Aucklander's comments

New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key doesn't need the money, he made his approximately $NZ 50M fortune in banking. The rumour is he doesn't actually draw the salary.

Once again we see the socialisation of private losses. Those that made riculous speculative bets and lost should forfeit any remaining assets to the state, which should be sold to pay for vital services, insteading of increasing the tax burden and reducing the quality of life3 the average citizen who is now having to pick up the tab for someone elses partying.

I'm a financial trader, and for my two cents worth, I'm cashed out until government gets its hands off the markets, and stops spending Other Peoples Money. Let those that deserve to fail, fail; better performers are clamouring to take their place and buy their assets cheaply. The job of government in finance is to regulate; I have no problem abiding by the rules that The People agree to let me operate by. I'll be on a sun lounger until the markets are back to being allowed to heal the natural and organic way.

Newcastle has been playing its violin since the 1930's when it first suffered the first large scale unemployments of the industrial age. I can't beleive they're still convincing the whitehall mandarins to pump cash into the public sector. If the sole reason for a place existing has evaporated (cheap coal to the UK's industrial furncases of the 20th century), they need to be closed down; if through their own ingenuity Geordies manage to create new industries, then good luck to them, but if they keep relying on government, asian manufacturers and american industrialists to plan a better future on their behalf, they will continue in their lives of disappointment and underachievement.
Some cities have gotten over their industrial proletarian past, why hasn't this one?

Investors need a return. With no yield, investors may just as well either keep their money in a shoe box (no risk of default), or invest directly in real businesses (creating actual growth). The one off trading opportunity of the market sneeze of 2008 has dried out, and so we will start to see the real economy start to grow, which will take years to bear fruit. Since real investors will have most of their money tied up productively, lack of demand for investment products of all types will kick the crutch from under the markets, and current valuations will melt into the air they are made of.

My wife died in her mid thirties of a cancer which had no preventable causes, it was found to be largely genetic. Not only had she been a nurse, but she helped more people in her last 3 years than most would if they lived to the age of 90. If she hadn't, I may have thought it would be better for her to go quietly, because she certainly suffered physically. Its not the length of life or level of one's own health that provides the most meaning and quality in life, but the value that we add to others. My point is its more important to live life as you would want to be remembered, rather than be obsessed with longevity, a factor over which we have much less control than we (or our health professionals) might like to kid ourselves.

Blimey, I upset a few there. Let me assure all I am a very peaceful chap who does not go out of his way to offend, I'm just doing my democratic duty and making my opinions heard. It might pay for us all to continue this debate within our own communities. My comment was meant to redress the unobjective journalistic treatment of the subject matter in the article.
Some rebuttals, if I may (though I suspect the comments page is not supposed to be for debates):
Extranero/: I'm no totalitarian. Perhaps if Stalin had better grounding in Philosophy, his behaviour might have been less extreme.
Ignacio/: "On which historical ocassions theology-free morality has been decisive for man progress?". That would be a good subject for a debate, thank you. Two very significant occasions leap immediately to mind - 1. Darwins personal struggle with his wife's Christian faith when deciding whether or not to publish scientific facts in The Origin of Species. 2. The Allied stand against the AXIS powers in WW2.
Curates Egg/: "Belief is personal. Each man to his own". Except in religion, where each man must hold another mans belief?

Kim 77: "I think your preachy and aggressive comment calling others stupid for their faith (without providing reasons why)" I don't believe I did, and more, I don't believe anyone is stupid simply because they lack a scientific logical framework; in most cases they just need an open mind, experience and/or education.

Thank you to those that recommended, I wish you peace too.

Thanks for agreeing Sherman, and yes, I do only sleep with hotties, but they must be hotties who are achievers. I doubt you get to meet any of them as you are no doubt too busy blocking toilets and throwing your sabots into the machinery. Evolution is written by the winners.
If you look closely at my last point you'll recognise that I resect workers for voting with their feet - the employer/employee relationship is financially harsh in both directions- I treat them well or expect to be treated with scorn. Experimentation with alternative forms of management of the means of production have failed miserably; since our system is more tolerant of dissent, I can only assume you are an armchair revolutionary who bites the hand that feeds you. Blow the dust off the red banner in your bedsit and stand for the Internationale with a cracked glass of cheap vodka.

I predict that the China boom will bust. In business, ethics is its own reward.