Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Life Goes On

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  • Paul Litterick,

    As someone who is going to have to borrow money for house extensions sooner or later...

    I take that to mean your next coffee maker will be so large as to require its own room.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1000 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Oh, and I see that the Kiwiblog commenters are on their usual form. One refers to Yang Liu as a "slope" and no one bats an eyelid.

    And I'm not sure Rodney Hide's supposed new love interest will enjoy being leered over by those dicks. Ick.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I take that to mean your next coffee maker will be so large as to require its own room.

    Confession: I did download Google Sketchup with the intention of designing it a little place of its own. With, of course, its own plumbing ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    The Washington Post has video of Colin Powell's Obama endorsement on Meet the Press. Watch it and then, if you're feeling sturdy, scroll down and take in some of the flat-out racism in the comments

    Why bother? But for students of political sociopathology, it's instructive in why the Republicans are fucked. Do these people not get that Powell is one of those people who is genuinely, and deservedly so in my view, respected across the (sane) political spectrum?

    But here's the Obama endorsements McCain should really be shitting his pants over: right-leaning newspapers that endorsed Bush four years back --

    Money quote:

    The Denver Post, which had backed George W. Bush in 2004 and is owned by Republican-leaning William Dean Singleton, this evening endorsed Barack Obama for president. So did the Chicago Sun-Times, Kansas City Star. Southwest News-Herald (Ill.) and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And to top it off: two more Bush backers in 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune and Las Cruces (N.M) Sun-News.

    This followed this afternoon's surprises: the Chicago Tribune, which has never in 150 years endorsed a Democrat, backed Obama, as did its fellow Tribune paper, the Los Angeles -- which had endorsed no one in more than 30 years.

    Also interesting to note that every one of these editorial ObamaCons -- like Powell -- cited the Palin selection as a major reason (if not the tipping point) for deciding McCain just can't be taken seriously.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    "__The__ widely identified flaw?

    What about the fact that the scheme doesn't seem to distinguish between deposit-takers, so that McDodgy's Debenture Hoovermatic can be as secure as Kiwibank for the same premium? Thus distorting the market for investments something terrible? Why would I put my money in a listed company for a mingy dividend and at the risk of capital loss when I can invest in a fat debenture insured by the government?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Rob Hosking's byline. Unfortunately, the latter can't be so easily fixed.

    What are you trying to say, Mr Brown? :)

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    I can't see the linked video for some reason, but I've read a transcript and here's what really got me about Powell's endorsement of Obama -- it's civil (he seemed to go to some effort to stress his personal respect for his "good friend" McCain), the language is measured but he spends as much time laying out how the GOP has coldly told its own moderates to fuck off as praising Obama. Ouch...

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    You'd expect (assuming some return to normality) that the NZX total market cap would have increased substantially by 2025, so the Cullen Fund money would be less of a proportion of this?

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    right-leaning newspapers that endorsed Bush four years back

    shades of the 1997 UK election....all the major UK papers deserting the tories like rats off a sinking ship.

    re: Colin Powell - while generally agreeing with you, I personally find it very difficult to forgive him for the part he played in the run-up to the current Iraqi mess.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Tim Michie,

    WaPo, that has also endorsed Obama this weekend, Discussions (and Editorial or News staff engage with, rather than the Comments section, which wash between the wingers, are far more civilised and one reader included a helpful link to the Editor and Publisher list of the newspapers that have endorsed each candidate.

    Auckward • Since Nov 2006 • 614 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    re: Colin Powell - while generally agreeing with you, I personally find it very difficult to forgive him for the part he played in the run-up to the current Iraqi mess.

    Undoubtedly, although he was not the hawk in that particular room.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    I had my bimonthly call from the Democrats this morning on my US phone number (we gave them money when we lived there):

    "You do realise I'm in New Zealand right? it's 6am"
    (quiet moment while they process this)
    "but you have a 510 number ..."
    "yes it's in NZ ... you remember all those Vonage ads on TV .... it's an internet phone"
    (at this point I steel myself for the usual pitch for sending them some cash)
    "well we're just calling up to make sure that you vote ..."
    "I'm not allowed to vote, my wife has already voted 3 weeks ago ...." .
    (notice I restrained myself and didn't announce that we were actually planning on voting on the 8th)
    "she can't vote until the 5th ... she has to go to her polling place on Alcatraz on the 5th ...."
    "she voted as an absentee ... she already voted .... for Obama .... please cross us off your list ...."
    "oh, OK .... thank you"
    <click>

    and she forgot to ask for money

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    I'm tempted to give Powell the benefit of the doubt - a family friend was a military aide working for him during that time - from what I've heard he was shafted

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Idiot Savant,

    The story pointed out that by 2025 the 40% of the fund that National wants to force into local investment will by be $43.6 billion: bigger than the entire market cap of the NZX-50 plus the expected value of Fonterra were it to be floated

    Starter for ten: what do you get when you have too much money chasing too few goods?

