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Public Address
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1653
Hard News: Problems
Hopes for the presidency of Barack Obama were always bound to be inflated -- he entered office with more ghastly problems on his plate than any president since FDR, and probably more than that. He is trying deploy a new foreign policy at a time when his economy is in a crisis for which the possible solutions actively militate against each other.
Gareth Ward
From: Auckland, NZ
Since: Mar 2007
Posts: 1379
with the considerable added fizz of Icelandic machismo.
Not a sentence you regularly have to call upon I imagine.
Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 9057
Moderator
Not a sentence you regularly have to call upon I imagine.
No, but fun to write. You have to read the story to get a full sense of how, er, distinctive Icelandic gender politics is.
giovanni tiso
From: Wellington
Since: Jun 2007
Posts: 4359
You've got to love the Ferguson line on the timing of the crisis:
Wile E. Coyote ran off the cliff in August of ’07, but he didn’t really look down until over a year later.
Mark Harris
From: Waikanae
Since: Jul 2008
Posts: 1338
I wonder if the last few weeks of Obama's campaign were coloured by a feeling of "Do I really want this job??"
Emma Hart
From: Christchurch
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2629
Moderator
No, but fun to write. You have to read the story to get a full sense of how, er, distinctive Icelandic gender politics is.
And who do they get in to fix it? A lesbian. Ace.
Joe Wylie
From: Behind the barn down on my knees
Since: Jan 2007
Posts: 1415
You have to read the story to get a full sense of how, er, distinctive Icelandic gender politics is.
Like, the bit about Bjork being mad, just like her mother. No mention of her dad, though.
Peter Calder
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 18
Re
I wonder if the last few weeks of Obama's campaign were coloured by a feeling of "Do I really want this job??"
I'm sure you've seen
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/black_man_given_nations
Mark Harris
From: Waikanae
Since: Jul 2008
Posts: 1338
You could have mentioned that it was Jane Albrectsen FFS. I wouldn't have bothered...
Craig Ranapia
From: North Shore, Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 7160
So it's not hard to sympathise with anyone tasked with political and economic decisions in the present environment, including our own Prime Minister, who was fairly elusive in his interview with Guyon Espiner on the debut show of Q+A yesterday.
Well, I would have been tempted to turn to Guyon and snarl: "Plan? The Cylons has a plan, and how did that work for you people?"
Ben Austin
From: London
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 627
Well it wouldn't be a recession without random weird movements - and "Going Galt" seems to be the current winner
Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 9057
Moderator
And who do they get in to fix it? A lesbian. Ace.
Indeed. And it makes perfect sense in the context of Icelandic politics, where men and women are literally in different political parties.
Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 9057
Moderator
And from a Google ad on the HuffPo page: John Galt giftware ...
Conor Roberts
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 51
So that's just the crazy people. Trouble is, Obama can't catch a break from his own team. Paul Krugman's withering analysis of Tim Geithner's bank bailout plan has the liberals in dismay too.
I love Paul Krugman. This guy does too.
Lol.
John Morrison
From: Cromwell
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 50
It has been fascinating watching the US MSM's coverage of the last 60 days. Fox, as you would expect, has given Obama no latitude, CNN a bit more lenient.
But they all concentrate on the economy.Even Washington Post and NYT commentary is now starting to criticize, esp. Geitner and Summers of the Administration. The bank bailout plan has, and still looking like, coming up short with suggestions that these two are taking too much heed of their old banking friends.
At least they have a plan which is more than can be said for our lot.
Caleb D'Anvers
From: Somewhere in Buckinghamshire
Since: Mar 2008
Posts: 299
Australian economist John Quiggin's been running a series called refuted economic doctrines over at Crooked Timber. The highlights for me so far: trickle down and the myth of the 'efficient market'.
Here's the latest installment: central bank independence.
Rich of Observationz
From: Back in Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2005
Hopes for the presidency of Barack Obama were always bound to be inflated
That's what happens when you try and have an elected god.
But you have to get down into the comments to appreciate the true level of paranoia at play
Madder than a bag of Bjorks. It's only the internet that gives these people credibility beyond their log cabins in Idaho. Mind you, if they were Muslim kids fantasizing about deposing the government, they'd be in Guantanamo 2.0 faster than they could spell plutononimum.
tech guru Douglas Rushkoff
Hang on, is that the same guy as Ecstasy Club author and sometime Genesis P. Orridge sideman Douglas Rushkoff? What has he ever built/designed/coded? he's a great author, but designating someone a "tech guru" because they write vaguely futurist books is like calling Tom Hanks an astronaut.
The debt burden, as a proportion of G.D.P., is in the region of 355 percent
Which is like having a mortgage of 3.5 times earnings - people seem to mostly be able to service those. Or at current interest rates, the US has to put around 15% of GDP into servicing the interest (public and private).
