Martin Devlin: “Old man howls at moon. Again”

Yet our sycophantic politically-biased hide-everything tell-no-truth take-the-PIJ-money-to-buy-silence “legacy media” won’t ever report it. There are very good reasons why I don’t/won’t talk/write about politics.

There’s a really good reason I only talk/write about sport. It’s because sport, for me, is an escape. The utter unimportance of something taken as so seriously important is the exact kind of absurdity I thrive on. Sport allows, for however minuscule be the moments, our minds to drift away from the humdrum of everyday life, a life that for most here in NZ has increasingly become a struggle for cost survival. Ask yourself. Who isn’t feeling the economic squeeze? The mile long queues at service stations on Friday 30th June were the most obvious indicator yet that for many many Kiwis right now life is about nothing but paying the bills and trying to keep the financial head above water. There’s a reason I concentrate on sport. Because I resent this current government and everyone in it responsible for the state our country is in right now.

Prof Martin Devlin: Business and the Partial Asset Sales

Business commentators are now starting to reflect upon the business consequences of the government’s decision to delay the first of the partial assets sales until the second quarter of 2013. Rod Oram, writing in the Star-Times of 9^th September comments on the related issues of a glut of electricity generation, a downturn in domestic and industrial power consumption, the possibility of problems with electricity usage at the Tiwai Point smelter, and the downturn in coal imports by China as issues which will have an impact of the value of Mighty River Power (MRP) shares at float. From any prudent investor’s point of view each and all of these issues represent risks which need to be taken into account when deciding whether or not to invest.

But, he could also have included some assessment of the impact of the MRP delay and the options presented to the government by the Waitangi Tribunal, which, if taken seriously, constitute an additional raft of investment risks which possibly exceed those which Oram considers.

Martin Devlin: A Government in Crisis?

Belatedly, our pathetic media has finally cottoned on to the enormous and sinister implications of the Waitangi Tribunal report on fresh water ownership claims by Maori. A snippet in the Dominion Post of 6 September by a reader sums it up beautifully:

“Did I miss the coup? Who decided a few unelected bodies could stop democratically elected governments following through on their election promises? - signed Paul Rayner, Wadestown.”