving rankings. I have noticed too when I have tried to find information about government members, there is often the barest minimum about them and their background and expertise if any.

              Thinking back to the local body election information on candidates booklet, I want to see a set of factual info as a basic, such as – my main occupation is…, while I have experience and interest in commercial recycling techniques, for how many years, my experience base includes management of a dairy, cafe, alcohol outlet, paint business, farming, youth sport coaching, education and children etc. I am interested in sport, learning Maori, building art and tourism links etc.

              Things like that after which they can waffle on for a prescribed length.

    • lprent 2.4
      11 October 2010 at 8:32 am

      Sorry about putting your name in the list of bloggers who got elected. I was aware that the connection had been made because of the stalkers.

      Do you know where/who that connection was made by originally? Because I suspect it would have required the complicity of someone running a site. You have been pretty good at separating yourself from your other self.

      • mickysavage 2.4.1
        11 October 2010 at 8:57 am

        No problems Lynne.

        Tim Ellis in a comment at Kiwiblog made the connection early this year. He compared a facebook comment that I made with a post that Micky made.

        Ever since then the secret was well and truly out of the bag. On my own website I had this weirdo try to post a comment every couple of days spelling my name in various unusual combinations.

        Keep up the good work.

        • deWithiel 2.4.1.1
          11 October 2010 at 10:47 am

          It was at least something that Future Whau has a voice in Catherine Farmer on the board. What I can’t get is the 2000 or so blank votes that were cast for the Auckland Council; an extraordinary number given the relatively small size of the vote. In saying that I have to say that Clow wasn’t known in Avondale and that seems to have been the killer. Name recognition is all that the Mangere Bridge resident Raffills has going for in Avondale; she didn’t do anything for the area when she was on the ACC other than ensuring that revenue was redirected at Crusty and Rusty projects further east and subsidising Christian youth prayer weekends out of SLIPs funding.

          • Carol 2.4.1.1.1
            11 October 2010 at 10:58 am

            I think it’s probably the lack of name recognition for many voters who don’t make the effort to research the candidates. That may have been compounded by confusions arising from the new ward, and people not being familiar with the history of candidates across the current city boundaries. Maybe it requires an even bigger effort to get people on the ground out in the Whau area to inform people about the candidates, to raise the level of name recognition?

          • Lindsey 2.4.1.1.2
            11 October 2010 at 12:46 pm

            The Raffils name is only a flag of convenience, she has remarried but hangs on to her late husbands name for electoral purposes.
            Fortunately she is not bright enough to be a real right wing force on Council and with the drop in her majority a good campaign next time should see her gone.

        • lprent 2.4.1.2
          11 October 2010 at 11:20 am

          Ah – the eyes of the internet are many and very very persistent. That is why to maintain a clear pseudonym ‘personality’ you really have to stay completely in character.

          • pollywog 2.4.1.2.1
            11 October 2010 at 11:37 am

            Werd homeslice !!!

            …and heres one of my founding credos for a long since passed alias. Busta Nuttz.

            If wasn’t talking shit about you, we wouldn’t be talking ’bout you at all

    • Colonial Viper 2.5
      11 October 2010 at 8:35 am

      Here to support you man, congrats on your hard work and keep strong.

    • felix 2.6
      11 October 2010 at 8:38 am

      “I am sure that the internet will now be scoured for information and comments to be used against me”

      I can’t see that posing a problem for you micky, unless you’re about to undergo a sudden transformation and disavow all of your philosophy to date.

      Congratulations on the win too.

    • Pascal's bookie 2.7
      11 October 2010 at 8:40 am

      Congrats Mickey.

      I’d keep the pseud for continuuity sake, and if people use your comments agin ya then have a prepared comeback.

      The online world can be rough and tumble and when confronted online by our brothers and sisters across the aisle who say things like “x” and “y”, well, you have to stand up against that sort of thing. There’s no need to apologise for that. Context is everything.

    • r0b 2.8
      11 October 2010 at 8:48 am

      Bravo Greg, and all the very best for your new job! Hope you won’t stop commenting her as mickysavage – we’d miss him hugely if he was gone…

    • BLiP 2.9
      11 October 2010 at 1:29 pm

      Kia kaha Greg – congratulations! I sincerely hope we don’t those the mickeysavage aspect of your personality from The Standard but, yep, you’re right: the Tories are hurt and wounded and will be looking for anything to smear the opposition. Dot your “i”s and cross your “t”s. Best of luck and remember – SuperCity be fucked – this is BROWN TOWN : )

    • Armchair Critic 2.10
      11 October 2010 at 10:00 pm

      Firstly, congratulations Greg.
      Secondly, I think I worked out who you (in all likelihood) were when you either commented on (here) or posted on (at waitakerenews) your submission to a select committee (on something to do with the Waitakere Ranges?) and there was a link to the submission, which had your name on it. I had always assumed everyone knew who you are.

