Open mike 19/12/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 19th, 2024 - 34 comments
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Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

34 comments on “Open mike 19/12/2024 ”

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  1. Stephen D 1
    19 December 2024 at 8:49 am

    Te Pati Māori refers to Te Pati Kakariki, and Te Party Labour. Wouldn’t Te Pati Mahi be a better translation?

    • Binders full of women 1.1
      19 December 2024 at 12:04 pm

      I'm surprised they're not Te Roopu Maori….'Paati' is a remnant of the colonial oppression by white kants.

  2. SPC 2
    19 December 2024 at 10:41 am

    The state of our political/economic commentary.

    Argument made in a Heraldine analysis.

    1.the government is paying for its tax cuts with spending cuts – laying off staff. The government saves money – salary cost being more than income tax paid and the benefit combined

    Detail. 10% of those in Wellington have lost their jobs.

    Problem – economics is more than accounting, one reason is related to the term multiplyer.

    Taking money out of an economy will impact on the businesses operating in it.

    2.landlords ones with mortgage debt on their property are taxpayers getting money (paying less tax on their rental income).

    Detail.

    Those who have property wealth, might be people spending their money offshore (travel), or invest it in owning more assets, or just paying down debt to the bank – no real impact on the operating economy here (little wonder business profits are falling).

    Unless they invest in the productive economy, new builds or share issues in start-ups, handing over money to this group is a net loss to the economy.

    And if they bid up the price of existing property by looking to buy another existing home, they make owning a home less affordable for others.

    https://archive.li/96nti

    • SPC 2.1
      19 December 2024 at 11:07 am

      The Keynesian Multiplier Theory

      One popular multiplier theory and its equations were created by British economist John Maynard Keynes. Keynes believed that any injection of government spending created a proportional increase in overall income for the population since the extra spending would carry through the economy. In his 1936 book, "The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money," Keynes wrote the following equation to describe the relationship between income (Y), consumption (C) and investment (I):

      The Key clue. It begins with a Y. Y= C + I

      https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/multiplier.asp

      There is a pot of gold over the rainbow, if one avoids the order of rule of imperial neo-liberal market order capitalism.

  4. SPC 4
    19 December 2024 at 10:55 am

    The government has claimed the change in tax for landlords with mortgages would mean lower rents charged by them.

    In the real world, beyond the lies of politicians, catering to a major support group, rents are set in the market – by supply and demand.

    Trade Me Property's customer director Gavin Lloyd suggested the rise in listings could possibly be caused by "homeowners seeking additional income, an increase in Kiwi moving overseas, or maybe people are simply choosing to not leave the nest and live at home a while longer".

    I'd add those losing their jobs, moving back with parents (in some cases in a caravan)

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/12/19/rental-listiin some cases in a caravan)ngs-up-36-year-on-year-trade-me/

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/12/19/rental-listings-up-36-year-on-year-trade-me/

    [added corrected link – Incognito]

    • bwaghorn 4.1
      19 December 2024 at 11:09 am

      The irony is crashing the economy ans causing people to flee the country is driving down rents of course wills will claim its her tax cuts.

  5. tWig 5
    19 December 2024 at 11:06 am

    BHN with Craig Rennie, CTU economist, and Chloe Swarbrick in confab over the unemployment, tax revenues and the austerity.

    Rennie: “The only time austerity works is when there's a big structural change that you have to be managed, and in that case you protect the jobs of those involved." "I come from the country that destruction-tested austerity": the UK, which is now full of destitute families who cannot feed themselves, empty high streets, and zero local investment.

    Chloe: "The right want us to see the State as something separate, over there. But the State is us"

    • Incognito 5.1
      19 December 2024 at 11:30 am

      Link please.

    • SPC 5.2
      19 December 2024 at 11:37 am

      Here the C of C is dedicated to lower incomes. It's main instrument of austerity – but to be supplemented by adding costs onto citizens of "customers" of business providers.

      The gratuitous reduction of support to food banks will impact on well-being.

      Inflation with wage increases is the only way to make home ownership more affordable. It reduces the value of homes in real terms while incomes rise.

      On our current path home ownership falls below 50% and a two tier society is formalised – not the original practice of restricting the vote to those who owned property, but the victory of neo-liberalism all the same.

