Dow Jones plummets 2013 points.
Spanish IBEX down 7.6%
FTSE down 7.25%
France CAC down 8.3%
German DAX down 7.9%
Italian FTSE MIB down 10%
Australian ASX down 7.9%
Wall St had to suspend opening at the start because the S&P market was in free fall.
The meltdown is so extreme, there are are now liquidity issues being raised.
Oil markets and Treasury Bonds have crashed.
All this and we don’t even have a full pandemic outbreak yet. The bluster of the entire debt filled global growth story since the quantitive easing post 2008 has been held together by greed, blind optimism and snot.
The speed that is now universally unravelling is dizzying.
If you’re a political commentator in NZ still claiming fear of the virus is just ‘racism’, you should stop commentating now.
As TDB has been pointing out from the beginning, this is not an Identity Politics issue, it’s an economic meltdown and public health emergency and it won’t stop until there is a vaccination which is 12-18months away.
The moment that the Left wing have been dreading is now upon us.
Since the intellectual capitulation by the Lange Government to the neoliberal revolution, the Left have been philosophically stillborn when it came to a counter to free market globalisation. On the left we have ignored class and the economic hegemony for Identity Politics fads.
A critique of this kind of woke feminist identity politics was savaged on RNZ this week…
It’s a sad thing to realise the ideology you once defined yourself by no longer holds the same urgent pull.
Like many women my age, I was introduced to feminism in my late teens through the infinite blue scroll of Tumblr. Dominated by other highly-strung youngsters prone to cancelling people for minor transgressions, it was an imperfect place to hone political praxis. But the seething anger of thousands discovering the extent of women’s oppression made for a chaotic, passionate and boundary-pushing realm of ideas.
Tumblr’s not what it once was, and neither is the women’s movement. Feminism in 2020 is scrubbed clean, dolled up and wearing a $100 t-shirt that says ‘Yass Queen’ in pink italics. The once derisive label “feminist” is now used to sell everything from dating apps to sex toys. But its current mainstream appeal masks the fact that the movement has no momentum, no goals and no new ideas.
“Choice feminism”, in which every decision a woman makes is virtuous and beyond scrutiny, has ground the movement to a halt by trapping feminists in a self-defeating loop of the empty word “empowerment”. My choice to wear makeup that makes me more conventionally attractive, my choice to take my husband’s name, my choice to take on the bulk of the childcare responsibilities – in an earlier age, such decisions would be seen as conforming to oppressive societal expectations. Today, it is sanctimoniously branded as “liberation.”
It’s what I choose and therefore it’s empowering, despite conforming to oppressive societal expectations.
Rather than shaking off the shackles of patriarchal values, we’re bound to them ever more tightly under the guise of inclusion. Feminists once rejected the notion of beauty as a woman’s only worth, now they insist all women are beautiful.
People are so fixated on seeing women in positions of previously unheld power (First female president! First Marvel movie with a female lead! First all-female paramilitary death squad!) that they fail to consider whether such power should be held by anyone.
The intoxicating thrill of representation, the hint of your own potential for greatness in an inspiring figure that looks like you, tends to blind us to the faults of the system being led by said figure. New Zealand has had three female leaders, a huge number for a young democracy, and none of them managed to shift the country’s staggering rates of domestic violence.
The problems with today’s feminist movement are inseparable from capitalism’s insatiable need to co-opt and commodify political energy. “Feminists should end our dangerous liaison with marketisation,” American theorist Nancy Fraser warned in 2012, as though foretelling the sea of Frida Kahlo pins and “Smash the Patriarchy” t-shirts and clitoris-shaped necklaces that would flood the market in the coming years.
Repulsively childish portmanteaus have elevated minor moments of social dissonance to the forefront of the discourse – manspreading, mansplaining. It’s personal branding rather than revolutionary rhetoric, and the inflation of personal grievances over structural oppression has given way to an entirely self-absorbed form of feminism.
This week’s onslaught of tweets from (overwhelmingly white) American women possessed by the vengeful ghost of Hillary Clinton, announcing they’re switching their support from Elizabeth Warren to Joe Biden to spite the ‘Bernie bros’ they accuse of misogyny, encapsulates the problem perfectly. Ignoring that the ailing Biden will lose soundly to Donald Trump, these women are making yet another empowering choice: denying women in more desperate circumstances the liberation of universal healthcare, free education and a humane immigration system.