  4. comedy 4
    11 October 2010 at 9:28 am

    My prediction was October for when the world would double dip and turn to shit …….

    “Currency wars loom as finance talks fail”

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10679592

    Could be time to hunker down for a while.

    • Pascal's bookie 4.1
      11 October 2010 at 9:50 am

      I reckon that stuffs a bit of a sideshow. Google combinations of ‘foreclosure crisis scandal fraud florida ‘for the current big.

      No one knows who owns the mortgages and the banks have been buying forged documentation to secure foreclosures. Now some attornies general are on the case and it’s all about to go kablooie. If the banks can’t prove who owns the mortgages, and they’ve collatorised and leveraged those mortgages into trillions in debt, 2008 was a fucking picnic.

      • Colonial Viper 4.1.1
        11 October 2010 at 10:08 am

        Agreed. The billion dollar bailouts with tax payers’ money has simply allowed the capitalist game of musical chairs to go one more round. Lots of sore bums coming once the music stops.

        And in NZ – we’re still at >300 mortgagee sales per month, with no sign of the seasonal spring real estate resurgence.

        Unless you are in the building trade in Christchurch, the economy is still looking grim with price increases and income falls.

        • Bored 4.1.1.1
          11 October 2010 at 10:41 am

          The financial crisis is actually the “real show” whilst we all look at the bullshit surrounding Jonkey, henry and the other pile of worthless egomaniacs littering our myopic polity. One part of the article I liked was “A lack of growth accompanied by high unemployment is having consequences,” Zoellick said. “There is a danger that countries will turn inward and, as a result, international co-operation falters. This could be dangerous.”

          What in effect the tea leaf readers (economists) are worried about is that “international co-operation” (i.e unfettered financial movement and free trade), from which the imperium of the G7 take their profits will be cut off at the knees by local national restrictions and financial sovereignty. The world is changing and there is nothing short of force that the neo lib / cons can do to prevent it.

          • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1.1.1
            11 October 2010 at 12:00 pm

            And the reason for that change is the same that which caused the change in the 1930s – the financial system has collapsed. People are beginning to question why CEOs are paid hundreds of times more than them when they don’t do hundreds of times more work or produce more value. The speculation in CDSs and CDOs has people questioning the validity of the banking/finance sector and these questions are being answered and the answers are completely against neo-liberalism as it’s complete BS. The BERL report on making trains proves that.

            Over the last few decades, with increasing productivity, we should have been working less and less but instead we’ve been working more and more and, for most of us, going backwards financially. Only the few have been getting richer and it is increasingly becoming obvious that they do so at our expense.

            • Colonial Viper 4.1.1.1.1.1
              11 October 2010 at 10:12 pm

              People are beginning to question why CEOs are paid hundreds of times more than them when they don’t do hundreds of times more work or produce more value.

              Realistically these CEOs often destroy value, by the billion dollar denomination, and they still get paid their millions. (On top of which governments kindly give them tax cuts).

          • prism 4.1.1.1.2
            11 October 2010 at 12:01 pm

            This is a flow of consciousness attempt! Gee I’m a Paul Henry fan and I think that everyone has been so mean to him and everything. And Bored when you say myopic polity and worthless egomaniacs what does that all mean? Paul is such a a good guy, he’s really funny and he’s got the right name to be a celebrity I mean look at Paul Holmes, he is one too. Everyone knows that TV One really likes all us young people from 15 to 35, and they know what makes us laugh and show us stuff that we want to go out and buy. We want good times not like all those stuffy old people who sneer and criticise Paul’s light-hearted jokes at people who have no sense of humour at all.

            Phil Wallington said it all this a.m. he used the words “Crass and Vulgar” plus some other uncomplimentary terms. Couldn’t get over Paul Norris reminding us of how talented Paul is as an interviewer presenter whatever. (Paul Norris BA, MA, Dip Management Tutor Broadcasting School … in September 1996, after working for many years as a television journalist and executive. …) Has this guy got any basic standards of behaviour and quality? If Paul can be good then it’s all the more egregious that he would put out all this dick.ead s..it. Can I say that? Incidentally why are so many Paul’s in this comment? Aren’t there any other names out there? Like Woldegrave or Marmaduke?