I don't think that's unsustainable. Whether a system that has 10% of the population as rentiers, 90% as serfs and a negligible proportion as aristocrats is sustainable is another matter.
Rich of Observationz
From: Back in Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2005
Here's the latest installment: central bank independence.
Britain tried fixing interest rates by fiat for many years. It did not work well.
I tend to like the German economic model, which combined a strong independent central bank with social and industry policies which cushioned the impact of monetary policy.
Joshua Drummond
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 84
I wish Lindsay Perigo and SOLO people would Go Galt. It might stop them sending asinine, wordy, assonance-laden press releases.
Danyl Mclauchlan
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 641
I find it highly encouraging that the most articulate and damaging criticism of Obama comes from the liberal blogosphere - Atrios and Krugman, for starters. Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo has been the main driver of the AIG bonus story. Meanwhile the right are still chasing after Obama's birth certificate and demanding to know if he's a 'stealth muslim'.
Paul Williams
From: Sydney
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1353
Australian economist John Quiggin's been running a series called refuted economic doctrines over at Crooked Timber. The highlights for me so far: trickle down and the myth of the 'efficient market'.
Here's the latest installment: central bank independence.
IMO, He's the leading independent economist in Australia. He might be one of the very very few who're neither linked to a specific econometric/consulting firms nor overtly party political. His other blog is good too - both the articles and the commentary.
Raymond A Francis
From: 45' South
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 234
Well I hope we all did realise that despite the hype the Prez was not going to be able to walk on water
We didn't we....
Unfortunatly I notice the left are not quite as ready to cut Key any slack
NZ really just has to ride this out, there is not much we can do till the big boys put their houses back in order except borrow and spend on things that might give us an edge when the world comes back to us for the things we can provide
Rich of Observationz
From: Back in Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2005
Just read the Michael Lewis article on Iceland. Two things occur:
If Don Brash (or John Key) had been elected in '06, that could well have been us.
Also, how bad is it for the Icelanders? They've had a fun few years, the fish are still there, the geothermal steam still comes out of the ground, and they've got working rights in the EU. Worst case, everyone goes bankrupt. The houses are still there and they can squat in them or whatever.
Maybe Iceland will now invent a new form of f..k you socialism.
Kyle Matthews
From: Dunedin
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4397
If Don Brash (or John Key) had been elected in '06, that could well have been us.
I think if they'd been elected in '06, someone would have told them we didn't have an election that year, and they would have been very sad :)
simon g
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 536
I notice the left are not quite as ready to cut Key any slack
Ready and willing ... just as soon as the right get on their knees and thank Michael Cullen for not following their advice and twinning Wellington with Reykjavik.
ScottY
From: Scott Yorke's Waitakere Wonderland
Since: Feb 2009
Posts: 632
Of course people will attack Obama. He's been in power two whole months and still hasn't solved the biggest economic crisis since the depression.
I mean, how long does it take for someone to say "abracadabra?"
Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 9057
Moderator
Unfortunatly I notice the left are not quite as ready to cut Key any slack
I think I have ...
NZ really just has to ride this out, there is not much we can do till the big boys put their houses back in order except borrow and spend on things that might give us an edge when the world comes back to us for the things we can provide.
Well,there's some clarity. But I have been personally disappointed at the way the government is going about its business.
Brownlee's slash-and-burn in energy policy, the outrageous passing of long-term education reforms under urgency, the bizarre and improper behaviour of Nick Smith wrt ACC, McCully's commandeering of aid policy, Judith Collins' irrelevant grandstanding ... it's like they've gone into the job with the arrogance of a three-term government.
Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 9057
Moderator
Ready and willing ... just as soon as the right get on their knees and thank Michael Cullen for not following their advice and twinning Wellington with Reykjavik.
Quite. Anyone who tub-thumped about how we should be more like Iceland (or Ireland) should be turning in their pundit pass about now.
Rich of Observationz
From: Back in Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2005
s/06/05 :-)
Idiot Savant
From: Palmerston North
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1210
Australian economist John Quiggin's been running a series called refuted economic doctrines over at Crooked Timber. The highlights for me so far: trickle down and the myth of the 'efficient market'.
I'll second this - its a fascinating series, and well worth reading.
The scary thing is that NZ is an orthodox follower of these failed doctrines.
Gareth Ward
From: Auckland, NZ
Since: Mar 2007
Posts: 1379
Anyone who tub-thumped about how we should be more like ... Ireland should be turning in their pundit pass about now.
What, are you kidding me? They just achieved a little something called a Grand Slam Six Nations win pal. If that's not clear evidence of the benefits of laissez-faire and the trickle-down benefits of corporate tax incentives then you've clearly been blinded by the vast left-wing media...
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