NZX is the big winner among listed companies this year according to Bloomberg – its share price is 56% up on the year. Why? Asset sales. No wonder Weldon is smiling – He owns more than 6 million NZX shares. At least one happy Dad, already. And just on his mate John Key’s promise.
Guns don’t kill people, the old saw goes. People do. By the same token, corporations don’t dodge taxes. People do. The people who run corporations are reaping awesomely lavish rewards for the tax dodging they have their corporations do. A report from the Institute of Policy Studies shows that 25 major U.S. corporations last year paid their chief executives more than they paid Uncle Sam in federal income taxes. Creative accounting is also a problem here.
Professor Robert Wade of the London School of Economics and author of the acclaimed Governing the Market will speak on this topic at LHT2, Rutherford House, Bunny Street, Wellington at 6pm on Thursday 22nd September. All are welcome to attend this free lecture; if you wish to come please register here as places may be limited. Click through to see abstract.
“Courage my friends, tis never too late to build a better world” was Jack Layton’s motto. He led Canada’s NDP from 37 seats to 103 in this May’s election. They called him “le bon Jack”. He died of cancer yesterday. His last letter to Canadians ends: “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic.” He was an inspiring leader and will be missed.
Sandra Grey from the Campaign for MMP and Kevin Hackwell from Forest and Bird will speak at a Fabian Society event this Thursday at 5:30. Sandra will outline the issues for the referendum and Kevin will give an account of the recent UK referendum on Alternative Vote. Venue is Connolly Hall behind the Cathedral in Hill Street, all are welcome.
The recall elections in Wisconsin over Governor Walker’s attempt to remove collective bargaining for public servants had it all – Republicans running fake Democrats in primaries, massive spending by faceless outside bodies, and two Republican senators losing their seats in the subsequent ballot. Democrats did not succeed in overturning the Wisconsin Senate majority for Walker’s Republicans, but it is down to one and there is one Republican who voted against the anti-union law.
Naomi Klein writes how the world’s leaders didn’t take action against those responsible for the financial market crash but would “all go home and force sacrifices on the most vulnerable… by firing public sector workers, scapegoating teachers, closing libraries, upping tuition fees, rolling back union contracts, creating rush privatisations of public assets and decreasing pensions – mix the cocktail for where you live.” Sounds familiar.
At National’s conference John Key accused Labour of the “politics of envy”. Peter Goodfellow told delegates they had more money for this campaign than ever before. National’s coffers will be bulging because of their assets sales policy. Labour wanting to keep assets publicly owned for everyone’s benefit is not at all about envy.
This editorial by Peter Oborne in the Telegraph on the riots and moral decay in Britain is up to 3370 comments. It’s worth a read.
42% Murdoch-owned Sky could be in the market to buy debt-laden TV3 according to John Drinnan in today’s Business Herald. Drinnan says that “Sky owning Mediaworks opens up a myriad of issues, not least the degree that the Government would continue to back the growth of Sky TV’s monopoly and its extension into radio.” Amen to that. SkyTV’s chief John Fellett says he has no interest in another television channel. That may not be Rupert’s view. Monopoly TV revenue streams are his bread and butter. News for him is “entertainment”.
Fox News’ “virulent paranoid streak, the unending appeals to white resentment, the reporting that’s a political campaign attack ad” comes from a political consultant who repackaged Richard Nixon for television in 1968, stoked racial fears to elect George Bush in 1988, and waged a secret campaign on behalf of Big Tobacco to derail healthcare reform in 1993.
There are some interesting comments in the Standard and Poor’s press release announcing the US downgrade. They say fixing debt isn’t just about cuts but raising revenue too. They also note the US difficulty in reaching a consensus on fiscal policy, and the looming demographic that will drive age-related spending. New Zealand should be taking note.
A report in the Financial Times, that hotbed of socialism, says that PFI’s as PPP’s are known in Britain cost an extra 20 billion pounds in “extra borrowing costs” over the 53 billion pounds of the projects’ actual cost. Not only that, 4 billion pounds will go to consultants. Enough said. Another dumb idea from those who gave us collateralised debt instruments, self-correcting markets and “there is no alternative”.
