From:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3186247/Balance-of-payments-in-the-black
“For the year to September, New Zealand's current account deficit was $5.7 billion (3.1 per cent of GDP).”
That’s what, $109million per week? So if enough state servants were sacked (and offices vacated and grants to Pseudo-charities axed), that the gummint saves $250milion a week, could the loss of their purchasing power save us $109million in imports each week?
Just a thought.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Ireland: chance today to save the citizens of Europe
Today* is the day that the Irish will vote yes or no to ratification of the European Constitution Lisbon Treaty.
(*Oct 2nd Eire time)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Mandelson: 'If I can come back, so can Labour'
Err, when ZanuLiarbour lose the election, how will you appoint yourselves to the House of Lords?
You didn't "come back", piggy, your mates rescued you with a peerage.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Fiji & Tourism - Stuff (and Green Nonsense)
"A short family holiday to Fiji is as much as $1000 cheaper than a year ago and the plunging cost has sparked a bounce-back in New Zealand tourists since April's political strife. "
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/2887819/Fijis-sands-regain-their-sparkle
"Green MP Keith Locke said while his party was not advocating an economic boycott of Fiji, travellers to the region could help politically by expressing the New Zealand stance toward the regime."
What a fucking idiot, does he WANT tourists to be rounded up and thrown in jail? (Probably: he has an agenda.) The day folk start taking advice from Locke is the day they start voting "Green". Oh, wait: some idiots do...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/2887819/Fijis-sands-regain-their-sparkle
"Green MP Keith Locke said while his party was not advocating an economic boycott of Fiji, travellers to the region could help politically by expressing the New Zealand stance toward the regime."
What a fucking idiot, does he WANT tourists to be rounded up and thrown in jail? (Probably: he has an agenda.) The day folk start taking advice from Locke is the day they start voting "Green". Oh, wait: some idiots do...
Thursday, September 17, 2009
And the Race Card is Played
"It's because he's black" says Jimmy the Peanut.
Yeah, and the equally vigorous protests against Bush were because..?
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Iraq shoe thrower 'was tortured'
Zaidi was unrepentant, saying he remained angry over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"The invasion divided brothers and neighbors and turned our houses into places for endless mourning and our streets and parks into cemeteries," he said.
"The invasion divided brothers and neighbors and turned our houses into places for endless mourning and our streets and parks into cemeteries," he said.
Does he wonder now how the Kuwaitis felt after his glorious country invaded them?
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Liberals Believe in Intelligent Design
It's true.
They say they believe in evolution. But then they look at ants and bees and see a wondrous society. A society where every member works together toward a common goal, each member diligently performed their allotted task. They protect and nurture the hive, colony, queen.
Liberals look at this and think human society can evolve into this. They forget that evolution is an accidental process, where chance plays the hand in determining the outcome. But still they try and impose the ant/bee blueprint on us, socialising medicine, education and transport, creating moral hazard through state guarantees and welfare, attempting to absolve the workers of responsibility. This truly is intelligent design... but with a shortage of intelligence. (Oh, and they replace the Queen with a committee.)
They say they believe in evolution. But then they look at ants and bees and see a wondrous society. A society where every member works together toward a common goal, each member diligently performed their allotted task. They protect and nurture the hive, colony, queen.
Liberals look at this and think human society can evolve into this. They forget that evolution is an accidental process, where chance plays the hand in determining the outcome. But still they try and impose the ant/bee blueprint on us, socialising medicine, education and transport, creating moral hazard through state guarantees and welfare, attempting to absolve the workers of responsibility. This truly is intelligent design... but with a shortage of intelligence. (Oh, and they replace the Queen with a committee.)
Friday, July 31, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Even Doctors are Mental
"Our" children are being "run down" in their own driveways.
It is terrible. But now a surgeon suggests its a design fault, and made a dick of himself suggesting that the accident rate could be cut dramatically if "our" homes had semi-circular driveways...
(And, yes, he did seem to suggest that the gummint should mandate this kind of design improvement. Way to make housing even more expensive. I have to fence fucking my pool, but the local Kapiti council doesn't have to fence its open storm water drains, or the fucking sea and rivers.)
His own home possibly has such a semi-circular driveway, but I can't afford to set that much land aside. Perhaps I should go on a retraining course run by a local Poly and become a surgeon, then I, too, can buy a home with a semi-circular driveway.
I think I shall download the mp3 podcast of that report for posterity...
It is terrible. But now a surgeon suggests its a design fault, and made a dick of himself suggesting that the accident rate could be cut dramatically if "our" homes had semi-circular driveways...
(And, yes, he did seem to suggest that the gummint should mandate this kind of design improvement. Way to make housing even more expensive. I have to fence fucking my pool, but the local Kapiti council doesn't have to fence its open storm water drains, or the fucking sea and rivers.)
His own home possibly has such a semi-circular driveway, but I can't afford to set that much land aside. Perhaps I should go on a retraining course run by a local Poly and become a surgeon, then I, too, can buy a home with a semi-circular driveway.
I think I shall download the mp3 podcast of that report for posterity...
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Clouded Reason
Stolen from EU Referendum:
One of the most dangerous phenomena of modern times is how the irrational greenies have hijacked the environmental agenda and suborned it in pursuit of their own political aims. No better example of this is offered than in a piece by Peter Schwerdtfeger, emeritus professor of meteorology at Flinders University in Adelaide, writing in The Australian.
Schwerdtfeger is reviewing the work of internationally acclaimed cloud physicist Daniel Rosenfeld of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who asserts that the most awful consequence of the burning of carboniferous fuels is not the release of CO2 but the large-scale injection of minute particulate pollutants into the atmosphere.
Detailed studies carried out by his research group have revealed that the minute water vapour droplets that form around some carbon particles are so small as to be almost incapable of being subsequently coalesced into larger precipitable drops. In short, the particulates prevent rainfall. Thus, humans are changing the climate in a much more direct way than through the release of CO2.
