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6:00 am, January 14th, 2026 - 9 comments
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
Trump attacks Wall St (Dems will be horrified): https://apnews.com/article/banks-trump-jamie-dimon-jpmorgan-credit-cards-bny-b4f31993a64c31687c91f17beab0a98a
Liberal hearts will bleed in anguish all over the place at the prospect of top capitalists being unable to bleed plastic card users optimally. Swipe fee ripoffs regulated by the state?? Gotta be a socialist conspiracy. Ah, Trump doing it? Hmm.
Journos will cogitate at this a wee bit. One may even ask him at a media event if he's a closet socialist, which will give him a chance to explain how politics works: "Yeah, the left & right join up at the opposite side of the magic circle, so I can be both fascist & communist simultaneously. Fun, eh?"
So Winston wants the Reserve Bank Governor to join the MAGA* crowd
* Make Aotearoa Grate Again.
Haven't heard that before, very good.
How about a competition to give new wording to the MAGA acronym?
Here's my entry, triggered by the CoC's deliberate war on nature and its efforts to gut the RMA:
Shane Jones obviously thinks MAGA means “Mine Aotearoa’s Greatest Attractions”.
so interesting but ultimately not surprising, that Peters is siding with the fascists
RBNZ governor, Anna Breman, in response to Winston Peters’ criticism of her letter in support of the Fed's Jerome Powell, said that she was supporting Central Bank independence in general from political interference. However is not CB independence itself a political question.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360924317/rbnz-governor-signs-letter-support-us-fed-boss-jerome-powell
lol Free from political interference, but also free to interfere in politics…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/economy/treasury-boss-iain-rennie-on-whats-required-to-bolster-the-books-in-the-absence-of-high-immigration-and-house-prices/premium/YIPWSFT4YZBRVC622UCCJBUKCY/
Let's not make the mistake of defending the neoliberal consensus simply because the Mango Mussolini is doing the criticising.
Iain Rennie's extraordinarily overtly political comments in that Herald piece should, in any normal democracy, mean the first order of the day for any reformist Labour leader would be to fire him immediately on being elected.
https://archive.li/cr5AH#selection-4115.0-4115.179
He likes the Shipley option of reducing the cost of super by limiting the increase to the CPI (rather than means testing – because of an unknown impact on that on employment choices).
This hardship on those with no other income as his preference. How middle class of him.
Interesting backgrounds on RBNZ and USA Feds and 'political interference'. The Onion could have made up a great little satirising song about that.