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Posted at 11:19AM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

In the end, I suspect it will prove impossible to run a viable investment portfolio without running into some moral complication - such is the sprawl of corporate capitalism - but this is a useful controversy if it obliges us to more clearly define some ground rules.

Small wonder then that so many in New Zealand invest in erm..... property.

Seems to me that appropriate investment is like a lot of ethical behaviour; constrained by personal dissonance and moral discomfort.

Posted at 11:24AM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

Damn, I thought, greed was good.

Posted at 11:29AM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

Might have a couple of nice suits you'd enjoy......How big do you like your shoulder pads ?

Posted at 11:36AM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

I wear soy suits (thanks Henry!), my wife ditched the shoulder pads for politics, we are POMO.
Intersting quote today, read comments section..."When has any market not been supported by the military?"
link

Posted at 12:15PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

I think Rob was on the money that the venue at Auckland may have overawed us for the AK Great Blend.

I was a stunning venue, I particularly loved the curves and thought that had so obviously gone into the design of the place. The glass also created some amazing reflections of the LED dancers at the end of the event - very cool.

However, I think the tables and er "homelyness" of the original bowling club venue made it easier for people to participate, if not with the panel then with their table. There is probably a whole science dedicated to figuring out the best seating arrangement for stimulating discussion but I think the original idea of a coffee house style discussion stimulated by a panel lends itself more to a coffee house style seating. Or I could be wrong:).

Still I really enjoyed the evening and I'll be at the next one.

cheeers
Bart

Posted at 12:23PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

Russell, don't worry about the Auckland Blend, I thought it was good fun. Nice to chat to a bunch of like minded folk and such, and the BotY boys were great.

Maybe it would have helped if the panel was split?

The corporate folk might have had more opportunity to talk if they hadn't been on a table with Rob, and Rob may have been tempered if he'd been with other guys that get things done.

But I've never run a panel, so I might be entirely wrong.

Another thing, during the break times, it might have been a good idea to get everyone to move out of the main space, where we were forced into a long sort of a crescent shape, and down into one of the side areas?

Jeeze it was nice up there though.

Posted at 12:32PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

I'm not sure if they're playing it in NZ, but in Australia Westpac are heavily spruiking their adoption of the equator principles which govern financing and investments (www.equator-principles.com). Briefly, the principles require that financing where the activity is socially and environmentally sustainable. I have to say, it's winning them business at least amongst some of my friends (no billionaires, but plenty of nice middle class $500k mortgages). ANZ have recently announced that they too have joined this club.

Posted at 12:37PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

I wanna know where to get one of those cool LED suits!.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Great Blend, thanks again to you and everyone else involved - a unique and welcome event.

If you want the full 'oldstyle town hall' experience then yeah, the venue was perhaps just a bit too much (amazing place though). And maybe invite Gary McCormack along.

Loved the Back of the Y guys - new to me, but surely Randy Cambell was the forerunner of the Jackass guys

Ethical investing - almost a misnomer really. There are more than a few theses on the subject, usual conclusion is that it is almost impossible in a globalised multi-national world. Ethics is in the eye of the beholder.

Surely the job of NZ Super Fund is solely to make money to pay for our retirement?

If so, as long as it isn't directly investing in anything illegal, is it their job to worry where the ethical 'line' is drawn in the sand?

Posted at 12:45PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

Paul

CSR (as represented by Equator principles) is an interesting phenomenon.

While there are more than a few big corporates in NZ heading down the CSR path (not sure about Equator) it would be interesting to know why.

I'd argue they are doing not out of pure altruism, but because there is enough green dollar in it for them, and that it increasingly makes good business sense.

Posted at 12:47PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

Jeeze it was nice up there though.

It was a ripper of a venue. Watching the city lights all around was magic and gave Vospertron a run for their money. (BTW, Amanda took a brilliant photo of the dancers in action.)

But the venue felt a bit too big. I actually think that could have been solved if fewer chairs had been laid out, and in a smaller, tighter area, freeing up more space to socialise.

I loved the music the DJ was playing, but it was just a bit too loud at times. We weren't there to dance. We were all fired up and wanting to talk, but it was often hard to hear what people were saying, and therefore hard to participate in conversations.

But what I missed most of all was lack of sausages!

OK, but it's not all about complaints. I had a brilliant times and my bloggage of the night is over here.

Posted at 1:00PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

But what I missed most of all was lack of sausages!

Oh, but those bagels chips were so good.

Posted at 1:15PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

BBQs? Don't you Auckland pussies know that eating is cheating?

Posted at 1:32PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

i have a sneaking suspicion that Joanna is going to be a bit tiddly at this Friday's Hula-Tiki party at Imbibe.

Posted at 1:38PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

Bags not being the 55% sober support person for her midnight swimming

Posted at 2:16PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

81stcolumn wrote:
Seems to me that appropriate investment is like a lot of ethical behaviour; constrained by personal dissonance and moral discomfort.

Well, up to a point. As I pointed out on Tony Milne's blog, 'ethical investment' is one of those warm, fuzzy cant phrases it's pretty hard to object to. But as I/S pointed out, the Cullen Fund is playing with public money and then you've got to ask exactly whose ethics are in the driver's seat. A while back, I read about a 'Christian' fund that (among other things) doesn't invest in companies that "facilitate or endorse immoral or un-Christian lifestyles". I'm sure Helen Clark and Russell Norman will be pleased to know tobacco companies are verboten (body a temple not to be polluted, and all that); not so chuffed they don't invest in companies that target gay and lesbian consumers, sponsor gay events or offer benefits to the same-sex partners of employees. That's 'ethical' investment, though not a criterion I'd want used to invest my nest egg. If I was looking for investors in a pig farm or a vineyard, I certainly wouldn't be pitching it to my next-door neighbours who are Muslims.

And I'm not being entirely facetious in wondering whether the Greens would feel a tad morally perturbed about being part of a government that own a controlling interest in an airline. :)

Posted at 2:52PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

Che: I suspect you might be right
Sue: Are you trying to destroy my "everybody loves Joanna" buzz?

And in regards to this:

The lady bloggers of Wellington were out in force. Jo from Hubris, the queen of them

Before anyone else emails me about that damn b word, I will point out once again that Prince Albert was a prince of the English, despite being German.

Posted at 3:08PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

My anscestor was from Hannover, we own ALL the English.

Posted at 3:12PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

My ancestor was from Hannover, we own ALL the English.

You! Windsor! Pwned!

Posted at 3:22PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

As for Bertie, bless him, being German, technically Germany wasn't German until...history nerds, help here please.
My little glue my hand to my forehead moment comes when everyone assumes we Pakeha are always of English, Irish, Scottish decent with bad teeth, bad food, bad taste and a bent for egalitarianism...er no, at the very least, we of the not Brit import side, had coffee!

Posted at 3:23PM on 13 Feb 07. Permalink.

Damn, should read...Germany wasn't Germany until...donner und blitzen edit function lack swinhunde thingy!