English country garden

The Herald is reporting on a briefing done by former Finance/Prime Minister Sir Bill English. 

Sir Bill is a strategic advisor to Jarden, a wealth management firm. He gave a presentation on the implications of the Covid-19 outbreak on the world's finance markets.

Bill made the following comments:

"An equity market that seems to shrug off such an enormous dislocation would attract broad consensus across the political spectrum that something is amiss, and a CGT is needed.

"We are meant to be a risk-adjusted market economy. If markets go on as normal something isn't right and the 'taxpayer put' is causing bad outcomes."

Basically Bill is saying that if the world's sharemarkets and equity markets don't crash too, then regular schmoes might realise that the whole world financial market is a scam. A scam where the rich do fine no matter what, even in a shock, and people who are just workers and actually produce something from their labour are the first to get fucked in a shock.

The fact that he's even saying this suggests that it's a viable outcome. 

The fact that it's a viable outcome mean that workers are getting fucked. The system is rigged. It's so far rigged that the riggers need reminding of it. They're accustomed to it. If anything good comes out of this, let it be a heightened awareness and action towards those who are screwing the economy in their favour, at the expense of nearly everyone else.

The other interesting thing to draw from Sir Bill's comments is that people have a hankering to return to this rigged system. Jarden Asset Management is keen to see unfettered capitalism return to be the norm. This is after a period of Big Government Intervention that has been welcomed by many. Everyone's a socialist when the current model crumbles, but those same folks are desperate to go back to screwing the poor as soon as possible.

Finally I just wanted to note the Tax Payer's Union's cashing in on the employer subsidy. I've no problem with people being able to eat and survive. That's fine. but Jordan Williams has spent years criticisng anyone for receiving Government money and he's a massive hypocritical tool. I do just want to point out two things:

1) The subsidy the TPU took suggests they have 8 full time workers and 1 part time worker. I'd love to know the veracity of that; and

2) In its statement justifying their use of the subsidy, the TPU say: "After a brief deliberation, the Taxpayers' Union board determined the welfare of our employees to be a more pressing immediate concern than ideological purity." 

If your ideological purity runs up against the welfare of your employees, you may want to check to see if your ideology is really a good idea after all.

Herald article on Sir Bill:  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12324053 (paywalled).