September 2011
2 posts
August 2011
3 posts
Stop Coddling the Super-Rich →
According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends. I didn’t refuse, nor did others. I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate...
Where should I send the bill for my creative?
Following the furor around Telecom’s (yet to be seen) All Blacks campaign, a billboard idea for Vodafone:
We’d rather root for the All Blacks, thanks…
July 2011
1 post
Takeover bid for juice maker Charlie's |... →
Well done to the Charlie’s investors, but why do we never build then KEEP these sort of businesses? Our success stories get to a medium point then sell on to large scale offshore organisations, without ever pushing on to be the large scale operation themselves. Capital depth is possibly one of the answers (divorcing management from ownership and “fracturing” that ownership...
January 2011
2 posts
July 2010
1 post
May 2010
4 posts
At least Matt Nolan gets the whole "ETS is just... →
People see this and then they say “global warming isn’t real” or “we are too small to impact on global warming” and then they say “NO ETS!”. However, this isn’t the point of the ETS.
The ETS is a scheme to raise the funds to pay for our Kyoto Liability. Even if you don’t believe in global warming, we have a liability that is based on carbon emissions. As a nation, either people who produce the...
Power price hikes blamed on ETS (aka ETS actually... →
Well look at that - even an insanely weak ETS is doing exactly what it’s meant to and reducing emissions:
The Government has given New Zealand’s energy sector strong encouragement to invest in renewable sources of energy.
Mercury Energy is the retail arm of Mighty River Power which has acted on those signals and in recent years has invested $1 billion dollars in renewable...
Telecom ultrafast strategy "revealed" →
Interesting…
I’ve always thought Chorus should be split off - particularly once the Government announced no player with a retail arm could hold a majority stake in any of the Crown Fibre stuff. Even before that I thought the investors and management skillset for a network asset management business very different from those for a retail telco business.
Reading between various lines,...
April 2010
11 posts
WatchCream, get the money, dolla dolla bill y’all…
via Dim-Post
Join the dots « The Dim-Post →
The simplest highlight of hypocrisy…
Big Pharma don't want to have to negotiate drug... →
Terrible, terrible story from the Herald. Claiming that “doctors and patients have criticised the Pharmac system” since the start and we’re missing out on all kinds of live-saving miracles because of this. Interesting, given that there’s decades of nuanced argument on this that argues all sides yet tends to be positive towards Pharmac…
Where did the...
November 2009
10 posts
“Moreover, Treasury added, the changes to the ETS “come at a cost to the...”
– A costly exercise in hypocrisy - business | Stuff.co.nz
Amen Treasury. Thanks for locking our economy into the dinosaur age Mr Key - once again we’ll be well behind the global eight-ball, our economy will suffer and your beloved “best and brightest” will disappear off to the...
“We have to hope [the Maori Party] will realise, sometime soon, that no sop the...”
– Claire Browning - The ETS mess: ACT gets it right | Pundit
If the Maori Party decide to stuff the country as a whole, just to get preferential iwi forestry investment, then frankly my historical support for Maori seats will slide pretty close to opposition.
“Don’t be so f*&%ing stupid”
– - Sir Geoffrey Palmer (paraphrased)
Group calls for veto of referendum - page 1 - Politics - NZ Herald News
Emailer has no regrets about outing Harawira (as a... →
Mr Mikaere released the email in which Mr Harawira referred to “white motherf***ers”
Well, in reality, Mr Mikaere sent an email to Mr Harawira saying he was no better than “white mofos”, and then had the same term used in the reply. Not a fan of what Harawira did at all, but if it’s the “white motherf*ckers” line that is the cause of the uproar, why...
Spending the inheritance... →
(As usual) Brian Fallow is right - the current Government seems to be there only for the middle-aged big business leader. Anyone who will actually be involved in the economy in 25 years time is just a debt-bucket beyond the bonus-led planning horizon.
I’ll ask again, what did Key’s kids do that he’s enacting such a punishment?
Relax everyone, the economy's saved... →
7 Man-Made Substances that Laugh in the Face of... →
In addition to being awesomely heat resistant, aerogel can also hold insane amounts of weight proportionate to the size of the aerogel being used, up to 4000 times, which shames regular air something fierce. To put it in totally nonsensical terms, if air had a party, while aerogel was busy getting hummers in the back, loser oxygen would be making sure everyone was using a coaster. That’s how...
October 2009
8 posts
One of the reasons the Reserve Bank has not cut... →
BAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA… Right. Removing, ya know, actual savings encouragements to pay for direct cash-moneys tax cuts kinda defeats your point Senor.
Leo says we should lock [Vista] in a box where it... →
Heh.
"The whole point of the doomsday machine is lost... →
“The point of the system, he explains, was to guarantee an automatic Soviet response to an American nuclear strike. Even if the US crippled the USSR with a surprise attack, the Soviets could still hit back. It wouldn’t matter if the US blew up the Kremlin, took out the defense ministry, severed the communications network, and killed everyone with stars on their shoulders. Ground-based...
Dizzee - Holiday
As much as this tune APPALLED me...
Political stoush over Rugby World Cup broadcast |... →
I’ve been trying to think through my take on this for a while now.
It strikes me that the Government is trying to decide who will be the free-to-air broadcaster here. Ummmm guys, the tenders are to the IRB - it’s their decision, not yours.
Now in the world of corporatised, arms-length SOE’s, the political side of Government shouldn’t be getting involved here at all. ...
July 2009
3 posts
NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development -... →
Well it’s certainly nice alliteration (20% by 2020) and I have a lot of time for that group. And perhaps best, they have suggested we offer more (30%) as a negotiating chip if conditions are met that offset some of the potential for carbon leakage and unfair measurement given our major contributors:
• Competitors of our trade-exposed, emission-intensive industries are exposed to a price on...
Closed shop
Elias told to sit quietly in the corner; critics having their private Govt information splashed through the press; Brash made Productivity Tsar and Whitehead free to tell the public sector he’s going to privatise their asses.
Sure sounds like a Govt willing to listen to all ideas huh… =|
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien - Shatner Does... →
June 2009
3 posts
The case for the NZ Super Fund
I have put a post together effectively as my view of the rationale for the NZ Super Fund’s existence in the first place. I find it frustrating that it is currently discussed in terms of rates of debt/return/Govt fiscal position etc without any reference to the smoothing effect it has on long-run superannuation costs - the entire reason for its existence.
Putting aside a small part of...
Harrassing women? OR PREPARING A CLONE ARMY?!
Computerworld is reporting police have started an investigation into someone stealing DNA from the National Databank.
Coincidence?
Or has Worth been secretly cloning an army on an alien world to overthrow the Government whilst still maintaining a face as Govt Minister?
It’s uncanny.
Super Fund
Reminds self to get around to putting together a post on this…
May 2009
24 posts
$1b Budget warmup →
Good news - talk about a no-brainer so thank god they did it!
If it includes retro-fitting double glazing then I’ll probably be in there (no need for insulation beyond that in my place)
