Asset sales

[Brian d marge]

I know its black something or other , something bad happened and he was sent to a hospital then off to italy ..Sorry I cant really remember , my brother wrote it all down...

as a of topic note , many years later he turned up , I went to visit him , he was as blind as a bat , couldnt see the vodka bottle top on the table , but the sod jumped on me motorbike and went for a spin up the road ..cb550.....brown horrible seat .....

Stephen

Black Watch! The famous regiment of Scotland. Respect.

As for your grandfather's battles, I keep thinking Sidi Rezegh but that involved NZ elements of the 8th Army. The Black Watch were involved early on in 1941 when Rommel and his Axis army (German/Italian) pushed east from Tobruk. The Allies were forced back to regroup in Egypt and Palestine and were very worried.

About this time Major David Stirling got permission to form the Long Range Desert Group which founded the SAS.

The significance of El Alamein is that it represented a bottleneck for the Afrika Corp. Turn too far south and they were into the Qattara Depression, soft sand, cliffs, and swamp.

There is a Black Watch memorial in the Western Desert which means this was a significant battleground for the regiment. I can well understand how he would have been affected. Many men returning from the war never talked - couldn't talk about their experiences.

[slowpoke]

Facebook shares?
That's funny - like no one with an ounce of sense didn't see that coming.

As far as the election is concerned, the Nats made it a clear and prominent part of their policy platform.
Get over it.

Yet for a bloke with at least an ounce of sense you still haven't said what makes buying shares in basically stagnant companies so attractive.

The election is meaningless when it comes to extrapolating public approval for individual policies. Theoretically every single voter in the country could vote for National because they like 99% of their policies, the other 1% being the Asset Sales policy. So 100% of the voters could support National and still be 100% against the Asset Sales policy.

[steve_t]

Contact is a company created by the NZ government in 1996, owning various hydro dams (Clyde, Roxburgh etc). It was sold to the public at $3.15/share.

An electricity producing business. Hydro dams. A valuable part of the family silver. And a 100% sale too, not 49%.

So how has this chunk of family silver fared since then? Electricity generator, gotta be a killer investment, quasi-monopoly after all. Indeed at one stage Contact were getting ginormous spot prices overnight of $250/MW.

Hmmm.. . todays share price 16 years later is $4.78.

That is a 2.5%pa growth rate over 16 years. A dog. An absolute dog. In the same time money in the bank has grown at least 6%pa (interest rates used to be 9%+). If you'd held on to a classic bike, it would have gained more value.

Contact is a sound and clear guide to the fortunes of electricity companies. Yes we need the stuff but there is no guarantee the generators can produce it profitably. So selling 49% of Meridian etc might yet turn out to be very canny as their dams and plants age and crack. Nothing lasts forever.

I don't suppose you have the figures for the ROI after you take into account all the dividends etc? No doubt it's still crappy but it'd be interesting. Ta

[Robert Taylor]

this shows the problem of not paying back the debt, and why we did not have debt back then,

we did not import anywhere near as much as we do now, we can go back to those days, but the other things like waiting lists for imported things likes cars and bikes come back as well, and since not many of us will put up with it since we have seen what the consumerism is getting us now,

Iceland was a little bit different as it was the banks debt, not public debt they did not pay back,

Very good points Scott, look at the revenue Government(s) are missing out on by not charging clearance fees and gst on EVERY item imported into this country. We are all hypocrites.

[Brian d marge]

Black Watch! The famous regiment of Scotland. Respect.

As for your grandfather's battles, I keep thinking Sidi Rezegh but that involved NZ elements of the 8th Army. The Black Watch were involved early on in 1941 when Rommel and his Axis army (German/Italian) pushed east from Tobruk. The Allies were forced back to regroup in Egypt and Palestine and were very worried.

About this time Major David Stirling got permission to form the Long Range Desert Group which founded the SAS.

The significance of El Alamein is that it represented a bottleneck for the Afrika Corp. Turn too far south and they were into the Qattara Depression, soft sand, cliffs, and swamp.

