Posts by giovanni tiso
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Labour presided over the mortgage bubble, and now they are copping it for the bust.
Dunno, if you believe the opinion polls their fortunes started turning before the housing market did.
The borrowing for the cost of infrastructure argument has been going on for a while, and I think Clark was out of line when she characterised it as mind boggingly stupid this morning. Okay, you could argue it's not a great time to borrow in the overseas markets, but the principle is not that unsound and is traditionally espoused by left-leaning governments (that on the whole are less fiscally conservative, although that trend is changing all over the place).
I think Russell characterisation of the Key(nesian) platform is quite apt, apart from the not insignificant part where they cut taxes across the board. But at any rate this last weekend ought to have clarified the relative positions going into the campaign quite neatly, and who knows, we might even get to have a reasoned and reasonable debate on policy.
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guess the conclusion we can draw is that neither National or Labour have an excess of credibility to be claiming the fiscally conservative high ground
Could somebody please switch on the Keith-signal and aim it at the Wellington sky?
(Ng, you bastard, you left us in our hour of need.)
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Would it be wrong to give Mugabe economic advice on ending hyperinflation in Zimbabwe?
The beginning and end of such advice would have to be: get the hell out of the country, Rob. One of the issues in facilitating an end to his regime seems to be precisely that he's not being ostracised enough by some of his neighbours, and therefore that there isn't enough pressure put on him. Likewise, ,one of the main enablers of Pinochet's coup was the fact that he had the tacit and not-so-tacit approval of the US for getting rid of Allende. Friedman belonged to the not-so-tacit camp, obviously, and history is judging him for it. It has been for quite some time.
As I said before, it seems that the nature of the advice Friedman gave is what people really object to.
I'm still finding difficulties in faulting Klein's argument, which is the subject of this discussion after all: she contends that Friedman jumped at the chance to test his theories on economic reform on a country where they could be applied without bothering to obtain a democratic mandate. This seems to be a matter of historical record (much as Friedman tried to fudge said record in the years to follow), and it's not as if she's the first person who brought it up, either. You can think that there is no ethical issue here, but that doesn't invalidate her argument.
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<quote>My boss when I was a PhD student had an Italian single shot model.<quote>
Yes, but an actual single shot? When I met the mother of my children, she possessed an eight-cup model that she was convinced made two cups, on account of the fact that she was used to long coffees. I guess that explains why she seemed so frazzled. Since then I've seen this scenario repeated multiple times.
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fixed.
I mean, really.Very succinctly and eloquently put, sir. The Wiki reminds us too of how many people refused to be seen with him, dead.
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What so impressed me about Italian coffee was the fact that it was done so quickly, with seemingly such little care - yet in reality was layered with perfectionism and a care so deep that it just wasn't noticeable on the surface.
Yes, although that's apparently more the case in the north, as my barista (a southerner) explained to me the first time I went home after movingn here, and I remarked that coffee here was good but they took their time making it.
Speaking of caring, though, no discussion about coffee would be complete without mentioning the Neapolitan tradition of the "caffè pagato", the paid-for coffee. What happens is after you've consumed your customary morning espresso sometimes you'll choose to pay double, and leave a paid-for coffee. Thanks to this practice, the place will be able to cater for a few known customers who couldn't otherwise afford their daily tazzulella 'e cafè, without them having to ask or you having to offer.
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my daughter is named after my midwife, who was one of the Domino group
Domino midwives should get collectively on the NZ order of merit, I reckon.
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giovanni tiso - this isn't aimed at you, I hope you don't mind!
Danielle, not the right forum I know, but everyone seems desperate to pretend fascism isn't on the march in Italy in the hope it will go away.
I'm as dismayed and upset about the state of the Italian nation as the next fellow, possibly more, but I wouldn't bandy around the F word without knowing what the hell I was talking about.
Berlusconi is many bad things, and a friend of several fascists past and present, to be sure, not to mention several mafiosi. But to characterise him as a fascist or is regime as fasicsm is lazy and unhelpful. And it also implies a very troubling exoneration of (if not downright nostalgia for) the christian democrat going ons that have intervened - in that regard I'm honestly not sure that we're worse off than we were in the Seventies, when bombs exploded on trains and in crowded squares and anarchist railwaymen launched themselves with prodigious vigour outside of police station windows.
Back to the food conversation now, nothing to see here.
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How many cups of coffee do you drink a day?
Our doctor told my mum she could have up to five coffees a day. I think she understood that she needed to have five coffees a day, so if she hasn't reached the quota by evening she'll make herself a double, bless her.
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Don't worry, with the rise of Fascism in Italy they'll be doing that in no time, and blaming the gypsies.
Easy there, mate.