Feminism might not be dying, but it is very sick. The movement has splintered along generational fault lines, with Second Wavers unable to reconcile the physical nature of their political triumphs – birth control, abortion rights, sexual freedom – with the introduction of transgender women into the sisterhood. Meanwhile millennials and Gen Z are turning away from feminism in favour of a greater affinity with socialism, a mass awakening in class consciousness bringing to light that there are other barriers to human flourishing that mean women will only ever be as free as the poorest among us.
If older women are peeling away in favour of radical transphobia and younger women see the movement as shallow and irrelevant, the only feminists left will be those comfortable few guided by their own self-interest rather than any desire for tangible change.
…while Identity Politics is a crucial personal journey of how YOU have come to politics, the delineation of power in capitalism is NOT your skin colour or gender or culture, it is and has always been the 1% plus their 9% enablers vs the 90% rest of us.
Class is the definer of real power, not identity. You can free your nipple as much as you like, but that ‘freedom’ is fucking meaningless if you don’t have the economic ability to survive.
If your starting point as a woke activist is that all white people are racist, all men rapists, Trans rights above all else and anyone supporting free speech is an actual Nazi uniform wearing Kitten strangler, then you might be alienating more than you are attracting.
Perhaps the distance between the individual and the hegemonic structure of neoliberalism is perceived to be so far that Millennials micro-aggression police because they feel they only have power over personal space and not capitalist cultural scaffolding.
We have never paused to ask if the 36 year right wing experiment in neoliberalism has been successful, this meltdown gives us an opportunity to not only ask that question but be honest with a foundational rebuild.
This Government was founded in 2017 under the shadow of an expected market correction so the Government does have a blueprint as to what to do if the opportunity of a crisis presents, so who should Labour save now the recession is here?
Dairy Farmers: They are up to their eyeballs in debt from dairy intensification. To get them to agree to helping everyone else, you need to help them and this could be a once in a generation move to get them to change their allegiance to National. Guarantee Dairy farm debt on the agreement that they revert from Dairy to planting forests.
First home buyers: You can’t leave them for the wolves of the Market, guarantee their mortgages through Kiwibank.
Mum and Dad’s investment property: You can’t wipe out an entire generations wealth base, again guarantee one property over the family house through KiwiBank.
Corporations: They will turn up with their golden begging bowls and beg for bail outs. Fuck em, let them burn.
Banks: Only save Kiwibank, the others can burn.
Property Investors: Anyone with more than a family house plus one property investment can burn.
Tax amnesty for small and medium business: They are the ones who will suffer the most, allow a tax amnesty with the usual penalties cancelled.
Welfare: Everyone will be scrambling for some type of welfare, it will need to be increased, and the draconian punitive crap dumped.
Immigration Freeze: We will need to freeze immigration at a time of economic crisis because everyone will be fleeing.
Rent Freeze: Don’t allow greedy Landlords to benefit from a crisis.
Remember, with the climate crisis producing cheek to jowl overcrowding and biosphere degradation, the ease with which viruses can jump between species is increasing. This pandemic is the future under catastrophic climate change WHILE we are simultaneously seeing other symptoms of that climate crisis erupt in real time.
A vast rethink of how we become self-sufficient from manufacturing to electronics to pharmaceuticals is now required.
Jacinda either gets transformative or we plunge into disarray and entropy.
One thing is clear, globalisation is dead and the Identity Politics that empowers that globalisation is as vacant and self-interested as a Corporate manifesto.
Great suggestions from Martyn – None will be actually implemented or close.
We all need to join Castro in the hills before marching on Havana / Wellington.
we should require kiwisaver funds be invested in new Zealand we are going need to invest in our infrastructure and even local manufacturing the virus has exposed how dependent we are on china Marty new zealanders have gorged themselves on debt that debt is unplayable i think the government may have rewrite the bankruptcy laws the party has ended now tears begin but young people may pick up roof over there heads at fair price as the speculators panic young people dont give them the asking price offer them half the asking price
In other word take KiwiSaver funds out of private hands and invest in NZ Govt. Kirk’s scheme with is rock solid.
