Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Wednesday Political Soup: Edition 4

Mallard's Fisticuffs rewarded in Cabinet Reshuffle

Image result for trevor mallard and tau henare fisticuffs

Trevor Mallard and the new Labour Cabinet - He's now The Speaker of the House 2017


While Helen Clark has been rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic today, her cabinet reshuffle excluded boffer boy Trevor Mallard from being demoted and therefore he has managed to walk away from the violence that he inflicted on Tau Henare last week.

No surprises that Clarke has let yet another Cabinet Minister off their responsibilities when they f up because that has been par for the course over the last 8 years. Almost a dozen ministers have been let off for their various crimes and not so mis-demeanor's.

Drunken driving, fraud, assault, dishonesty and corruption have been among the list of misadventures by ministers.

The driving force behind these lapses has of course been our own fearless leader.

Aunt Helen has stolen taxpayer money to fund an election, lied about passing the anti smacking bill, fraudulently applying her signature to a document, sped at 170km through a small town in her car and a multitude of other crimes that escape my memory at present.

She hasn't taken responsibility for any of these things

No wonder Duckman was let off the hook.


Playing snap has never been this much fun


News last week that Pita Sharples used the race card to get political exposure was rounded upon by Labour lap dog Winston Peters who agreed that yes Pita was using the race card and what was he doing using the card that he was accustomed to using leading up to an election year.

The race card was pulled out by political racist Sharples when he called the raids against terror suspects in the Uraweras racist against Maori, even though the suspects were training with illegal weapons, napalm and god knows what else-possibly army surplus swiss army knives.

Peters called snap on Pitas race card when he said Pita was using the race card by calling the raids racist and he was only doing it for political gain.

Pita subsequently snapped back that Peters was using the whole situation for political gain and criticism that he was doing the same was condemned as racist.

The game has continued but given that Peters is dressed much more immaculately than Pita, Peters is bound to win this game of snap.

Christ the race card is Peters game!

No news yet that Sharples isn't playing with a full deck.


Tizard the Joker in reshuffled Deck

Image result for judith tizard cartoon

News today that the Auckland issues portfolio is going to be ditched can't be much of a surprise to the Minister Judith Tizard.

She has struggled to make any headway in the big smoke and the negative legacy of her mother as the Mayor of Auckland in the 1980s lingers in the Junior Tizard's failure to get Auckland traffic moving in a forward direction.

Perhaps the single biggest loser by her was her failure to get another habour crossing anywhere close to being built.

The aging bridge is in danger of collapsing but don't worry Judith has faith that it will stay upright.

Lets cross our fingers.




Cartoon: Emmerson







c Darren Rickard 2007






Auckland Airport Merger deal nosedives

News today that a bid by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for a sizable stake in Auckland International Airports [AIA.NZ] has been rejected by the Airport board is no surprise considering what was on offer.Chairman of the Board of Auckland Airport, John Maasland, said the proposal would have involved an amalgamation and the creation of a newly listed airport company. Under the deal Canada Pension would have owned between 39% and 49% of the new company.

"If the amalgamation proposal went ahead existing Auckland Airport shareholders would have retained between 51% and 61% of the new company and maintained an investment in the restructured company."

It is understood that there were offers of various structures giving value to shareholders of up to $3.90 per share.

The company would also have been loaded up with considerably more debt.

I didn't think this or any other deal would go through and I said so months ago but the reason for the deal falling through, while clear, I never considered.

While I am extremely pleased that the deal fell over, I think at least shareholders could have been asked for their input on the proposal.

The company has excellent long term prospects and shareholders who didn't bail out today will reap the long term rewards.

AIA shares were down NZ .21c today to $2.87 on heavy volume.



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Queenstown Airport Buyout @ Share Investor

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Queenstown Airport: AIA purchase good Long-Term but will cost shareholders Short-Term


AIA @ Share Investor

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AIA incentive scheme must fly out the window
Government market manipulation over AIA/DAE deal
DAE move on AIA: Will it fly?

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c Share Investor 2007





Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Black Economy makes Sense

No the title of this post isn't really about slave labour but it might as well be.

http://www.taxguru.net/comix/obesebiggovt.jpg


New Zealanders have been beaten over the head over recent years regarding tax cuts. Labour has been taxing and spending their way through the last 8 years and National have promised to give back the stolen booty should they seize the Treasury benches in 2008.

What have these high taxes been doing to our economy and what do they do to economies in general though?

