intern

Send me your bank details on PM. Not quite sure when I will collect, but I will take that off your hands thanks

Oh my gaaawd. Ours are useless, but yours are a whole new level of special. Sterkte.

All the best. Things are not looking good right now, though, as the incompetent government is taking drastic actions to cover their litany of failures at even the simplest of tasks which were supposed to restore us to some sort of normalcy. At the current rate - with around 2400 returning New Zealanders released without testing, and with the winter solstice just been, it's highly likely we'll have another covid outbreak; with the precedent of 'lockdown being necessary' (remember, around 22 grannies succumbed, most already in 'Heaven's Waiting Room' - which is what we used to call Amberfield in Howick when I was at school there) to prevent widespread death and destruction, the government has snookered itself into taking the same action again should that eventuate. It's a *** situation. A very *** situation.

Everything is expensive in Zim because of an even more fundamental economic principle, that of supply and demand. The cost of doing business there is radically different to, say, South Africa or New Zealand or anywhere else. While I am not entirely familiar with the Zim situation, I doubt there is much credit, I doubt there is much confidence that a customer (if you can find one in the first place) can pay, and I know getting goods in and out is far from fast or easy, unless, apparently, those goods are cigarettes. There is also massive corruption which drives up the cost and risk of any exchange of goods or services. Currencies today are backed by governments which in turn are backed by national productivity (and stability), which is more valuable than gold. Also, any currency is only valuable so long as (enough) people trust its value, and so long as the government appropriately controls the supply. Zim has some form here, as we all know. BTW politics and economics are intricately interwoven and have an intimate impact on every aspect of our lives/society. You don't have one without the other (see 'Political economy' - the study of production and trade and their relations with law, custom and government; and with the distribution of national income and wealth. More worthless views from a self proclaimed knowledgeable gimp more often described as opinionated.

I love Allen's approach: 'I'll just give it a go...' and then he whips out some genius level mechanical engineering with a bloody hacksaw and a 1926 file!

This goes to the very heart of why a managed 'command and control' economy is always - always, always and always, without exception - an unmitigated disaster. You cannot have bureaucrats deciding what is and what is not an 'essential service'. All jobs are essential, or they would not exist. When you create these command and control situations, you also prepare fertile ground for corruption, because sometimes all it takes for a bureaucrat to determine than your case is a special one, is the right sort of encouragement to see things the 'right' way. Best wishes Steven, your situation is highly unfortunate and regrettable, I do hope it works out for you sooner rather than later.

...and governments have never given anything that wasn't first taken from someone else who earned it...

Sounds like it may have been Shamubeel Eaqub. The payments to date have been quite well targeted, I think, in that they have gone to employers with the express purpose of paying directly on to employees who are out of work. The increases for those on the benefit, are a bit harder to understand. But targeting is one thing. When the government is finished giving, it has to start taking...and hard, at that, given the massive debt blowout we're staring down now.

To this bit: As lets be honest, why does production costs have to be different from country to country if the value of human labour is now the same everywhere? Surely that will bring every country into the same play ground and cause all nations to automatically upgrade the lifestyle of their citizens? I mean why the hell should I have to work 20x more to be able to visit the UK? I understand their salaries are lower, but how nice would it be if we were all on the same playing field. Supply and demand and differing labour laws are your culprits here. And laws tend to be extensions, albeit crude ones, of culture and society. To the bold bit, fairness is an interpretation, not an objective reality.

Missed this one Rad. UBI a shockingly bad idea. One global currency, also shockingly bad idea. While these things are complicated, the essence of it is that money is not the same thing as wealth; it is a token and nothing more. Money is only worth something when it is backed by productivity (when people are given 'free money', productivity is the first traitor up against the wall). Different nations have different economies and different productivity (and also, different money supply - see for eg Zim and Venezuela). Different currency is a good thing, as it reflects this to a degree. Massive oversimplifications, but there you are. As always, I absolutely highly recommend reading Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. Explains a lot of how the world really works.

Sounds almost like a Webinar. Or Zoom conf call...

Oh, get a shed already you two. Speaking of sheds, anyone seen Allen Millyard on YouTube? Dude creates amazing motorcycles and engines out of old parts. For EG built a Kawasaki Super Six by sawing up a few 900 barrels, crankcases and heads, then rebuilding the crank and camshafts, welding up the barrels, cases and heads, and...ja, old dudes in sheds, amazing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhrLg6mZQIo&t=4s (Patches...enjoy the lost productivity on this one mate!)

