Posts by Dismal Soyanz
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to BenWilson,
Been glued to the tv and radio and I noticed that but I also saw preceding footage of various reporters from pretty much the same spot and noticed that the lighting seemed odd. Could be a combination of the light from the camera and the depth of field. I was surprised that JK went there but then on reflection the CTV building destruction seemed so complete that it it would be the natural place to go if the PM was to be shown the extent of damage to ChCh.
Little media coverage of the outlying areas - thinking particularly of Sumner where some houses were said to have been buried.
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oops - that should have been Craig - soz
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but it strikes me as wistful thinking that there won’t be store closures and job losses
Ah, Russell I didn't know you were a slash and burn kinda guy. :)
I only go into Whitcoulls during the sales (anytime during the year) when I go looking for pressies for the bairns. I can't remember the last time I bought a book from them. In fact, I think my last non-birthday-related (Jesus' or otherwise) purchase I believe was Lotto. Borders is similar in terms of going looking for pressies but I do go in to browse, look at all the topics that I would read if I had more time, sigh and then scurry away. It may be a location specific thing but the Wellington Borders has a nicer layout and I think the attempt to make it feel more library-ish is deliberate. Whitcoulls is a department store and feels like it.
Since the Whitcoulls group took over Borders in NZ, separate financial accounts for Borders NZ have not been available. WGL is now the NZ parent of Borders and a quick look at its last finaical accounts shows a company whose profit margin has shrunk significantly in the last year of reporting. In part this due to rising costs but I doubt it would have been helped by some of the financial wand waving that has gone on with A&R Whitcoulls.
I have also noticed the refusal on Whitcoulls' part to participate on the interweb in a meaningful way. My book purchases these days are largely work/academic related and searching for one textbook found me at Whitcoull's online catalogue. The price was stunningly bad and I ended up buying from Amazon. The web may have impacted negatively on REDgroup but Whitcoulls looks to have engaged in cutting off its nose to spite its face. I haven't had reason to look for Border's online presence but I actually quite appreciate their regular email specials, even if I only take them up on an irregular basis. Overall, the impression I get is two quite different retail/distribution operations that have been lumped together financially - possibly to the detriment of the better one.
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Not sure if someone has linked to it already but there is an interesting piece on the MOJ website here.
I remember hearing on National Radio in the last few months someone who had done research on genetic disorders and relatives. Can't quite recall whether the work done was based on human or animal data but the bottomline was that first cousins having children did not result in a significantly bigger risk of genetic disorder. Given that falls outside of our legal definition of incest, I guess it's moot but my feeling is that in NZ first cousins in a relationship would still attract social opprobrium. It got me wondering how much of our reaction is based on social norms.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to Angus Robertson,
conservative or Conservative?
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OnPoint: Election 2011: GO!, in reply to Martin Lindberg,
My guess is that they are pronounced "turrrrnip".
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Turnips + politics = Blackadder
Blackadder: Oh, come on, Baldrick, you're going to be an MP, for God's sake! I'll just put fraud and sexual deviancy. Now; minimum bribe level...
Baldrick: One turnip. Oh, hang on, I don't want to price myself out of the market.
Blackadder: Baldrick, I've always been meaning to ask: Do you have any ambitions in life apart from the acquisition of turnips?
Baldrick: Er, no.
Blackadder: So what would you do if I gave you a thousand pounds?
Baldrick: I'd get a little turnip of my own.
Blackadder: So what would you do if I gave you a million pounds?
Baldrick: Oh, that's different. I'd get a great big turnip in the country. -
Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to Danielle,
I’d just love it if politicians were a little less focussed on those people’s prejudices.
Path of least resistance. Why bother expending energy to develop well-thought out policies with credible justifications when all you have to do is dog-whistle?
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I don’t have time to do a full blown expansion on my thoughts on CGT but one of the things that is crucially missing in some of the discussions here is the dynamic aspect to the housing market.
Suppose a CGT is implemented. A simple Econ 101 approach would be to say that the demand curve for housing shifts leftwards (less demand for housing by landlords) and thus there is a decline in both the price of housing and also the quantity sold. But note that as the stock of housing is relatively inelastic (it takes time for houses to be built or demolished [ETA: OK – I know not strictly true for pulling them down but that’s pretty much the exception to the way the housing market works]), the effect would be more apparent on the price than the quantity. If the quantity being bought and sold is largely unchanged then there are two (non-exclusive) things going on here:
1) The lower price attracts previous renters into purchasing, reducing the demand for rental accommodation; and
2) Landlords see the decline in prices this attracts some back into the market.So there are three impacts on the rental market: the initial decline in the demand for housing by landlords and thus a decline in the supply of rental accommodation; a potential leftward shift in rental accommodation demand; and a potential rightwards shift again of the rental supply curve after the initial leftward shift.
How the initial impact and these subsequent effects ultimately impact on the rental market and on rents in particular is ambiguous from a theoretical perspective. As an economist, I find the assertion that a CGT must raise the cost of rental very suspect.
There may well be other factors that come into play that I don’t have time to really think about (like the degree of competition between landlords).
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Wonderful news. Next question: Will the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ensure that the upcoming constitutional changes give Egyptians a form of democracy that is both acceptable and sustainable?
Am I the only one that finds it irritating that the media seems fixated on what foreign leaders (particularly those in the "West") have to say? [Even before Mubarak's resignation, there seemed to be a perverse need to scrutinise the US reaction.] Why? Is it at all relevant for what the people of Egypt want?
On a more long term note, I hope that the eventual political setup in Egypt gives rise to a democratic country that effectively gives the finger to US foreign policy (in the nicest possible way), showing the RWNJs that democracy doesn't mean thinking like Limbaugh or O'Reilly.