Posts by BenWilson
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Hard News: Movie Disaster, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
It’s exactly how it works.
Yes, but not how it's meant to work, in the fictitious model where the market provides everything and we still somehow get large scale transformative projects.
Investors everywhere are generally unwilling to take a punt on anything they consider risky
Not sure. I think that changes from time to time. Actually, I'm talking crap. I don't think it's down to the failure of individuals, even collectively. This is a small economy, and thus not the kind of place you'd want to develop something big and new. Of course you'll wait until you see it work overseas. And if you have a big new idea, you'll take it there to get it started, in the end.
Which means that there really isn't any chance for dynamic change other than from government.
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Hard News: Movie Disaster, in reply to tussock,
Because subsidising exports is a universal disaster.
Not universal. But sometimes a disaster, certainly. I'm not sure why "this is picking winners" is considered such a knock down argument. Sometimes governments do, in fact, pick winners. Sometimes they pick losers. As does everyone, regardless of training. Indeed, if the classic idea of market efficiency is even partly true, this going to always be the case. Failing to pick winners is also making a choice, and involves opportunity cost. It's not at all clear that it's a better, sounder investment strategy.
If we had a really dynamic, risk-taking investment class, with a lot of money, in this country, we wouldn't need the government to do it. Unfortunately, our investment class is risk averse. This is not how capitalism is meant to work, unless we want low growth and gradual wealth polarization. So ironically, it is government investment that is the main thing keeping capitalism alive these days. At least the government can force people to spend money, which in turn forces them to earn money, which keeps people working. It's not a great system, but it's the only system we've got, now.
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Hard News: Mega Strange, in reply to Russell Brown,
The two claims don’t exactly tally.
The guy's not allowed to be his own source now? What are you, the schizophrenia police?
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Hard News: Mega Strange, in reply to 81stcolumn,
Also, many text books are really fucking expensive. There's so much good quality stuff for free, that I'm hardly surprised impoverished students don't really see the necessity.
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Hard News: Mega Strange, in reply to Morgan Nichol,
Maybe they randomly got the same dynamic IP address :-). Holistic Detectives get this kind of thing all the time.
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Hard News: Mega Strange, in reply to Rob Stowell,
When the free copy is substantially better than the paid-for version, there’s a problem.
This was the case for a math textbook I bought on Amazon this year. The Kindle reader is not designed for text books, that's for sure. You want fast scrolling, topic drilldown, and page numbers. The only nice feature was that it synchronized the page I was reading across devices. I was mighty jealous of the girl next to me who had just made a pdf out of photos of the book on desk-copy.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to nzlemming,
But he’s done nothing wrong! He said so, repeatedly, in that hideous Herald interview.
I loved the bit about how the DC friends were so shocked and disgusted that it could have rebounded on him. Because Washington spin doctors are such an unimpeachable source of moral guidance.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Kumara Republic,
More than that, does it constitute blackmail?
Could explain the hasty departure from the country of Wewege.
And if so, Graeme…?
IANAG, but the punishment, if it is blackmail, can be up to 14 years in prison. It's a very serious crime.
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Hard News: Friday Music: The Next Kids, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
That's an excellent start.
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Hard News: Moving right along?, in reply to Seamus Harris,
Two people have threatened to sue me for defamation in the past couple of years.
I expect Craig is suggesting you're risking Russell's site getting held for libel by making claims that you don't have a shred of personal evidence for, that could be damaging to the mayor's reputation.
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