Posts by Bart Janssen
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Cracker: Spotted, in reply to Rageaholic,
with an American icon
Statue of what?
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to Kumara Republic,
and all of them have been under-employed for some time
That's what happens when you effectively freeze research funding in NZ. It's an easy area to cut for a government because the consequences are several election cycles away. And this is nothing to do with National, Labour had also effectively cut science funding throughout their 9 year occupation of Wellington.
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to giovanni tiso,
I think National’s reasoning is pretty solid there: put assets up for sale so their friends in business can buy them, and devolve the proceeds to their friends in business to build roads. It’s beautiful really.
And entirely consistent with the belief that putting the money in the hands of business leaders is the right thing to do.
But really they are going to spend the money from the asset sales on schools for your children ... Anne Tolley is going to spend money on children? Really?
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to DexterX,
but assets sales and introduction of taxes well they last forever
No they don't.
Governments regularly develop and buy new assets
Governments regularly cut taxesWhether either of those things is the right thing to do at the time is something only obvious with 20/20 hindsight and even then sometimes not.
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to Sacha,
Because they are too incompetent to increase productivity by a tiny amount each year any other way
Have you met some of the er people that manage our companies in NZ?
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OnPoint: PREFU 2011: "What credit downgrade?", in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Although Is Zespri a SOE?
No Zespri is the marketing company for kiwifruit sales overseas. The relationship with the govt is that it is granted sole export rights, essentially a govt mandated monopoly.
Before anyone gets all up in arms about that - there used to be a very successful sole marketing body for apples and pears and a strong apple export industry - that was disestablished (by Labour) and the apple industry collapsed and still has not recovered. The company that pushed for the disestablishment has since gone bankrupt after having sold many of its orchards for housing developments. For NZ such sole marketing organisations work.
Zespri is essentially owned by the growers who pay a levy. The layoffs in Zespri are primarily due to the death of (particularly gold kiwifruit) vines in Italy and France. Unless we are lucky we are likely to see similar vine death and layoffs in NZ :(.
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Freezing science budgets isn't "doing nothing".
Putting pressure on CRIs to freeze salaries isn't "doing nothing". Except for management salaries which have doubled in the last 3 years.
That's just from my field. Actively stifling innovation in NZ is pretty damaging long term.
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OnPoint: PREFU 2011: "What credit downgrade?", in reply to Keith Ng,
And you know what? I can't prove him wrong
Can you calculate how much growth is required to prove him right - if that is more than 3%, you can prove him to be wildly optimistic..
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OnPoint: PREFU 2011: "What credit downgrade?", in reply to David Cormack,
the rage and hatred
Really? You think this is us raging?
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OnPoint: PREFU 2011: "What credit downgrade?", in reply to David Cormack,
they must genuinely believe what they are doing is right for the country
Maybe. It is entirely possible that some of the politicians are deceitful selfish scum who are happy to feather their own nests and those of their friends at the cost of the country's wealth.
But in the main I agree with you. For the most part they genuinely believe in trickle down economics and the purity of the free market to provide growth and hence wealth for the country.
Personally I don't believe that things that have failed to work in other countries will somehow magically work in NZ. But we will get to see in 2014/2015 when either they will be proven right and all will be well with NZ or they will have been proven wrong and I will be thankful that my mortgage is paid off.