While coronavirus is a global threat, threats occur constantly every year in the world. From terrorist attacks to earthquakes/natural disasters to global financial crisis based on fake bank products, to AIDS/SARS/CORONAVIRUS… every year there is some major effect that effects the world.
The share market is part of the problem. Run by machines they automatically start to go down when any perceived negative event happens. That snowballs and before you know it, paper values are wiped off while in real terms like any event, there will be winners and losers.
Airlines and tourist operators will lose with coronavirus while food, cleaning products, flu related medical products, toilet paper businesses should increase sales…
If NZ has diversified their businesses and have a government led plan to run NZ business based on probability of yearly global risks, then there would much less effect, however the government is so welded to overseas trends and highly volatile/subjective/discretionary business (like tourism, restaurants, retail, fake degrees) as well as ensured large NZ business often have greater risks by pushing a China/overseas agenda/joint ownership as the next way for CEO’s to get that million dollar bonus (Dairy, Forestry, meat, horticulture).
Don’t forget our own ministries are desperate to give away NZ natural assets too (stupidity is part of ideological devotion) aka NZ Government Secretly Funded Water Bottling Companies https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1904/S00055/nz-government-secretly-funded-water-bottling-companies.htm
Funny how in an election year the banks are quick to call a recession in NZ and it’s all doom and gloom real quick when clearly many businesses should be doing much better – wonderful to make NZ business panic and do what they love to do anyway, do nothing and make people redundant and lower wages, so many people lose their jobs and livelihoods – and who will the swing voters blame and vote for?
Not to mention now hundreds of thousands of fake jobs in restaurants and farms and everywhere else not paying those migrant workers and it being clearer with jobseeker up 11% that they were a Ponzi, and the government has more beneficiaries to house, pay health for and manage in the crisis!
Whose’s the chairman of ANZ that has announce the recession – no other than our John Key!!!! What a bonus for the Natz to panic business and lead them to fire staff or our government to do something business friendly like announcing more corporate welfare!
BNZ has said a recession now seems imminent also. Key isnt involved with that.
“The share market’s are run by machines and start to go down automatically when any perceived negative event happens “. Really. Share market’s go down when real people ( share holders) panic and sell their shares. The machines aren’t that stupid.
Nope. Family home only. Anyone who has bought property as an investment can be subject to the same current risks as any other investor. Oh, and CGT as well.
@RosieLee. So where are the rental properties to rent coming from? Both COL and National have been trying to build houses to solve the housing crisis, unsuccessfully for the last 6 – 9 years… that is why we have a rental crisis.
The government banked on being able to build all these houses to house the million extra chefs and families they needed in NZ, changed the zoning undemocratically aka Ihaumato, deregulated the construction industry for materials and labour, but somehow we never got the extra houses and they made it worse with more people needing housing than every before.
It now costs every more to build a house than it used to, while the business led PPP approach means that the houses they build often have major remedial work needed like falling apart apartments, construction is more aimed at the luxury McMansion market /well heeled apartment owners in NZ/tourism than local people, social housing is ridiculously expensive to run and poorer quality of life for tenants https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/110696830/government-to-perform-stocktake-of-emergency-housing-in-wake-of-auckland-rat-hole-motel-revealtions?rm=a https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018695582/social-housing-complex-tenants-feel-bullied-by-operator going forward.
I’d say things have got worse in the rental and housing sector for many since they started their reforms because they have not done any thing about demand, in fact they have increased it.
National would have sold 20 houses ( at least ) for every one they built savenz ,,,, and they engineered a witch hunt hysteria in order to flog them off.
…perhaps you were asleep when this was happening ?.
Are you a sleep ??? a lot of what you write is all over the place ,,,, ie mentioning Ihaumato as part of our housing crisis.
ie 2 saying covid-19 is just a normal yearly event.
ie 3 saying businesses need to diversify ,,, when thats not the business of a business.
Machines going down in the share-market ?? ,,, did you mean selling.
