Margin Call is another movie that you should check out. Also The Corporation and book – The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. See http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine . I reviewed latest Jeffrey Sach’s book a few months back. Judging by the lack of readers economics & consequences is too much for most readers which is disappointing.

I love NZ but I am fed up with brain dead politicians treating everyone as if they fair game.

Currently in NZ (my opinion) we have PM who is a slippery former money market trader treating NZ as some kind of business for his friends. He laid low during the first term but now the gloves are off and asset stripping is now on the agenda. Meridian, Genesis and other SOE’s are strategic assets already owned by NZers. Selling down those shareholdings in the the end of the wedge and is a refinancing dodge that will result in NZ losing out big time.

Air NZ is different – airlines are tough and should be privatised as much as possible but energy infrastructure – no way.

Stephen Joyce – the Minister for everything is so busy you have to wonder is he ever sleeps but he should have been fired for letting TV3 off the hook on those broadcasting fees – net cost to NZ something like $48m

Sir Doug Graham & other distinguished former politicians manage to lose more than $100m on their watch. That is a cue for tantrums by the Rangerover driving silvertail who still obviously has some $ in the bank unlike his victims. Arrogant is an understatement. Doug Graham’s lack of financial knowledge has also cost the country 10,s of millions in one of the settlements he engineered back in the ’90′s. That deal completely sucks and virtually no -one even noticed it

“These two already colossally rich tribes will be gouging the taxpayer for ever more money for the next 32 years or so.

The bizarre thing behind Sir Douglas’s logic – which should have boded ill for him moving into the finance industry – was that he didn’t seem to understand the use-of-money concept.”

Contrast that with the blatantly political prosecutions of the Urewera 18 by an incompetent police force who asked the government to legitimise their illegal surveillance. Of course the case gets thrown out but why waste $3.9m + on the legal bills

Don’t get me started on the Kim Dotcom case. When we have all kinds of dodgy ex cabinet ministers and finance company directors rorting millions off small investors we don’t freeze those businesses and kill their businesses after finger pointing by a politically motivated US based lobby group.

Whatever Kim has done in the past he should have been allowed to continue his business and work through the issues in a transparent way.

We don’t need John Banks in parliament and if he has an ounce of integrity he would resign and donate his salary to women’s refuge or something else.

Rant over – as you were – but please wake up New Zealand

Pleased to hear that there are still some great books out there. Part of what is significant about “The Price of Civilization” is that it is about the U.S economy. To some readers in the U.S that might be somewhat more shocking than it is from this side of the world. His Goal 7. National Security “End the military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan”… may also surprise some. Having 5% of GDP on military spending and pushing for that to drop may also be very hard to sell to the public there. Having read about the major outsourcing of military budgets to outside contractors I would like to know if 5% is the real number or not. Either way the U.S needs to increase taxes as well as cut budgets. His chapter on tax to GDP ratios would be useful for any politicians.

Sachs doesn’t pull any punches in recognising that the U.S electoral system is broken but I don’t see a new party rising up to challenge the Democrats or Republicans. He notes that US gets only 1% of tax revenue from a VAT type tax whereas in Europe that number is closer to 10%. Changing the tax system would balance the budget much more quickly than any budget cuts could but is that going to happen anytime soon?

The book does include some useful footnotes and associated reading list and it is still good but not as great as I wanted it to be.

You and I, long ago, raved about issues that troubled us about the civilizations we live in. Some books today underwhelm us because their authors express ideas familiar to you and I, and so long ago. Unfortunately these same authors too often get top reviews in traditional media. But I guess that is to be expected given that really new ideas lurk long before they are recognised.

I’m currently on page 300 or so of a 1,000 book I bought 6 years ago, Cities in Civilization by Peter Hall. Fortunately it is majestic. Here’s a small part of the reason why that is so. First, the author supports his position with footnotes and a bibliography which he has read – they total 200 pages. Second, the depth of thinking dredges up gems, something so rare when we are too often attracted to snippet thinking in tweets, posts and instant books.

Riffing on a famous 1993 quote by William Gibson* I’d say: Civilization and its economics has long evolved from what we often say it is, it is just the recognition of that is unevenly distributed. That’s certainly so in popular culture, and in what too often is passed off as a major book.

* “The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.”

One thing I want to do is look at embedding little graphics into them – in the QR code image itself – I havent yet been able to do that.

http://www.diversity.net.nz/doing-well-by-doing-goodbooster-seat-2011-to-give-kiwi-startup-a-taste-of-the-valley/2011/07/13/

I liked that we only had 6 months to wait between WordCamp AKL and WordCamp WGTN, – it is going to seem strange to have to wait an entire year for another one.

Thanks for putting on a good show, – always looking towards the next.
S

Labour should be front footing it with a full deck and highlighting their top table.