Posts by Nobody Important
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Those that fail to learn from the mistakes of history are condemned to repeat them. So WTF was Bollard thinking when he spent $1.5 Billion of our surplus funds on this dumbRs attempt to devalue our dollar? Surely he knew what happened when the British tried the same in 1992? Squillionaire George Soros thought he'd accept the challenge, took a punt, and won.
This from WikipediaSoros is famously known for "breaking the Bank of England" on Black Wednesday in 1992.
You can find out more about Black Wednesday here
Black Wednesday refers to 16 September 1992 when the Conservative government of the day was forced to withdraw the Pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) due to pressure by currency speculators—most notably George Soros who made over US$1 billion from this speculation. In 1997 the UK Treasury estimated the cost of Black Wednesday at £3.4 billion
Jeez, if I knew this stuff then surely Bollard did too. Baiting Currency Traders is probably the dumbRsiest thing he's done since trying to tell the Japanese our economy wasn't worth investing in.
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sheesh .... I didn't mean to be a threadkiller! I've got lots of happy stories too:
The night before I flew home from London in 1987 I got horribly drunk and woke up at 9am with my flight leaving at 11.15am. It was the pre-booked cab driver who woke me up. He literally swept up all my possessions and stuffed them into my two suitcases. I rang BA and said I was on my way and they (I swear this is true, even tho' I know it sounds ridiculous) and they said they would hold the plane!!
Maybe the phone operator was just being sarcastic but I got to Heathrow about 11 and the check in area was completely empty save the two staff waiting for me. I got a boarding pass and sprinted for the gate. Again, everything was 'empty' - it was quite surreal. But I made the flight and we left at 11.30am.
24 hours later I arrived in Auckland and the first thing Customs asked me was "did you pack your own bags?" "No, I was drunk so the cab driver did"
Ah, those were the days ... pre 9/11 ... -
I'll either be a successful media entrepreneur or a very bitter freelance journalist.
Ah yes, winning awards is nice ... but somehow the mind always drifts to "but it would be nice to be paid too"
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I take your points about the 'dumbing down' of 3 News. Last night they used the term 'Freak Accident' to describe the death of a 3 y.o. who had a gate fall on him. It was clear from the actual report that there was a problem with the gate, that that problem had been identified, and yet nothing had been done to rectify the problem. Tragic yes, but hardly a freak accident.
Will Helen Clark be attending the funeral, and who will she blame for the tragedy? -
nice link! The irony of the bit about That storyline expanded on Seinfeld's "show about nothing" theme by twisting it into a "show about a show about a show about nothing." is that it surely describes the premise of Curb Your Enthusiasm??
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What tosh Rogerd! There is a long history of children of the rich who have contributed immensely to the wider humanity.
Here is but one example
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hmmm I commented on this while in Sydney, but it's gone/never appeared. Oh well ....
At 56 I am probably far too old for rock'n'roll and hanging out in bars these days, but I'm not trying to "get down with the kids".
but you carry your age so well dahling!
And to keep this thread alive (albeit on a tangent) perhaps we could discuss this {never-mind-the-beatles}, especially since the NZH TimeOut covered one and not the latter. (Or did I miss something while in Sydney?)
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but really maybe one of those girls will become NZs next jude dobson, didn't she start as a game show girl?
When you say "start" there seems to be some sort of implication that she went somewhere. Isn't she the host of Family Health Diaries?
So sure, if we're looking for another person to dress up vitamin ads as 'information', the woman holding suitcase #16 might just be the one we're looking for.
Heh heh heh! <LOL> Oh Damian, you are so young! And smug. And pratly. I look forward to seeing what has become of your career in 20 years time!!
Actually, why wait? Just look around the newsroom and see what has become of the old timers. And not just the ones still there 'hacking', but the ones who 'left' to go 'freelance'. They'd be more than happy to front an infomercial, I bet.
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one of many stories I could tell:
Surfers Paradise 1984 (I think). I'd been kicked out of Sydney by my Aunt's boyfriend who thought I was bludging. My younger sister was welcome to stay but I had to go. So off I went, with only enough money for the bus fare to Surfers to see an old school friend who I heard was working up there. He wasn't working, but I was welcome to sleep on his floor. I lived on a half cup of rice each day for a week by which time I was pretty hungry.
Out walking alone one night I allowed myself to be picked up by a nice young man driving home. Upon hearing my plight he offered me a hot meal and a bed for the night. The bed turned out to be his, and the meal was the proverbial hot pork sausage. I ate it but didn't enjoy it - it tasted like a rubber hose. I ate it because I planned to rob him while he slept, but in the end I just chickened out. Which was just as well because I got a lovely breakfast in the morning, and a long hot shower. That was the best bit. -
One of the first priorities of a private-equity investor is to sell surplus assets to repay the acquisition debt and/or make a capital repayment to shareholders.
Yes they've become quite the thing in very recent years. Why are so many 'private-equity investors' buying up NZ companies lately? Because they know that once the Kiwisaver funds come rolling in they will have to buy something with all that dosh. Pay what seems like top dollar now, cook the books, pump the share price, and sell part of your shareholding in a few years to pay back your original investment. Or all of your shareholding if the company is actually a dog.
It's a global trend, not a NZ thing, we're only just getting 'in' to it. Those financiers sure know how to turn a buck ...The biggest joke is 'public/private partnerships'. Especially when it's a piece of public infrastructure. Aucland's Vector Arena was majority paid for by Auckland City ratepayers. But they won't own the arena for another 40 years (at which time it will be obsolete and ready for demolition). In the meantime the private partner gets to run the arena for 40 years and keep ALL of the profits.