” Funny how in an election year the banks are quick to call a recession in NZ ” ,,,, did you not read Martyns post about the WORLD markets ,,, the banks would be idiotic not to state the obvious that this WILL and already IS effecting our economy ,,
,,,, “have a government led plan to run NZ business” ??? Like old style soviet central command governing?.
The good sense you do type is undermined because your all over the place.
Think more ,type less, stop conflating everything.,,, and hopefully you will make more sense.
National would have sold 20 houses ( at least ) for every one they built
Yep. Many of those sales off-shore.
Maybe you should have a read of what the IRD has to say rather than spout dinner party bollocks when it comes to paying tax on property..
https://www.classic.ird.govt.nz/property/
Looks like Robo’s Balance Sheet is going to get a workout very soon!
The pending Apocalypse is nearing!
The Stock Market is Tanking! Oh No!
A Crazy Virus is on the loose! Oh No!
Russia told MBS, Saudi Oil to go fish! Oh No!
Lil ole NZ dead in the water because its too dependent on the rest of the world.
It may indeed be a chance to introduce “disaster socialism” because the weaknesses in global production and offshore supply chains have certainly been exposed already. But it is a big ask for a Labour Caucus that seems to keep Rogernomic’s DNA in cryogenic suspension in a beehive freezer. Really some sort of working class based input would be urgently needed as per the Welfare Experts Advisory Group–the Labour/Green politicians alone will not be able to handle it–look at WINZ/MSD.
I like Martyn’s basic list, that obviously needs the detail added. e.g. all benefit standowns to cease etc. etc.
Lots of regulation would be needed, and mainly the PM would have to take the majority of people with her and be realistic about the likely reaction from capital. So yes, small business and working farmers would have to get a nice hug from everyone. Or not, anarchy ahead if the internet goes down!
One thing about Cullen’s conservative surplus budgets infecting treasury is surpluses allows us to run Keynsian stimulus packages.
Check out The Great Leveller, by Walter Scheidel: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/29/the-great-leveller-walter-scheidel-review-paul-mason
I speculate Ardern is erasing “Traditional Labour” by doing a Tony Blair completing the 1984 betrayal. She has no concept of any other way. 1. No CGT on housing speculators for unearned price inflation 2. WINZ just as punitive as ever. 3. Massive financial surplus not going anywhere to help ordinary kiwis 4. No concept of issuing our own credit to build affordable housing 5. No cap on immigration providing cheap labour. Her goal is to be National Lite and stay in power by capturing some of their voter base. Labour continue to be prisoners in the Neoliberal Matrix and have no concept of taking the “red pill” and resisting or reforming the oppressive social relations we have. To be fair her coalition set-up is not the strongest for real change even if she believed in it. We are a very divided society based on wealth and the ” I’m alright Bruce ” shower are dominating both parties’ ideology.
Ardern is following on from Helen Clarke. I normal vote National but Clarke’s government was very business friendly and I voted for her twice until she tried to control our every move . The main difference between Ardern and Clarke is the team around her and Helen had a backbone to keep them and Winston under control
Mr Bridges has brought out this big huff’n’puff about cutting through regulations and red tape.
There is actually one area of govt where that could and should be applied, urgently, and that is an across the board clean-out of the red tape around welfare and benefits.
One universal benefit is called for, for all those Kiwis who truly need it, meaning those Kiwis who have neither income nor assets nor their own home.
Just end the rubbish about partners and end-of-work dates and extent of disability, and loans and debts, etc etc. Clean the slate of all those regulations!
One benefit, that is sufficient to survive on! – for each individual person regardless of who else they may or may not be sharing accommodation with, and whether or not they occasionally give the other persons or their pet cats/dogs/parrots whatever a reassuring hug. (Morons and perverts who try to follow and spy on those giving hugs should be locked away for their own safety!)
Now more than ever, with the looming pandemic bringing lockdowns and quarantines, the old crap institutional ways need to go! We’re entering a new era. Let’s make it a more enlightened one.
@ Kheala I think you will find that somehow some wealthy people own nothing on paper in NZ!
In Italy they had similar problems of so much hidden wealth that IRD went around and actually looked at lifestyle of people from the IRD perspective aka if someone was driving a Ferrari while on benefits or living in a pricy mansion but apparently was in poverty, they investigated them and low and behold found a lot of money in unpaid taxes to boot!
