Here's my Top 10 links from around the Internet at 5 pm in association with NZ Mint.
I welcome your additions in the comments below or via email tobernard.hickey@interest.co.nz.
I'll pop the extras into the comment stream. See all previous Top 10s here.
Clarke and Dawe made me LMAO. #2 is today's must, must read. You won't sleep. Good eh.
1. Getting ready - The Telegraph reports British retailer Tesco is shifting its currency exposure, holding cash and refusing to sign long-term supply contracts in preparation for the breakup of the Euro zone.
You can imagine what this is doing to business planning, employment intentions and economic growth generally.
This whole thing needs to be sorted very quickly before it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Companies across the Eurozone are doing this.
Travel bookers are actively preparing for Greece to leave the euro.
Anyone with savings in euros is thinking seriously about where exactly that money is and how stable the institution holding it is.
They will also have to look at which country the deposit is in.
Here's what Tesco is doing:
Laurie McIlwee, Tesco’s finance director, said of a possible break-up: “Of course we’ve looked at it. Any business has got to take disruption in the eurozone seriously”.
Tesco’s finance chief said the retailer did not have any businesses directly in the eurozone core but that “currency management has been appropriately derisked”. He did not elaborate but the retailer is thought likely to have cut its euro holdings and moved cash into safer currencies such as the dollar or sterling, as well as better managing its exposure to eurozone suppliers.
On supply contracts Mr McIlwee said of the current situation: “We wouldn’t go long on any contracts with any supplier – everything in the market is much more short-term. You wouldn’t know if they had the liquidity and they wouldn’t know if you had it.”
2. Printing other currencies - Wall St Journal reports central banks in Europe are now preparing contingency plans for printing their 'old' currencies again.
The first signs are surfacing that central banks are thinking about how to resuscitate currencies based on bank notes that haven't been printed since the first euros went into circulation in January 2002.
At least one--the Central Bank of Ireland--is evaluating whether it needs to secure additional access to printing presses in case it has to churn out new bank notes to support a reborn national currency, according to people familiar with the matter.Outside the 17-country euro zone, numerous European central banks are eyeing defensive measures to protect against the possible fallout if the euro zone were to unravel, other people said. Several, including Switzerland, are considering possible replacements for the euro as the external reference point, or peg, they use to try to keep their currencies' values stable.
3. The great re-hypothecation scandal - ThomsonReuters reports that MF Global used a legal loophole that means many people who thought their trading money was safe in a segregated account may never get it back.
And more importantly, this practice known as re-hypothecation may have injected US$4 trillion into the financial system and exposed many banks to an apocalyptic meltdown if there is a European sovereign default...
This is today's must read. HT Kevin.
MF Global's bankruptcy revelations concerning missing client money suggest that funds were not inadvertently misplaced or gobbled up in MF’s dying hours, but were instead appropriated as part of a mass Wall St manipulation of brokerage rules that allowed for the wholesale acquisition and sale of client funds through re-hypothecation. A loophole appears to have allowed MF Global, and many others, to use its own clients’ funds to finance an enormous $6.2 billion Eurozone repo bet.
How was MF Global able to “lose” $1.2 billion of its clients’ money and acquire a sovereign debt position of $6.3 billion – a position more than five times the firm’s book value, or net worth? The answer it seems lies in its exploitation of a loophole between UK and U.S. brokerage rules on the use of clients funds known as “re-hypothecation”.
Re-hypothecation occurs when a bank or broker re-uses collateral posted by clients, such as hedge funds, to back the broker’s own trades and borrowings. The practice of re-hypothecation runs into the trillions of dollars and is perfectly legal. It is justified by brokers on the basis that it is a capital efficient way of financing their operations much to the chagrin of hedge funds.
The volume and level of re-hypothecation suggests a frightening alternative hypothesis for the current liquidity crisis being experienced by banks and for why regulators around the world decided to step in to prop up the markets recently. To date, reports have been focused on how Eurozone default concerns were provoking fear in the markets and causing liquidity to dry up.
Most have been focused on how a Eurozone default would result in huge losses in Eurozone bonds being felt across the world’s banks. However, re-hypothecation suggests an even greater fear. Considering that re-hypothecation may have increased the financial footprint of Eurozone bonds by at least four fold then a Eurozone sovereign default could be apocalyptic.
U.S. banks direct holding of sovereign debt is hardly negligible. According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), U.S. banks hold $181 billion in the sovereign debt of Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. If we factor in off-balance sheet transactions such as re-hypothecations and repos, then the picture becomes frightening.
4. Just in case you were wondering - Citigroup Chief Economist Willem Buiter details in an Op-Ed at the FT the choas that would happen if the Eurozone broke up.
