The Standard

Daily review 21/07/2026

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, July 21st, 2026 - 14 comments
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Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

14 comments on “Daily review 21/07/2026 ”

  1. Incognito 1
    21 July 2026 at 6:04 pm

    Rob Campbell is selling himself short.

    It’s true that he [Winston Peters] appears to be recruiting candidates among old, sacked, rejected and lost people but that search has not yet reached me.

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/20/winston-peters-snivelling-wokesters-and-winning-the-political-raffle/

    Reply
    • SPC 1.1
      21 July 2026 at 6:17 pm

      Is it legal to short sell a raffle ticket to ride into parliament?

      Reply
      • Incognito 1.1.1
        21 July 2026 at 6:34 pm

        No politician would call it that. Winston promises, the centre pleads, the Left pledges, and the Right pork-barrels. All pretty legal, they would say.

        Reply
        • SPC 1.1.1.1
          21 July 2026 at 6:53 pm

          I still think there is no way, a Winston Peters promise to spend a billion dollars looking for something that is not there will provide us with a Norwegian sized wealth fund.

          And his plan is not to be here, when we all know this to be true.

          Making such a big claim honours Bill Birch as a younger man, not an older chastened one.

          At least we will get to see Peters using the excuse of leaving, or being out of parliament, (circa and post 2029) as he walks away from explaining a private companies monopoly on the Cook Strait.

          Reply
    • Bearded Git 1.2
      22 July 2026 at 6:40 am

      smiley

      Reply
  2. Dennis Frank 2
    21 July 2026 at 7:29 pm

    Mid-year now so time to review the prognosis for 2026: https://time.com/7343169/top-10-global-risks-2026/

    1. U.S. political revolution: What began as tactical norm-breaking has become a system-level transformation: President Donald Trump’s attempt to systematically dismantle the checks on his power, capture the machinery of government, and weaponize it against his domestic enemies. With many of the guardrails that held in Trump’s first term now buckling, we can no longer say with confidence what kind of political system the U.S. will be when this revolution is over. Ultimately, the revolution is more likely to fail than succeed, but there will be no going back to the status quo. The U.S. will be the principal source of global risk this year.

    True that the hegemon has been conducting a masterclass in mastery on the global stage. Blunderbuss performance art with random fails attached. Clowning around seems to captivate many, so it fulfills the circus prescription. Whether the learner generations are getting the picture is hard to tell though; risk management as a survival skill awaits export of the topic from the corporate world of consultants into the political arena. Yet Trump has been a good teacher, looking extremely risky from any angle, making him a great role model of how (not) to play the game. Time's team of masterminds scores well on point #1.

    2. Overpowered: The defining technologies of the 21st century run on electrons: EVs, drones, robots, batteries, AI. All require the “electric stack.” China has mastered it, becoming the first “electrostate.” The U.S. is ceding it, cementing the country’s status as the world’s largest petrostate. In 2026, that divergence will become impossible to ignore. While Washington asks countries to buy 20th-century energy, Beijing offers 21st-century infrastructure at knockoff prices. Emerging markets will increasingly favor China’s offering. The cumulative effect is a geopolitical turning point: A growing share of the world’s energy, mobility, and industrial systems will be built on Chinese foundations, bringing Beijing commercial benefits and influence that soft power alone could never deliver. The AI race raises the stakes – the U.S. may build the best models, but China may win the market if it can power and deploy AI at scale.

    Tech at scale is where a state or corporate wins big, so the gurus are hedging here – their doomster framing evokes US failure while being careful not to predict it via trend extrapolation. So geopolitical power is in a balance of relativity – a space of pivot – where a surge may occur on either side anytime.

    3. The Donroe Doctrine: President Trump is reviving and reinterpreting the logic of the Monroe Doctrine in an effort to assert U.S. primacy over the Western Hemisphere. The big news this year is Venezuela… heavy-handed American tactics will risk spurring backlash and unintended consequences.

    Trump's wins earlier this year have been supplanted by current failures. The less evidence of force efficacy, the less mana accrues.

    4. Europe under siege: France, Germany, and the U.K. each enter the year with weak, unpopular governments under siege from the populist right, the populist left, and the Trump Administration. All 3 risk paralysis at best and destabilization at worst – and at least 1 leader could fall. Europe’s ability to address its economic malaise, fill the security vacuum left by America’s retreat, and sustain support for Ukraine past 2026 will suffer. If Washington overtly interferes in European elections or takes the dramatic step of annexing Greenland, the postwar alliance framework, already strained, could fracture.

    Another win for the Time team. Starmer fell out of Downing St today.

    Reply
  3. SPC 3
    21 July 2026 at 7:58 pm

    Inflation is at 4.1%

    With the government increasing the MW at half the inflation rate, hardship is increasing.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/758556/inflation-rises-to-highest-level-in-two-years

    Reply

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