            • Bored 4.1.1.1.2.1
              11 October 2010 at 4:16 pm

              Man oh man Prism! A new career beckons with the MSM for you. Hope you get the exit interview on National Radio with Paul whatever his name is (I forget now, who was it this time, some cheeky darky)?

        • The Chairman 4.1.1.2
          11 October 2010 at 11:37 am

          The main beneficiary of low rates is not the economy at large but the financial sector itself.

          Banks have kept borrowing costs high while slashing interest rates paid to savers.

          In the U.S., average interest on savings deposits, money-market funds, and CDs first dipped below 1 percent in July, less than what savers lose to inflation.

          Because most banks have also hiked fees, some savers are now, in effect, paying banks to keep their money.

          Borrowers are no better off.

          According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, average mortgage rates have barely budged since the Federal Reserve lowered its funds rate from 5.25 percent in 2007 to the 0.25 percent in effect since 2008; the 6.1 percent average rate on all outstanding mortgages in the second quarter this year (compared with 6.4 percent in 2007) gave banks the highest margin since at least the 1980s.

          Though rates for new mortgages look low, banks have slapped higher fees on new loans as well and have made it harder for homeowners to refinance at a lower rate.

          In Europe, bank lending is also only slowly winding its way into the economy.

          The return of most banks to vast profits has only been possible because of artificially low interest rates and other help from policy-makers

          http://tinyurl.com/2caa924

          Why would policy-makers help the banks at the expense of the larger economy?

          It couldn’t have anything to do with insufficient political structures?

          • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1.2.1
            11 October 2010 at 12:06 pm

            Why would policy-makers help the banks at the expense of the larger economy?

            Because they’re owned by the banksters.

            It couldn’t have anything to do with insufficient political structures?

            Insufficient transparency. When everyone can see what’s going on it’s more difficult to hide the fraud and vested interests.

    • Draco T Bastard 4.2
      11 October 2010 at 11:36 am

      French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said a successful resolution of the currency dispute with China would require a cooling of over-heated rhetoric about currency wars. “In a war, there is always a loser and in this situation there must not be a loser,” she said.

      She obviously doesn’t understand capitalism where there are winners and losers. That’s the whole point of the capitalist system and something that needs to be changed. It would be nice, as well as necessary, if we could get it so that there was no losers but we won’t be able to do that unless we get rid of capitalism.

      • prism 4.2.1
        11 October 2010 at 3:07 pm

        Seems to me the French government sees itself as left and socialist but can change quickly and carry out the gypsy clearing.

  5. Sanctuary 5
    11 October 2010 at 10:00 am

    Question:

    Now Paul Henry has gone, does John Key have a weekly interview with any media outlet at all apart from the Monday post cabinet news conference?

    • Lanthanide 5.1
      11 October 2010 at 10:13 am

      He’s going to keep interviewing on breakfast for the next wee while. Be interesting to see how he ducks out of it, now that Henry (his old buddy) is gone. The new year is a good excuse to curtail the interviews, but that’s a little way aways yet (unless they go on ‘early’ holiday).

      captcha: season

    • Bored 5.2
      11 October 2010 at 10:44 am

      He can go on This is Your Life again like last night….actually The Mad Butcher showed true humility, what a great bloke, he can come to my bbq anyday. Thanks Peter for your generosity and kindness.

      • ianmac 5.2.1
        11 October 2010 at 11:53 am

        Key couldn’t resist doing a little politicking while smarming his way into the great Sir Peter’s show.

  6. The Chairman 6
    11 October 2010 at 10:04 am

    The Left gets what they voted for?

    Mr Brown takes over the new greater Auckland, including $30 billion in assets, on November 1.

    Mr Brown said his focus is on uniting Auckland – and reassuring people about the changes ahead.

    Though Mr Brown is from a Labour background he said he did not expect to be at odds with the National-led central Government.

    Key says he doesn’t find Brown overly left-wing.

    Mr Key said he had worked with Mr Brown in the past and found him “approachable and quite constructive”.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/local-elections-2010/4216806/Sort-out-Auckland-PM-urges-super-city-winner

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/local-elections-2010/4217368/Lets-get-down-to-work-Brown

    • Lanthanide 6.1
      11 October 2010 at 10:14 am

      Better a centrist than a crazy right-wing nutjob like Banks.

      captcha: considered

      • The Chairman 6.1.1
        11 October 2010 at 10:31 am

        Indeed.