A full or comprehensive break-up, with the euro area splintering into a Greater Deutschmark zone and about 10 national currencies would create pandemonium. It would not be a planned, orderly, gradual unwinding of existing political, economic and legal commitments. Exit, partial or full, would likely be precipitated by disorderly sovereign defaults in the fiscally and competitively weak member states, whose currencies would weaken dramatically and whose banks would fail. If Spain and Italy were to exit, there would be a collapse of systemically important financial institutions throughout the European Union and North America and years of global depression.
Than he looks at a Greek exit from the euro:
Most contracts, including bank deposits, sovereign debt, pensions and wages would be redenominated in new Drachma and a sharp devaluation, say 65 per cent, of the new currency would follow. As soon as an exit was anticipated, depositors would flee Greek banks and all new lending governed by Greek law would effectively cease. Even before the exit, the sovereign and the banking system would fail because of a lack of funding. Following the exit, contracts and financial instruments written under foreign law would likely remain euro-denominated. Balance sheets would become unbalanced and widespread default, insolvency and bankruptcy would result. Greek output would collapse.
5. The early signs are not good - Reuters reports the mega summit has failed at the first hurdle of getting all 27 European countries to agree a new treaty.
British PM David Cameron blew up the plan, it seems.
Now they will try to get the 17 Eurozone countries across the line.
The European Union failed to secure backing from all 27 countries to change the EU treaty at a summit Friday, meaning any deal will now likely involve the 17 euro zone countries plus any others that want to join, three EU diplomats said.
I oppose Financial Stability because it is the most misleading banner for a set of bad, harmful and expensive public policies protecting bad executive management and preventing recognition of realistic market outcomes.
So what would I promote instead? Resiliency and resolution. Resiliency means the ability to withstand stresses and shocks which will unavoidably arise in global, competitive markets. Resolution means the dispersion of assets to creditors - and competitors - when banks fail, in hopes the assets and enterprises will be better managed by other managers than the same ones that led the bank to failure. Together these two principles - if made the basis for public policy - would do more to restore sanity to global banking than anything else I can think of. Resiliency will favour more and better capitalisation, with a focus on marketable assets with transparent price discovery (e.g., traded on transparent markets and recorded on balance sheet). Speedy and certain resolution of failed banks will make management and shareholders conscious of the risks of failure falling first on them, then on unsecured creditors and bondholders, and never on the taxpayer.
We are a long way from adopting principles of resiliency and resolution, as demonstrated by the EU's continued efforts to forestall defaults while protecting incumbent managements and bondholders. Our policy makers continue to chase the chimera of financial stability, and make bad policies worse along the way.
7. A US$12 trillion equity gap - McKinsey has done some interesting research into how companies face a US$12 trillion gap in their equity needs by 2020 because emerging economies typically invest less in stocks and are ageing.
Several forces are converging to reshape global capital markets in the coming decade and reduce the role of listed equities. The most important of these is the rapid shift of wealth to emerging markets where private investors typically put less than 15 percent of their money into equities (compared to 30–40 percent in many mature economies). At the same time, demand for listed equities in developed economies is likely to fall due to aging, shifting pension regimes, growth of alternative investments, and new financial regulations.
The result will be a potential $12 trillion “equity gap” over the next decade between the amount of money that investors will wish to hold in equities and the amount that companies will need to fund growth. MGI projects that the share of global financial assets held in listed equities could fall from 28 percent to 22 percent by 2020 if these trends continue.
The implications of this shift are potentially wide ranging for investors, businesses, and the economy. Companies that need to raise equity, particularly banks that must meet new capital requirements, may find equity is more costly and less available. Reaching financial goals may be more difficult for investors who choose lower allocations of equities in their portfolios. And, with more leverage in the economy, volatility may increase as recessions bring larger waves of financial distress and bankruptcy. At a time when the global economy needs to deleverage in a controlled and safe way, declining investor appetite for equities is an unwelcome development.
8. Interesting connection - Streetlight has looked at the connection between the US current account deficit and house prices there.
It's surprisingly strong and suggests that foreign borrowing drives up house prices...
Sounds familiar.
9. Most see a Chinese banking crisis - A Bloomberg poll has found most investors expect a banking crisis within China in the next 5 years.
Sixty-one percent of respondents said they anticipate a crash in the financial industry by late 2016, and only 10 percent were confident China’s banks will escape trouble, according to the quarterly poll of 1,097 investors, analysts and traders who are Bloomberg subscribers conducted Dec. 5-6.
Evidence of slowing growth in China -- including the weakest manufacturing performance in more than two years, falling home sales and ebbing export growth -- has stoked concern that non-performing loans will climb in the world’s second-largest economy. The risk is a legacy of a record 17.6 trillion-yuan ($2.8 trillion) lending boom unleashed by Premier Wen Jiabao in 2009-2010 amid the global recession.