Geoff Simmons will speak on the importanceof Pharmac at a Fabian seminar today at St John’s Church at 5:30pm. Pharmac is also “on the table” in negotiations with the US in the Trans-Pacific Trade agreement. It is no secret that the US pharmaceutical industry would like to clip Pharmac’s wings; but our government’s approach is secret as they have refused to release draft negotiating texts. Geoff and Gareth Morgan have written to government arguing that a US free-trade deal isn’t worth it if Pharmac is sacrificed.
All are welcome to the free seminar.
Charles Moore, Thatcher’s authorised biographer writes in today’s Telegraph: “It has taken me more than 30 years as a journalist to ask myself this question, but I find that I must: is the Left right after all? The Left argues that “the free market” is actually a set-up. The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything”. It’s worth a read.
I’ve long thought that the best commentary on the business pages in the Herald and DomPost comes from Alex, the Telegraph cartoonist. He documents the real priorities of the insiders running the rentier economy. News that the banks are offering a lot of hospitality to Treasury officials shows that there are a few Alex’s here.
When David Cameron was asked did he ever discuss the BSkyB bid with News International, he said “I never had an inappropriate conversation.” It would be interesting to know whether he had an “appropriate” conversation about it with Rupert Murdoch when they met after the recent British election. Murdoch, who was asked by Cameron to go in the back door, said they had a cup of tea and no other conversation took place”. He was asked to go in the back door and they just chatted about the weather?
Stayed up to watch the Murdochs testifying before a House of Commons committee. They didn’t know a thing about phone hacking. They were let down by those under them. Rupert said it was “the most humble day of my life”. That would be right; Murdochs don’t do humble. It will be a totally new experience. The highest point of drama was the right hook administered by Rupert Murdoch’s latest wife Wendy Deng on the protestor who stuck a shaving-cream pie in Murdoch’s face. There were no smoking guns, but what we may have witnessed was the beginning of the end of the Murdoch dynastic dream. Good riddance.
When Helen was PM, visitors to Beehive offices had to leave their cellphones in the foyers. I understand it’s still the practice. It’s not because Ministers suspect officials of bugging them. It’s because cellphones can be accessed remotely and used as bugs without owners knowing. A Murdoch-owned Fox channel tells how it’s done. Google tells you where you can buy to spy. It’s not just Ministers – the Engineers Union, which represents journalists, found a paper tapping their phones during negotiations in 2005.
I was in the middle of the scrum on Molesworth Street on the night of July 29th 1981 when marchers were batoned by the police. A front-rowers’ collective has organised a 30-year anniversary commemoration at the Loaves and Fishes for Friday 29 July, and invite others to join them for a night of reminiscing and celebrating. Tickets are $15 to cover costs. If you would like to attend contact Paul Tolich 0275 935595 or Sue Ryall 021 380 176.
In today’s DomPost Andrea Vance has a tell-some-of-it op-ed piece about her days working the the Scottish edition of the News of the World. In it she says “it was The Guardian that has, rather sanctimoniously, pursued the News of the World.” I’ve been following this story closely and found that put-down offensive. Contrast it with how Rebekah Wade pursued Clare Short (pictured).
The Tax Working Group canvassed the many reasons why New Zealand should have a capital gains tax, before rejecting it by majority decision on the basis it was too complex and hard to administer. According to Auckland University’s Professor Craig Elliffe and Chye-ching Huang this is not borne out by the example of South Africa’s successful introduction of a CGT in 2001. Surely if the South Africans can make such a tax work our officials can too.
Murdoch-watchers have long known there’s something rotten in the Newscorp media empire. The extent and reach of the phone hacking scandal in Britain has finally seen the biter bit by its own corruption. Murdoch sought power over governments around the world to entrench his extreme right-wing ideology. From Thatcher to Cameron, all were supported by Murdoch’s tabloid papers into Parliament. Now Murdoch may need the BSkyB deal to provide enough cashflow to stay alive as Miliband proposes to introduce legislation to stop it.