IRD and social welfare need to change how they assess people who are leading a wealthy lifestyle while crying poor if they are to save the welfare system in the global economy.
At the same time they have to stop importing in poverty, because NZ can not sustain millions of people in poverty here and a huge cash economy.
I think you will find that somehow some wealthy people own nothing on paper in NZ!
Can you give me a link to show what you’re referring to?
At the same time they have to stop importing in poverty, because NZ can not sustain millions of people in poverty
Yes, I agree – and raise the bar on citizenship too.
Well put Kheala. State payments should be unique to holder, with no moralistic overlay at all.
Thousands are likely to be in need very shortly due to global capitalism’s shortcomings and greed.
I see soimon is now saying the government should wait 6 months for the wages increase yet the other day he was saying how important it was to give tax cuts to the middle income earners. I hope people are writing this all down he forgets what he says this fella he is all over the place like a scatter gun. Yet the pay increases will go straight back into our economy unlike the exorbitant bank profit it goes over seas.
Exactly, Michelle!
The difference between a tax cut and a wage rise is that a tax cut puts more money in the pocket without effecting the bottom line. The MBI said that the increase will lead to 33000 possible job loses . With the down turn in business due to the virus the wage increase could be the straw that broke the camels back. Simon and David Seymour are only calling for a delay not a cancellation
Completely wrong about wage increases compared to tax relief. Wage increases stimulate the economy Tax cuts do nothing as the cheese block tax National implemented showed.
Soiman? haha love the way you despise the kiwi working class accent. Must be a leftie thing I guess Michelle?
I think Michelle’s humor is great, it must be she has a personality which you may need to get. Just like the right like to call Jacinda “cindy”
How can I despise the working class accent Wiking my father was a well educated freezing worker who was fortunate enough to go to a boarding school in early 1950s. And I didn’t call him soiman I called him soimon.
Yes Wiking I feel leftie out like many do you get it ‘ left out ‘ lighten up aren’t we allowed to take the mickey.
No he’s not all over the place. Wage increases put pressure on the business’s that employ the population. Tax cuts don’t.
Im afraid our shining light our PM of the nuclear moment is not the transformative leader we had all hoped that she would be. She’s on that Public Relations train right now uploading videos to social media telling people not too panic about covid-19 I feel this may set people up for a false sense of security which is probably not her intent but that’s what PR is designed to do lull us into a false sense of security. I felt the temperature drop this morning a reminder that winter is coming. Do people really understand how a pathogen works? It’s not going away and in fact will only get stronger, who the fuck knows when they will find a vaccine and will pharmac make this available to everyone in NZ??. We have had thousands of people who have walked through our airports since Dec / Jan /feb potentially carriers and incubators of the host-pathogen I believe that it is out there now silently transmitting waiting to explode for us and where is the pop-up testing stations?? why can’t people for peace of mind go to one of these if they are feeling a bit under the weather with a change of season on the way? A fucking social media video does jack shit and is fucking deceitful of the government to put it out there and have all these gullible twits praise her leadership. The MOH “believes” it can contain a pathogen ffs these fucking people are unbelievable in their incompetence and are only interested in covering their own arses. Look after yourselves and your family its going to hit the fan for us shortly.
It is not capitalist decline it’s monster capitalist exploitation
It’s called shock Doctrine…. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine
more shocks mean more assets change to the super rich who can essentially manipulate the markets while benefiting from it https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/08/george-soros-bank-of-england.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_IMF_crisis
Under our modern monster capitalism the capitalist benefit even when they cause the crisis like the Global Financial Crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007–08 when the Democrats bailed out the banks instead of jailing the bankers.
Now the bankers came back richer and more powerful than ever, while the democrats now lose to Trump…
Yes Martyn so the National opposition has no ideas exept put moore trucks on our crumbling roads,
We wrote this about National yesterday and we hope Jacinda supports regional rail resoration and not road building that nwould end her being “princess of climate change policy.” Lets do thois Jacinda.”
“CEAC calls National’s Transport anti-rail Policy cruel to all regions.”
Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre; Press release.
10th March 2020.