“The deep-seated misallocation of resources, particularly in the real estate and banking sectors, will lead to a combination of political and economic instability,” says Lance Depew, managing director of UPI Management LLC in Santa Barbara, California, and a participant in the poll. “I expect further macroeconomic weakness and sub-par returns in the stock market for the foreseeable future.”
10. Totally Clarke and Dawe - John Clarke is Wayne Manger. He answers a few questions on the events of 2011.
75 Comments
I was wondering how we could still be having inflation, when there is a lack of new lending growth. The new lending is still there, it has just been hidden with off balance sheet shadow fractional reserve leverage. Instead of using deposits the banks, and brokerages have been using client collateral to create money from thin air, with massive unmitigateable counterparty risk.
How one banks collapse can cause the house of cards to come crumbling down. When your own assets become the banks license to create more assets, what happens when the bank collapses and you want your tangible assets back?
This is CDS x awesome
on the same subject
http://peterlbrandt.com/mf-global-%E2%80%93-the-contagion-is-at-your-do…
I am in possession of some superb counterfeit 500 peso notes ...... leemee know if you want the printers rounded up , to run off some new European currency for you .......
..... a few million brand spanking crispy new Irish pound notes could add years to our life ....... sentence .
...... homebrew Ginus , huh ...... smack smack , yummy ! .. No Murphys Stout or Kilkenny ?
Beauty of brewing Gummy is that you can do what ever takes your fancy. The trouble is that with some many beers to brew, is drinking them all to keep up:)
My pick of the bunch so are is an ESB, but I have always liked a good stout. They take a bit longer to age though, so the challenge is not to drink them before they get really good:)))
No fancy equipment required Mandalay, just a big pot and a good stove or gas ring. Once you start brewing great beer with your basic kit, I am sure the good lady will be more open to persuasion for the Braumeister. But $60 for a 26L pot of trademe is the worst I have spent, although I did already have an IR thermometer. I live a low impact lifestyle and even my brewing is no different.
This is a fantastic site for getting started. http://www.howtobrew.com/sitemap.html . Recipes at 19.3&4
There are plenty of forums for homebrewing, including http://www.realbeer.co.nz/
There is a method called Boil in the Bag, or BIAB for short, that is a simple way to get started. I have done a variation of that using a chillibin as a mash tun. Instead of a manifold for draining the liquor from the tun, I just made a bag to fit and mounted a pulley on the ceiling for lifting the bag out. To be honest even a plastic bin would serve as a mash tun, as 30L of water at 65 °C doesn't lost that much heat over an hour.
Another little trick I learnt is to turn up you hot water cylinder the night before for all the hot water you will need. If I had a good grunty gass ring I would probably stick with the simple BIAB method.
The boil, and cooling the wort after the boil are the two biggest hurdles. I am on tank water, but luckily I have an old cast iron bath outside that I use for cooling.
Sure it would be nice to have lots more gear, but I make beer that is unbelievable compared to your DB or Lion with what I have got.
Just keep in mind that 'How to Brew' is a little out of date in some areas. It is generally accepted that transferring to a secondary fermenter is not necessary as the yeast keep doing good things in the primary. You don't even need airlocks, as CO2 is heavier than air and a layer will sit over your fermenting wort, just a cover of some kind. Also the cooling I mention is even bypassed by some, look into cubing.
I have brewing software called 'Promash' I can get to you at some stage, or I use a free easy to use online one at http://hopville.com/ . There are a few grain suppliers about but that depends on where you are located.
Dive, dive, dive!
Eurogeddon – fear not, it's under control Well that's a relief. According to Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, we can all stop worrying about the potentially catastrophic consequences of a euro break-up because it's not going to happen.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/8944430/Euroge…
moraymint
" ... only the politicians can decide on the sort of monetary transfers that would make the crisis go away."And that's the issue, really, isn't it? The politicians apparently labouring under the illusion that they have the authority of their citizens to sign away the sovereignty of their respective nation states, on a whim (well, on the back of the mother-of-all, self-induced currency crises actually). Do the politicians in Brussels tonight really believe that they have such authority? Do they care?
Can those political elites just agree between themselves to, in effect, dissolve their respective nation states into a supra-national behemoth, governed by an unelected bureaucracy populated by the likes of Van Rompuy, Barrosso, Ashton et al? Is this really what they're charting and expecting to impose upon the 300 million citizens (serfs) of the disparate nation states of the European continent?
The whole shambles now smacks of a crazed mixture of Orwell's Oceania and some Kafkaesque nightmare.
To relate across to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's piece elsewhere on this website tonight, my strong preference is for a 'horrible end' rather than the 'endless horror' that tomorrow's meetings portend if the barking mad, politico-bureaucratic mafia that now defines and describes the European Union is allowed to get its way.
