Daily review 06/08/2020

47 comments on “Daily review 06/08/2020”

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  1. 1

    So, we know that neoclassical/liberal economics uses some way, way waaaay out assumptions to back up its philosophical underpinnings. But, it turns out its even worse than that as it was proved, back in the 1950s/60s, that its also based upon circular reasoning which, pretty much, makes the entire hypothesis a logical fallacy.

    The summary goes like this:

    Nitzan shows that the neoclassical theory of prices fails in six ways:

    1. Neoclassical theory hinges on utility that cannot be measured
    2. It relies on demand and supply curves that cannot be observed
    3. It depends on equilibrium whose existence it cannot confirm
    4. It requires but cannot show that demand and supply are mutually independent
    5. It requires but cannot demonstrate that the market demand curve slopes downward
    6. And it must but cannot measure capital and therefore cannot draw the supply curve, even on paper

    Here's the video:

  2. 2

    "The government's one saving grace is that Ardern is good in a crisis. We saw it in Christchurch, we saw it over White Island, and we've seen it again with the pandemic: her instincts are good, and she is good at communicating what is necessary and bringing people with her. And in the middle of the biggest crisis we've faced for a century, that's useful…"

    Yes, well, Idiot/Savant, crisis is all we are going to get from here on in, so Jacinda "good in a crisis" is the very leader we need!

    http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/08/assessing-labours-term.html

    1. 2.1

      Annoyed at the lack of vision and at the hubris. Considering my options. Not voting may be one. If they want a clear majority they have to outline what they will and won't do. It is potentially unprecedented political power.

    2. 2.2

      They aren't wrong. I guess we'll see if Labour can be as transformational as promised in 2017 without the albatross of NZ First hanging around their neck next term (touch wood)

  3. 3

    John Key apparently told a radio station today that Jacinda isn’t interested in the post Covid economy. What a bloody cheek given that he couldn’t be arsed do the job and buggered off before the term was up after voters had the good sense to kick his silly flag referendum into touch.

    1. 3.1

      Keys lips are moving…what more do you need to know.

      No more asset sales was it then slung his hook, rapid knighthood before they were voted out.

    2. 3.2

      The Nat Old Boy/Girl network are being dragged back into the fray in an effort to avert a disastrous result on Sept. 19. It was Steven Joyce a couple of days ago and now its John Key. Who is next? Jim Bolger or Jenny Shipley?

      1. 3.2.1

        I know. Someone said, rather wittily I thought, on Twitter that rolling out Key because you can’t get any traction yourself is a bit like taking your dad to a job interview.

      2. 3.2.2

        Good news for the 'retiring' MPs, you don't need to be elected or in parliament to be the leader of the opposition!

        Also, what capacity are these comments in? Who's he working for?

    3. 3.5

      His solution for the post-pandemic economy? Turn the Mangawhai coast into Palm Beach.

      No doubt he has invested big in the region…

    1. 4.1

      Can't be too hard for Goldsmith, Key, AirNZ, AIAL, ATEED, MBIE, and Treasury to figure that number out.

      Everyone agrees on the need to go up the value chain with both students and tourists: richer people staying longer, requiring lower volumes of them for a profitable yield for both industries.

      So they should do the work and calculate net worth and net benefit.

      Until then, Ardern can reasonably just keep batting the half-baked concepts away.

      1. 4.1.1

        They never will provide numbers benefits and a business case because even in pre covid times these didn't stack up. Oversea education 45000 people employed year after year- costs 70,000 student work visas issued a year with around 30,000 trying for extensions.

        Job deficit year one 35000 people, then every following year take 70000 and add 0n 30,000 cumulating. Net result massive job deficit from the sector increasing every year. Profits from visa sales pocketed by small group of individuals – it sucked.

        Then add on the covid downside figures to make it really suck

    2. 4.2

      Good, clear argument.

      It's frustrating that the "open up borders" people never go beyond generalities. Or are never pressed for details – facts, figures, like Clint provides.

      Their line essentially comes down to "trust us". Actually, that's not quite right – it comes down to "trust somebody else, an unnamed hero who will be running the vastly expanded isolation system, but instead of the current 99.9% success rate, they will deliver 100%".

      I wouldn't mind so much if they said "open up borders AND accept cases of the virus in the community". That would be honest, at least. But they never are.

      1. 4.2.1

        "trust us"

        Yeah, Nah'

        Marseille had been warned by health authorities in Livorno about the ship’s conditions and the death of multiple sailors: the typical protocol would be to reroute the ship to be burned, along with its highly valued goods. But the merchants of Marseille wanted the goods on the ship, the owner of the ship just so happened to be the deputy mayor of Marseille, and the great Beaucaire medieval fair was mere weeks away, so greed won out and the ship was allowed to dock and sell its infected cargo.