The 2020 National party policy for transport is to use truck freight not rail, and already signalled only “more roads” which is dangerous, reckless, and will bankrupt NZ and ruin our future, costing taxpayers billions.
Our case in point;
• Why fund restoration of regional rail equally to roads?
When in 2001 we met ‘Tony Friedlander’ the former (RTF) ‘Road Transport Forum’ chief at the HB Regional Land Transport Meeting, in 2001, he said he wanted a ‘dedicated double laned road for trucks only’ – to fix the problem of truck gridlocked roads then.
Now that will cost would be estimated to be at least $200 Billion dollars, according to figures found here.
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2017/08/01/escalating-costs-building-roads/ without any consideration for possible resulting iwi claims to perpetual access charges for rights of use costs added.
Perhaps the cheaper way is to shift 50% of the freight back to rail and fund rail equally to roads?
This is a plea to the Transport Select Committee, – we urge you back this ‘Rail Legislation amendment Bill’ both to get the regional rail operating and especially the Gisborne rail line re-opened please as the whole East Coast is asking for this now.
We will request this at the ‘Transport Select Committee’, during their consideration of changes, give regard to our concerns of how dangerous the roads are for us all with truck gridlock now, regarding the ‘Rail legislation amendment bill’.
We fully support Minister of Transport Phil Twyford’s move to make funding for rail an equal recipient to road funding.
This is long overdue, so well-done Phil Twyford and Winston Peters.
Our community along with our local leaders including our new Mayor of Gisborne District Rehette Stoltz are all now requesting for rail services to be restored for our community’s own health, safety and social wellbeing since the PGF funded BERL report come out in December justifying rail services be restored to Gisborne for our community wellbeing.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/405652/millions-for-gisborne-rail-link-restoration-is-justified-report
• Proof of our strong support for Gisborne rail’; we provide the latest NZ Herald poll results showing 86% want Gisborne rail freight and passenger services restored. http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/local-news/20200222/whopping-86pc-favour-restoring-gisborne-rail-link/
• We are placing our own Provincial Transport hazards and public health issues without any rail services, now before the government; why you must support the Land Transport (Rail) Legislation Bill to increase rail funding to improve rail services to our export rich region and other regions.
History; Before the last election in 2017 we watched the first leaders debate on TV One between Jacinda Ardern & Bill English National’s last PM.
The debate never actually tackled the thorny issues of transport issues we all face deficits from in our East Coast regions without rail.
Our Community concerns at national’s lack of rail for the deficiencies we all face in our regions of HB/Gisborne since the National Party had assumed the mantle of governance over our regions and lives during the nine years of hell.
When the National Party took over in November 2008 the former Labour lead Government had just bought back the rail system from Toll Rail, an Australian Company and had set aside a track Maintenance Company called Ontrack who were given a $200 Million reserve account to rely on to keep the rail line in service, for the new Kiwirail operator to run their services.
National’s new Minister of Transport Steven Joyce somehow reorganised the Kiwirail Company and folded the On Track rail line Maintenance Company up and the $200 million somehow disappeared.
Since 2009 we had witnessed three events of large rail washouts on the rail line between Gisborne and Central HB.
• First the washout around Otane in Central HB.
• Later the larger washout at Beach Loop near Mahia Northern HB/Gisborne.
• Third event was in 2018 was a medium sized washout near Kotemaori in HB.
• The $200 million Labour finance minister Michael Cullen had setup for the ‘Ontrack’ – track maintenance was to deal with these washouts, as we have seen many other washouts around NZ rail have been repaired since.
Someone in Labour now before the 2020 election must ask the National opposition leader Simon Bridges (who was then Minister of transport) “where was our share of that $200 million Ontrack was given to repair the rail washouts at Beach Loop, Otane, and Kotemaori so our rail to Gisborne is finally repaired after being left closed since March 2012?”
FACT; We now have witnessed that this ‘mess’ was left for the new Labour coalition Government to find that lost $200 Million that was robbed from our Public Rail Company ‘Ontrack’ account?