God preserve us from the political class.
Cameron had better call this one correctly, or he's toast.
Ideally, now, we need the bond vigilantes to annihilate the eurozone.
FYI the latest deal. 23 of 27 EU states to revise treaty and provide 200 bln euros to IMF:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_FINANCIAL_CRISIS?SITE=…
The president of the European Council said Friday that a new intergovernmental treaty meant to save the euro currency will include the 17 eurozone states plus six other European Union countries - but not all 27 EU members.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the plan.
"I have always said, the 17 states of the eurogroup have to regain credibility," she said. "And I believe with today's decisions this can and will be achieved."
Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, said the countries would provide up to euro200 billion ($268 billion) in extra resources to the International Monetary fund.
Hopium. 200 Billion, is that it? EFSF promised 1.4trillion and struggled to raise 3billion, where the hell do they expect to raise 200 billion? Everyone is broke, excepting possibly the martians. What is 200 Billion going to achieve? Nothing, a short term sugar rush to equities is the best case scenario. They require literally trillions just to get through next year.
Hurry up and crash the system I'm sick of hearing the latest plan, for a plan, to plan, to put a plan in place.
The Euro needs another 3 Trillion to survive, as well as +4% growth for the near forseeable future. 4% growth for these European nations is like trying to break the sound barrier on a bike. 200 Billion is just ridiculous, they will be lucky to survive untill march.
If you won't buy euro skudiv.....why would anyone in Europe keep their savings in euro...or agree to be paid in euro....the market is refusing to deal in euro regardless of whether the monkeys in the EU kiss and make up or kill each other in another EU summit. The game is up. The fallout will be a new French President...Merkel out of power and many other euro pollies out of their salary bloated positions.
I like McKinseys . These guys are alot 'like me , they think up some bollocking nonsense , flap their gums incessantly , and spout a good story ...... if you're silly enuff , you'd even give some credence to .....
..... one thing Gummy has noticed , investing in emerging markets over the past decade or more , is an increase in the IPO's on the local bourses . It ebbs and flows of course , as economic cycles fluctuate , but the trend is upwards , as sure as priests keep an eye on the choir boys ..... it keeps going up .....
And meebee all those BB's entering their dotage will support shares , not sell them . With interest rates so low , and rental yields on residential property so pitiful , company shares on the stockmarket are a source of juicey fat dividends .....
"The simple solution to Cameron's legal problem is for the UK (and any other country with the same objection) to leave the EU. All it would take is a voter referendum.
Meanwhile, the discord between Cameron and Sarkozy is going to quickly spread elsewhere.
The more details this new treaty adds, the more discord there will be. The entire package will blow up in May (if not long before that) if any country or the German supreme court insists on a voter referendum"
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/
No...it is not a contra dick shin...honest:
"Confidence among U.S. consumers rose more than forecast in December as Americans’ outlooks improved." bloomberg
"The trade deficit narrowed in October to the lowest level of the year, reflecting a drop in imports that will help give the U.S. economy a lift". bloomberg
So just you don't go saying consumers are buying fewer imports because they are less confident right....remember...BS matters.
Who is going to accept euros,(like bank) to change them back into the currency of your country. Rememberering the present leverage of the existing banks..They would have to get loans to exchange euros into francs or whatever.Getting rid of the euro might by that fact alone be a non starter.whoops stuck with a collapsed curency, plus the many countries holding euros watching it turn into ballast. Or could it come that when a country leaves the euro they can leave all their debt behind.."Oh sorry that debt was in euros we dont use that monopoly money anymore"..food for thought?..it could piss a lot of people off.
The UN is holding a climate change yack session in Durbin...party time for delegates...who did we pay to send...?Didn't somebody invent satellite communications and wouldn't it reduce emissions if all the delegates stopped at home...but that would mean no party time...
Another game-changer in the global economy.
THE NEXT GREAT INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION HAS ARRIVED
Will 3D printing revolutionise manufacturing?
"Rather than stockpile spare parts and components in locations all over the world," he argues, "the designs could be costlessly stored in virtual computer warehouses waiting to be printed locally when required."
Loughborough University's machines can even print larger structures such as building materials
Just across the Loughborough campus at the Civil and Building Engineering Department is Neil's colleague Richard Buswell, who shows me an extraordinary three-storey rig designed to "print" buildings.
It squirts concrete out of a nozzle controlled by a computer, using the concrete just like a conventional printer would use ink, but in three dimensions, building up a structure layer by layer.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14282091
Oxford entrepreneur starts 3D printing
A new business in Oxford is providing a means for the public to print three dimensional objects.
The machine prints out wafer-thin layers of resin, gradually building up a real-life version of a computer design.