      Then government becomes a matter of class interest (and a rigid class order is realised)

      The irony for our colony, is that the UK has a CGT, and estate tax and gift duty and stamp duty. This to tax all income, tax those who have and prevent a return to class division. And this is their bi-partisan consensus.

  6. Jenny 6
    19 December 2024 at 11:14 am

    The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus where the Interim Salvation Government Prime Minister of Syria, Mohammed al-Bashir gave his address to the nation and the world.

    As a symbol of the multi-ethnic multi religious nature of Syria there could be no more fitting place to give such an address.

    I have been there.

    There could not be a more fitting place. It is astonishingly beautiful. And large.
    Outside the mosque in the courtyard where the following video shows the crowd, the floor is covered with polished marble tiles that gleam. At each corner of the complex is a minaret, the name of one I was told was called the 'Jesus Minaret'.

    Inside the mosque itself, the floor is carpeted and wonderfully air conditioned. Between services you see family groups sitting around on the carpet talking and relaxing enjoying the beauty of their surroundings. Above and stretching around the walls, images of paradise, fountains and rivers and mansions and trees and deer and other wildlife in meadows of flowers, all picked out in gold leaf. As per Muslim tradition there are no images of human beings in the tableau of paradise, paradise looks oddly uninhabited to European eyes. The ceiling is immense and distant.

    Umayyad Mosque is built in the pattern of the Christian cross, in the middle of the vast carpeted floor is a tiny roofed chapel, with ancient windows made of thick green poured glass, the doors to this little Christian chapel are locked and I was told they are opened once a year for Christian services. Inside is the reliquary to John the Baptist.

    The Umayyad Mosque is the only mosque that I know of where the Catholic pope was welcomed in to conduct a Christian service.

    The original structure was built by the Romans as a temple to Jupiter it was then converted to a Christian cathedral, For a long period Christians and Moslems shared services there. Until the Muslims became more numerous. In response the Umayyed muslim rulers of Damascus agreed to build a separate Christian cathedral for Christian worshippers. I never visited it, but I am told that while the Umayyad is built like a Christian Cathedral, St. Mary's in Damascus is built like a mosque.

    Just outside the mosque, is a mausoleum to Saladin containing two coffins.

    One coffin ornately covered in silver filagree in Germanic style. Before WW1 this empty coffin was gifted to the Ottomans by the Kaiser for them to house Saladin's remains. The other coffin decorated in Muslim style is the one that holds Saladin's remains. In my opinion the more beautiful of the two. Outside Saladin's mausoleum is a tiny graveyard holding the remains of WW1 Ottoman pilots who died in aerial combat with the British Empire.

  7. Drowsy M. Kram 7
    19 December 2024 at 1:07 pm

    GDP Figures No Christmas Present for New Zealand [19 Dec 2024]
    This isn’t a wake-up call for the government, it’s an alarm. Excluding COVID lockdowns, this is the fastest fall in production GDP over six months since June 1991. Government spending has fallen at the fastest rate since 1992 and the budgets of Ruth Richardson. The economy isn’t back on track, its derailed.

    I’m sorted, but look, um, you know, let's be clear – what I would say to you is…

    • Craig H 7.1
      19 December 2024 at 5:20 pm

      GDP per capita dropped even more (1.1% instead of 1%), so the individual picture is even worse.

  8. Ffloyd 8
    19 December 2024 at 1:20 pm

    Nicola Willis is hands down the WORST FINANCE MINISTER……..EVER!!!!
    Don’t need to qualify this.

    The evidence is ‘EVERYWHERE’ to quote Tina from Turners.

    As her employers, can we sack her?

  9. Mike the Lefty 9
    19 December 2024 at 1:29 pm

    Not her fault entirely. It would be hard to be a good finance minister with Seymour and Peters countermanding your every action.

  10. SPC 10
    19 December 2024 at 1:32 pm

    An irony here, given we are coming out of a period of "QE" where the RB played its part in "inflating" the economy.

