Posts by Ross Mason
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@Ian: South Intermediate. Funny. No. But I do have family connections there. My Murphy Mum and her sister were Dux there in the........30/40s!! I spent first 6 months of school at Hornby before movig to Little River.
@Jen: Does he sing with an American accent? That is an interesting issue about the council needing to say houses are uninhabitable (not habitable?) before insurance will cough. I wonder who has whose ear on THAT one.
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By the way youse in ChCh.
Rolleston was right on top of the big one. Given that it is - practically speaking - Chch's newest "suburb", what was the damage like?
Have heard few details which MAY suggest that all was built with the latest EQ codes and have managed to survive the damn thing.
Comments? Info? Stories?
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It would be quite annoying if we've spent weeks needlessly living like inhabitants of the third-world.
I could make a comment you know. About the status of Chch. You are lucky I was born there.
But seriously, I do think 2 weeks is a wee bit short to think that the council could have all your services fixed by now. Someone has to be first and someone has to be last. What can I say. One day it will be us. All I hope is that we can handle it somewhere near you guys.
And yes, I know it was over communication. But instant and up to date databases do not exist. And I suspect that there are a few houses like David's that have the next door neighbours working but not theirs. How many "communications" is enough to say "The water is not on yet".
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Heh:
The competitive advantage, if any, enjoyed by investors and corporations in speculative trading, especially in complex derivatives, is unclear. Perhaps it is a lack of "horse sense" which, as stated by Raymond Nash, is "what keeps horses from betting on what people will do."
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From Sylvie's link:
The author Thomas Pynchon warned: "If they can get you to ask the wrong questions then the answers don't matter."
Re Bollards story: Touche.
The global derivative market as of June 2009 totaled $605 trillion (source: Bank of International Settlements [BIS]). This is a large increase from less than $10 trillion 20 years ago.
Now that is an immense (Warning: that was an understatement) number "we" are allowing to be gambled. Utter speculation.
We are still inventing these freaking things. Carbon trading is one. Dairy products. NZSX Futures market i think is in the pipeline.
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Rich of O:
I agree the concepts "should/could" be figured out at a SC maths level. But that isn't the problem. See this from Mikare Curtis as he so matter- of-factly-put-it-as-if-it-happens-all-the-time-without-anyone-batting-an-eylid:
* Simply put, securitisation is when you sell the predicted interest stream on a group of loans. The bank gets cash up front (which they can on-lend in new loans), and the buyer gets a higher rate of return that they could make on a term deposit. Abuse of this process caused the financial meltdown in the first place, but our banks tend to be quite conservative, securitising the better loans and not creating junk loans in the first place.
It's so simple it is scary. The "simple" issue here is the way that a bank can securitise and then use the money for new loans. To me that is the BIGGIE.
Because now there are (at least) two lots of people/institutions with fingers in the lline for the same piece of real estate (if property is the deal) or "money". That to me is the "mistake" in the whole freaking business. That is where hell can break out. As he points out, it is "safe" as long as the "better" loans are securitised. And a mere human makes that choice. Scary as.
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and Chris - you're right, it's not work unless you get paid...
I didn't have my glasses on when I read that. I got it first time as "not work unless you get laid". It seemed to make sense....
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You won't see mortgage holders queue up to pay off their loan in full because the bank is in trouble (even though I suppose a bank could ask for its money back early - read the fine print in your mortgage and personal/business loan documents).
I have to ask my stupid question. What would they be getting back if they called in your mortgage? Real money? A piece of paper saying what exactly? A promisory note of what?
Or does this happen: They only need to pull back 2 or 3 mortgages and they can "pay back" what they were originally given to play with. ......So whose do they pick?
Helping precipitate a full blown run on our banks and the attendant misery by reporting early signs of it is not the kind of scoop I want on my CV.
Then WTF do these guys write about that I SHOULD believe?
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including the international currency trade (How's it work? Who are these people? What's it for?).
Work on him. It is about time someone at the level of the Reserve Bank explained the damn thing in words of one syllable.
Reading what he has writ makes you wonder what sort of ropey scheme this whole money system is. It does beggar belief that he had to write a whole press release "between the lines" so that the country wouldn't make a run for the tellers. He must have managed to convince a few banks to ensure their employees kept their trap shut as well. And that makes it even more amazing!
Any bankie folk out there who could confirm or deny such happenings???
Is it really really that unstable?
Answers his own question. Yes it is.
Shit.
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(choke) It's (choke) monday (choke choke) isn't it? (Gag).
I can't believe this thread. I am appalled. This is not the sort of drivell that I, a clean (ex) anglican lad should be exposed to on this blogsite.
A modicum of decorum please.
It was Crete was it Sally?....so long.... I had forgotten.
Oh..and thanks for the compliment(s)
(and almost as big) as a nuclear missile.
and
Oxford (though his talents would have been wasted on rowing)
Shucks.
:-)