Posts by Jim Cathcart
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Much of Lenny's defense seems to be based on his ignorance of process. This is the mayor of a reasonably sized city. Does he not have a PA or staff who can manage business expenses, receipts for him? Secondly, why does the mayor not have a ratepayer-funded apartment near the office if the travel home is too taxing for him? It could hardly be a cost-related issue.
Corporate and public spending on perks and entitlement is most definitely out of hand. The CEO of Panasonic had limited himself to USD100 max for hotels on his frequent visits to Tokyo and he made a point out of staying in reasonably priced hotels on overseas trips. That is leadership during tough economic times.
-
If Chuang is a geisha girl, can we call Len a sukebe ojisan (dirty old man) in jest? The Japanese seem to have no trouble taking the pis. The conspiracy theories ripping through middle NZ are far more nutty.
-
Hard News: Everybody's Machiavelli, in reply to Bart Janssen,
And perfectly common outside of NZ for power brokers to have "bits on the side," particularly Asia. So Len is a cosmopolitan player in some ways. He could use his influence to crush those who mess with him.
-
Of course, if Brown were the mayor of Osaka or Hangzhou, this would be a non-event, but the geisha girl call is not just cheesy, it's symbolic of the depth of NZ multiculturalism.
-
Nice post
-
OnPoint: Fiscal Responsibility is the…, in reply to Simon Grigg,
Got a timeline on that, Rich?
It's just that people like Bloomberg, Fox and the US media have been warning us monthly that it's imminent since - ohhh - about 1996.
I have to go there now and then so I'd be keen on some insight as to when this crash is happening so I can work my life out around it.Well the slump has already started. But for every 100 bullish newspaper articles about China, you don't get that many doom/gloom tirades.
-
People do realize, I hope, that when China slumps, all the fiscal responsibility in the world isn't going to help a lot. We didn't escape the worst of the financial crisis through being clever, but because we've got a solid buyer for our commodities.
When that goes away, there'll be bank collapses all over Aussie (and consequently, here). Best bet would be to grow Kiwibank and try and ring-fence the fallout from a dairy slump to those that made all that money from the boom.
Try telling that to your typically one-dimensional property investor in Australia or NZ. However I doubt that there will be bank collapses through Australasia. Banks can't fail and will continue on their merry way with implicit taxpayer backing. The nation's wealth is wrapped up in residential property and the government would be terrified of the free market wreaking havoc with our "wealth." The govt knows banks are an essential driver of ensuring debt flows to the generationally challenged. It might be hard to swallow but there's a good argument to suggest that NZ has been sold down the road by the politico-banking-real estate complex.
-
Apple is the highest-profile Foxconn customer, and thus takes most of the heat
Well, you would expect that. However, as Andy Grove points out, it’s the hollowing out of jobs in the U.S. computer industry where Apple and others have failed. At this stage benefits are accruing to technophiles and shareholders but it appears that Apple has some way to go to improve its triple-bottom line business practice. Did Jobs share some responsibility in that? You would certainly have hoped so.
-
Steve Jobs record on workers rights.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/11863/remembering_steve_jobs_record_on_workers_rights/
-
Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to Simon Grigg,
They’d be more competitive if it wasn’t for some questionable pricing:
Too true. Outside the Apple stores in Japan, it is possible to buy previous generations of brand new Macs under full warranty. It at least gives people a chance to buy within their budget. I haven't seen the same arrangement elsewhere.
Also, having worked on third party licensing arrangements with Apple in the manufacturing space (audio peripherals), they can be very difficult to work in the fast moving consumer electronics industry.