Open mike 18/08/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 18th, 2011 - 46 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner).

Step right up to the mike…

46 comments on “Open mike 18/08/2011 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Bored 1
    18 August 2011 at 7:12 am

    We may think this southerly blast rather dreadful, but fortunately for us it will go and reveal early spring. Not so the financial crisis threatening Europe, and America. The French banks seem to be greatly at risk, and it is hard to add an F to PIIGS.

    Read http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/ today to realise the so called rally on stocks looks good until the major banking stocks are examined. Huge loss of percieved “value”.

    What does it mean to you and me: shed debt and dont spend unless you wish to end up chased by debt collectors and harassed etc….batten down all hatches for the storm.

  2. mickysavage 2
    18 August 2011 at 7:50 am

    Gift duty is no more. The coiffured one’s Taxation (Tax Administration and Remedial Matters) Bill is now law.

    Gift duty applied a very effective brake to the wealthy and stopped them from instantaneously divesting themselves of assets.  If they transferred more than $27,000 a year they had to pay some tax.

    Despite the opposition of Labour and the Greens this has now gone.  The wealthy can divest themselves of their assets to trusts at will.

    The Nat majority said in the report back to Parliament:

    The committee is aware of the concern of some submitters that the abolition of gift duty (clause 110) could increase the use of trusts in New Zealand, and suggestions that this provision should be removed from the bill and the issue addressed once the Law Commission’s re- view of trust law is complete. We consider that gift duty is not the ap- propriate mechanism to deal with any inadequacies in New Zealand trust law. Any perceived protection that was provided through gift duty has shown itself to be incidental and ineffective. The outcome of this review is unlikely to bear upon the decision to abolish gift duty. We understand there is no evidence that the abolition of gift duty would lead to an increase in the number of trusts or the value of assets they hold. 

    This is of course absolute bollocks.  Not only will everyone who is engaged in multi year gifting now be able to complete it instantaneously, but others will now be incentivised to set up trusts.  The likes of John Hotchin and Rob Petrevich will have even less impediment to the hiding of assets away from the clutches of disgruntled creditors.

    And even more bizarrely they have repealed Gift Duty without addressing inadequacies concerning trust law.  They could at least have held off until the Law Commission review was complete.

    Of course this measure does not favour the wealthy.  The poor are now also entitled to transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars to trusts instantaneously as well.

    • The Voice of Reason 3.1
      18 August 2011 at 12:06 pm

      My favourite poem from a long time ago:
       
      ‘Oh, look at the happy moron,
      he doesn’t give a damn.
      I wish I was a moron,
      My God … perhaps I am!’
       

  4. Colonial Viper 4
    18 August 2011 at 10:11 am

    All Black Supporters: No More Sex For You

    wtf

    this country is a provincial laughing stock across the world

    who is actually steering this joke of a RWC?

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby-world-cup-2011/news/article.cfm?c_id=522&objectid=10745792

    • Bill 4.1
      18 August 2011 at 11:57 am

      I’m guessing it’s a prelude to a crass ‘We fucked them’ meme after the first NZ win. (Would have called them by their inclusive colour title, but apparently that’s trademarked.).

      edit. Oh. They’ve ditched it. hey ho.

      edit again. They used Saatchi and Saatchi! Jeez, that’s so Thatherite 80’s. Didn’t know they were still around…

    • Campbell Larsen 4.2
      18 August 2011 at 11:58 am

      ‘Who is actually steering this joke of a RWC?’

      Rugby-heads.

      • tc 4.2.1
        18 August 2011 at 12:21 pm

        The same genuises who sold out to Adidas, f’d up the 03 co-hosting, created super rugby (yawn) and seem to have no vision for the game at grassroots level in NZ.
        A professional code run by amateur old boys and former players trading it for all it’s worth….just ask Strategic Finance investors about their christ college former AB director.

      • Deadly_NZ 4.2.2
        18 August 2011 at 10:58 pm

        Dunno, Don’t care, Not going to waste my time watching it. I got better things to do.

    • The Voice of Reason 4.3
      18 August 2011 at 12:33 pm

      The same geniuses who lied to the public about the William Webb Ellis Trophy promotion a few months back. We were told it was real, turns out its fake, fake, fake. Is it too late to cancel the RWC, do you think? We could still keep the boozing and the wife beating, just not bother with the rugby games.

    • smoking gun 4.4
      18 August 2011 at 1:24 pm

      And it’s no coincidence that the certain directors are linked to certain agencies that provide these bullshit campaigns…….. as usual no one will be sacked or held to account.

      http://www.telecom.co.nz/content/0,8748,200652-1548,00.html

  5. Draco T Bastard 5
    18 August 2011 at 12:41 pm

    The Sin of Cheapness

    This is the sin of cheapness, with fatal consequences. And we need to ask: where else is the government committing it, being cheap, cutting costs to keep taxes on the rich low, at the risk of people’s lives? Efficient government is one thing, but one lesson we should be taking away from this accident is that it has been allowed to go far too far – and people have died as a result.