There is a Black Watch memorial in the Western Desert which means this was a significant battleground for the regiment. I can well understand how he would have been affected. Many men returning from the war never talked - couldn't talk about their experiences.

ok memory fart ,,,it was
2nd batalian royal sussex for first 3, 5th bat. Hampshires for last 2.

they went to ; Ireland, India, France (BEF), Africa, Italy.

For some reason I thought they were called Black something ...never mind

Stephen

[Winston001]

Thanks Stephen, looks like the initial guess was correct. The Royal Sussex were involved at Alam El Halfa. It was an important battle because the Allies won but with heavy losses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alam_Halfa

[Brian d marge]

It just gets better and betterer

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...-SOE-directors


Stephen

[puddytat]

And the prick has the nerve to have a go at the Greens spending money on a petition....One day I think people will look back on this Govt. policies with the same sense of disgust that we now look at Rogernomics.
Imagine what we're being signed up for in the Trans Pacific Partnership? We wont know for 4 years.
Your country & mine, is being sold out underneath us & our councils are being set up to be sued if foreign corporates dont like the decisions our Councils make & because of such, will be equally reluctant to oppose them.
Are we a test case for the Worlds first Corporarte State? More than enough resources & a complacent,disenfranchised, drug & alcohol fucked society.No wonder everyone wants a piece of the action. For what? A miniscule payrise that doesnt keep up with inflation. We are selling our country's soul bit by bit, stone by stone.

[avgas]

I wouldn't recommend asset sales.
I have only done it twice but once I got crabs and the other time I ended up in a bath full of ice .

[avgas]

treasury is usually very good in NZ

WAS

Bollard is creating a Japanese economy lately. OCR hasn't moved much in years. Hence why its in the public interest to take on more debt.
Which is perpetual joke when you think about it.
OCR low due to debt
take on more debt due to low OCR
OCR lower due to more debt
take on more debt due to low OCR
OCR lower due to more debt
take on more debt due to low OCR..........

Meanwhile they are all telling us "SAVE, Save, the best thing is to save" which is true. But best to take away that tempting low interest debt rate first before people will listen to you. Hell even the govt is taking on more debt because the rate is low.

[SPman]

It just gets better and betterer

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...-SOE-directors


Stephen

Who benefits from privatisation?

The government's privatisation bill will go through its first reading today. So who benefits from it?

Firstly, there's the rich, who will purchase the SOEs, redirecting the dividend stream (and any capital gains) from the public purse into their own private pockets (this category includes many MPs, including John Key).
Secondly, there's the financial industry, who will be paid $120 million by the government to sell us our own assets, and who will clip the ticket on every share sale into the bargain.

And thirdly, there's the SOE directors themselves, who stand to see their fees double simply because of the change in ownership structure. Those fees, of course, will be paid for by higher power prices paid by ordinary kiwis.

Note who doesn't benefit: ordinary kiwis. We'll be facing reduced public services due to the loss of the SOE dividend stream, while being charged higher prices to meet the new owners' rapacious demand for profits. And then, in a decade or so, when they've run it into the ground and asset stripped it, we'll have to buy it back.

Sounds like a shit deal to me.

[Flip]

I think that everybody who voted for National is to blame for asset sales not the goverment.

JK said during the election that a vote for National was a vote for asset sales. So suck it up middle class New Zealand, you asked for it!

[puddytat]

Ominously quiet from the right wing.......is that because they're wearing that smug "Im better than you grin" so in vogue at the moment?
Or is it that they're in that income bracket where it makes no difference whether they lose public services or can they afford to absorb the X ammount of continual price increases year on year? Im at a loss to explain the Maori parties position,& very dissapointed. Still it shows that its not only the White man who speaks with forked tongue.
Back Benches will be good this week....Hone,Metiria,Dunne, & some others....
Make the most of our last week of intelligent T.V....just think that it may become an infomercial channel.
They really know how to rub our noses in it.

[Flip]

I remember when the National goverment sold out my parents National Super to fund think big. I remember when the National goverment sold NZ Rail.

I will remember when the National goverment sells off the power companies. I will also remember when the National goverment sells off ACC.

I will remember and I will never vote for them or support them in any way.

[Brian d marge]

no worries they are going to stick it to the unemployed again for the next election...demonize the unemployed so that the barefaced robbery wont be noticed

Stephen