Good news, from the WSJ blog: Ted Truman, a former top Federal Reserve and Treasury staffer now at the Peterson Institute for International Economics think tank in Washington, with a scoreboard that ranks 32 sovereign wealth funds from 28 countries on 25 elements in four categories — structure, governance, transparency and accountability and behavior. His …
Category Archives: Politics
Dump dumping laws now (and don’t buy Croxley paper)
So Office Max (enterprise value US$4 billion), subsidiary Croxley Stationery, wins a NZ anti dumping case against 15 stationary importers from five South East Asian countries. Apparently selling stuff in New Zealand for cheaper than other markets is bad. The law is an ass – I’d rather have that cheaper stationary thank you, and I’d …
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NZ is 18th least taxed country in OECD
what a difference a headline can make. Both Stuff and NZHerald went with “NZ is 13th most taxed country in the OECD”. The OECD has 30 members – something that took me – oh – about 15 seconds to find. Or you could look at the handy chart int he NZHerald article.
10 ways NZ Government can help NZX
There are more tales of companies leaving the NZX, and the question is asked (via a workshop) whether the Government could step in. I really fail to see what more this Government would materially do to solve for a market that is simply too small. Not that there aren’t any possibilities, just that most would …
Telecom is a trade barrier
Rather amusingly, the US Foreign Trade Barriers document referred to below also has some tasty things to say about Telecomms in NZ: U.S. industry has expressed concern about the fees charged for completing calls using mobile networks in New Zealand, which are among the highest in the world. That’s a clear statement that Telecom’s under-investment …
The cost of US Free Trade – no iPods
Via No Right Turn, I perused a US document that lists NZ policies thast it consiers are trade barriers. Read the full commentary on this amazing document from Joe Hendren. It was astonishing to see the US music industry’s thoughts about NZ copyright law & policy in print: The U.S. music industry opposes a proposed …
ACC, Benefits and 36,800 words
So you are in a giant battle with ACC, which has included you spending time in Prison for benefit fraud (something you are appealing). You profess that you cannot work because you cannot use a mouse or write, and have mild brain damage. Then ACC (or is it WINZ?) cuts off your current benefit. So …
TheAtlantic.com
The Atlantic Monthly magazine continues its transformation from an excellent magazine and ok website into an excellent magazine and an excellent website. The site now features A lister bloggers Matthew Yglesias and Andrew Sullivan, along with James Fallows and Ross Douthat who are a senior Atlantic correspondent and a senior Atlantic editor. The homepage, as …
Moyers, Internet and TV
Bill Moyers, a respected journalist from PBS, has come back from retirement in an astonishing way. Not only did he launch a new PBS series (Bill Moyers Journal) with an excellent documentary entitled Buying the War, he has backed it up with an excellent website. The video of each program is available for free – …
Ban incandescent bulbs – not a no brainer..
No Right Turn suggests we follow Australia’s lead and ban incandescent bulbs. While I think this is a clear case of Government intervention helping consumers reduce total cost of ownership it is not a total ‘no brainer’. While the short term increase in spend will eventually be matched by reduced electricity bills, this will be …
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DCMA and late december bills
It is never a good sign when a proposed NZ law makes Slashdot. At least three bills that are anti-the-individual (banning party pills, controlling resale of event tickets, DCMA NZ style) have been introduced for comments as we all break for the holidays. They all smell of heavy interest group involvement, and it will be …
no coke, but what about the rest?
Coke is on the way out from schools, and well done to get the sugary syrup kings to the table. But hang on – fruit juices are also pretty high in sugar – if not higher than Coke and Pepsi. And diet drinks are pretty nasty… What is going on here? This seems like a “feels …
How to fight poverty
Absolutely stunning article by Tina Rosenberg in the NYTimes on how to fight poverty. Sadly it is behind their paywall, which is reprehensible considering its import. The people care, Governments do not Not only is US foreign aid pathetically small versus it’s GDP, but 39% of it goes to military aid to Israel, Egypt etc, …
Latest DC Jeep accessory
Thanks to Steve Markham for the picture….
NZ Scandal. why ‘whatever’ is great news
Scandal in NZ as a tell-all book is published about Don Brash, leader of the opposition. It’s interesting to observe the reaction here versus similar tell-all books in the USA. I would classify this as a ‘whatever’ scandal in the USA. Brash resigned. This seldom happens in the US unless pageboys or other Republican sex …
Lance Wiggs 