Monday, August 18, 2008

Mike William's letter to Labour Voters


A wee gem has fallen into my hands today. It is a Labour Party begging letter for funding from their voters and it is only in my hands because the Labour voter that it went to, who has voted for Clark the last 3 times, is no longer going to.

This letter has been delivered to a sickness beneficiary, with no excess income and living in taxpayer funded housing.

I will quote parts of it over the next week just to give readers an idea of what Labour is telling their supporters.

This courtesy of Mike Williams, Labour Party President:

"You know with Helen and with Labour that we do what we say".

Curious language from a party president who tried to cover up donations from billionaire Owen Glenn earlier this year and a leader well known for routinely lying: Painter gate, limo gate, anti smacking legislation and much more.

It gets even worse for Mike Smith and Labour when you consider the following quote:

"National is also bitterly opposed to the reforms of election finance which have made election finances much more open".

This is clearly a bizarre statement to make. The Electoral Finance Act, which Labour passed last year, has made election funding less clear and has led to unprecedented confusion over election funding.

It doesn't stop secret funding, to any party, so Mike is lying again to his Labour Party faithful.

Labour have broken their own Electoral Finance Act on at least 3 occasions this year and was the first to do so.

I leave the last words to Mike Williams from his letter because they really say it all:


"...Helen Clark stands ready to lead Labour for the fifth time..."


Related Political Animal reading


c Political Animal 2008

Freightways keeps delivering during recession

Given the bleak economic conditions over the last year, one could forgive Dean Bracewell, Managing Director, and his team for underachieving in their management of Freightways Ltd [FRE.NZ] , the New Zealand courier and document management company, but they have managed the business to a good profit result to 30 June 2008 out today.

A 5% increase in Full Year profit to just over NZ$32 million, on gross revenue of $324 million, up 14%, shows that operating costs have had an impact on the bottom line.

As canvassed before on Share Investor, Freightway's movement to diversify income streams in terms of new business areas, other than their courier businesses, has paid off-in New Zealand and Australia.

Freightways entry into document management has proven a good move for the company:
"The information management business currently contributes approximately 15% of Freightways' revenue and earnings. The performance of this business has been outstanding".
From operating result , 18 Aug 2008.

This sector is a more prominent area of business in North America and Europe. Freightway's experience in their well managed document storage and destruction business in New Zealand and Australia will provide a good base for them to grow revenue and profit in the future.

According to some business analysts, a transport related business like Freightways can be looked at as a wider barometer of how the economy is going as a whole. I would argue though that careful cost management and forward planning has helped the company avoid the pitfalls of an economy in a steep decline and that isn't as easy to do as it sounds when faced with macro economic pressures that one cannot control.

Petrol, surprise government road user charges and labour increases will continue to crimp the bottom line profit in the coming 2009 year.

The company characteristically have a subdued outlook for the following year and it is a sign of good management that they do this. Many a company, especially in hard economic times don't give a true picture of their businesses as they look forward, only to disappoint come reporting time.

Over the last several months, the share price has been affected badly. From a high of nearly 5 bucks in 2007, and a low just recently of just under NZ$2.90, nervous markets have struggled to determine a realistic price for this company-so what else is new.

At a net return of just over 6% on today's share price, it is a healthy return for a well run company with good future prospects and falling interest rates for other investments. Freightways is worth a look when considering a long term investment.

Excellent management, an easy to understand business and a good dividend delivers the goods for me.

Disclosure I own FRE shares


Freightways @ Share Investor

Long VS Short: Freightways Ltd
Freightway's keeps delivering
Why did you but that stock: Freightways Ltd
Freightway's delivers
Freightway's packages up a good result

Related links

Freightway's Financial Data



Dean <span class=

Dean Bracewell, Freightways MD

Interview 1 min 10 sec, 3.69 MB

Investor Relations -Freightways.co.nz
Value Cruncher


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c Share Investor 2008

Vili's acheivement individually brilliant


"I've dedicated so much to my parents, but tonight it was all about Val and all about [coach] Kirsten [Hellier], and just the hard work we've put in over the last 10 years,"

Valerie Vili 2008.


