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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, February 14th, 2011 - 25 comments
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Step right up to the mike…
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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Interesting article on the cause of wealth inequality in the West ( the Finance sector is the culprit of course ) and the difficulty dealing with it:
“For the time being, we need to accept the possibility that the financial sector has learned how to game the American (and UK-based) system of state capitalism. It’s no longer obvious that the system is stable at a macro level, and extreme income inequality at the top has been one result of that imbalance. Income inequality is a symptom, however, rather than a cause of the real problem. The root cause of income inequality, viewed in the most general terms, is extreme human ingenuity, albeit of a perverse kind. That is why it is so hard to control…
…Another root cause of growing inequality is that the modern world, by so limiting our downside risk, makes extreme risk-taking all too comfortable and easy. More risk-taking will mean more inequality, sooner or later, because winners always emerge from risk-taking. Yet bankers who take bad risks (provided those risks are legal) simply do not end up with bad outcomes in any absolute sense. They still have millions in the bank, lots of human capital and plenty of social status. We’re not going to bring back torture, trial by ordeal or debtors’ prisons, nor should we. Yet the threat of impoverishment and disgrace no longer looms the way it once did, so we no longer can constrain excess financial risk-taking. It’s too soft and cushy a world. ”
http://www.the-american-interest.com/article-bd.cfm?piece=907
On Sunday with Chris Laidlaw David Hall from Brit was interviewed yesterday on government spending and the effects of cuts in hard times as now. It is available on audio.
First http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday
Then for audio click on 8.40 interview Public spending – David Hall
FDR:
I can haz plz?
http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/od2ndst.html
Jedi Response to Libertarianz
😆
Very true, my young Padawan learner.
captcha: tie (fighter???)
Herald Headline: “Tearful Harawira admits mistakes”
Text actually says :” When speaking about the support he had received from his electorate and his wife, Mr Harawira broke down in tears and asked the interviewer to stop the filming.”
So. It was not tears over mistakes. It was tears at being humbled over the support of those around him.
Morning Report? Endless questions trying to build a case for trouble for Hone for appearing on TV. Really!
Yes a very good interview for Hone – his mana is growing. I’m not sure who is more frightened of him – the gnats or their lackys but one thing is sure – he is not going away.
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/marae-investigates-interview-hone-harawira-9-32-video-4024940
Morgan is posting some very good analysis on his blog – check it out
http://mauistreet.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the link Marty.
I think we are beginning to see a narrative shift among the msm. Initially, the msm coverage was fairly favourable towards Hone; however over the past week the msm appears to have changed position. This probably comes down to the fact that 1. He is an easy story and 2. He is a threat to government stability and a long term Maori Party/National Party relationship. The msm don’t want to see their National Party mates crumble so I guess it is in their interests to shut down Hone.
(I can’t tell if this will double post)
The interview is great and shows the mana of Hone. I’m not sure who is more scared – the gnats or their lackys but he is not going away that’s for sure.
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/marae-investigates-interview-hone-harawira-9-32-video-4024940
Morgan has some very good analysis on his blog
http://mauistreet.blogspot.com/
[lprent: was in the spam trap. ]
Great discussion on radio Mon 14/2 between Kathryn Ryan and Captain Eric Moody who brought down a Boeing successfully with some cockpit windows sandblasted and engines out of order, from volcanic ash.
He commented on the situation where Britain closed down all its airports for so long because of local volcanic ash. Must have been Iceland as the quips went ‘they’re sending us ash not cash’. The woman in charge of the CAA had no flying experience, there were politicians who knew nothing about aviation who were behind the closedown, making authoritative pronouncements. The blind were trying to lead the seeing apparently. An example of that stupid one size fits all of generic management that has been fashionable amongst the cognoscenti in recent decades.
Apparently the authorities were faced off by a chief executive who instructed company planes sitting around the world to fly back to Britain and then announced to the authorities that 29 planes were approaching and they wanted to land, so forced the authorities to get off the pot.
That’s quoting StatisticsNZ off Twitter.