We met with the Napier National Party candidate David Elliott before the last election in 2017 about the disastrous HB/Gisborne “truck Gridlocked roads” causing immense noise, vibrations and air pollution in our local regions especially around the Napier residential areas near the HB Expressway, as we are now confirming that our continuous cameras count over 2400 truck movements are counted every day that travel on the expressway to the Port of Napier & other areas each day since the rail was cut from the slips in 2012.
We had asked for the Minister of Transport Simon Bridges to visit Napier and meet our Community Committee and inspect the issues we faced then and worse now, but after three attempts to ask for Simon Bridges to attend a meeting here with his own National Party candidate David Elliott he has declined.
Gladly National candidate David Elliot did agree to come and meet residents in west Napier near the HB Expressway, to see the truck gridlock in the residential communities of west Napier, and he responded verbally stated to us that he saw an issue of no adequate mitigation given to us to cope with the heavy truck noise vibrations and air pollution emitted from the high truck volumes going to the Port of Napier, as he saw adequately given to the residents of Hong Kong where he spent some time.
I expect Mr Bridges during 2020 knows what a mess he & his Government’s transport policy is in since there is no support for restoring regional rail, that is previous administration had left for us to live with.
During the last election we watched PM Bill English during the run up to election day in 2017, and then in his first Leaders debate on TV, he was often talking about his Government actively going around the country meeting all those business folks, such as the seafood workers, and truck drivers, to see what issues they wanted to see, we felt somewhat disappointed as every letter request we sent for a meeting with him was declined.
So was Simon Bridges lack of a meeting given, as he was the Minister of Transport then and our issue was seeking his support for regional rail which was declined.
How could our Committee have tried any harder to work directly with the National Party to meet with our Community Committee in Napier or Gisborne then?
So, we need to support this Labour coalition Government to get a fair hearing and support for rail services in our regions.
National can’t criticise us for not trying to work with them can they as we tried?
We need to set the record straight for voters to decide in 2020 who supports rail.
ENDS
Trump just announced a (potentially) massive stimulus package that will wash the the globe with freshly printed money (just like they did with the GFC). Not sure at this early stage that it will be quite as successful this time, since the problem isn’t that no-one has money, but more that no-one wants to go outside to spend it. In any case, printing money always hurts the poor the most (despite that TDB here also advocates doing this in NZ) since every single freshly printed dollar is immediately spent into the economy which by definition must give exactly the same amount of inflation to offset the print (this is basic economics). If you could somehow steer where the inflation takes place it could be beneficial, but unfortunately that is not what ever happens under capitalism. To date it just ends up driving up the stock market, boosting house prices and (worst of all for the poor), increasing utility, food and general living costs.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/09/coronavirus-donald-trump-pushes-economic-stimulus-disease-spreads/5000616002/
Nitrium. Private banks inject billions of new money every year in their lending activity protected by law inherited from Westminster and the City of London crooks.
NZ govt can and should get right into or take over lending and so printing new money to spend on infrastructure and social programmes including Health and Education.
Transformational change is not coming from this government or any other in the near future Martyn. Surely deep down you know this?
just had to comment on the fact that some CEO’s are either taking a pay cut Air NZ Greg Foran said he would slash $250,000 off his $1.65m base pay however the prize needs to go to Alan Joyce, who has been at the head of Qantas since 2008, is Australia’s best-paid chief executive, taking home realised pay of A$23.88 million (NZ$25.81m) in the 2018 financial year. Wow just wow and we wonder why there is growing inequality with this kind of carry on. fuck me Im just like how does an airline justify that??
Martyn, when will you learn that Kiwibank cant save NZ. It probably cant even save itself.
As often the case, some good analyses and valid comments from many contributors to the TDB.
But.
The bottom-line remains that without the logical organizational consequences stemming from these analyses the TDB is not more than the ‘Wailing Wall in the Land of the Long White Cloud’.
Three Basic Options.
1) Change the existing Green Party from within.
2) Establish a new eco-socialist political platform.
3) Facilitate and enhance cooperation and communication among civilian initiatives in AONZ.
Ms Jacinda and friends cannot do that .…. even if you vote for her.
System Change. Now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=354KSku9i4I
Circling The Drain.
A Couple of Ideas From A Far:
In Kazhakstan last year the new President said they had learned some lessons from providing bail outs to banks during a 10 year banking crisis and instead simply ‘forgave’ the debts of the poorest 16% of the population.