    This is something that happens everywhere where costs are cut without consideration to the consequences. It’s what caused the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, all our leaky buildings and the Pike River mine disaster. It’s a simple lesson that we need to learn and remember – some costs just can’t be cut.

    Such ill-considered cutting always happens when the RWNJs are in charge and it’s what’s happening under this government.

    State service employees cut
    Building standards cut – again (Yes, use of untreated timer has again been allowed in building houses)
    ECE cuts
    Health cuts (in real terms)
    etc etc

  6. aerobubble 6
    18 August 2011 at 1:07 pm

    By not having a tax free threshold before income tax kicks in, by not having a CGT,
    by not having GST off food, the average citizen pays immediately more. But worse
    the economy losses investment which was plowed into housing (much of it
    condemned the moment it goes up as leaky). So hollowed out is the NZ economy
    when the great
    world unwinding of debt begins, there is less far to fall, and so we do not have
    to inflate (publically by printing money, or privately by losing money) our way
    out of trouble like so many countries. Now that has the pernious effect that
    our currency because extremely stable and so desireable. Farmers grew weeds
    by buying into the US neo-lliberal voodoo economics and now are paying for it
    by collecting even less off the high commodity prices. Who says what goes
    around does not come back around. Clueless rightwing economic politicians
    who sold farmers on beating up the rest of the economy to sustain their profits
    only to find the farmers are even worst done by. We need to stop concentrating
    on growing weeds with tax cuts, and concentrate on making our economy
    fairer, income equal, and fair playing fields for investment (CGT), and
    having similar tax regimes to UK, OZ so that we don’t distort our economy
    and run at a lower more inefficient less trustworthy economy (which speculators
    take to the bank – usually from inside a bank).

    Labour on current policy will win the next election with a landslide, unless
    our managers of small and medium size companies are as bad as it looks
    like they are, and what’s left of our professional middle class are desperate
    to hold on to their rental properties.

  7. ak 7
    18 August 2011 at 1:14 pm

    So….what do you call a country that worships an egg-shaped piece of leather, builds cardboard cathedrals and plastic temples resembling canoes and condoms, ordains a mincing moneychanger as High Priest, kicks the poor in the teeth and gives alms to the hideously wealthy?

    The land of the long white wank; an inane Robin Hood riding backwards on a fist-shaped horse through a village of grinning idiots, butt and mother lode for a generation of the world’s comedians. Monty Python by the Right, the South Pacific Mecca of heartless, witless cringe.

    Hop on that plane kids, work on the accent, and don’t look back.

  8. ak 8
    18 August 2011 at 1:35 pm

    Stuff now: 7600 Kiwis hurt falling out of bed Right on cue.

  9. Draco T Bastard 9
    18 August 2011 at 2:05 pm

    Another report for NAct and the filthy farmers to ignore.

    The report had not been completed, but showed water in the region was fully allocated in its ability to absorb waste from intensified land use and for farming practices to increase, or even stay as they were in some areas, change was needed, he said.

    “In terms of runoff from farms we cannot handle any more, in fact in some areas we need to reduce it,” he said.

    Time to kill the more farms=good mantra that we’re continuously fed from both this government and farmers in general.

  10. Vicky32 10
    18 August 2011 at 6:05 pm

    According to an advert I just heard on TV3 “the game you love is now the business you love!” (Thugby of course.)
    Oh joy! Oh glory!
    The two things that the Nats have been urging us to love for many decades now – I remember Jum Blodger back in the 90s when my son was small,  insisting that he wanted kids to ‘hero worship’ business leaders, not just sportsmen.
    Given that (partly for health reasons) I have a life-long hatred of sport – especially team sports, I found that bizarre…
    Now as they’re banging on about the “abstain for the game” idiocy, I am baffled. It was a Telecom thing it seems? “B’in’ pass’nt bou rubby” said some bald guy on the TV news and like the guy who reached for his gun when he heard the word culture, I want to spew.
    Ruck fugby, the best slogan I ever saw in 1981..

    • Draco T Bastard 10.1
      18 August 2011 at 7:15 pm

      insisting that he wanted kids to ‘hero worship’ business leaders

      Unfortunately, a lot of people actually do do that. Well, what they do is worship rich people. It’s absolutely disgusting.

      • Colonial Viper 10.1.1
        18 August 2011 at 11:19 pm

        Rich people are not going to be very important in 15-20 years time. The current crop of wealth worshipping parents don’t even realise the storm front just beginning to buffett the western world now.