What seems to be happening is that pollution is seriously inhibiting rain over mountains in semi-arid regions, a phenomenon with dire consequences for water resources in the Middle East and many other parts of the world, including China and Australia.
This and other work is now showing that the average precipitation on Mt Hua near Xi'an in central China has decreased by 20 percent, but rather than "climate change" this is attributable to man-made air pollution during the past 50 years.
The precipitation loss was doubled on days that had the poorest visibility because of pollution particles in the air. This explains the widely observed trends of decrease in mountain precipitation relative to the rainfall in nearby densely populated lowlands, which until now had not been directly ascribed to air pollution.
The work also shows the "frightening persistence and longevity of pollutant trails across vast areas", not least in the Australian Snowy Mountains catchments, where a phalanx of brown coal-burning power stations may have substantially wrecked the natural precipitation processes over the once hydrologically rich Australian Alps.
If Rosenfeld's scientific interpretations are correct, then southern Australia would greatly benefit from the application of his discoveries. At the very least, Rosenfeld's conclusions should be accorded appropriate evaluation and testing by an unprejudiced panel of peers.
The issue here is that targeted measures to limit specific pollution is a common good, and far from being objectionable, is economically as well as ecologically sound. And, by virtue of their very specificity, not only are such measures cheaper than the scatter-gun approach of trying to reduce CO2 measures, their effects are more immediately measurable and there is a true cost-benefit.
However, Schwerdtfeger remarks that the work has so far has been ignored in Australia (and elsewhere) because it does not fit in with the dominant paradigm that holds CO2 responsible for reduced rainfall in semi-arid regions. And thus do the greenies, far from improving the environment, hold back sensible measures and lock us into the tunnel vision of group obsession, perpetuating the very problems they purport to be solving.
Booker and I had a phrase for this ... "the sledgehammer to miss the nut". Perhaps we should take the sledgehammer to the nut(s).
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/06/clouded-reason.html
One of the most dangerous phenomena of modern times is how the irrational greenies have hijacked the environmental agenda and suborned it in pursuit of their own political aims. No better example of this is offered than in a piece by Peter Schwerdtfeger, emeritus professor of meteorology at Flinders University in Adelaide, writing in The Australian.
Schwerdtfeger is reviewing the work of internationally acclaimed cloud physicist Daniel Rosenfeld of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who asserts that the most awful consequence of the burning of carboniferous fuels is not the release of CO2 but the large-scale injection of minute particulate pollutants into the atmosphere.
Detailed studies carried out by his research group have revealed that the minute water vapour droplets that form around some carbon particles are so small as to be almost incapable of being subsequently coalesced into larger precipitable drops. In short, the particulates prevent rainfall. Thus, humans are changing the climate in a much more direct way than through the release of CO2.
What seems to be happening is that pollution is seriously inhibiting rain over mountains in semi-arid regions, a phenomenon with dire consequences for water resources in the Middle East and many other parts of the world, including China and Australia.
This and other work is now showing that the average precipitation on Mt Hua near Xi'an in central China has decreased by 20 percent, but rather than "climate change" this is attributable to man-made air pollution during the past 50 years.
The precipitation loss was doubled on days that had the poorest visibility because of pollution particles in the air. This explains the widely observed trends of decrease in mountain precipitation relative to the rainfall in nearby densely populated lowlands, which until now had not been directly ascribed to air pollution.
The work also shows the "frightening persistence and longevity of pollutant trails across vast areas", not least in the Australian Snowy Mountains catchments, where a phalanx of brown coal-burning power stations may have substantially wrecked the natural precipitation processes over the once hydrologically rich Australian Alps.
If Rosenfeld's scientific interpretations are correct, then southern Australia would greatly benefit from the application of his discoveries. At the very least, Rosenfeld's conclusions should be accorded appropriate evaluation and testing by an unprejudiced panel of peers.
The issue here is that targeted measures to limit specific pollution is a common good, and far from being objectionable, is economically as well as ecologically sound. And, by virtue of their very specificity, not only are such measures cheaper than the scatter-gun approach of trying to reduce CO2 measures, their effects are more immediately measurable and there is a true cost-benefit.
However, Schwerdtfeger remarks that the work has so far has been ignored in Australia (and elsewhere) because it does not fit in with the dominant paradigm that holds CO2 responsible for reduced rainfall in semi-arid regions. And thus do the greenies, far from improving the environment, hold back sensible measures and lock us into the tunnel vision of group obsession, perpetuating the very problems they purport to be solving.
Booker and I had a phrase for this ... "the sledgehammer to miss the nut". Perhaps we should take the sledgehammer to the nut(s).
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/06/clouded-reason.html
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Bash-a-Bank
My email to morning report
Banks suffering their "fair share" of the recession
From:
"Gordon Brown"
View contact details To:
morningreport@radionz.co.nz
Loved hearing Mr Foss saying several times that banks are not suffering their "fair share".
Then we heard Mrs Fagg, CEO of ANZ National state that her bank's profit was down 30%. From memory they have made some of their staff redundant.
I am concerned that parliament has not suffered its fair share of the recession either, so how about redunancies from parliament, how about a 10 to 30% pay cut for MPs?
Do these people not realise that every time they bash a private sector business that makes a profit, they are bashing taxpayers. If these politicians start fiddling with our finance sector, we'll end up with the distortions that the Americans had. Who suffered when that house of cards collapsed? Everyone OTHER than politicians...
Gordon Brown
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Pre-CISE-ly!!!!
"How ANYONE could be boo-ed by our WW2 heroes and still have the gall to be seen in public is a sure sign that the cunt's dosage needs to be upped."
comment from Killemallletgodsortemout on Old Holborn's post about getting the Gorgon sectioned under mental health regs.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
My Email to Russel Norman
CO2 is a significant greenhouse gas
Friday, 29 May, 2009 6:36 AM
From: "Gordon Brown" brick_top@rocketmail.com
To: Russel.Norman@parliament.govt.nz
Hi Russel
The following email was brought to my attention via Whale Oil's blog. Can you please confirm for me:
Whether or not aeroplanes, cars and cabs release CO2 whilst burning fossils fuels.