        However, it’s clear the Left have been short-changed. Picking the better of two evils is not the best way to vote. It always ends in discontent.

        It’s a real pity more of the Left couldn’t see through his Sideshow Bob act (campaign) and have the courage to vote in real change.

    • lprent 6.2
      11 October 2010 at 10:53 am

      The problem is that most of that $30 billion in assets is under the control of the misnamed “council controlled organisations”, where they are pretty much out of the control of the councils (and largely under the control of Mark Ford).

  8. john 8
    11 October 2010 at 11:01 am

    The American NeoLiberal disaster continues: The Public or Common good continues to be destroyed while Corporate profiteers continue to party. Last September 159,000 Public sector jobs disappeared: These are good jobs like Teachers with Union rights and benefits. Obaaamaaa the Corporate sheep owned by the same trumpets 69,000 private sector jobs created such as dishwashers and the like! The US disaster of Corporate/Government fascism continues (what ordinary Americans need and want doesn’t count) .
    Refer link: http://www.countercurrents.org/cooke101010.htm

    • john 8.1
      11 October 2010 at 11:14 am

      The law locks up the hapless felon
      Who steals the goose from off the common,
      But lets the greater felon loose
      Who steals the common from the goose.
      Anonymous, England, 1821

      How the common good is stolen from the people

      • prism 8.1.1
        11 October 2010 at 11:25 am

        Good one john. Seems what goes around comes around or something like that. We are stuck in the loop of a vicious circle with the same base or simplistic ideas, strategies and desires repeating past debacles. It is a continuing struggle to change patterns. Perhaps we need a workshop with Edward de Bonos hats or the like to find new approaches.

      • john 8.1.2
        12 October 2010 at 4:50 pm

        US NeoLiberalism: Profit before any social consideration.No Investment in the commons. Privatisation of everything: In short what shonkey and Wodney want to happen here even further has turned the US into a 3rd World country. Keep sucking Kiwis!Tax cuts until we are a disintigrated society of profit grubbers!
        http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_6437.shtml

    • prism 8.2
      11 October 2010 at 11:20 am

      We don’t hear about ordinary thinking USA’s much. What stays in my mind is the mindless drivel about guns, and the right of every American (in USA) to carry one, and I think that includes concealed. weaponry.

      No-one ever comments on the way this indicates a breakdown in civil society and trust and respect for others. These were all things that I learned that USA stood for when I was being fed baby food. As an adult I have learned that I have to chew bigger items, but the truth about the USA and its lack of integrity is hard to swallow.

      • Bored 8.2.1
        11 October 2010 at 4:45 pm

        I can be very brutal with regard to the USA as an economic political imperial entity. Interestingly the Americans I have met throughtout my life have generally with a few exceptions been thoroughly decent and generous to a fault. Seems quite schizophrenic but who knows?

        • nzfp 8.2.1.1
          11 October 2010 at 5:15 pm

          Interestingly the Americans I have met throughtout my life have generally with a few exceptions been thoroughly decent and generous to a fault. Seems quite schizophrenic but who knows?

          I believe that this is because there is a huge difference between the American people – there aspirations and desires – and the regime that claims to represent their [The Banks , Military, Media, Big Pharma and other Corporations] interests.

  10. Draco T Bastard 10
    11 October 2010 at 2:02 pm

    Searching for accountability

    A string of shootings by British troops in a non-combat zone resulting in scores of dead civilians; a highway rampage by US troops; a deaf boy shot at when orders barked at him did not illicit a response; a previously unknown US special forces unit reporting directly to the White House, as well as a ‘capture kill’ list with which they operated, and their botched up missions that resulted in scores of casualties, including the deaths of children at an Islamic school.

    The largest leak of classified military documents in US history revealed these incidents and many more. Nevertheless, the Afghan war logs published by Wikileaks on July 25 prompted no official apology or investigation into their contents.

    Instead, they were swiftly downplayed by the White House and Pentagon, with Barack Obama, the US president, telling a press conference that “these documents do not reveal any issues that have not already informed our public debate on Afghanistan”.

    The more leaks the better. That way we would have accountability of our, and our allies, actions in the war zone.

    Of course, it would be better if we didn’t have to rely upon leaks.

  11. Draco T Bastard 11
    11 October 2010 at 4:04 pm

    Laws ignores PM’s apology call

    Prime Minister John Key has called for Michael Laws to apologise after calling Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand fat, but Laws says Mr Key should stop being so PC.