        The plague spread relentlessly, though slowly at first. Authorities attempted to quarantine those infected as quickly as they could, but cases continued to crop up and it soon overwhelmed the city. 50,000 of the city’s 90,000 inhabitants would perish over the next two years.

        https://medium.com/@chriscardinal/the-great-reopening-experiment-begins-7c6fcccf5200

      2. 4.2.2

        Heather du Plessis-Allan: Border poll shows we're becoming a nation of cowards

        Sixty-eight per cent of Kiwis surveyed say they want the border kept shut as tight as it is right now.

        What a clever girl Heather is. Yes?

        1. 4.2.2.1

          Covid free cowards, Heather, you fucking tool. Speaking of tools….

          National leader Judith Collins told Kate Hawkesby Kiwis should be more open to the idea of opening the border.

          ‘It isn't good New Zealanders have been so whipped up into a fear about bringing people into the country, safely.”

          The National Party leader says the Government is stoking a sense of fear, when the country needs to be finding a way to let more people safely into the country

          https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition/audio/judith-collins-responds-to-poll-showing-majority-of-kiwis-want-border-closed/

          1. 4.2.2.2.1

            Collins and D-P would be insulting the intelligence of all thinking NZs, if all did think. As it is some suck it up from the 'yellow press buttons' and the featherless pollies, without any sort of filtering. Children are more questioning.

        2. 4.2.2.4

          Coincidentally, sixty-eight per cent of Kiwis surveyed say they don't want the National Party in government.

  4. 5

    The last day of the Coalition:

    We don't know how lucky we are.

    Countries that don't have Covid-19 under control now will fall into Depression. They won’t have their economies under control for a further year because it will take so long to see the restructuring, firing, hiring and new investment or company collapse cycles to wrinse through.

    Our lot have spent $30 billion on job and business support, enough to push Labour through the election.

    But as the Minister of Finance warned today, unemployment will get worse.

    Ardern is making no campaign promises of note because the risk of community transmission is so, so high.

    2020 was terrible, and 2021 will be worse.

    1. 6.1

      When it damaged our tourism industry across the entire world, killed 21 people and damaged 26 other people.

          1. 6.1.1.1.1

            It was a crisis for tourism of the area.

            To compare it to chch. One of the worst mass shootings in global history and covid is a bit silly imho

            1. 6.1.1.1.1.2
    2. 6.2

      When the country has to order in "Skin" for burn grafts, identify bodies, search for two people and assist a town Yes. Every other volcano being visited was shocked into checking their systems I'm sure. It’s definitely a "time of intense difficulty and danger."

  5. 8

    Can Key’s performance on John Banks’ show (oh, remember the teapot tapes) be considered election advertising for the National Party?

    1. 8.1

      Preaching to the choir on Banks’s radio programme is not exactly a glowing advertisement for his star-power I wouldn’t have thought.

  6. 9

    Guses we will see when the suddenly reappearing Covid Alert ads appearing right before the election stop again.

  7. 10

    Get your masks ready.

    But more-sensitive experiments are now painting a more complex picture that points to the importance of aerosols as a transmission route. A study published in May used laser-light scattering to detect droplets emitted by healthy volunteers when speaking. The authors calculated6 that for SARS-CoV-2, one minute of loud speaking generates upwards of 1,000 small, virus-laden aerosols 4 micrometres in diameter that remain airborne for at least 8 minutes. They conclude that “there is a substantial probability that normal speaking causes airborne virus transmission in confined environments”.

    Another study7 published by Morawska and her colleagues as a preprint, which has not yet been peer reviewed, found that people infected with SARS-CoV-2 exhaled 1,000–100,000 copies per minute of viral RNA, a marker of the pathogen’s presence. Because the volunteers simply breathed out, the viral RNA was probably carried in aerosols rather than in the large droplets produced during coughing, sneezing or speaking.

    Other laboratory studies suggest that aerosols of SARS-CoV-2 remain infectious for longer than do aerosols of some related respiratory viruses. When researchers created aerosols of the new coronavirus, the aerosols remained infectious for at least 16 hours, and had greater infectivity than did those of the coronaviruses SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, which cause severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome, respectively8.

    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02058-1

    1. 11.1

      The info was an accidental leak from the SFO during disclosure. I don’t think JLR or his legal team are supposed to make it public.

      1. 11.1.1

        Accidentally leaked 4 reams of paper? Ok, then.

        Fascinating how a 'political' leak damaging to the National Party is swarmed over by the High Court and suppressed…

        …I think all Kiwis should be able to see the CCP’s donations to the National Party. Why can’t we?

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