You don't argue WP, you engage in discourse ;-). (Good) economists always advise looking at the long run outcomes of any policy or course of action. With the government pumping us all full of free money, they are effectively kicking the can down the road. Right now, there is still a sense of elation and we can do this and we got it beat (notwithstanding recent evidence of the current administration's chronic incompetence...and if you watch politics, you will know that incompetence is in the DNA of the current lot) and there is most certainly also a sense of financial security. It doesn't surprise me in the least than a good number of businesses are experiencing high demand for products and services (pent-up demand, in other words). Fast food, even some durable consumer goods, haircuts and other personal services. But remember, it is the long run we have to consider, not the short term feel good-ism. The can may be kicked down the road, but chickens come home to roost and the cows apparently come home at some point too. We can mask (pardon the pun) the reality of economic devastation for political purposes for a short time only. Why do I say political purposes? Because there is an election in September. This rabble have only appeared competent in the event of a tragedy, where the more easily swayed have responded to the notion that a hug and a cuddle are the same thing as effective political leadership. Christchurch was a gift to the PM, no matter how distasteful even saying such a thing might be. Same with White Island. And now most assuredly with COVID. They're pushing this narrative of 'hard and early', when nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, as of earlier this week, they still had not secured the borders effectively (and given the propensity to either embellish the truth on the one hand, or fail to perform any operational checks on the other, who knows if this situation persists to the minute). Anyway, the economy is not, as the PM claimed a few weeks back, '95% back to normal'. We have no tourism, our biggest industry. We're not feeling that yet, because free money etc, but believe me, in the medium to longer term, we will feel it and we will feel it hard. Up to 20% of people are employed, directly or indirectly, in tourism. Things might be peachy right now, but very bad things are going to happen. When the figures come out for the next quarter, we will have a clearer idea of the true impact of shutting down an economy. You might think this has some good points, like for example finally making housing more affordable to first home buyers, or reduced environmental impact. But when people don't have jobs and the housing market is going down, which I believe it inevitably will (as it did, steeply, after the 2008 GFC), who's going to buy? Imagine you'd saved 50k or whatever, are you going to roll the dice and potentially see that become 0 owing to decreasing equity? Yes, negative Nelly. But there must and shall be consequences. And on top of that, now that COVID is well and truly back, in our flu season this time, what now? Another lockdown? The government is caught in a catch-22. It told us lockdown was necessary the first time, so if we don't do it again, they were mistaken the first time (governments are not in the business of admitting fault or failure, particularly not on this scale). If we do do it again, the cupboard is now bare and the anticipations for economic contraction can be seen in estimates which put house price retreat at up to 50 percent. Anyway, I hope everyone here is having a happy Friday. Pissing with rain in Whakatown, but we need a good soaking!

Dang there goes today's productivity.

Here's an update from an opinionated and not knowledgeable person: NZ GDP down 1.6 percent. Aus down 0.3 percent. For the most recent quarter. We had no lockdown for...93 percent of this period. Consider this your first serving of humble pie. There's plenty more in the oven.

Nobody ever regretted buying a quality tool - every single time you use it, it is super satisfying...

Looks like we got ourselves a badass here...

Not gonna wait out the rainy season, when it rains the sandy/beach trails we have here are even better; though I quite like the sand squidging around under the bike, rain keeps everyone off the beach! We probably going to head down to Santoft Forest early July to watch the second round of the Enduro Nationals - I'm fairly tempted to show up as a complete noob and have a go...

Anyways lads, I've just finished writing a looong boring whitepaper, so I am off to hit the local trails...on my Yamaha. This sort of thing, you can't buy for a dollar.

Facebook Marketplace brosef...that is all! Also, you shoulda posted the items right here, people like me with AEG power tool collections may well have saved you some dosh...

And read this, even if you find it insulting or as if something bit me on the as (more like, I don't drink Kool Aid, but anyway). https://theemperorsrobes.blogspot.com/2020/06/both-of-new-zealands-futures-are-bad.html

Right on the money. My house is sold, my boat might be this weekend. When that milk of human kindness, or more accurately when government largesse, runs out, that's when we really find out about Covid-19's impact. We can pat ourselves on the back as much as we like, but the current government has had luck, timing and isolation as essential factors in its 'success'. Winter is settling in. And the government's staggering incompetence is being laid bare. Doesn't hep, though, that the new Nats leader and his deputy are absolute political car crashes. I mean, Ngati Goldsmith WTF and then the upside down tino rangatirotanga flag...yeesh. Thank goodness for David Seymour, that's all I'm gonna say about that!

The answer is, of course, that I am thrilled to be released from a petty/illegal dictatorship. I'll stand by and wait for my 'I told you so'; that one will take a little more working through the final analysis of all that's gone on. In the fullness of time, and all that.

You got a problem bro?

Ah, you know, just a friendly difference of viewpoint. Nothing to get too excited about . BTW I got 15 in the Stuff quiz this morning. Told yas I was a kleva. Happy Friday, people.