Last Updated: Oct 22nd, 2010 - 15:35:08 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 5 September 2008 Thought for the Day Politics in this country is looking more desperate as each day passes. What is the average Joe Blow thinking? Who will be returned to the corridors of power? Will it make any difference? The only solution to our problem of a declining economy and and deteriorating living standards is to have a much smaller government. This was the express wish of 90% of the population in a referendum held 10 years ago. The politicians did nothing. Why would they reduce their own power? It will not be until we have binding referendums which compel the government to comply with the people's wishes that we have a chance of catching up with Australia's standard of living. What are our chances? Sep 5, 2008, 12:25 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 5 September 2008 Climate Change (Emissions Trading And Renewable Preference) Bill Rodney Hide MP speaks out in this speech to Parliament on Tuesday, September 2 2008: *** *** *** *** I think I will be the only person speaking in this debate who has any qualifications in environmental science. It is not that that should count, but I think that it is significant for what I am about to say - that is, that the entire climate change - global warming hypothesis is a hoax, that the data and the hypothesis do not hold together, that Al Gore is a phoney and a fraud on this issue, and that the emissions trading scheme is a worldwide scam and swindle. Enacting this legislation will cost New Zealanders dear — that is the point of it - and it will drive up the costs of basic goods and services for New Zealanders probably by at least $500 or $600 a year. It will put businesses in New Zealand out of business, and put farmers off their farms. It will put businesses in New Zealand out of business. It will put farmers off their farms. And it will do all this for no impact on world weather, for no environmental gain, and for no conceivable advantage to New Zealand or to the world. Yes, it is bad that we are rushing this legislation through in the dying days of a teetering regime, propped up by a Minister of Foreign Affairs who is under investigation for serious and complex fraud. That is bad, but it is the impact that this legislation and this policy will have on New Zealanders that is so truly shocking. All we have in this is a computer model. That is notoriously difficult, because the answers are written in the assumptions. Let me give members just one example. The problem for the first two Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change reports was what was called the medieval warming period, where a thousand years ago the Earth was warmer than it is now. Then, magically, an obscure physicist in the US came up with a new bit of analysis - the hockey stick - that showed world temperature to be flat and then rising dramatically as the world became industrialised. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change grabbed this, put it on the front of its document, and repeated it five times. Researchers all around the world were puzzled by this, because it did not fit any of their data. Eventually they got hold of that computer model and they discovered this: any numbers fed into that model would produce the hockey stick. We could take the Wellington telephone directory, feed it into the model that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change used in 2001, and we would get the hockey stick that saw the world running scared, that saw policy-makers running scared, and saw Al Gore make his movie based on it. The science was rubbish, because a computer model is not science. Science is about theories, hypothesis, and the testing of these against the facts. That is not what has happened in the basic science here. That is bad enough, but what is worse is the policy rationale underpinning this legislation. The Minister would come before the select committee and talk about a "cap and trade" but, when asked, would say: "Yes, there is no cap." We are creating a market in hot air, without any quantified amount. *** *** *** *** *** Thank you Rodney, I couldn't have put it more succinctly or clearly. My thoughts go out to the old age pensioners who are going to be suffering for years as a result of the stupidities of our Greenie led Labour government. Sep 5, 2008, 12:01 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 5 September 2008 Lenders May Have Tapped Bank Scheme for £200 Billion When banks run out of money they head off to the Central Banks for support. This process can continue for a long time until inflation runs so high that the value of paper money is brought to zero. The problem is that as time goes by the process moves at an increasingly faster rate. Just ask the Zimbabweans! Sep 4, 2008, 11:04 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 5 September 2008 Labour Markets Are Not Special I have referred earlier to the power of the pen - and in particular to devastation wrought by the pen of Karl Marx on the world. Here, Roger Kerr talks about his labour market ideas and how they still colour our thinking today - to the detriment of us all. We really do need to grow up. Sep 3, 2008, 10:51 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 5 September 2008 Fact Versus Speculation We are living in times when our money system is becoming in danger of breaking down. When major American banking and mortgage institutions take sub-prime mortgages and slice and dice them into AAA rated packages (rated by the rating agencies paid for the service - who else) and sell them on to unsuspecting punters AND major banks et al around the world one should be able to see something amiss in their basic thinking. When countries around the world increase their money supplies by 10% and more each year we should not be surprised when we see bubble economies sprouting and booming all around. The "credit crunch" has crunched and people have lost money. Lots of hard working people in New Zealand have seen their life savings decimated in the melt-down of the finance industry. All this we have predicted - not by our own cleverness - but by reading and understanding REAL economics as espoused by Austrian economists. After the boom comes the bust. Around the world we have seen many booms and busts over the last decade but this is the first one that seems to be drawing all of us into the maelstrom. For those of you who think that the worst is over, and we have come off lightly, I have some bad news. The Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae debacle in America is still playing out and the prognosis is not good. Lehman Brothers is mentioned in last week's economist as looking increasingly shaky, and they also mention another (unnamed) major US Bank that will likely fall in the near future. Our paper money system is in grave danger and the US government is pulling out all stops to keep it going. Maybe including also manipulating the gold and silver markets. You will know that President Bush has his "Plunge Protection Team" led by Hank Paulson, ex Goldman Sachs CEO, and now Secretary of the Treasury set up to ensure that the markets don't suddenly drop precipitously. Or to keep a "steady hand on the tiller". Is this just econo-speak for "manipulate the markets"? Meanwhile, things are hotting up over at the COMEX gold and silver markets. The powers that be do not like high gold prices as it shows up the increasing worthlessness of their paper money. Ted Butler explains in this article. Sep 2, 2008, 11:32 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 5 September 2008 Jim Rogers: An Exclusive Interview With The Legendary Investor James B. Rogers, Jr. (born October 19, 1942) is an American investor and financial commentator. He is co-founder, along with George Soros, of the Quantum Fund, and is a college professor, author, world traveler, economic commentator, and creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI). You will recall that the Quantum Fund is the one that "Broke The Bank of England" back around 1992 and made over 1 billion pounds over night. There is obviously a big incentive for investment gurus to be right in their assessment of the world scene. This is why I turn to their writings, thoughts and interviews for REAL information about the REAL world that we inhabit. Bankers, economists and politicians, on the other hand, have a vested interest in keeping us ignorant. Aug 22, 2008, 11:42 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 5 September 2008 The Struggle Over Egalitarianism Continues We have all suffered from the disease of "Political Correctness" over the past few years. Did you know that this disease has a long history and is just as likely to cause as much ill in the world as socialism did in the 1900s? It is well past time that we took a very serious look at the human condition and worked through the morass of ignorance towards a full and real understanding of just who and what we all are and how we work in the real world. Much of what is taken for granted about economics is misleading because it is based on mistaken ideas about human actions and the incentives we follow. The same can be said for the study of politics and the development of ideologies. It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword. When I see what devastation Karl Marx wrought on the world I am convinced. This essay should give you pause to think! [ Visit Website ] Aug 19, 2008, 10:49 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 5 September 2008 Quote for the Week "The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves." William Hazlitt Aug 5, 2008, 12:13