Users could include architects, fashion students and model enthusiasts.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-15592901
Urbee 3D printed car goes on display in Canada
The use of "additive manufacturing", where layers of material are built up, or "printed" to form a solid objects, contributed to the car's green credentials, according to project leader Jim Kor.
Currently it is only the Urbee's body panels that are printed - by Minneapolis-based Stratasys. However, Mr Kor said he hoped that other parts would be produced this way in future.
Typically 3D printing is used for prototyping - making one-off versions of items as part of the product design process.
However, it is increasingly being mooted as a solution for distributing physical objects without the need for shipping.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15007018
Artificial blood vessels created on a 3D printer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14946808
3D printing helps firms make parts
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14314923
Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14030720
Silver pen can 'draw' circuits
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13989376
'Printing out' new ears and skin
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12507034
And On, and ON,and On
Yes I have seen one of these in action at a presentation at the Auckland Inventors Club. I have been saying for a number if years that someone needs to make a concrete printer, and now it is a reality.
One caution from an an aesthetic point of view though. If you buy a print of a famous painting, say a Monet, then you don't actually own an artifact but just a print. It is a second rate result if you eliminate the artisan.
Not really, the computer is not a design tool but only a recording device. Actually the designer works in his head. The ability to think in 3D is what differentiates us from other skills or professions. Most of my work is conceived before I ever touch a pencil or keyboard, and those tools are only used to test the ideas or provide a medium for others to view it. Same as the musician works with sound, the designer works with space and images. Think about the fact that Beethoven was deaf, the composer hears the piece in his head before he scribes it.
Saying the printer can replace the hammer is like saying the the Mona Lisa could be done with photoshop and printed rather than with a paintbrush.
Depends on what outcome you want I guess. If you want to live in an enviroment akin to a dental surgery then go ahead, but if you want a space that is uplifting then you can't replace the feedback a craftsman gets from his tools.
Even proprietory products like gib-board are detrimental to good design.
The printer conforms materials to the blueprint, just like a carpenter weilding a hammer. The design part is essentially the same.
I think the Mona Lisa could definately be done with a printer that was shooting out oil paint on a canvas...as long as Da Vinci programmed the printer (and he would have loved to, since he was an engineer!).
Saying it couldn't be done with a printer implies some kind of magic in the way Da Vinci physically painted that could not be replicated by a machine, which I think denigrates all the painters in history. The art was in their imagination, not their brush.
The hammer, or more appropriately a chisel, gives feedback as does the paintbrush for the painter.
There is a constant feedback loop that happens for the designer and/or artisan, which can not occur with the printer.
By definition a printed article can not be an artifact, simple as that really.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artisan
I don't think we're talking about the same thing here.
Sure the hammer gives feedback to the carpenter, I get that, but in the end its about the molecules left there, by hammer, man, printer, whatever. Thats the good that is sold.
I don't care if the house was made by 'artisans' or a printer, as long as its the same end result.
I'll take the cheaper one, thank you very much!
Ahh, there is no such thing as a free lunch, the cheaper one will be exactly that. Your cheaper house will always be a cheaper environment in which to live. But New Zealands housing is generally so poor that you can't be expected to know better. Unfortunately expense doesn't guarantee a good result either.
Sure sometimes a machine made product can be superior, but we are talking about craftsmanship here. It is almost like trying to make a machine to shear sheep. Many have tried but it simply can't be done.
I am sure you have other qualities but I seems evident to me that you are not a creative person. I always have been but to be fair it took my first year of Architecture studies to cross the barrier of understanding the design process.
How about have a look through the book "A Timeless Way of Building" by Christopher Alexander. Here is a taste of his work. http://www.livingneighborhoods.org/ht-0/fifteen.htm
Google him to read about his seminal work.
In three years Colin you will see a voting public fed up to the eyeballs with Key and sick of the fiddle and tweak games...Shearer will govern with Norman taking a total of 63 seats...by then the old socialist marxist idiocy inside Labour will have been ripped out and tossed away...and the policies will point to action that Key and mob ought to have started with in 09...National are trapped in their own debt hole for the next three years....By 014 all memory of Clark will be ancient history....the whole Labour leadership gone....the failed pork slicing benefit games at an end. On the corporate and banking front every effort will be made to boost Labour with bloated salaries ...fat bonuses and no end of rorting behaviour that will make the public sick as a dog to think they voted for it.
National are sitting down to eat Clark's leftovers.!
I don't think it will take three years for the voting public to get fed up, and start makig that known. National has 41 electorate MPs - everyone of whom holds the balance of power, and some none too impressed with Key, Joyce, etc. or their 'fiddle and tweak games'.
I doubt Key is going to enjoy any of this term in government.