At a Downing Street press conference, Cameron said: “The deeper truth is this… because party leaders were so keen to win the support of newspapers we turned a blind eye to the need to get on top of the bad practices.” Cameron said he would have taken Rebekah Brooks’ resignation. Watch this space – others may now be seeking his. Just like Watergate, this story grows legs by the day and is now certain to be long-running. Cameron could well go the way of Nixon for the same reason – cover-up.
The phone-hacking story in England is not only out from under the carpet – it has gone ballistic. Now there are allegations the phones of families of slain soldiers were hacked. The fallout from the scandal is now hitting Murdoch’s pocket. Major advertisers are deserting his papers, his share price is dropping, and his takeover of BSkyB, the big prize, may be under threat. Comeuppance at long last, and where it hurts. Cameron won’t escape either.
Karl du Fresne attacked the general reaction to Alasdair Thompson’s views on women in the workforce in Tuesday’s DomPost. Those outraged were compared to Hitler, female journalists got a spray, as did the”spineless” EMA Board of Directors and “a former Prime Minister who apparently suffers from the delusion that she’s still the Queen Bee”. I don’t know why the DomPost keep him on. I think it’s time whoever’s in charge also got some spine.
New revelations out today that hacker Glenn Mulcaire who bugged celebrity phones for Murdoch’s News of the World also hacked into the phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler after she went missing. NoW journalists deleted messages which gave Milly’s parents false hope that Milly might be alive. This happened when Rebekah Brooks, friend of David Cameron was the paper’s editor, and Andy Coulson, later Cameron’s communications director was deputy editor. This won’t stay under the carpet.
Good piece in today’s Herald by John Armstrong focussing on Vote for Change declaring that they are not in favour of any particular form of electoral system at this stage. He doesn’t find it believable, and nor do I. His take is that “Vote for Change looks very much like the National Party Preservation Society in drag.” I agree. I think they have a classic bait and switch strategy, it involves Key, and we should not take it lightly.
By its own admission, Vote for Change is anti MMP. Its website homepage has “More Accountability” as its first principle. It is also an Incorporated Society. So I had a look at its rules – you can find them on the Societies website. It seems more like the Politburo to me. Not a good look for a group supposedly promoting better democracy.
Fascinating column by Paul Krugman in the NYT. America’s growth is slowing, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernancke has just anounced that he doesn’t understand why the recession is going on so long. Krugman’s focus is on employment, and he says that policy makers are catering almost exclusively to the interests of rentiers — those who derive lots of income from assets, who lent large sums of money in the past, often unwisely, but are now being protected from loss at everyone else’s expense. Sounds familiar here too – tax cuts at the top and asset sales to benefit the NZX.
The Supreme Court threw out a class action suit against WalMart alleging gender discrimination on a technicality – that the women had not proved that they were a deserving class for the purpose of the law. Reagan-Bush judges Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Alito and Roberts voted for WalMart; Clinton-Obama judges Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan for the women. This one will be back, that’s for sure.
No it’s not a virus. It’s our dollar surfing on a dumper. Gareth Morgan and Neville Bennett have both written about it recently. Bennett says “There is increasing evidence that New Zealand is ailing. The symptoms are a high exchange rate, excessive foreign debt and a decline of the manufacturing sector.” The resulting damage if nothing is done, says Morgan, is “a hollowing out of our non-commodity producing businesses, no correction in our household savings rate and in time, a balance of payments/external debt crisis as those factors conspire.” Bennett is not in the camp of those who say nothing can be done and offers some ideas backed up by the IMF. We need more thinking like that.
The Te Tai Tokerau by-election has the potential to be a game-changer. If it comes off for Kelvin on Saturday the result may shake up a few other predictions for the general election – another example of the wisdom of Harold Wilson’s famous remark that a week is a long time in politics. Now it’s down to who goes out on the day. After the battle of the hustings will come the battle of the explanations – they will be fascinating.
Could be worth watching Native Affairs on Maori television tonight at 8:30. The Te Tai Tokerau candidates will be debating and it appears there may be a very interesting poll result in the offing. The Herald’s story today on a different sort of poll is headlined “Voters back Harawira, but only by a whisker.” It could go down to the wire.
Update: Hone 41, Kelvin 40