    Followup: in which part of the NZ economy have we recently seen such a phenomenon?

    Palmerston North • Since Nov 2006 • 1717 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    shades of the 1997 UK election....all the major UK papers deserting the tories like rats off a sinking ship.

    But I'm still gob-smacked at the Chicago Tribune endorsement -- which has never gone to a Democrat.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    What about the fact that the scheme doesn't seem to distinguish between deposit-takers

    New finance companies rated below BBB- won't be able to enter the scheme, whilst those rated below BB will have to pay a 3% fee. I'm assuming that the new regime for them will also involve the same reserve requirements as banks, so they will no longer be able to lend out all the funds they raise and will have a buffer of money on deposit with the Reserve Bank.

    My guess is that the "last-resort lender" function of finance companies will gradually wither away. If they exist at all they will need to compete with banks on service rather than by attracting high-risk business.

    The alternative would be to have the entire sector collapse in a few weeks, with a likely knock on effect on the property development and car-yard business (while I'd personally like to see property and used car spivs starved to death in debtors prison, I can see that our soft centrist government would baulk at this).

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • LegBreak,

    Serious Question:

    What’s Dan Quayle up to these days?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1162 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    And just for a bit of (semi-)light relief, here's Christopher Buckley's somewhat bemused account of life as an excommunicated ObamaCon:

    One thoughtful correspondent, who feels that I have “betrayed”—the b-word has been much used in all this—my father and the conservative movement generally, said he plans to devote the rest of his life to getting people to cancel their subscriptions to National Review. But there was one bright spot: To those who wrote me to demand, “Cancel my subscription,” I was able to quote the title of my father’s last book, a delicious compendium of his NR “Notes and Asides”: Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription.

    Well, at least Christopher didn't have someone suggest his mother should have aborted him and thrown his corpse in the trash -- as happened to his former colleague Kathleen Parker.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    Also, on the Cullen Fund thing, the cost of capital for NZ companies would fall due to their having access to an artificially ring-fenced pool of equity funding. This would be paid for by pensioners getting a reduced super payment, or by future taxpayers making up the difference.

    Cheap capital would have certain advantages, in that businesses would choose to incorporate in NZ rather than overseas. We'd probably have NZ-owned banks again, for instance.

    The downside is that pensioners/taxpayers would be paying for this.

    I'm unconvinced that the benefits would outweight the downside, unless there was a sustained inability for NZ firms to raise capital (which I don't think there is when jetpacks are getting funded). The real problem for most business is finding paying customers, not investors.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    But I'm still gob-smacked at the Chicago Tribune endorsement -- which has never gone to a Democrat.

    The Chicago Tribune is the newspaper that in 1948 released an early edition the day after the election, before they knew the poll result. They picked that Dewey would beat Truman, and turned out to be wrong.

    This is the resulting front page. This is Truman, after the actual results were announced, holding the paper.

    Not a newspaper that goes for Democrats is what I'm saying. Ditto on the gob-smacked.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    "You do realise I'm in New Zealand right? it's 6am"
    (quiet moment while they process this)

    Heh. Their minds are often cutely blown by those kinds of things. Because very few of them travel internationally, and because their media is so insular, the mere idea that you would be living *out of the USA*, on *purpose*, without being in the military, stuns them. I still remember explaining to a civil servant how to get an out-of-the-USA phone number so someone could fax me something... 'you dial 011, then the country code. All countries have a code. Yeah. New Zealand's is 64...' And the international date line, or the reversed seasons? It's like explaining the subprime mortgage crisis to a basset hound.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    Undoubtedly, although [colin] was not the hawk in that particular room.

    that was always my reading. i saw news reports that compared his thoughts on iraq before and after 11 sept.

    "towing the party line" was more than evident. i genuinely thought he was a conservative getting the shaft from lunatics.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    like explaining the subprime mortgage crisis to a basset hound.

    my oft-related story is explaining where nzl was to a texan.

    texan: wurz noo zeel-and?
    me: an island in the pacific ocean
    texan: iz that south a' mexico?
    me: pretty much.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • Idiot Savant,

    Rich: I'm sure there's a level of Cullen Fund investment in NZ where it could be beneficial - but that level is almost certainly lower than the entire NZSX. Key's plan will simply create an asset bubble, which will see his rich mates make out like bandits at the cost of our pensioners. In other words, its a policy to take from the poor to give to the rich.

    Palmerston North • Since Nov 2006 • 1717 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    "towing the party line" was more than evident. i genuinely thought he was a conservative getting the shaft from lunatics.

    That toeing the line. But yes.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

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