Valerie Vili's win last night at the 2008 Beijing Olympic shot put shows what an individual can do if one puts ones mind to it.

While Valerie wouldn't profess to be a role model, her achievement is surely a great example to others, especially those in the community in which she comes from, the Labour Party fed welfare disaster of South Auckland.

Valerie never gave up, she had a goal, individually pursued it after getting support from her parents and coaches, not the State, and as a result has become a well deserved success on the international stage.

The collective approach of the current Labour led Nanny State, where they teach you in school that it is OK just to participate rather than win, was ignored by Vili, and just as well.

If she and her parents hadn't ignored the Labour Party collective mantra, we wouldn't have heard the name Valerie Vili today.

Well done Val, I hope you enjoy your win and make a bundle out of it.

Related Political Animal reading


Mark Weldon strikes out on Carbon Trading

When Mark Weldon came from a well paid Wall Street job at the beginning of this century to become CEO of the New Zealand Stock Exchange [NZX.NZ] I held much promise for this dynamic, ambitious, innovative and successful young man.

Weldon has fostered the NZX from a economic backwater exchange into a more broad based one with more revenue streams-even though it is still a underdeveloped exchange, but that is another story.

Unfortunately Weldon's latest push for more revenue, in the form of launching a "Carbon Trading platform", whatever that means, is at the risk of ameliorating his good results so far, and more.

Weldon seems to have caught the zealotry nature of the carbon trading Nazis , like Minister for "Climate Change", whatever that means, David Parker.

Mark talks of his TZ1 Carbon Platform as "leading the world" and "innovative".

"The most important thing NZX can do here is get the right CEO, free the business to succeed, and hold a high quality team accountable for results."

No it isn't Mark. Trading a real asset is the most important part of any market. Even if you had the smartest person in the world who fully understood the carbon trading market, you will still find it impossible to make this kind of platform a long term success because of its fraudulent nature.

Mark Weldon goes on:

"Mark Franklin is the perfect CEO for TZ1. He has the right technical background, knowledge, relationships, credibility, strategic skills and drive. Mark chose this position ahead of a number of global roles on offer to him - a choice that reflects his belief in the potential of this market.

Quite frankly we have heard this kind of enthusiasm for business and markets based on nothing for as long as human beings have had a history. The majority of Internet businesses and wild poppies traded in Holland during the 1600s were two similar fake manipulated markets and both of them collapsed with spectacular results.

The carbon trading market collapse will make those meltdowns look like a Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie.

The carbon trading market and the "economics" on which it is based has its genesis in the fraud that is the Enron invented carbon trading market and its associated Al Gore pushed "climate change" movement, scientifically disproved and with a negative economic impact rather than a positive one-which clearly makes it a liability rather than an asset.

To put so much misplaced faith in a market for trading carbon credits simply defies economics 101, something that Mark should have remembered from his 3rd form economic class-an asset has to have a clear value, be easily understood have a real demand based on an intrinsic value, not a demand pent up by politicians and scientists on the State breast-in other words a false market.

When the price of an asset is based on the regulator or principle organiser of trading that asset, TZ1 in this case, or the government setting or influencing the carbon price, then the relationship of trading to the value of that asset is not only artificial but in the long term unsustainable, in the true sense of that word, and will eventually lead to its collapse.

Mark Weldon has forgotten the basics to investing, what an asset is, the fact that a market relies on real assets to have any chance of a long term future and the history of previous economic collapses.

Putting faith in "Carbon Trading", being excited and passionate about it being a huge success is a thin veneer pasted over the reality behind it that it is based on a fraud.

You should be ashamed of yourself Mark.


Related Share Investor reading

Carbon Credit trading puts global markets at extreme risk
Of Tulip bulbs and Tooth fairies
Global warning: Tax iceberg ahead

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TZ1 Market
Kristen Byrne - 15 year old schoolgirl debunks climate change myth

NZX financial data



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c Share Investor 2008