|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
|
|
. |
 |
|
|
|
| Last Updated: Aug 15th, 2008 - 11:26:43 |
Newsletters
:
2005 Newsletters
:
21 October 2005
Thought for the Day
Vigorous societies harbour a certain extravagance of objectives.
Alfred North Whitehead (Wrote Principia Mathematica with Bertrand Russell)
Remember Rob Muldoon, whose objective was; "to leave New Zealand no worse than he found it". He failed.
Helen Clark wants; "to see New Zealand in the top half of the OECD".
Oct 19, 2005, 11:56
Newsletters
:
2005 Newsletters
:
21 October 2005
A Beast With Several Backs
A view of the current government from the outside. Not all bad!
Oct 21, 2005, 10:34
Newsletters
:
2005 Newsletters
:
21 October 2005
Letters to the DomPost
Congratulations to Peter for getting yet another letter published in the DomPost. I think the government is at last starting to get worried about the economy and is concerned to try to save money and generate more. Unfortunately the track record for governments making wise business decisions is not good. They invariably make decisions about any business they own based on political considerations which results in the loss of wealth to us all. Air New Zealand is a classical example.
It would be interesting to know what the loss in value of TVNZ has been over the last 6 years!
Wouldn't we all be better off if the government did not try to run businesses?
Peter's letter:
The Editor,
Dear Sir,
In response to your recent editorial asking the question “Is this what we voted for?” may I suggest that the answer is an emphatic Yes. It may not be what we hoped would happen but we should not be surprised. That the government intends to spend more is predictable. This is the normal outcome of MMP governments around the world. That dodgy compromises are made is standard MMP fare and hence also predictable.
What is less predictable is whether we will finally come to our collective senses and demand another referendum. Even less predictable is whether we will be permitted the luxury of having one.
One easy prediction is that, economically, we will fall even further behind Australia.
P V Gallagher
Oct 20, 2005, 11:03
Newsletters
:
2005 Newsletters
:
21 October 2005
Petrol Prices Fact or Fiction: A Primer on Supply and Demand
You may have noticed how life in New zealand has been ticking along smoothly over the last few weeks and wondered how this can be so, when we don't actually have a government which can make any changes.
This nicely illustrates the point that so often it is the government that is creating the problem and then making a lot of noise about attempting to fix it - usually to no avail. But now we have no government, no problem, no noise no costs.
You will remember the last oil crisis in the 1970s when we had plenty of government control and ended up with carless days and major problems with lots of government intervention with solutions involving CNG and LPG and subsidies and regulations and bureaucrats. What has happened with this latest oil price spike? - Nothing. Apart from our Labour government adding more tax to petrol and we have all adjusted by paying more and driving less if the price was a problem. The government didn't try to solve the "problem" and we then didn't have a problem!
It is a bit like the "Health Problem". The government tries to solve the problem the best way they know how which is to spend more money. The cost goes up from $6bn to $9.5bn but there is almost no change to the number of operations done and the waiting lists are still as long and as far as we can tell the waiting list to get on the waiting list is still as big as ever; - but who knows?
The problem is created by the government and as it tries to solve this self-created problem it just makes the problem worse and spends more money in the process.
Who was it who said, "There has to be a better way"?
This article is about the "Oil Crisis" and some of the myths that people believe. Wouldn't it be a good idea if all politicians were required to have proper training for their job (like everyone else) and had to study Economics 101?
Oct 19, 2005, 11:13
|
|
|
|
