Posts Tagged ‘south canterbury finance’

Blinglish’s Treasury not so hot

Written By: - Date published: 4:16 pm, March 29th, 2012 - 12 comments

Bill English and Treasury adopted a “see no evil, hear no evil” approach to the Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme. And it’s cost us $2 billion. The Deputy Auditor General has delivered a damning report on a ministry used to judging others, not suffering any oversight itself…

The biggest fraud

Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, December 8th, 2011 - 99 comments

In its final days, South Canterbury Finance quietly loaned $300m to related-parties. Breach of the deposit guarantee scheme’s rules. Nats did nothing. When SCF collapsed the related parties got off scot-free – if they owned SCF bonds, the Nats even paid them $350m voluntarily. Now, the Serious Fraud Office has laid the biggest fraud charges in history over SCF. What’s the bet it’s over those related-party loans and bonds? And where’s our fucken money?

Key SCF excuses fall flat

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 10 comments

Michael Bott takes John Key to task for his claims over the South Canterbury Finance debacle. Key and English have tried to blame Labour for the deposit guarantee that covered SCF. But the truth is that National extended SCF’s coverage under the scheme again and again, despite knowing that SCF was in breach of the rules.

SCF broke rules, kept deposit guarantee

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 15th, 2011 - 26 comments

Yesterday, under the cover of CERA, the government released hundreds of documents relating to South Canterbury Finance, it’s use and abuse of the deposit guarantee scheme, and the bailout. They show SCF broke the terms of its guarantee but National turned a blind eye. Someone needs to resign.

English: gap with Aussie good

Written By: - Date published: 11:41 am, April 9th, 2011 - 56 comments

Bill English has given up any pretense of closing the gap with Australia by 2025. Now, he is claiming the wage gap is a good thing and admitting higher productivity isn’t the cause of the wage gap. Meanwhile, Fran O’Sullivan slams Key and English’s ‘fingers crossed’ approach to handling financial crises.

AMI socialises its losses

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, April 8th, 2011 - 70 comments

Another week, another massive corporate bailout as National reaches into our pockets to aid a company. Whatever happened to free-market ideology? Isn’t failure of bad businesses healthy? When did every financial sector company become ‘too big to fail’? We’re rewarding a bad business model and punishing good ones.

Of train sets and stuffed companies

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, April 6th, 2011 - 29 comments

The saga of South Canterbury Finance just keeps getting worse and worse, with news yesterday that the taxpayers’ bill for the bailout rose by a further $300 million due to the costs of “insider loans”. Why are we spending $1.2 Billion (and climbing) on a stuffed company?

Key: we were told SCF would fail

Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, March 31st, 2011 - 72 comments

In a raucous public meeting in Timaru last night, John Key said “The entire time I’ve been Prime Minister I’ve had Treasury in my office week after week, month after month telling me South Canterbury Finance was going bankrupt”. So, why did National sign SCF into the scheme and renew its deed three times?

Compare and contrast

Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, February 19th, 2011 - 54 comments

Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn compares the bailout of SCF investors with the Nats’ threat to change the law to deny some workers the minimum wage.

Key’s priorities laid-bare

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, February 7th, 2011 - 24 comments

When a millionaire director and a foreign corporate wanted millions in tax breaks, Key jumped to it. When SCF collapsed the investors got an average of $60K, no questions asked. But when it comes to helping the ordinary families of Christchurch and the West Coast, the Nats are nowhere to be seen once the cameras are gone.

English refuses inquiry into $1.7bln SCF bailout

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, September 11th, 2010 - 34 comments

Bill English has ruled out an inquiry into the SCF affair. Think about that: the government is forced to spend the annual Police budget in a single morning and isn’t even interested in learning what could have been done better. The public service’s response, on the other hand, to the Christchurch earthquake will doubtlessly be subject to numerous inquires. It’s just good governance.

Treasury? Leaks? Casino?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 10th, 2010 - 15 comments

Fran O’Sullivan claims inside knowledge of the bailout plan may have given some investors the inside running.

