Archive for January, 2016
Thursday, January 28th, 2016
Does this sound familiar? In the mid 2000s, New Zealand wanted to pursue a humanitarian policy, on live sheep exports. This happened to offend a Saudi foreign investor, who eventually threatened legal action against it. The Key government chose to buy him off with (a) millions in cash ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on bribing the Saudis and Oscar racism
Tuesday, January 26th, 2016
So the Trans Pacific Partnership is due to be signed next week. This means very little, beyond a confirmation that the text being signed was indeed the text that was negotiated. There is no guarantee that the US will ever actually ratify it, nor is there any clarity about when ...
Posted in Articles | 28 Comments »
Friday, January 22nd, 2016
We seem to be living in an era of virtual government, where governments promote only an illusion of policy kapow! rather than the sort of leadership where real solutions are proposed, funded and enacted. Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett’s latest bright idea on the social housing shortage definitely falls ...
Posted in Articles | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, January 20th, 2016
China, China, China… Donald Trump is not the only one obsessed with the Middle Kingdom these days. For the past year or more, countries have been warning each other about their economic dependence on China and New Zealand is no exception. China is now the main destination for our ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 18th, 2016
Listening to the business news is a bit like eavesdropping on the radio transmissions from space aliens. There is no discernible connection between the concerns of the captains of these space ships – the bank economists and the finance house spokesmen – and the concerns of ordinary listeners back on ...
Posted in Articles | 7 Comments »
Friday, January 15th, 2016
Click for big version.
So it seems that since November, the Reserve Bank has been quietly enacting a policy of charging the media for Official Information Act requests.
Such fees are not being levied only in the exceptional circumstances that involve major costs, but as a standard principle. There are so many ...
Posted in Articles | 3 Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2016
Come November, the world will have a new US president-elect and the least unlikely winner still looks to be Hillary Clinton. Right now though, the polls are showing a rocky stretch ahead for her in the immediate future. It is still three weeks before Iowa delivers the first concrete result ...
Posted in Articles | 15 Comments »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2016
With hindsight, this last week must have been a race to get David Bowie’s final album Blackstar out – and reviewed – before his death overwhelmed how the album would be received. Gratifyingly, Blackstar came out last Friday on his 69th birthday, was treated entirely on its own merits, ...
Posted in Articles | 3 Comments »
Friday, January 8th, 2016
The events of 2015 taught us a lot about the potential ( and the limits) of left wing populism. Syriza in Greece had started the year as the harbinger of change – offering a genuine alternative to the politics of austerity and to a European Union that had been created ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on Podemos, and Spain’s election stalemate
Wednesday, January 6th, 2016
With an ally like Saudi Arabia, who needs enemies? In the past 15 years, the West can thank the House of Saud for
• Providing almost everyone who planned and carried out the 9/11 attacks on the US
• Funding the Sunni extremists who founded al Qaeda
• Funding the competing band of Sunni extremists who ...
Posted in Articles | 12 Comments »
Parliament Headlines
Headlines
Headlines
Headlines
Headlines