Whether or not CO2 is a significant greenhouse gas
Whether or not the planet is warming
Whether or not that is because of the co2 from burning fossil fuels (as opposed to burning logs in ones wood-burner)
Whether or not your co2 emissions are better than mine
Cheers
Gordon Brown
(for now) Prime Minister & First Lord Of The Treasury
C/o (for now):10 Downing Street
LONDONSW1A 2AA
Remember this if politicians want to spend your money:
A million dollars is what you’d get earning the average wage for twenty years. A billion dollars is what you’d get if you won Lotto every week for twenty years.
If I gave you $1 million and told you to spend it at the rate of $1000 per day, it would take you nearly three years. But if I gave you $1 billion and told you to do the same, it would take you nearly 3000 years.
A million seconds is about 12 days. A billion seconds is about 30 years.The following is a disclaimer and a protest at the collection, retention and sharing of my personal mail by the morally bankrupt state.By adding a string of key words, it will guarantee that each and every mail that I send will now need to be manually viewed as it is picked up by the auto scan software. If every person in the UK does exactly the same, then the entire system will quickly become so unmanageable, so unwieldy that it will become unworkable.My key words are: bomb, assassinate, president, brown, Osama, Obama, Sargozy, Merkel, government, target, location, rocket, grenade, al-Qaeda, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, UK, America, guns, jets, bombs, machine-gun, terrorists, MP's, pigs, troughs, France, Germany, Italy, nuclear, Korea.
-------------------
Subject: RE: Worrying Article
Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 17:52:51 +1200
From: Russel Norman Russel.Norman@parliament.govt.nz
To: Bob
References:
Hi Bob
I am carefully following the rules laid down by Parliamentary Services. When campaigning in Mt Albert I pay for my cabs (I have a car from afriend up there so don't use cabs much) and accommodation (again staying with Green supporters).
I travel around NZ constantly as co-leader and Parliamentary services pays for my flights. For example, I am off to Auckland shortly so that I can attend the Child Poverty Action Group budget breakfast tomorrow.Bryce has a long history of personal attacks on me and the Greens, it is tedious. I no longer read his stuff
Friday, 29 May, 2009 6:36 AM
From: "Gordon Brown" brick_top@rocketmail.com
To: Russel.Norman@parliament.govt.nz
Hi Russel
The following email was brought to my attention via Whale Oil's blog. Can you please confirm for me:
Whether or not aeroplanes, cars and cabs release CO2 whilst burning fossils fuels.
Whether or not CO2 is a significant greenhouse gas
Whether or not the planet is warming
Whether or not that is because of the co2 from burning fossil fuels (as opposed to burning logs in ones wood-burner)
Whether or not your co2 emissions are better than mine
Cheers
Gordon Brown
(for now) Prime Minister & First Lord Of The Treasury
C/o (for now):10 Downing Street
LONDONSW1A 2AA
Remember this if politicians want to spend your money:
A million dollars is what you’d get earning the average wage for twenty years. A billion dollars is what you’d get if you won Lotto every week for twenty years.
If I gave you $1 million and told you to spend it at the rate of $1000 per day, it would take you nearly three years. But if I gave you $1 billion and told you to do the same, it would take you nearly 3000 years.
A million seconds is about 12 days. A billion seconds is about 30 years.The following is a disclaimer and a protest at the collection, retention and sharing of my personal mail by the morally bankrupt state.By adding a string of key words, it will guarantee that each and every mail that I send will now need to be manually viewed as it is picked up by the auto scan software. If every person in the UK does exactly the same, then the entire system will quickly become so unmanageable, so unwieldy that it will become unworkable.My key words are: bomb, assassinate, president, brown, Osama, Obama, Sargozy, Merkel, government, target, location, rocket, grenade, al-Qaeda, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, UK, America, guns, jets, bombs, machine-gun, terrorists, MP's, pigs, troughs, France, Germany, Italy, nuclear, Korea.
-------------------
Subject: RE: Worrying Article
Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 17:52:51 +1200
From: Russel Norman Russel.Norman@parliament.govt.nz
To: Bob
References:
Hi Bob
I am carefully following the rules laid down by Parliamentary Services. When campaigning in Mt Albert I pay for my cabs (I have a car from afriend up there so don't use cabs much) and accommodation (again staying with Green supporters).
I travel around NZ constantly as co-leader and Parliamentary services pays for my flights. For example, I am off to Auckland shortly so that I can attend the Child Poverty Action Group budget breakfast tomorrow.Bryce has a long history of personal attacks on me and the Greens, it is tedious. I no longer read his stuff
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Sarkozy, je te vois - Sarkozy, I can see you!
The French President is a smelly turd.
Mister Sarkozy is a short-arse.
Casse-toi pauvre con - 'get lost, jerk'
http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/2009/05/careful-what-you-say-about-president-sarkozy-.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/orjrgn
apparently, it is against the law to insult the President or the police in France. It is illegal to photograph the police in the UK. What the French-Connection-United-Kingdom is this world coming to..? Mr Saw-cosy, this is not a cunning stunt.
Mister Sarkozy is a short-arse.
Casse-toi pauvre con - 'get lost, jerk'
http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/2009/05/careful-what-you-say-about-president-sarkozy-.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/orjrgn
apparently, it is against the law to insult the President or the police in France. It is illegal to photograph the police in the UK. What the French-Connection-United-Kingdom is this world coming to..? Mr Saw-cosy, this is not a cunning stunt.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
New Zealand Late to the Sub-prime Party, making up for Lost Time
http://www.welcomehomeloan.co.nz/index.php
The welcome home loan, how those with modest income and no deposit can get on the property bandwagon.
"Sounds like a great idea to me" - Alan Greenspan
"I'd give it two thumbs, if I wasn't so special" - Barry Obama
"Hey, can I get a loan?" - Gordon Brown
The welcome home loan, how those with modest income and no deposit can get on the property bandwagon.