Thanks NACT, and especially Bill English, for following ideology, disregarding reality and putting us back into recession.
NZ not for sale petition
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/new-zealand-not-for-sale.html
Let them know NZ is not for sale.
Network this petition
Thanks for the link I hope that there is strong support for this as todate only 500 have committed.
Get out there and commit to the rest of you.
Otherwise power “COULD” go up in price
http://www.bnz.co.nz/static/www/docs/weekly-overview/w2011-02-10.pdf
and the comment contained in this
“My power company just increased my unit electricity charge again this week – by over 10%. That makes rises totalling 51.5% over the past five years. Can any person doubt that there will be strong bidding for the 49% of the three state owned electricity companies the government is looking at selling. Seems like a licence to print money.”- from the mouth of an economist/banker
Captcha: ditto
Have done and am actively spreading the information from Dr Kelsey, one of those iconic New Zealanders who should be getting a title not the greed merchants who currently buy one.
The census is coming out in March; we need to mention this petition on it and make it absolutely clear to this or any incoming government we will not allow them to destroy our autonomy because of their stupidity.
Interestingly, the ad on the census states the first group of people actively using the information will be ‘business’…
Lawyers are trained to know only half of the problem. The cost of PR firms, of government helplines, of any forum citizens seek to find experts in the whole of the problem blows out if they are manned by lawyers. But of course the people manning those seats need to understand the law – which should not be a problem because ignorance of the law is not a defence. hehe.
Well done to the Greens.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4653479/Greens-block-Gillard-speech-to-Parliament
Don’t agree with Kay on his condemnation of this.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/blogs/martin-kay-on-politics/4655588/Why-the-Greens-Gillard-veto-is-stupid
Our Parliament, our elected representatives. It should be that simple.
Stupid twerp should go and play with his flag.
Eat the Future
Sounds like the case in NZ as well. NACT, especially over the last decade or so, have continuously misrepresented government spending.
And now for the latest success from Paula Bennet.. Oh dear about $ 380k for a single pumpkin Now thats inflation for you..
http://www.3news.co.nz/Community-Max-scheme-criticised/tabid/419/articleID/198324/Default.aspx
And a second payout for a group who were to make sheets, pillow cases and blankets but the good lady said, “We never got round to it.”
The Tools of Revolution: Pepsi, Onions, Vinegar and Milk
(to counter tear-gas)
It seems that the protesters were organised and prepared. And that they had consciously learnt from Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and others.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/world/middleeast/14egypt-tunisia-protests.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
Kerre Woodham: Key Only Gives Minimum Wage Earners 25c – But Its OK because you have *Dignity*
Seriously? She says the economy is too “precarious” to give minimum wage earners anything more – even though John Key gave himself a $1000 p.w. tax cut.
She doesn’t even get that giving minimum wage earners more money would BOOST incomes of small and medium businesses because those same workers, i.e. who on their days off are actually consumers would have more money to spend.
WHAT THE FRAK IS WRONG WITH THESE MEDIA PEOPLE
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/economy/news/article.cfm?c_id=34&objectid=10705963
I reread her piece and she has sympathies for the poorly paid. But damnit, just like *dignity* its not going to get the power bill paid.
Speaking of Fracking… Tones of non-notified exploration consents going on in NZ at the moment. Not fracking good!
Learn about Fracking here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing
You should really check out Gasland:
http://www.salient.org.nz/arts/film/gasland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasland
Whitcoulls book chain and Borders book chain now in receivership. 2,500 jobs now at risk (possibly between Australia and NZ).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10707031
The story under National just keeps getting worse and worse.
I bet Whitcoulls and Borders ordered up big ahead of Christmas – and the spend up never materialised.
OK I wondered why two Australasian book chains would fold. Oz consumers have money right? Christmas retail sales over there must have been strong as, right? I mean we were miserably flat to no change compared to a year ago after all.
WRONG
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/retail-trade-crawls-through-christmas-failing-to-meet-expectations/story-e6frfh4f-1226001375612