    So, we have the PM now standing up against racist comments (probably due to all the bad publicity over his lack of action on PH) and the bigot Lhaws saying that the PM should stop being so PC…

    • BLiP 11.1
      11 October 2010 at 4:24 pm

      Such are the lofty heights of intellectual wisdom and public discourse does John Key display.

      Never mind that his bankster mate, Crosby/Textor groomed, Millenium appointed CCO cockwombles have had their PPP wet dreams dashed, no worry even about unemployment, crime, forced mortgagee sales, business collapse, and earthquake shock doctine attacks on civil liberties and the processing of law . . . no, not all. It seems the level of national debate as being driven by John Key is to get dissed by a reject-mayor/talk-back host bozo from the provinces.

  12. freedom 12
    11 October 2010 at 5:48 pm

    No disrespect to all who have served
    but I am continuously agape at the
    war crazy funding priorities of this Government

  13. Adders 13
    11 October 2010 at 6:27 pm

    Quite right, freedom.

    3.85 million for trinkets but there’s no money to give teachers a cost of living pay increase.

    But, according to John Key, ”This is a fantastic way to give our servicemen and women the recognition they deserve.”

    No it’s not. It’s a pathetic sop.

    You can’t spend medals.

    And a medal worth 24 bucks (delivered) just for turning up to work for three years devalues the whole medal concept.

  14. Carol 14
    11 October 2010 at 6:49 pm

    Duncan Garner talked up the result of the latest poll, spinning it shows key and NACT are still in favour after the GST rise, while he says Goff and Labour don’t seem to be increasing that much on NACT. But the poll shows Nats down a smidgen, Key up a bit, Goff and Labour up a couple of points. But, I think Garner also said that Key got a bit of Quake boost. Garner claims that the local government shift to the left is not happening with national politics:

    http://www.3news.co.nz/Voters-weigh-in-on-GST-increase—poll/tabid/419/articleID/180826/Default.aspx

    http://www.3news.co.nz/Voters-weigh-in-on-GST-increase—poll/tabid/370/articleID/180826/Default.aspx

  15. joe90 15
    11 October 2010 at 7:05 pm

    Spread doubt and claim it’s too soon to take action. ‘Science as the Enemy’.

    A handful of US scientists have made names for themselves by casting doubt on global warming research. In the past, the same people have also downplayed the dangers of passive smoking, acid rain and the ozone hole. In all cases, the tactics are the same: Spread doubt and claim it’s too soon to take action.

    and

  16. nzfp 16
    11 October 2010 at 7:36 pm

    Australian Economist “Steve Keen” was invited to speak at the “6th annual AMI Monetary Reform Conference” at the University Center, in Chicago, Sept. 30 – Oct. 3, 2010 hosted by Stephen Zarlenga of the “American Monetary Institute (AMI)” and author of “The Lost Science of Money: The Mythology of Money – the Story of Power”.

    Steve Keen gave a speech title “why a credit money system doesn’t have to crash, and why it always does” where he asserts that:

    […] the issue to me is not how money is created, but how it is used. If it’s used to finance productive investment, then generally speaking all will be well; but if it’s used to finance speculation on asset prices, then it will lead to financial crises (though not necessarily as severe as the one we’re experiencing now).

    […]

    Bankers especially might not like this analogy, but it’s apt: banks are effectively debt pushers, and trying to control bank lending at the source is like trying to control the spread of illegal drugs by directly controlling the drug pushers. […]

    Keen goes on to demonstrate the cause and effect of the current Global Financial Crisis (GFC) using computer models for macroeconomics and then compares the results to the current GFC (called the Great Recession) as well as the Great Depression.

    Keen shows that the current GFC was wholly predictable.

    Keen’s entire presentation is available to view on his website in shockwave flash format, as well as an audio only format. I highly recommend Keens presentation as well as those by Professor Michael Hudson and Kaoru Yamaguchi.

    Links:

    Steve Keens Posting with Links
    Steve Keen (Video Shockwave Flash)
    Steve Keen (Audio Only)

    A mujst for people who want to know what happened, why it happened and how much longer before it is over…

  17. prism 17
    11 October 2010 at 8:45 pm

    There is a discussion on equality between Bryan Crump and Neville Bennet economist who has been looking at the growth of inequality throughout the world.
    Now on RadNZ.

  18. Lazy Susan 18
    11 October 2010 at 11:14 pm

    Congratulations to Llaws, Henry and Key for your outstanding contributions to New Zealand Tourism

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