That’s reminiscent of the headstart some investors got in ’84 when the dollar was devalued.

And it’s one more reason we need a public inquiry into the bailout.

Time for an OIA

Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, September 8th, 2010 - 19 comments

I’m hoping that someone (a fellow Standard author perhaps?) puts in an OIA over the South Canterbury Finance bailout.  And here’s what I’d like them to ask: – How many cabinet ministers excused themselves from the bailout decision due to a conflict of interest? – How many ministers and/or their extended families had investments in […]

Mystery rant

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, September 8th, 2010 - 32 comments

Here’s an interesting rant.  I’m not going to link to it, because I want you to spend a moment trying to work out who (which raving leftie blogger?) is the author.  So read it, and make your guess, then Google for the answer…

Wage subsidy a half-hearted gesture

Written By: - Date published: 8:12 am, September 8th, 2010 - 60 comments

The unions, business, and Phil Goff have all gritted their teeth and called the Nats’ $15 million wage subsidy scheme for small quaked-affected businesses ‘a start’. The problem is, it’s likely to be the end. This scheme will leave workers and employers severely out of pocket, killing businesses and jobs.

Broken principles and broken windows

Written By: - Date published: 7:33 pm, September 5th, 2010 - 48 comments

Rich investor and you put your money in a dodgy finance company? Did the company collapse? You get your money back. No questions. Lost your job thanks to this endless recession? Couldn’t afford insurance? Property damaged in the quake? Key says you can get stuffed. It’s called class war. Also, Key thinks the clean-up will be an economic stimulus. Someone tell this money-man about the broken windows fallacy.

The silence of the lambs

Written By: - Date published: 10:16 pm, September 4th, 2010 - 51 comments

Where are the Greens and Labour on the South Canterbury Finance issue? Just looking at the sheer politics of the situation, this is something they should be all over. There is enormous public anger at the way National was willing to magic up $1.7 billion of taxpayer cash for its rich mates while services are being cut. This should be the tipping point, when the Left seizes the public mood for its economic vision but where’s the leadership?

SCF bail-out gets much, much murkier

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, September 2nd, 2010 - 14 comments

A few people have made a hell of a lot of money off the South Canterbury Finance collapse and bail-out. Are these the same people behind the mystery company that was created just three weeks ago and wants to buy SCF for $1.57 billion? Whether it’s been an organised plan or just lone sharks attracted by blood in the water, the result is the same: the rich win, we lose.

NZ’s biggest welfare beneficiary revealed in shock horror Herald exclusive expose’

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, September 2nd, 2010 - 22 comments

To find out who it is, click here.
Will this individual’s personal file be read out in Parliament by Paula Bennett?
Will this beneficiary’s sex life be investigated by WINZ as grounds for disqualification?

Our $20 million bill for Nats’ expediency

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 pm, September 1st, 2010 - 28 comments

Many argue English should never have extended the deposit guarantee to South Canterbury Finance in April, or question whether the terms of the guarantee called for the pay-out. Then there’s the stink around the payment of SCF bonds. One thing’s for sure, the Nats didn’t need to spend $20 million on foreign depositors – they did it to try to kill the issue faster. Plenty of meat for Labour. Will they bite?

National’s ‘line calls’

Written By: - Date published: 7:38 am, September 1st, 2010 - 76 comments

Serious questions are being asked why South Canterbury Finance was allowed to join the extended retail deposit guarantee scheme in April given that its financial problems were well-known and its credit rating was downgraded just weeks later. Bill English says it was a ‘line call’, one that’s just cost us at least $600 million. It’s not the first ‘line call’ English has stuffed up.

Anything too big to fail should be publicly owned

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, August 31st, 2010 - 96 comments

South Canterbury Finance is on the brink of collapse. The plan appears to be for the government to purchase the bad loans from the company at twice their book value, giving SCF the cash it needs to get back on its feet. That’s a dumb idea. The owners of SCF have taken huge profits in the good times, they can’t be allowed to pass their losses on to the rest of us now and continue as if nothing happened.