"Sounds like a great idea to me" - Alan Greenspan
"I'd give it two thumbs, if I wasn't so special" - Barry Obama
"Hey, can I get a loan?" - Gordon Brown
Monday, March 23, 2009
The Medical Profession Speaks out on the Financial Bail-Out Package
The allergists voted to scratch it, and the dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
The gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the neurologists thought the administration had a lot of nerve, and the obstetricians felt they were all labouring under a misconception.
The ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted; the pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the paediatricians said, "Oh, Grow up!"
The psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, the radiologists could see right through it, and the surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.
The internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the plastic surgeons said, "This puts a whole new face on the matter."
The podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the urologists felt the scheme wouldn't hold water.
The anaesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas; and the cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.
In the end the proctologists left the decision to the bottom line in Wellington.
The gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the neurologists thought the administration had a lot of nerve, and the obstetricians felt they were all labouring under a misconception.
The ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted; the pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the paediatricians said, "Oh, Grow up!"
The psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, the radiologists could see right through it, and the surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.
The internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the plastic surgeons said, "This puts a whole new face on the matter."
The podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the urologists felt the scheme wouldn't hold water.
The anaesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas; and the cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.
In the end the proctologists left the decision to the bottom line in Wellington.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?
UPDATE: http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2008-10-05-1.html
The following link no longer carries the story:
http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/081017light.html
Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?
By Orson Scott Card
Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism.
An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:
I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.
This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.
It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.
What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.
The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.
They end up worse off than before.
This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.
Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)
Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?
I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."
Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.
As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled "Do Facts Matter?" ( http://snipurl.com/457townhall_com] ): "Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury."
These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.
Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!
What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?
Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.
And after Franklin Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.
If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.
But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign — because that campaign had sought his advice — you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.
You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.
If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish, and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.
If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow Republicans were to blame for this crisis.
There are precedents. Even though President Bush and his administration never said that Iraq sponsored or was linked to 9/11, you could not stand the fact that Americans had that misapprehension — so you pounded us with the fact that there was no such link. (Along the way, you created the false impression that Bush had lied to them and said that there was a connection.)
If you had any principles, then surely right now, when the American people are set to blame President Bush and John McCain for a crisis they tried to prevent, and are actually shifting to approve of Barack Obama because of a crisis he helped cause, you would be laboring at least as hard to correct that false impression.
Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.
But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie — that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.
If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.
Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means . That's how trust is earned.
Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time — and you have swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.
Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter — while you ignored the story of John Edwards's own adultery for many months.
So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?
Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?
You might want to remember the way the National Organization of Women threw away their integrity by supporting Bill Clinton despite his well-known pattern of sexual exploitation of powerless women. Who listens to NOW anymore? We know they stand for nothing; they have no principles.
That's where you are right now.
It's not too late. You know that if the situation were reversed, and the truth would damage McCain and help Obama, you would be moving heaven and earth to get the true story out there.
If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.
Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation's prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama's door.
You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a Senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.
This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.
If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe — and vote as if — President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.
If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats — including Barack Obama — and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans — then you are not journalists by any standard.
You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a news paper in our city.
This article first appeared in The Rhinoceros Times of Greensboro, North Carolina, and is used here by permission.
UPDATE:
HATTIP: No Minister some time ago
The following link no longer carries the story:
http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/081017light.html
Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?
By Orson Scott Card
Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism.
An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:
I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.
This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.
It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.
What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.
The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.
They end up worse off than before.
This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.
Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)
Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?
I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."
Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.
As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled "Do Facts Matter?" ( http://snipurl.com/457townhall_com] ): "Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury."
These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.
Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!
What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?
Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.
And after Franklin Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.
If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.
But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign — because that campaign had sought his advice — you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.
You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.
If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish, and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.
If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow Republicans were to blame for this crisis.
There are precedents. Even though President Bush and his administration never said that Iraq sponsored or was linked to 9/11, you could not stand the fact that Americans had that misapprehension — so you pounded us with the fact that there was no such link. (Along the way, you created the false impression that Bush had lied to them and said that there was a connection.)
If you had any principles, then surely right now, when the American people are set to blame President Bush and John McCain for a crisis they tried to prevent, and are actually shifting to approve of Barack Obama because of a crisis he helped cause, you would be laboring at least as hard to correct that false impression.
Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.
But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie — that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.
If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.
Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means . That's how trust is earned.
Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time — and you have swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.
Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter — while you ignored the story of John Edwards's own adultery for many months.
So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?
Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?
You might want to remember the way the National Organization of Women threw away their integrity by supporting Bill Clinton despite his well-known pattern of sexual exploitation of powerless women. Who listens to NOW anymore? We know they stand for nothing; they have no principles.
That's where you are right now.
It's not too late. You know that if the situation were reversed, and the truth would damage McCain and help Obama, you would be moving heaven and earth to get the true story out there.
If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.
Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation's prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama's door.
You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a Senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.
This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.
If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe — and vote as if — President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.
If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats — including Barack Obama — and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans — then you are not journalists by any standard.
You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a news paper in our city.
This article first appeared in The Rhinoceros Times of Greensboro, North Carolina, and is used here by permission.
UPDATE:
HATTIP: No Minister some time ago
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Obama v McCain
In this modern age when the media decide what we get to see and what we don't, thank goodness for the internet. This video, previously withheld from the public, shows the ugly side of US politics.
Teh Internet
"NZ music is almost never good enough for people to want to pirate, that's why they have quotas to force us to listen to it."
Uh-huh.
http://pc.blogspot.com/2009/02/sometimes-protest-works.html
Uh-huh.
http://pc.blogspot.com/2009/02/sometimes-protest-works.html
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Charismatic Leaders
Great post on EU Referendum
http://umbrellog.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7294
With a top comment from "gareth":
"Thanks to the rise of the political class, we have had something of a National Government in the UK for years. Different shades of statists that is all. The answer to everything is More Government. The same is largely true for the EU. An alternative point of view is a threat to them and demonised accordingly.
