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| Thread ID: 64003 | 2005-11-29 21:08:00 | Interesting article. | Cicero (40) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 408732 | 2005-12-05 02:37:00 | So Mike I imagine you are in favour of less government. No but I am sick of social engineering done by Govt. Bailouts by taxpayers only occur when a business is owned by taxpayers. The BNZ & railways weren't owned by Govt when they were bailed out and only a part share of AirNZ But the BNZ was a vast turkey for Fay Richwhite as the buyer - the taxpayer was the winner on that sale. I don't think so, we bailed them out twice and they were into dodgy tax deals which probably robbed the IRD of a few dollars. The IRD got some back after the Winebox enquiry. If protectionism was good, in fact great, why does any country have open trade borders?NZ is probably the most open country of the lot. |
mikebartnz (21) | ||
| 408733 | 2005-12-05 03:46:00 | I'm not arguing with you Mike but just a couple of clarifications. The BNZ was government-owned and bailed out by the National government for $600million in 1991 approx. They then sold it to Fay Richwhite Ltd which was a publicly listed company - and even more bad debts rose to the surface. Fay Richwhite Ltd was hit so badly that Michael Fay and David Richwhite were able to buy it back for themselves. Shysters. You are thinking about the Winebox scandal - and it was a scandal. This was a massive tax-dodge scheme set up earlier in 1986. The companies were European Pacific Banking Corp (Fay Richwhite), BNZ, and Brierleys. The railways were sold. The new owners of Tranzrail drew money out and ignored repairs and maintenance. Eventually it went broke. The current Labour administration made a political decision that having a national rail system was valuable to the community, so they pumped in hundreds of millions $$$. Toll Holdings runs the trains and ferries, the Government owns the rail corridors. Some of the money is repayable by Toll. Air New Zealand is part government owned and is traded on the share market. It almost went down the gurgler and again Labour made a political decision to inject heaps more $$$. Their judgement was that having a flagwaving national airline was critically important to our tourist industry. |
Winston001 (3612) | ||
| 408734 | 2005-12-05 03:48:00 | Protectionism is a vexed question. It probably did serve a useful function in NZ in earlier days. It is a moot point whether we would be better off now, manufacturing - wise, if the 1980s reforms had been carried out much earlier, but more slowly allowing time for adaption. Instead both Labour and National governments were locked into the import licensing and protectionism mentality due to idealogical reasons. It would have been nice to have seen high-tech industries develop, it says much for NZ that we do indeed see small but innovative industries succeeding in the present environment, but such a lot of promising ones went to the wall. WTO meetings always attract protesters from all over, particularly 3rd world countries worried about corporate power wielded by the big boys. Then the US, that great bastion of free enterprise (ha-ha), has barriers against imports, especially those thay may have a strong political lobby group, steel, meat, etc. The Japanese have used it extensively. Most western countries have the 'problem' of cheap Chinese imports taking away domestic manufacture, and noises about tarifs are continually heard. Korea and Japan have decided if you can't beat them then join them in a China-Japan-Korean Free Trade Area: ".......... This fact suggests that both Korea and Japan are transferring their production-bases of their electronics industry into China." www.nira.go.jp On a different note, on the same page as the Scoop Narau article is this one about Alan Bollard digging a hole for himself :) www.scoop.co.nz I am still importing impossible to get here 1920s music CDs like they were going out of fashion whilst the dollar is so high, thus significantly adding to the balance of payments problem. :) But then, Don Brash, in a paper I referenced some time ago, and Ciceros' economist Walter Williams (www.capmag.com) say that balance of payments deficits don't matter at all. |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 408735 | 2005-12-05 10:22:00 | Sorry lads,the discussion has become to disparate for me. Will just have to watch what you have to say. |
Cicero (40) | ||
| 408736 | 2005-12-05 22:15:00 | Sorry lads,the discussion has become to disparate for me. Will just have to watch what you have to say. Stick with it Cic, after all you started this thread! This is the bit I really like from the Dennis Dutton article you originally quoted: >>It was a mistake, journalist Warren Berryman has argued, to imagine that New Zealand was part of the western world. “Objectively,apart from the fact that we spoke English, our inward-looking command economy’s closest counterparts could only be found in the Eastern Bloc. The Muldoonist economy could best be likened to a Gdansk shipyard run by Indian bureaucrats"<< This sort of thing was carefully hidden from prospective immigrants to NZ by the High Commission in London. What was emphasised were the sunny beaches, the great outdoors, with all blokes looking like slim fit keen Ed Hilarys, and the shielas all looking 'simply delish'. What we actually found were grossly restrictive trade practices, barely able to change a tap washer without some nonsense about health risks, and being registered, fat people waddling around in Swandris eating takeaways, the Prime Minister himself had to sign an application for me to travel to Germany in connection with work. Still, I wouldn't change it ;) |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 408737 | 2005-12-08 20:43:00 | It's all about the premise,this gives you some idea what happens when you come from,the state knows best. www.spectator.co.uk |
Cicero (40) | ||
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