The 2008 Bailout

Jon Stewart's clip "Awkward Loan Interview" 25.09.08 - Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke appear in Congress with hat in hand for the world's most awkward loan interview ever about sums up the situation.

The poor American taxpayer must have a hangover as bad as Neo waking in his pod.

Holy Shit there's Fanny and Freddie and co all suckin from me !

Gareth Morgan also on the ball with this article about the US economic crisis and on the housing collapse "There’s an old adage that if you borrow too much then you have a problem – but if too many of us borrow too much, then our lender is the one with the problem. This indeed is the case in the mortgage market in the US and also in the UK (where house sales are now the lowest since records began – talk about the fan about to be hit)."

Bryan Gould gets the plonker award for this smarmy "I know best" piece of bullshit on Alan Greenspan in the Herald 23.9.08. "those who now controlled huge financial assets worldwide and could manipulate them without any fear of interference began to cream off a higher and higher share and to pay themselves more and more outrageous salaries, bonuses, commissions, and "perks" of all kind" and "..it is the victims of the excesses who now have to pay the biggest price for correcting them. It is all those who will lose their homes and their jobs and their living standards and their sense of self-worth who will bear the heaviest burden."
Quick to forget the victims had a choice. They might not like the result this time but would they really prefer Bryan (or another financial advisor) make choices for them? Spot the nanny state-ist.

"I want the high risk rewards with a taxpayer guarantee".

Well it's your lucky year Bryan, it looks as if George, Bill and Barak agree with you. Strange times we live in.
Why suffer short term pain when you can have long term misery? No I don't know whats going to happen unlike Bryan, the world's first and only know it all.

eTickets Rule!

I am sold on electronic ticketing having printed our Kylie tickets and just now the Beckham - Karembeu game on 6 December at Mt Smart. After scoring free entry to the Zidane - Karembeu game in Noumea the least we could do is pay for this one having given Wellington a miss when everyone who went said that was awesome too. No running around, type a few keys and out they come.

Outstanding!
As was watching the Cambridge 8 year olds win the Waikato league last weekend and the WaiBOP U12 boys beat 2 AKL teams on Sunday, including the guys who beat us 2 nil at the Noumea Tournament semi (refer my June post).
Bring on the Weir Rosebowl at North Harbour next week.

"to do the right thing all along"

Is it reasonable to expect that Fonterra should have been testing for Melamine?
I listened to Andrew Farrier and the alarm bells went off when he said "What could we have done? Should we have had a thousand tests for a thousand poisons?"

1) China has a history of counterfeit products and putting the ends before the means.

2) Considering and mitigating risks is bread and butter for investment in China.

3) Melamine has been known for over a year as a protein substitute, used to produce a protein reading in tests of diluted product - just add water and melamine then collect the profit. In April 2007 the NY Times reported American food safety regulators openly admitted that the substance was routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein.

Fonterra must have considered the possibility of rortes involving their products in China including methods by which milk can be adulterated - barkeeping 101 includes watering down the booze - adding water to any liquid, or another solid to solid chalk to coke etc being the simplest way to increase volume, and should have designed quality control testing to pick this up. If their people had bothered to ask "What could a crook do to mask dilution/cutting?" melamine was the obvious answer.

It's not so much they didn't test for or detect the melamine that's surprising rather the failure to have alarm bells ringing due to dilution/cutting. Melamine was or should have been well known to Fonterra as the likely cutting agent. The fact this wasn't stopped earlier is in my opinion more likely due to the published view melamine "is not believed to be particularly toxic" rather than ignorance as to the cause or concern over loss of brand value.

Either way Fonterra appears at best incompetent. I bet we never get to see their risk management plan for operating in China or whether any testing for dilution/cutting was done, or if so whether that was designed saavy enough to pick up the likely and well known masking agent that is killing babies.


I know which I'd prefer.

F@#$ wit of the Week Award

Candidate 1
When they called police on a cellphone at 3.50am on June 17 you'd have to question why taxpayer dollars are spent (Police, Mana Coastguard, Westpac rescue helicopter and no doubt the commercial vessel) on anything beyond the time to answer "So start paddling" rather than searching for these F@#$wits.
The Smiling Boatie: Moevao Neti and his side kick Tulo Tuala get points for having a mobile phone and recognising "We thought we'd never see land again."
The Judge had me wondering if he'd make a worthy recipient for "the whole thing must have been very scary for you". People who end up six nautical miles off Mana Island (after the engine failed) in an inflatable boat in an appalling state with winds gusting up to 50kmh, rain with an air temperature of zero deg C and 1.5m swells do not have the capacity to fear !

Candidate 2
Green - The Robbing Hood - Party Spokeswoman Sue Bradford who believes "It is more important than ever that workers are treated well" and said low paid workers and their families were carrying an unfair share ....blah blah...and proposes lifting the minimum wage to $15 an hour immediately and an additional statutory holiday in order to help fix the problem. Who do you think pays for this Sue?

But the winner is Candidate 3:
Basil Donovan, a professor of sexual health at the University of NSW for "my theory is that when people only had a bath on Saturday night oral sex was a less attractive prospect"

:p

One for the runners who get to Qld

Go to mapmyrun.com, load your favourite runs.

Here's one of mine.

Consequential Thinking

What drives this mornings shootings?









These two clowns.

Millie can look forward to a long stay in the cells if found guilty. The maximum penalty for possession for supply of meth is a life sentence. Amy's heading for the stars if 2008 is anything like last year - "the 24-year-old overdosed on a mixture of crystal meth, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and ketamine in August 2007"
Some might call it a life or today's version of reefer madness, but not the parents. While I have some sympathy for addicts it's those who knowingly hurt others that ought to earn the wrath whether its shooting beating or thieving.

Sergeant Don Wilkinson gave his life today so my kids will find it a little harder to go down Amy and Millie's road.

Thanks Don.

"puts a spring in a girl’s step better than anything else"

"According to the survey of more than 1,000 British women aged over 18, kiss from their man was preferable than lingerie, a shopping splurge and even sex. Surprisingly, perfumes, jewellery and beauty treatments did not feature in the top ten."

Back to the reason I learn't this. Researching Kylie of "Kylie or Sheryl Crow?"
Obvious answer "Kylie. When's she coming?". (VECTOR ARENA, MON 8 DEC 2008) How do I go to both?
Having already figured that "Want to go see Kylie or Sheryl Crow and John Mallencamp?" would get "Who?", I came back quickly with "Sheryl Crow has some awesome songs, I think I'd rather see her on 3 December", way more than Kylie if you ask me, but when it comes to the ....

.....kissability factor....yep Kylie is hot. Not far off 3rd.

Back to my point. Kylie will put on a great concert. She sold out in Oz in 8 minutes and goes on sale in NZ tomorrow, which means I'll have to shake the feathers tomorrow.
We'll see.