The UK has already suffered it's charismatic leader in the shape of Tony Blair but he was just a greater iteration of Bill Clinton. Empty, shallow, appearance is more important than substance. The rare good that they do drowns in a sea of cynical PR-driven opportunism. The slick patter and thick skind they developed in the legal profession served them well.
Now we have swung from charisma to comic there is an opportunity for someone charismatic to jump in and 'save' us. This could go either way though - save us through marching further towards socialism and a command economy, or save us through stepping back, trimming the ample fat, reducing the reach of the State. We're so used to the State stepping in, dictating what is right, trying to prevent failure (as opposed to just picking up the pieces when we do fail) that I expect it to be the former not the latter.
http://umbrellog.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7294
With a top comment from "gareth":
"Thanks to the rise of the political class, we have had something of a National Government in the UK for years. Different shades of statists that is all. The answer to everything is More Government. The same is largely true for the EU. An alternative point of view is a threat to them and demonised accordingly.
The UK has already suffered it's charismatic leader in the shape of Tony Blair but he was just a greater iteration of Bill Clinton. Empty, shallow, appearance is more important than substance. The rare good that they do drowns in a sea of cynical PR-driven opportunism. The slick patter and thick skind they developed in the legal profession served them well.
Now we have swung from charisma to comic there is an opportunity for someone charismatic to jump in and 'save' us. This could go either way though - save us through marching further towards socialism and a command economy, or save us through stepping back, trimming the ample fat, reducing the reach of the State. We're so used to the State stepping in, dictating what is right, trying to prevent failure (as opposed to just picking up the pieces when we do fail) that I expect it to be the former not the latter.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
John Key, what are you doing?
http://johnkey.co.nz/index.php?/archives/612-Fast-tracked-public-projects-give-500m-boost.html#c3135
or
http://tinyurl.com/adkx5s
Crikey! I didn't think it would get "printed".
or
http://tinyurl.com/adkx5s
Crikey! I didn't think it would get "printed".
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Disappearing... UPDATED
Where has he gone?
for a cache of his page.
UPDATED
And:
http://picasaweb.google.com/TractorStats/TractorStats#
for his(?) wonderful photos. Hattip:
http://whollyrude.blogspot.com/
via:
http://obotheclown.blogspot.com/2009/02/tractorstats-wtf.html
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The Dismal Scientist - UPDATED 05/02/09 1.25pm
http://dimpost.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/the-dismal-scientist/
"And other: so far the people quoted by Danyl as syaing this CRA thing is all crap, are ALL working for the FED" chortle: like those NASA AGW experts that reinforce each other's insane ideas about how temperatures are going up...when they aren't.
Note that state regulations in some 29 states absolve borrowers of responsibility for the debt: they can walk away and leave the financier with the house but no right to chase the borrower for any shortfall. The borrower mails the keys to the bank with a note saying so long sucker: the so-called "jingle mail".
So when you get federal regulation pressurising you to lend to sub-prime borrowers and then other regulations preventing enforcement, it's no wonder the financiers tried to get the mess off their books via CDOs.
When it is clear that a bank cannot recover some or all of the money lent to a borrower, they “write-off” the non-recoverable amount
Here’s a simple example to try and illustrate what happened to financiers. In this example called Banco.
Shareholders give Banco $200. Depositors give Banco $800. This is a total of $1000. Banco owes these people $1000.
Banco lends the $1000 to homeowners. The homeowners owe Banco $1000. The world is in harmony.
After time passes, the property price bubble bursts.
After further time passes, the homeowners cannot (or choose not to) pay their mortgage, so walk away from their homes and the loans. Banco repossesses the homes and sells them. The sales raise only $750. Banco has $750, but owes $800 to depositors. Forget about the shareholders…
So assets of $750 minus liabilities of $800 equals negative $50. As there is no such thing as a negative asset (as in “that does not compute”) the bank is “insolvent”. If only people were trusting (and patient), Banco could borrow some more money and start doing high quality lending, making $50+ of profits and be in a position to pay back all their depositors. In the meantime, the depositors (and maybe even their children) have died of old age and hell has frozen over.
Now, Banco (and others in Banco’s industry) are not really letting on that they have a shortfall of $50. Everyone knows that they are likely to have lost money on the sale of the homes, but no knows if they got $850 or $750 or somewhere in between. Everyone gets nervous and stops giving money to Banco & mates. (No CDO’s in sight yet).
In fact, it is worse: Banco didn’t get $750 on the sale of the homes: they only sold half of the homes and raised $375. They can’t seem to give the other homes away. So what they do is value those unsold homes using g the data from the sale of the other home. They come up with a value of $375 for the remaining house. Cash + homes = $750.
Borrowers say “please to give us most of our money back. We’d be happy to have 750/800 x our deposit back now = 93.75% of our money.”
“Err, but we can’t pay you back 93.75% right now,” say Banco “as we have only 46.875% of your money…”
“Fine”, say depositors, “sell those $375 worth of house and pay us our 93.75%.”
But of course those houses aren’t really worth $375, because no one seemed to want to buy them.
“Why the fuck did you lend money to people who couldn’t pay it back?” ask the depositors.
“Because the gummint pressured us to (point 1), but also God appeared to us in a dream (point 2) and told us that property values will be going up for quite a while yet, so we’d be sweet-as if there were a default” reply Banco.
“Holy heck, you didn’t put that into your prospectus!” say the depositors “still, some of the defaulters must have other assets, or income you could get your hands on.”
“Err, actually, in these states here, here and here, they don’t let us do that (point 3).” comes the response from Banco.
Depositors say: “Tammy, dear, I’m just off down the Winnebago dealer to cancel our order. Also, we won’t go on that world cruise in the spring after we retire. In fact, we won’t be retiring just yet: close your wallet, dear (point 4)!”