In Italy in response to the Corana virus, peoples mortgage payments have been suspended.
Ideas for the list
In Kazakhstan the new PM said he had learnt some lessons from providing banks with billions in bailouts during 10 year banking crisis and instead has simply ‘forgiven’ the debts of the poorest 16% of the population.
In Italy the Corona virus has prompted the suspension of people’s mortgage payments.
In Kazakhstan the newly elected president said he had learnt some lessons from providing banks with billions in bailouts during a 10 year banking crisis and instead has simply ‘forgiven’ the debts of the poorest sixth of the population.
In Italy the Corona virus has prompted the suspension of people’s mortgage payments.
Ideas for the list
In Kazakhstan the new PM said he had learnt some lessons from providing banks with billions in bailouts during 10 year banking crisis and instead has simply ‘forgiven’ the debts of the poorest 16% of the population.
In Italy the Corona virus has prompted the suspension of people’s mortgage payments.
In Kazakhstan the new PM said he had learnt some lessons from providing banks with billions in bailouts during 10 year banking crisis and instead has simply ‘forgiven’ the debts of the poorest 16% of the population.
In Italy the Corona virus has prompted the suspension of people’s mortgage payments.
In Kazakhstan the newly elected president said he had learnt some lessons from providing banks with billions in bailouts during 10 year banking crisis and instead has simply ‘forgiven’ the debts of the poorest sixth of the population.
In Italy the Corona virus has prompted the suspension of people’s mortgage payments.
Flogging a dead horse again. As for Jacinda, anyone expecting anything ‘transformative’ or transformational from her is dreaming. Maybe wearing a hijab is ‘transformational’, like other virtue signalling.
So we will sink into disarray and entropy then.
I think OUR government should get radicle.
They can. And they must.
Re covid-19
I think we should go for a full boarder lock down. Immediately.
This on Boingboing.net re Italy.
Overwhelmed ICU’s.
https://threader.app/thread/1237142891077697538
It’s too late when it’s too late.
That means zero incoming without a significant quarantine period.
Re Commerce.
Create a Ministry of Retail Banking and divert all investments and government cash reserves into it including asset stripping ACC.
Ban all foreign banking effective immediately and write off all mortgage debt immediately. Today.
Return all assets taken from us under the guise of good intentions which can now clearly be seen as simply a few greedy wankers helping themselves to our stuff and things.
Ban all foreign land ownership and and rescind all previous agreements.
A two year tax free incentive to get people out of worthless urban ‘jobs’ and back into the rural towns to develop small agricultural endeavours like market garden style farming with the help of AI and solar farming. AO/NZ urgently needs to crank up its agrarian enterprises to feed a soon to be starving first world. God help the others.
If this is bare arsed survival, we must go into bare arsed survival mode and that doesn’t mean forming a committee to discus future plans.
The future is now. Today. “ Lets do this? “
If we don’t? We’re fucked.
When are you going to report the climb that the DOW is now experiencing
Wow Jacinda works wonders doesn’t she.
I think Michelle’s humor is great, it must be she has a personality which you may need to get. Just like the right like to call Jacinda “cindy”
To much pessimism cant be good for the markets and our mainstream media are leading the pack as usual they cant help themselves.
The DOW is climbing Trev must be the newly printed money.
You remind me Labour was offering’ transformative change’ two years ago. And now we know that comes from a lifetime of struggle rather than being at head office in your youth. Ardern’s shallowness pervades.
The electorate is always looking for a simple story. Why those politicians aware of the complexity of reality oft get a kick in the chin. It’s always about the present for voters, some presents are more generous than others.
You haven’t closed down comments? Covid is the sales for climate change mobilisation. Hopefully will save the great man of democracy, Sanders. War government, another more acceptable name for socialism — or democracy. Labour should bring National in to the government to press the point home. Otherwise National are open to going off with Murdochian Oz Right Trumpian bullshit when a NZer with no conscience comes along. Have you seen Oz Sky News lately?
Labour can’t lead with their arm pressed down by Rogernomics, so NZ is always open to craze from the Right. Lassie save us! Or, Labour, push on from this crisis.
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