Under First Past the Post - None
Under Single Transferable Vote - who knows.
In Australia, credible independents, who represent their local community, rather than being beholden to a party, regularly get elected. And surprisingly, if they do represent their local community, tend to get re-elected.
Paula Bennett 43.77%
Carmel Sepuloni 43.805%
Green Candidate 6.004%
Informals 2.147%
CNSP Candidate 1.981%
ALCP 1.073 %
Mana (Sue Bradford) 1.041 %
Libertarianz Candidate 0.179%
Under a Single Transferable Vote System, which candidate do you think would have won?
On first run through Over 56% of the electorate voted for someone OTHER than the top two place getters
56.195% Voted for someone other than the Labour Candidate
56.27% Voted for someone other than the National Candidate
Hardly a resounding vote of confidence in either.
At least STV would have allowed the voters of Waitakere to express who they would have preferred to get in if their first choice didn't.
Under that system, someone has to get more than 50% (well there is the possibility of a draw but only if there were an even number of valid votes cast. In this case there wasn't)
Hard to understand why Banks and Dunne commited themselves so quickly. Their bargining position would have been far more powerful now, particularly Dunne as his publicity was ambivalent on asset sales. He could have stoped them and supported the govt on all other issues and still probably got a cabinette post.
First of all ChrisM you have to understand Banks is a card carrying Nat a dyed in the wool blue sky boy.
National can use him to filter through unpopular policy without claiming it their own .
Dr. Brash will see this now for what it was.....there is no fool like an old fool nor for that matter a fool with revenge in mind.
This man (for want of a better word )Banks is the wolf in grandad's mustard boiler suit.
As to Dunne, happy to have a reason to spend exorbidant ammounts on that quaff of his....I believe your own word ambivilent sums the man up perfectly.....As long as he is "in" he is happy to provide the necessities of Governance to whomever can guarantee his existance and parlimentary pension.
No I am not being filppant....i am confident in both cases I'm close to correct if not correct.
Sadly Chistov you are right. I would go further with Banks. He was just a National Trojan horse to take over Act. As for Dunne, his actions seem to indicate that he was prepared to spin a bunch of ambiguous plausible electioneering that was promptly forgotten in his haste to crawl his way into a cabinette post. It is obvious that a position in government, any government, is more important to him than his principals or what that government does.
another kiwi kicking a goal in queensland---trouble is he,s been busted--he,s currently number one on australia,s most wanted list--he alledgly has form for this type of behaviour in nz--anyone got any mail on this ? his actions have completly derailed the current qld labour govt,s election chance,s for which he should be commended .
What the lunatics in Durban want.
DURBAN, South Africa — “No high hopes for Durban.” “Binding treaty unlikely.” “No deal this year.” Thus ran the headlines. The profiteering UN bureaucrats here think otherwise. Their plans to establish a world government paid for by the West on the pretext of dealing with the non-problem of “global warming” are now well in hand. As usual, the mainstream media have simply not reported what is in the draft text which the 194 states parties to the UN framework convention on climate change are being asked to approve.
Behind the scenes, throughout the year since Cancun, the now-permanent bureaucrats who have made highly-profitable careers out of what they lovingly call “the process” have been beavering away at what is now a 138-page document. Its catchy title is “Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action Under the Convention — Update of the amalgamation of draft texts in preparation of [one imagines they mean 'for'] a comprehensive and balanced outcome to be presented to the Conference of the Parties for adoption at its seventeenth session: note by the Chair.” In plain English, these are the conclusions the bureaucracy wants.
The contents of this document, turgidly drafted with all the UN’s skill at what the former head of its documentation center used to call “transparent impenetrability”, are not just off the wall – they are lunatic.
Main points:
- Ø A new International Climate Court will have the power to compel Western nations to pay ever-larger sums to third-world countries in the name of making reparation for supposed “climate debt”. The Court will have no power over third-world countries. Here and throughout the draft, the West is the sole target. “The process” is now irredeemably anti-Western.
- Ø “Rights of Mother Earth”: The draft, which seems to have been written by feeble-minded green activists and environmental extremists, talks of “The recognition and defence of the rights of Mother Earth to ensure harmony between humanity and nature”. Also, “there will be no commodification [whatever that may be: it is not in the dictionary and does not deserve to be] of the functions of nature, therefore no carbon market will be developed with that purpose”.
- Ø “Right to survive”: The draft childishly asserts that “The rights of some Parties to survive are threatened by the adverse impacts of climate change, including sea level rise.” At 2 inches per century, according to eight years’ data from the Envisat satellite? Oh, come off it! The Jason 2 satellite, the new kid on the block, shows that sea-level has actually dropped over the past three years.
- Ø War and the maintenance of defence forces and equipment are to cease – just like that – because they contribute to climate change. There are other reasons why war ought to cease, but the draft does not mention them.