Later “And the main news story tonight: sharply falling banking stocks drags Wall Street (and CAX, FTSE, DB, NZX, etal) down in frantic trading (point 5).”
“Gee, the stock market’s down! My retirement savings just shrunk: close your wallet, dear (point 6)!”
“And in financial markets news tonight, retailers issue dire profits warning. Retail stocks plummet, dragging Wall Street down.”
See, lots of points and links. CDO’s are merely one of the vehicles or pathways through which real individual savers/depositors gave their money to financiers who then gave a fair proportion to sub-prime borrowers.
Personally, I think the effect of regulations merely made the problem worse, but didn’t cause it. I don’t even think it all comes down to sub-prime borrowers: cheap money (loose monetary policy) let ALL borrowers compete to bid house prices up to unsustainable levels. We had different regulations in NZ and STILL we all bid up house prices.
And at some point, folk began to get nervous about how much debt their gummints were racking up on their behalf. Remember, there is only one way to pay back gummint debt: tax the workers. So they close their wallets in anticipation. (Well, the gummint could just print the money to repay the debt/fund public services, but that ain’t working out too well for North Korea/Zimbabwe is it?)
Oh, and about fraud? It happens all the time: it's just easier to spot when things turn to custard.
Most poor people are ethical, have jobs and don't steal things.
Most bankers are ethical, have jobs and don't steal things.
---------------------
Aw, poo: I forgot to work Fannie (fzztt!) mae and Fat Fredrick Mac into the story, helping create "Moral hazard" in a way that no other english speaking economy replicates. Those 29 states I mentioned earlier: they're creating moral hazard as well. Borrowers are tempted to borrow just a little bit more, because if they over-reach, they can just shrug their shoulders and walk away. If your credit history is crap already, why would you worry about the "stigma" of default?
--------------------
“my understanding is that the loans themselves weren’t the issue.”
Well, your understanding is poor then.
:^)
The loans, ALL loans, not just sub-prime, are secured over property that no one wants to buy. When everyone’s confidence in the property values and the banking industry is shaken to the core, the vehicle through which money flowed is not overly relevent.I have friends with 3 properties in the US that agents won’t even list becuase they have too many on their books already. Luckily, they can afford to wait it out.
Look at our own “sub prime”: the finance companies. The circumstances of the lending was somewhat different, but it still comes back to loans that are “secured” over property (hotels, apartments, 2nd-hand cars) that is not worth the balance of the loan, and there is no further assets (due often to limited liabilty of companies involved) beyond the property, some of which cannot be sold. No CDO’s here, yet it all seemed to kick off at the same time (or even before) the US problem became apparent.
--------------
Che says "ahhhh... i see. so the new Zealand government forced all those loan sharks to extend loans to people of dubious quality?"
Sorry, I thought I was quite clear: I don't believe CRA, Fannie/Freddie, non-recourse loans are the CAUSE of the crisis. The bursting of the property bubble is the cause.
95, 100 and 110% mortgages were all the rage in the UK when I lived there in the very early noughties. (I don't remember 125%, but I guess folk were reassured by Moron Brown's claim that he had eliminated the cycles of boom and bust that seem to plague fractional banking systems!) Yet the UK has no equivalent to CRA, Fan/Fred, non-recourse…
The regulation just didn't help. Like not wearing a seat belt doesn't cause accidents, but it does make it worse...
The bubbles formed through loose monetary policy PLUS loose fiscal policy* PLUS irrationality when it came to asset prices PLUS greed and fraud, pyramid schemes, herd mentality PLUS the regulations PLUS planning laws, building standards, etc.
*loose fiscal policy:
- Bush jnr (hey: spell-check "jerk") and his wars and his pork
- Moron Brown and his quangos
- Italy Greece Spain & Portugal on whatever they spend it on (pork?)
- Cullen and his train set, interest free loans, health sector money-shower, millions of extra public "servants", 20 free ECE, Kiwisaver handouts, etc
---------------
"And other: so far the people quoted by Danyl as syaing this CRA thing is all crap, are ALL working for the FED" chortle: like those NASA AGW experts that reinforce each other's insane ideas about how temperatures are going up...when they aren't.
Note that state regulations in some 29 states absolve borrowers of responsibility for the debt: they can walk away and leave the financier with the house but no right to chase the borrower for any shortfall. The borrower mails the keys to the bank with a note saying so long sucker: the so-called "jingle mail".
So when you get federal regulation pressurising you to lend to sub-prime borrowers and then other regulations preventing enforcement, it's no wonder the financiers tried to get the mess off their books via CDOs.
When it is clear that a bank cannot recover some or all of the money lent to a borrower, they “write-off” the non-recoverable amount
Here’s a simple example to try and illustrate what happened to financiers. In this example called Banco.
Shareholders give Banco $200. Depositors give Banco $800. This is a total of $1000. Banco owes these people $1000.
Banco lends the $1000 to homeowners. The homeowners owe Banco $1000. The world is in harmony.
After time passes, the property price bubble bursts.
After further time passes, the homeowners cannot (or choose not to) pay their mortgage, so walk away from their homes and the loans. Banco repossesses the homes and sells them. The sales raise only $750. Banco has $750, but owes $800 to depositors. Forget about the shareholders…
So assets of $750 minus liabilities of $800 equals negative $50. As there is no such thing as a negative asset (as in “that does not compute”) the bank is “insolvent”. If only people were trusting (and patient), Banco could borrow some more money and start doing high quality lending, making $50+ of profits and be in a position to pay back all their depositors. In the meantime, the depositors (and maybe even their children) have died of old age and hell has frozen over.
Now, Banco (and others in Banco’s industry) are not really letting on that they have a shortfall of $50. Everyone knows that they are likely to have lost money on the sale of the homes, but no knows if they got $850 or $750 or somewhere in between. Everyone gets nervous and stops giving money to Banco & mates. (No CDO’s in sight yet).
