Archive for October, 2013
Thursday, October 31st, 2013
Not many winners in the NSA spy scandal, are there? Oh sure, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been reaping some political applause at home for standing up to the Americans - in polls, 62% of Germans approve of her stand - but even that support has been mixed. Many Germans ...
Posted in Articles | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, October 29th, 2013
A curiously meandering interview on RNZ’s Business programme by Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler, this morning. During it, Wheeler shed crocodile tears on behalf of “consumers and investors” being hurt by the interest rate policy of central banks, which was having ‘negative spillover’ and pushing up the exchange rate in ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on the Reserve Bank, and the death of Lou Reed
Thursday, October 24th, 2013
So only 62,000 investors have lined up to buy Meridian, even at the rock bottom price of $1.50 a share. That’s even after the process had been sweetened with a government subsidy - in a style more commonly associated with the likes of Noel Leeming or Harvey Norman - whereby ...
Posted in Articles | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013
According to Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce, Team New Zealand “is not a job for life” but it certainly seems the next best thing to it. For a sport that prides itself on its entrepreneurial edge, our America’s Cup efforts seem to be chronically dependent on government handouts and media-generated ...
Posted in Articles | 12 Comments »
Friday, October 18th, 2013
A lot of the time, policing is a difficult and unpleasant job and when its done well, the Police get little credit for doing it. However, no-one benefits - including the Police who are trying to do the job properly - when bad policing is insulated from effective punishment. The ...
Posted in Articles | 12 Comments »
Thursday, October 17th, 2013
The defence that John Banks has been offering to the charges of electoral fraud - that he didn’t read the document he signed, and therefore lacked the necessary criminal intent - is a fairly standard example of political business as usual. At a time when political power is being centralised ...
Posted in Articles | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, October 16th, 2013
Leaving aside the tawdry details of Auckland mayor Len Brown’s extramarital affair, the oddest feature is the timing of the revelations. By Brown’s own account to John Campbell last night, the affair ended mid year, just before the election campaign began. Yet the story did not emerge when it might ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on Len Brown, trust, and Simon Bridges
Monday, October 14th, 2013
It seems incredible that a tiny faction of the Republican opposition in the US Senate can hold to ransom the entire country - and the global economy - unless their demands to re-write US law are met. I don’t think this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind when ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on the US meltdown and criminalising the partners of welfare fraudsters
Thursday, October 10th, 2013
The style of David Cunliffe’s speech to the Council of Trade Unions conference yesterday was almost as important as the content. Plainly, Labour now has a leader able to deliver a message consistent with the party’s core values, in a clear and articulate fashion. The contrast with David Shearer was ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on the Cunliffe speech, and the Mark Lundy decision
Wednesday, October 9th, 2013
How is this for a ‘cart before the horse’ notion of democracy, as practiced by the Key government? From the NZ Herald this morning:
[Prime Minister John Key] is also indicating he wants a deal done as soon as possible so he can publicly discuss the detail at home in the ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Parliament Headlines
Headlines
Headlines
Headlines
Headlines