        Little 8 year old Johnny is in for a rough ride.

        • davidc 10.1.1.1
          18 August 2011 at 11:39 pm

          funny.. but the one way I know for sure of insulating my family from the shit storm that is going to come is having money..and lots of it.
          Land, water, power and lots and lots of guns.
          Have a nice night.

          • Colonial Viper 10.1.1.1.1
            18 August 2011 at 11:48 pm

            lolz

            how many people in your family can handle firearms effectively? Because if its just 2 of you, you’ll only be able to maintain effective 24/7 guard for 9 to 10 days maximum before you are screwed for a week recovering.

            Nite nite

            PS I have a few more tips to give you based on what you’ve written there, but you have google just like me.

          • Draco T Bastard 10.1.1.1.2
            19 August 2011 at 2:31 am

            When you start shooting at the other 99% of the population they will shoot back and they will win.

  11. ak 11
    18 August 2011 at 6:17 pm

    Pinch me Doris, I thought I just saw a TV lass question Paula Bennett till she ran away. Twice in two nights.

    Rebecca Wright. Let’s see how long she lasts.

  12. Bored 12
    18 August 2011 at 7:43 pm

    A little late but the counter attack begins….Justice Dept investigates S&Poors…..standard USA. Late for both World Wars, late to see they were being rorted by supra national banksters…

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/business/us-inquiry-said-to-focus-on-s-p-ratings.html?_r=1&hp

  13. jackal 13
    18 August 2011 at 8:32 pm

    They Love Me

    I don’t usually like to blog about myself, but in this instance I think the topic might apply to others who utilize social media to convey their beliefs and political viewpoint as well. There’s no such thing as blogger etiquette, or any enforceable rules that apply to blogs, but I’m surprised at the opposition and abuse I’ve recently received for merely using social media to communicate my ideas…

  14. Campbell Larsen 14
    18 August 2011 at 8:34 pm

    lprent:
    Name search is wacky again (non chronological dates) makes it kind of tricky to find threads/ conversations… was fixed for awhile there?

    • lprent 14.1
      19 August 2011 at 7:09 am

      Odd. I checked it yesterday afternoon. I will try it again…

      Are you using @author name ?

    • lprent 14.2
      19 August 2011 at 3:11 pm

      Seems to be working ok.

      You’re aware that there is a time delay before the search updates? Something like 10-15 minutes from memory.

      • Campbell Larsen 14.2.1
        20 August 2011 at 1:11 pm

        lprent
        Search is still delivering one or two non chronological comments at the top of results at my end, date of first appearing comment differs depending on author – after the quirks sequence is then oldest first rather than newest first, getting to most recent comment requires many clicks.

        It’s not a big deal – I think there is only a few of us that look for replies using search anyway, I only mentioned it because it appeared to be fixed a couple of days ago but has now reverted back. Thanks for looking into it anyway.

        • lprent 14.2.1.1
          20 August 2011 at 9:29 pm

          Ok I will have a look at it. Sounds more like an issue with the collation sequence than anything else. Hardly surprising being in mind the way I have been moving servers around for the last few months.

  15. joe90 15
    18 August 2011 at 8:48 pm

    In a video interview with the Wall Street Journal economist Nouriel Roubini warns that the risk of a global recession is higher than 50%, blames George Bush for the United States’ economic predicament, advocates higher taxes, warns of a possible break-up of the European monetary union and states that Karl Marx was right.

    WSJ: So you painted a bleak picture of sub-par economic growth going forward, with an increased risk of another recession in the near future. That sounds awful. What can government and what can businesses do to get the economy going again or is it just sit and wait and gut it out?

    Roubini: Businesses are not doing anything. They’re not actually helping. All this risk made them more nervous. There’s a value in waiting. They claim they’re doing cutbacks because there’s excess capacity and not adding workers because there’s not enough final demand, but there’s a paradox, a Catch-22. If you’re not hiring workers, there’s not enough labor income, enough consumer confidence, enough consumption, not enough final demand. In the last two or three years, we’ve actually had a worsening because we’ve had a massive redistribution of income from labor to capital, from wages to profits, and the inequality of income has increased and the marginal propensity to spend of a household is greater than the marginal propensity of a firm because they have a greater propensity to save, that is firms compared to households. So the redistribution of income and wealth makes the problem of inadequate aggregate demand even worse.

    Karl Marx had it right. At some point, Capitalism can destroy itself. You cannot keep on shifting income from labor to Capital without having an excess capacity and a lack of aggregate demand. That’s what has happened. We thought that markets worked. They’re not working. The individual can be rational. The firm, to survive and thrive, can push labor costs more and more down, but labor costs are someone else’s income and consumption. That’s why it’s a self-destructive process.