In fact, it is worse: Banco didn’t get $750 on the sale of the homes: they only sold half of the homes and raised $375. They can’t seem to give the other homes away. So what they do is value those unsold homes using g the data from the sale of the other home. They come up with a value of $375 for the remaining house. Cash + homes = $750.
Borrowers say “please to give us most of our money back. We’d be happy to have 750/800 x our deposit back now = 93.75% of our money.”
“Err, but we can’t pay you back 93.75% right now,” say Banco “as we have only 46.875% of your money…”
“Fine”, say depositors, “sell those $375 worth of house and pay us our 93.75%.”
But of course those houses aren’t really worth $375, because no one seemed to want to buy them.
“Why the fuck did you lend money to people who couldn’t pay it back?” ask the depositors.
“Because the gummint pressured us to (point 1), but also God appeared to us in a dream (point 2) and told us that property values will be going up for quite a while yet, so we’d be sweet-as if there were a default” reply Banco.
“Holy heck, you didn’t put that into your prospectus!” say the depositors “still, some of the defaulters must have other assets, or income you could get your hands on.”
“Err, actually, in these states here, here and here, they don’t let us do that (point 3).” comes the response from Banco.
Depositors say: “Tammy, dear, I’m just off down the Winnebago dealer to cancel our order. Also, we won’t go on that world cruise in the spring after we retire. In fact, we won’t be retiring just yet: close your wallet, dear (point 4)!”
Later “And the main news story tonight: sharply falling banking stocks drags Wall Street (and CAX, FTSE, DB, NZX, etal) down in frantic trading (point 5).”
“Gee, the stock market’s down! My retirement savings just shrunk: close your wallet, dear (point 6)!”
“And in financial markets news tonight, retailers issue dire profits warning. Retail stocks plummet, dragging Wall Street down.”
See, lots of points and links. CDO’s are merely one of the vehicles or pathways through which real individual savers/depositors gave their money to financiers who then gave a fair proportion to sub-prime borrowers.
Personally, I think the effect of regulations merely made the problem worse, but didn’t cause it. I don’t even think it all comes down to sub-prime borrowers: cheap money (loose monetary policy) let ALL borrowers compete to bid house prices up to unsustainable levels. We had different regulations in NZ and STILL we all bid up house prices.
And at some point, folk began to get nervous about how much debt their gummints were racking up on their behalf. Remember, there is only one way to pay back gummint debt: tax the workers. So they close their wallets in anticipation. (Well, the gummint could just print the money to repay the debt/fund public services, but that ain’t working out too well for North Korea/Zimbabwe is it?)
Oh, and about fraud? It happens all the time: it's just easier to spot when things turn to custard.
Most poor people are ethical, have jobs and don't steal things.
Most bankers are ethical, have jobs and don't steal things.
---------------------
Aw, poo: I forgot to work Fannie (fzztt!) mae and Fat Fredrick Mac into the story, helping create "Moral hazard" in a way that no other english speaking economy replicates. Those 29 states I mentioned earlier: they're creating moral hazard as well. Borrowers are tempted to borrow just a little bit more, because if they over-reach, they can just shrug their shoulders and walk away. If your credit history is crap already, why would you worry about the "stigma" of default?
--------------------
“my understanding is that the loans themselves weren’t the issue.”
Well, your understanding is poor then.
:^)
The loans, ALL loans, not just sub-prime, are secured over property that no one wants to buy. When everyone’s confidence in the property values and the banking industry is shaken to the core, the vehicle through which money flowed is not overly relevent.I have friends with 3 properties in the US that agents won’t even list becuase they have too many on their books already. Luckily, they can afford to wait it out.
Look at our own “sub prime”: the finance companies. The circumstances of the lending was somewhat different, but it still comes back to loans that are “secured” over property (hotels, apartments, 2nd-hand cars) that is not worth the balance of the loan, and there is no further assets (due often to limited liabilty of companies involved) beyond the property, some of which cannot be sold. No CDO’s here, yet it all seemed to kick off at the same time (or even before) the US problem became apparent.
--------------
Che says "ahhhh... i see. so the new Zealand government forced all those loan sharks to extend loans to people of dubious quality?"
Sorry, I thought I was quite clear: I don't believe CRA, Fannie/Freddie, non-recourse loans are the CAUSE of the crisis. The bursting of the property bubble is the cause.
95, 100 and 110% mortgages were all the rage in the UK when I lived there in the very early noughties. (I don't remember 125%, but I guess folk were reassured by Moron Brown's claim that he had eliminated the cycles of boom and bust that seem to plague fractional banking systems!) Yet the UK has no equivalent to CRA, Fan/Fred, non-recourse…
The regulation just didn't help. Like not wearing a seat belt doesn't cause accidents, but it does make it worse...
The bubbles formed through loose monetary policy PLUS loose fiscal policy* PLUS irrationality when it came to asset prices PLUS greed and fraud, pyramid schemes, herd mentality PLUS the regulations PLUS planning laws, building standards, etc.
*loose fiscal policy:
- Bush jnr (hey: spell-check "jerk") and his wars and his pork
- Moron Brown and his quangos
- Italy Greece Spain & Portugal on whatever they spend it on (pork?)
- Cullen and his train set, interest free loans, health sector money-shower, millions of extra public "servants", 20 free ECE, Kiwisaver handouts, etc
---------------
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Police Ticket
I cannot seem to get thes in the correct order of:
- ticket
- citizen's letter, page 1
- citizen's letter, page 2
- police letter
- funny word verification "cop" & "peelers" (well EYE thought it funny)
Thursday, January 22, 2009
IT'S A HORRIBLE LIFE
GORDON Brown sat on the railing of the old iron bridge that takes people in and out of the small town of Bedford Falls and stared at the freezing water.
The savings and loan was in a bit of a pickleEverything was messed up. Some people were saying it was all his fault. Maybe it was. Maybe it would be better if he just jumped into that deep, dark river and let it swallow him whole. He sighed and shook his head, wondering if he really had the courage.Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see the smiling face of a kindly old man. The stranger held out his hand. "Hello Gordon, I'm Clarence," he said.