- Ø A new global temperature target will aim, Canute-like, to limit “global warming” to as little as 1 C° above pre-industrial levels. Since temperature is already 3 C° above those levels, what is in effect being proposed is a 2 C° cut in today’s temperatures. This would take us halfway back towards the last Ice Age, and would kill hundreds of millions. Colder is far more dangerous than warmer.
- Ø The new CO2 emissions target, for Western countries only, will be a reduction of up to 50% in emissions over the next eight years and of “more than 100%” [these words actually appear in the text] by 2050. So, no motor cars, no coal-fired or gas-fired power stations, no aircraft, no trains. Back to the Stone Age, but without even the right to light a carbon-emitting fire in your caves. Windmills, solar panels and other “renewables” are the only alternatives suggested in the draft. There is no mention of the immediate and rapid expansion of nuclear power worldwide to prevent near-total economic destruction.
- Ø The new CO2 concentration target could be as low as 300 ppmv CO2 equivalent (i.e., including all other greenhouse gases as well as CO2 itself). That is a cut of almost half compared with the 560 ppmv CO2 equivalent today. It implies just 210 ppmv of CO2 itself, with 90 ppmv CO2 equivalent from other greenhouse gases. But at 210 ppmv, plants and trees begin to die. CO2 is plant food. They need a lot more of it than 210 ppmv.
- Ø The peak-greenhouse-gas target year – for the West only – will be this year. We will be obliged to cut our emissions from now on, regardless of the effect on our economies (and the lack of effect on the climate).
- Ø The West will pay for everything, because of its “historical responsibility” for causing “global warming”. Third-world countries will not be obliged to pay anything. But it is the UN, not the third-world countries, that will get the money from the West, taking nearly all of it for itself as usual. There is no provision anywhere in the draft for the UN to publish accounts of how it has spent the $100 billion a year the draft demands that the West should stump up from now on.
The real lunacy comes in the small print – all of it in 8-point type, near-illegibly printed on grubby, recycled paper. Every fashionable leftist idiocy is catered for.
Talking of which, note in passing that Rajendra Pachauri, the railroad engineer who, in the topsy-turvy looking-glass world of international climate insanity is the “science” chairman of the UN’s climate panel, has admitted that no one has been talking about climate science at the climate conference here in Durban. Not really surprising, given no real warming for getting on for two decades, no recent sea-level rise, no new record Arctic ice-melt, fewer hurricanes than at almost any time in 30 years, no Pacific atolls disappearing beneath the waves.
Here – and, as always, you heard it here first, for the mainstream media have conspired to keep secret the Madness of King Rajendra and his entire coterie of governmental and bureaucratic lunatics worldwide – is what the dribbling, twitching thrones and dominions, principalities and powers of the world will be asked to agree to.
More here
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/09/durban-what-the-media-are-not-telling-you/#comment-825097
“there will be no commodification [whatever that may be: it is not in the dictionary and does not deserve to be]
From the New Shorter Oxford Dictionary 1993 -- commodification n L20, The acttion of turning something into or treating somthing as a (mere) commodity
Having just established that you are wrong on a minor point of no consequence, I invoke the climate deniers arguing right of now asserting that this has proved that all your other comments expressed therein above are groundless. :-)
Funny that GBH, 10 degrees here in HK as of posting this, http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=102, had a thermal singlet and a duvet on last night. They are saying winter here will be colder and last longer than usual. It lasted 3 months last year instead of the usual 3+ weeks. No heating here on the 27th floor and you need a window open for air circulation.
Dealing with Bernard's problem....that's what we need to do...and what better way to start than to slap up a report from the Telegraph;
"Senior analysts and traders warned of impending bank failures as a summit intended to solve the European crisis failed to deliver a solution that eased concerns over bank funding.
The European Central Bank admitted it had held meetings about providing emergency funding to the region's struggling banks, however City figures said a "collateral crunch" was looming.
"If anyone thinks things are getting better then they simply don't understand how severe the problems are. I think a major bank could fail within weeks," said one London-based executive at a major global bank.
Many banks, including some French, Italian and Spanish lenders, have already run out of many of the acceptable forms of collateral such as US Treasuries and other liquid securities used to finance short-term loans and have been forced to resort to lending out their gold reserves to maintain access to dollar funding.
"The system is creaking. There is a large amount of stress," said Anthony Peters, a strategist at Swissinvest, pointing to soaring interbank lending rates"
In sum, what the system needs is someone to do some unsecured borrowing. If it isn't going to be the ECB, then maybe the IMF will do.