If New Zealand Inc was a business, apart from the fact that it would be a very small one on a global scale, its shareholders would be demanding higher dividends, more accountability for company spending and more investment back in the "business".

The high rate of tax removed from NZ Incs balance sheet hasn't gone back into productive spending, it has really been taken out of the business completely, washed through many levels of management and then spent on fast cars, big houses, expensive chocolate biscuits and left handed screw drivers for the company executives and their friends.

Certainly not the kind of spending that produces income and also not sustainable in the long run.

If this huge amount of tax money was allowed to stay in the business of New Zealand Inc then the company would clearly be manifold times better off than it is now and we would all benefit from some quite large special dividends.

Lowering taxes actually stimulates economies and business and in the long run more tax is collected because the business functions allot more efficiently because capital is not tied up or wasted in pockets burning to spend it on wasteful things.

One only has to look at economies with low tax rates to see how well they do. Ireland and Singapore are two excellent examples of how well economies do when they are not burdened with the weight of high taxes.

Of course the "black economy", where there is no tax and only two participants, the buyer and the seller, involved in the transaction, is the single most efficient form of economy or business there is.

The way of the world of recent decades has been to cut out the "middleman", chain stores like Walmart and The Warehouse get goods delivered directly to their warehouses instead of buying through an importer and most retail now works this way.

Perhaps the most obvious example of the middleman not longer taking his cut is business done through the Internet.

Musicians, writers, movie makers , individuals auctioning their household furniture and a whole host of entrepreneurs are now doing business without using a go between with his hand out taking a cut of your income.

It is so efficient, why wouldn't you!

This is why the Internet works so well for business. It is most like how the black economy in the "bricks and mortar" world works.

Lets strip out those extra burdens to business and economies, the high taxes, and then we will all prosper for our hard work, as we should.

Clearly there needs to be some sort of nominal tax, of about a 10% maximum, to allow defence and police to function but any more than that just encourages waste and inefficiency.

I wont hold my breath but it is worth writing about so at least it might plant a seed in some of my dear readers heads.




c Darren Rickard 2007




The Black Economy makes Sense

No, the title of this post isn't really about slave labour but it might as well be.

New Zealanders have been beaten over the head over recent years regarding tax cuts. Labour has been taxing and spending their way through the last 8 years and National have promised to give back the stolen booty should they seize the Treasury benches in 2008.

What have these high taxes been doing to our economy and what do they do to economies in general though?

If New Zealand Inc was a business, apart from the fact that it would be a very small one on a global scale, its shareholders would be demanding higher dividends, more accountability for company spending and more investment back in the "business".

The high rate of tax removed from NZ Incs balance sheet hasn't gone back into productive spending, it has really been taken out of the business completely, washed through many levels of management and then spent on fast cars, big houses, expensive chocolate biscuits and left handed screw drivers for the company executives and their friends.

Certainly not the kind of spending that produces income and also not sustainable in the long run.

If this huge amount of tax money was allowed to stay in the business of New Zealand Inc then the company would clearly be manifold times better off than it is now and we would all benefit from some quite large special dividends.

Lowering taxes actually stimulates economies and business and in the long run more tax is collected because the business functions allot more efficiently because capital is not tied up or wasted in pockets burning to spend it on wasteful things.

One only has to look at economies with low tax rates to see how well they do. Ireland and Singapore are two excellent examples of how well economies do when they are not burdened with the weight of high taxes.

Of course the "black economy", where there is no tax and only two participants, the buyer and the seller, involved in the transaction, is the single most efficient form of economy or business there is.

The way of the world of recent decades has been to cut out the "middleman", chain stores like Walmart and The Warehouse get goods delivered directly to their warehouses instead of buying through an importer and most retail now works this way.

Perhaps the most obvious example of the middleman not longer taking his cut is business done through the Internet.

Musicians, writers, movie makers , individuals auctioning their household furniture and a whole host of entrepreneurs are now doing business without using a go between with his hand out taking a cut of your income.

It is so efficient, why wouldn't you!

This is why the Internet works so well for business. It is most like how the black economy in the "bricks and mortar" world works.

Lets strip out those extra burdens to business and economies, the high taxes, and then we will all prosper for our hard work, as we should.

Clearly there needs to be some sort of nominal tax, of about a 10% maximum, to allow defence and police to function but any more than that just encourages waste and inefficiency.

I wont hold my breath but it is worth writing about so at least it might plant a seed in some of my dear readers heads.



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c Share Investor 2007