"Looks like you're fixing to do something drastic," said Clarence. "Well, let's just take a minute. Tell me Gordon, have you ever wondered what the world would be like if you had never existed? No? Well let's have a look, shall we?"
In the blink of an eye Gordon found himself transported to the middle of Main Street. Amid the glowing lights the good people of Bedford Falls were enjoying their last minute Christmas shopping. A cheerful song and the smell of roasted chestnuts filled the air. Everyone wished each other 'happy holidays!' as the shopkeepers stood in their doorways, beaming with delight and looking forward to another prosperous year."Nothing like having a man in charge who knows not to spend money you don't have on things you don't need and to save something for a rainy day," said Mr Malley, the baker."Last thing this town needs is a man who gives jobs and big, fat pensions to all and sundry at our expense just so as they'll vote for him," replied Mr Logan, the butcher.Gordon spun around, taking it all in. His drab little town seemed so alive. With the giddy excitement of a child on Christmas morning he raced along the pavement, running so fast he almost tumbled over. "Hello Woolworths!" he shouted. "Hello MFI! Hello Whittards!"But just as as he reached the local branch of Northern Rock, everything turned dark. He looked back along Main Street to see the shops boarded up, and for sale signs in every window. Mr Logan, a cleaver in each hand, was desperately fighting off some local youths. A burning mattress was the only source of light and somewhere in the darkness, someone screamed.In an instant Gordon was back at the old bridge. Clarence appeared at his shoulder. "I'm afraid that's how life really is Gordon. And yes, it is all your fault, you total arsehole. Anyway, I just wanted you to see all that before I pushed you in."And with that Clarence grabbed Gordon by the heels and tipped him into the dark, freezing river.
They found his hat three days later.
The savings and loan was in a bit of a pickleEverything was messed up. Some people were saying it was all his fault. Maybe it was. Maybe it would be better if he just jumped into that deep, dark river and let it swallow him whole. He sighed and shook his head, wondering if he really had the courage.Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see the smiling face of a kindly old man. The stranger held out his hand. "Hello Gordon, I'm Clarence," he said.
"Looks like you're fixing to do something drastic," said Clarence. "Well, let's just take a minute. Tell me Gordon, have you ever wondered what the world would be like if you had never existed? No? Well let's have a look, shall we?"
In the blink of an eye Gordon found himself transported to the middle of Main Street. Amid the glowing lights the good people of Bedford Falls were enjoying their last minute Christmas shopping. A cheerful song and the smell of roasted chestnuts filled the air. Everyone wished each other 'happy holidays!' as the shopkeepers stood in their doorways, beaming with delight and looking forward to another prosperous year."Nothing like having a man in charge who knows not to spend money you don't have on things you don't need and to save something for a rainy day," said Mr Malley, the baker."Last thing this town needs is a man who gives jobs and big, fat pensions to all and sundry at our expense just so as they'll vote for him," replied Mr Logan, the butcher.Gordon spun around, taking it all in. His drab little town seemed so alive. With the giddy excitement of a child on Christmas morning he raced along the pavement, running so fast he almost tumbled over. "Hello Woolworths!" he shouted. "Hello MFI! Hello Whittards!"But just as as he reached the local branch of Northern Rock, everything turned dark. He looked back along Main Street to see the shops boarded up, and for sale signs in every window. Mr Logan, a cleaver in each hand, was desperately fighting off some local youths. A burning mattress was the only source of light and somewhere in the darkness, someone screamed.In an instant Gordon was back at the old bridge. Clarence appeared at his shoulder. "I'm afraid that's how life really is Gordon. And yes, it is all your fault, you total arsehole. Anyway, I just wanted you to see all that before I pushed you in."And with that Clarence grabbed Gordon by the heels and tipped him into the dark, freezing river.
They found his hat three days later.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Inauguration Speech
http://www.atom.com/spotlights/inauguration_speech_generator/
Thank you Peter Cresswell
My fellow Americans, today is a blunt day. You have shown the world that "hope" is not just another word for "hound", and that "change" is not only something we can believe in again, but something we can actually hounding. Today we celebrate, but let there be no mistake – America faces putrid and minging challenges like never before. Our economy is shameful. Americans can barely afford their mortgages, let alone have enough money left over for Goats. Our healthcare system is wasted. If your knuckle is sick and you don't have insurance, you might as well call a Prostitute. And America's image overseas is tarnished like a country tank. But working together we can right this ship, and set a course for Paris.Finally, I must thank my wicked family, my rooted campaign volunteers, but most of all, I want to thank watermelons for making this historic occasion possible. Of course, I must also thank you, President Bush, for years of driving the American people. Without your fantastic efforts, none of this would have been possible.
Thank you Peter Cresswell
My fellow Americans, today is a blunt day. You have shown the world that "hope" is not just another word for "hound", and that "change" is not only something we can believe in again, but something we can actually hounding. Today we celebrate, but let there be no mistake – America faces putrid and minging challenges like never before. Our economy is shameful. Americans can barely afford their mortgages, let alone have enough money left over for Goats. Our healthcare system is wasted. If your knuckle is sick and you don't have insurance, you might as well call a Prostitute. And America's image overseas is tarnished like a country tank. But working together we can right this ship, and set a course for Paris.Finally, I must thank my wicked family, my rooted campaign volunteers, but most of all, I want to thank watermelons for making this historic occasion possible. Of course, I must also thank you, President Bush, for years of driving the American people. Without your fantastic efforts, none of this would have been possible.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Vista
I recently purchased Vista HmPrem OEM for a machine I bought without an OS. So far so good, although it hasn't REALLY been used for anything strenuous yet.
or
http://blip.tv/file/340692/
Hattip, T England, a commenter on a post of Dizzy's:
http://dizzythinks.net/2008/12/nine-for-2009.html
or
http://blip.tv/file/340692/
Hattip, T England, a commenter on a post of Dizzy's:
http://dizzythinks.net/2008/12/nine-for-2009.html
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