    An address citing the reason for and importance of our independent RB – to maintain price stability (and the rise in property values relative to the rest of the economy since)

    In one sense, the father of our independence was Sir Robert Muldoon – PM and Minister of Finance through the late 1970's and early 1980s. Illegitimate, unwitting and unwilling, perhaps. But father none the less.

    Sir Robert governed with the aid of a few well-worn maxims. I digress to mention them because, to me, they encapsulate the time inconsistency process.

    A key Muldoon maxim was that "the public would not recognise a fiscal deficit if they tripped over it on the footpath". Well, when the fiscal deficit reached 8% of GDP in the early 1980's, we tripped over it. I don't believe the public had any difficulty in recognising what we had stumbled over.

    Another Muldoon maxim, when confronting unpalatable policy advice, was to declare that " there is no point in me taking such an unpopular decision if it simply leads to "that other crowd" (i.e., the Labour opposition) getting into power at the next election and reversing the decision". That, I think, was the epitome of the time inconsistency problem – a democratic leader deferring the hard short-term decisions. Sir Robert was reinforced in his approach to policy management by an unfailing faith that, whatever the negative consequences of today's decision, they could be fixed tomorrow.

    The RBNZ Act was a direct consequence of those attitudes. When Sir Robert eventually lost power – as the problems stored up for tomorrow's resolution finally overwhelmed him – the incoming government was determined to find institutional structures to shift the incentives back in favour of long term macro-economic balance.

    https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/publications/speech/2000/speech2000-08-26

  11. SPC 11
    19 December 2024 at 1:43 pm

    Kiwibank senior economist Mary Jo Vergara said the economy was “winding back the clock,” recording the weakest six month period since 1991, excluding during the Covid-19 pandemic.

    When James Brendan Bolger removed Ruth Richardson from her job, it was to maintain the chance of winning re-election in 1993. He only won because it was FPP and New Labour and Labour divided the opposition vote – under MMP he would have been ex PM.

    It guaranteed that electoral reform was to occur.

    Slashing benefits, introducing market rents for state houses and then removing the estate tax on rich people was class war.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/money/360528285/economy-experiences-sharpest-decline-more-30-years

  12. joe90 12
    19 December 2024 at 2:00 pm

    Will free speech be what government says is free speech?

    It will also prohibit universities from adopting positions on issues that do not directly relate to their core role or functions.

    https://bsky.app/profile/acidcorbyn.bsky.social/post/3ldmllyr6bc25

  14. thinker 14
    19 December 2024 at 5:36 pm

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/537126/economy-back-in-recession-as-gdp-shrinks-by-1-percent

    And this is two successive quarters, measured by comparison with previous quarters.

    This coalition has been in power for four quarters.

    Its not Labours fault, or public servants fault, or the ferries fault or…

    Those in the government who have come out and said 'Im prepared to be accountable ' need to front and centre.

    Where are they?

  15. Jenny 15
    19 December 2024 at 6:33 pm

    Did this following case of IDF soldiers being denied entry to Australia get any main stream media coverage here?

    Does New Zealand vet visiting IDF soldiers to determine their involvement in genocide?

    Middle East Eye

    Israeli soldiers denied entry into Australia following war crimes visa questions

    Troops face scrutiny in Australian visa applications over their potential involvement in genocidal acts

    By Elis Gjevori

    Published date: 13 December 2024twitter sharing button

    whatsapp sharing button

    Two Israeli soldiers have been unable to travel to Australia after being asked to complete an extensive 13-page form, typically required for military personnel involved in war, according to the Israeli newspaper Ynet.

    The siblings, Omer Berger, 24, and Ella Berger, 22, along with four other family members, applied for visas two months ago.

    While the rest of the family received quick approval, Omer and Ella were told to complete the lengthy document.

    The form included questions about their involvement in physical or psychological abuse, their roles as guards or officials in detention facilities, and whether they had participated in war crimes or genocide……

    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-soldiers-denied-visa-australia-following-war-crimes-questions

  16. Jenny 16
    19 December 2024 at 8:57 pm

    Surviving genocide by gardening.

    Surviving a total siege, and a relentless non-stop bombing campaign

    Fishing, and gardening in Gaza, is a death defying act.

    No genocide is ever total. There will always be some survivors determined and resilient enough to overcome all odds to bear witness.