For both the ECB and the IMF, ECB for the banking system and IMF for the sovereigns, the borrowing should probably be thought of as unsecured borrowing of last resort (UBLF?). The EFSF, and now ESM, seem intended to serve as first resort, but their success depends crucially on the backstop provided by ECB and IMF.
This explains it with pictures.
http://ineteconomics.org/blog/money-view/imf-and-collateral-crunch
It's only a start Bernard....you need to map out this real life end of banking rort saga...no I mean REALLY map it out...in the form of a map!...like a cartoon on the saga which the solid between the ears peasants can open and mouse their way along the pathways to see if they can escape the cat's jaws.
You can allow Gummy and Co to insert stuff and drop links in that send peasant to where said peasnt can have some simple thing explained to them....with colour of course because without colour many peasants already dim light bulb just goes out.
We can call it Bernard's Pathway Map......
and for fun you can insert the pollies and the bureaucrats who have done such a great job of stuffing the economies and let's not forget the thieving scamming banking mob, the Octopussy and all....especially the all....
Let's listen in at number 10....!
"Now what's the matter Margaret?"
"Prime Minister this is an outrage...We are extremely concerned that, despite spending £1.1billion of taxpayers’ money since 1998, the department has failed to deliver any vehicles from its core procurement programme"
"Well Sir Humphrey..what have you got to say?"
"Prime Minister...this is a huge plus for the govt...look at the savings that have happened as a result ...not one new vehicle destroyed in Afghanistan...all the expenditure has gone into the uk economy here at home...into the electorates...into the pockets of the voters...not wasted on tanks that become targets and get destroyed...and think of the billions saved not having to maintain new tanks...this is a plus Prime Minister"
Hurry up and get out of bed Bernard....look at this news from Bloomberg...read between the lines... "Exports to the European Union, China’s biggest market, rose 5 percent from a year earlier, a quarter of the pace reported in July and August, customs data show. Sales to Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, fell 1.6 percent last month from a year earlier and shipments to Italy dropped 23 percent, the third straight decline"
Push him out of bed Mrs Hickey...use your feet....he's needed at mill...
..... nah , leave the grumpy old gloomy puss were he is , who needs a dose of gloomsterisation on a Sunday morning , head off to Mass if you want an alternative view on how the world is heading into the firey pits of hell , yadda yadda ...
Hey , check out this quote Gummy found in a book :
" The colony is already greatly overindebted ; most of the wealth of the country is absorbed in the payment of interest of private and public debts to English capitalists . " ( 15 / 9 / 1868 ) ..
.. the quote is reprinted from a New Zealand newspaper ...... any idea how those poor suffering folk in NZ made out , with all that debt , did they survive ? .....
...... and was the author of the article the " Bernard Hickey " of the day , spouting his mouth off , spreading doom and gloom to all who were silly enough to take him seriously ?
.... yes , but without access to capital from those magnaminous English bankers , the industrial resolution would have bypassed New Zealand ..... which was then a young land , with negligible savings , and fledging industrys in agriculture , mining , and whaling .......
Praise be for the bankers , how wondeful thou art .......
Money was in no way necesary for that to happen. All that is needed is the resources and labour. Money is created from thin air, is a faith based system. The real economy is all about the use of resources. You can still have a great economy without money, it takes a scientific approach to the management of resources. The monetary system creates poverty, war, corruption and waste. When you incentivise corruption, and monopoly power, that is what you will end up with.
Ants work for the good of the hive, and that is why they are such successful little critters, grasshoppers die in the winter.
Some sort of Gold bubble? Blame poor old Gabriel Reed., oh, also blame those greedy Farmers and the wool bubble. Please just don't blame the poor old Bank Of Glasgow, how were they to know they were lending too much on those farm mortgages, and that just a little speculative fun on the side for that bank led it to collapse bringing on what was to become known as the "The Long Depression" . History doesn't repeat, it rhymes. hahaha, nice one.
"Zimbabwe's 87-year-old president said he will not retire before proposed elections next year and will stay on also to lead the country against what he called a Western campaign for regime change." herald
Gee if Key held out that long he'd still be the smiling PM in 2051.....yurk
So how come all the refugees from Somalia who try to reach Jewleeya's socialist paradise by boat...don't just walk on down to Mugarbages zimbabwe where there is safe and enduring govt under the Great Oaf's boot ?
Likely more then one president? So if America had 50 Presidents would that help? Would they all live in the white house, and spend the whole time arguing with each other? When one retarded leader isn't enough to bring growth, get another 49 retarded leaders together.
Politicians can't give answers, all they can give is words. They can't even tell the truth, they would never get elected if they told the truth. They don't even understand the problems, ignorant people, making empty promises to other ignorant people.
Eliminate war, poverty, corruption, crime. They wouldn't even know where to start, and these are some pretty serious issues. They can't even balance a financial statement.
Things are going to get much worse.
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