Posts by WH
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The paradox at the heart of our monetary policy is that raising interest rates to control domestic demand/house prices also messes with our productive sector, both by raising the cost of capital for business and by raising the exchange rate.
Of course, some of our inflation is driven by rising wages (something most of us want, provided we remain competitive) and the increasing prices of factor inputs on world markets. But it is right to say that we need a better way of controlling our housing market/inflation problem than raising interest rates. Obvious ways of achieving this are a capital gains tax on non-family-home house ownership and/or restricting non-resident ownership of New Zealand housing.
Australia's GDP per capita (A$47,181) is about 30 per cent higher than New Zealand's (A$33,682), with NZ well below the OECD average. NZ's figure is now lower than all Australian states, including Tasmania.
Hmm.
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On reflection I have to admit that I pay more attention to your posts Tze Ming because you pick up on issues that no one else on PA does.
Ditto that. Tze Ming's work is always interesting, even if I am part of the white male corporate oppression she is writing about.
Although one person's flippant comment is another's insulting provocation, if one was to focus on that one might miss the other things she is trying to say. Its a mistake I often have to battle my own instincts to avoid (unsuccessfully, more often that not).
I find expressing disagreement is tricky (whether socially or online) because you don't want to shut down a unique point of view or hurt anyone's feelings but there is always that aspect to it. As Span mentioned, comments often get skewed to points of disagreement, and don't focus so much on the thoughts and feelings that people might share.
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If you're interested in US politics you might want to read Rahm Emanuel's
(D - IL) latest speech on the Bush Administration...When you put it all together like that... damn.
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I spoke with a half-dozen prominent GOP operatives this past week, most of them high-level officials in the Reagan and Bush I and Bush II administrations, and I heard the same devastating critique: This White House is isolated and ineffective; the country has stopped listening to President Bush, just as it once tuned out the hapless Jimmy Carter; the president's misplaced sense of personal loyalty is hurting his party and the nation.
"This is the most incompetent White House I've seen since I came to Washington," said one GOP senator. "The White House legislative liaison team is incompetent, pitiful, embarrassing. My colleagues can't even tell you who the White House Senate liaison is. There is rank incompetence throughout the government. It's the weakest Cabinet I've seen." And remember, this is a Republican talking.
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I always thought one of the most dangerous aspects of the new US right was its tendency to corrupt political discourse by filling it with misinformation and character assassination.
A society cannot work effectively without mutually accepted sources of reliable information. Once you let your ideological preferences take over you've lost your anchor to reality.
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If somebody owns a gun, they feel safer.
But if everybody has a gun, then overall we are less safe.You're sort of describing whats known as the fallacy of composition and the problem of game theory known as the prisoner's dilemma.
One way of describing this is to say that once some people have guns, it arguably becomes rational to get a gun for yourself - even though everyone would be better off if noone had guns.
In other words, both James and his opponents are right in their own way. The more idealistic types are right to say that everyone would be better off if there were no guns. James says that once criminals have guns, he considers it to be in his interest to have one to defend himself and his family.
the usa did not enter the war to "save the world". it entered the war entirely out of self-interest.
You might call being attacked by Japan "self interest", but I don't think that really captures it fairly. Unfortunately, there's always some idiot around to make the unpleasant necessary:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/greatspeeches/kennedy/0,,2060095,00.html
We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.
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Hey Mark,
where i don't have to worry about other people with concealed handguns
Yeah - New Zealand's gun control laws seem like a good idea to me. That said, our police force seems to have had its share of problems recently, and that concerns me.
Traditionally the Democrats have been advocates of tougher gun restrictions, but US demographics can make that a difficult platform for those running in marginal and/or rural areas. The Democrats are good people I think but 12 years out of power has taught them some tough lessons about wedge politics.
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er ... so why aren't they up in arms about what Bush and his minions (or is that visa versa) are doing (have done) to their prescious Constitution.
That is something you would have to ask them. If I had to guess, I'd say the modern Republican movement is a reactionary political force.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_war -
those moronic middle americans can keep their stupid gun laws.
I don't think anyone is proposing that we adopt US gun laws. The question is whether New Zealanders should give opinions on what gun laws should prevail in the US.
As someone pointed out earlier, the right to bear arms is contained in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_bear_arms#United_States_of_AmericaThe US federal system was established on the premise that governmental power needs to be checked. The right of the citizenry to bear arms was thought to form part of this protection. This can in some ways be seen to flow both from the events leading up to the War of Independence and the American Civil War (especially in Southern states such as Viriginia). As I was trying to ironically demonstrate earlier by quoting the American national anthem, the Americans have unique cultural experiences of and ideas about conflict, war, and guns.
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cue: sanctimony.
Yeah. I don't want to pretend that I'm any sort of saint in this respect, because I'm not, but I think your policy is a good one.
I used to joke that Tool wasn't so much a form of artistic expression as it was a cry for help. One Tool fan I went to school with threw himself off Grafton Bridge and another joined some weird socialist movement before dropping out and heading "up north".
Of course, this isn't really about Tool (a band that makes music with a washing machine and a drumkit), but there is a tragic predictability to the kinds of people that do these sorts of things.