Posts by David Slack
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
FDR, I think. Nixon nixed Bretton Woods.
You're right. My mistake.
I think of Muldoon every time those words come up. He often wondered aloud about the good it might do the world to have a "new Bretton Woods." He'd probably be getting a bit of media mileage today (and putting the boot in to sundry monetarists) if he were still around.
-
Which is somewhat ironic, considering that it was Nixon who dropped the gold standard.
-
next time you are writing a speech for a politician.
Not that I have been doing any of that this election. Just last week I had an email from a Mr Drinnan of The Royal NZ Herald asking just such a question. Imagine.
You're right about the pets, though. I think Checkers is still the gold standard.
-
Oh yeah, and when the worst gets here, we'll eat the cat.
I will be very disappointed if that doesn't appear in The Crepes of Roth.
Braised in a Touareg hubcap?
-
Perhaps it is nonetheless a novel concept because it will be achieved without the involvement of any of the dreaded bureaucrats.
(Would an unemployed bureaucrat qualify for assistance under the criterion of people who the government was confident would again find work over time?)
-
Not perfect, but jolly well good enough to be part of a democratic system.
Quite. Thus, a party with 5% of the vote gets several seats, while one with 4.9% (and no constituency win) gets nothing. It's not just overhang that will get you some skewing.
-
Ooops - sorry, got side-tracked with looking after babies...
I realise I was a bit vague in my original post - it's just that you have a great (and witty) writing style and generally choose life-affirming or emotive topics such as extra-curricular tutelage of your daughter, travels around France, the upsetting death of a friend, etc that make you ponder the bigger picture of life.
And I am not a fan of personal politics. Cast your vote and see what happens...Thank you Rik. I see your point.
If it's any help, I'm just days away from the first anniversary of an experience so awful I could barely write about it at the time. I might well have something to offer about that.
I'm intrigued, though: on which side of the ledger do you put the story about taking Mary-Margaret to an ACT meeting?
-
(don't get me started on guineas!)
Oh, but I will, for I love the guinea. I grew up in a world of stock auctions, where things sold by the guinea, that is to say, 21 shillings. Which makes a pound plus a shilling. The shilling went to the auctioneer and the pound went to the vendor. I think.
If I'm right about that, it seems to me that the notion of a fair commission was thus entrenched: 5%.
We left that behind with decimalisation and at that moment the leash was slipped on what constituted a fair commission. Thus did the likes of your Fay and your Richwhite make out like bandits.
This is just a theory, you understand, but you have reminded me that it is nice to to do a little thinking now and then, and share your work with others so they can improve it.
-
BTW, I don't believe Lockwood Smith is a racist, just stupid. Which is a sacking offence in itself, AFAIC.
New Sacking Policy Pushes Unemployment Rate to 35%.
-
I suspect the Chinese and Babylonians might disagree about printing and indoor plumbing resp.
I'm sure they would. As, no doubt, would many nimble, dexterous and small handed Polynesians about recent observations made of them.
A friend who was on a Latin American trade mission with Dr Smith in 1999 just rang with his recollection of ten long and discouraging days on the road with the Minister. The low point, he said, was hearing the Minster declare to an audience in Argentina: "if you come to our country, bring your cheque book, because we have plenty of land to sell."