The TakeDown of GB News

The proprietor of GB News may be about to take over the UK Telegraph. That would be rather nice since the UK Tele has been drifting leftwards for some time.

GB News owner in talks with US billionaire over Telegraph bid (25 Sep)

The American billionaire Ken Griffin is in talks to help fund a transatlantic takeover bid for The Telegraph led by his fellow hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall.

Sir Paul, co-founder of the hedge fund Marshall Wace and a joint-owner of GB News, has lined up financial firepower from Mr Griffin ahead of an auction expected to begin within weeks. The discussions are said not to have been finalised and may not lead to a partnership, however.

I hope it happens!

miltonf
Sep 27, 2023 8:58 PM
I probably should speed up my planning to depart.

I thought you went to Japan.

Now the Hunchback is gone I thought I might have more time. Seems not.

“Free people make free choices. Free choices mean you get unequal outcomes. You can have freedom, or you can have equal outcomes. You can’t have both.”
Naval Ravikant

Bad times about to get worse.

Underground conductors have to be much bigger as the temperature drop is not as great as aerial conductors. The cost is much greater for underground.

Under grounding or burning the countryside out every summer with tens of thousands of kilometres of extra power lines webbing across the nation.

Attended an infrastructure breakfast briefing a couple of years ago with Socialist Barbie as the keynote speaker – multiple references to ‘equality of outcome’ – I threw up in my mouth.

dover0beach
Sep 28, 2023 12:51 AM

Just a note. I’m aware of the problem with the 503 error.

Also, the last comment I can read is cohenite’s.
While it is interesting, becomes a bit boring.

For the last time Dover, I offer a contribution if that is needed, but change servis provider.
The current ones are cheating you.
I am mostly a lurker, but use this site for a news outlet, plenty of good links and copies of articles I have no access to, even the trolls provide some amusement.

WTF happened?
My comment wasn’t worth repeating.

Just checked the Oz re a comment I made a few days ago on gender issues, specifically replying to a commenter who said a gynaecologist he knew had refused to treat a trans ‘woman’. Whether a real case or not, there are certainly gynaecologists of this view, one went public in France recently.

OK, so this was ‘rejected’.

Couldn’t agree more. This ‘trans’ person is a male with male genes and a male urinary tract and no female abdominal features. He needs to see a urologist to check out his issues. He may also have prostate cancer or other male issues that require addressing, and if he no longer has a penis he may have urinary issues due to that. If he has had his testes removed and further internal surgery carried out he may need a specialist surgeon to assist him. A gynaecologist is no no help in his circumstances.

I guess I used the wrong pronoun. ‘She’ should be checked out for prostate cancer.

What lunacy this gender stuff is, and even more so, what lunacy the kiddo journos imbued with wokeness at the Oz inflict on the normal rest of us.

It’s a bit like being asked if you are male or female when you present to hospital about to give birth. Or be assisted with ‘chestfeeding’.

End. This. Nonsense. Now.

A woman is an adult human female.
Not a fantasizing male getting off on autogynophillia
And only females give birth and breastfeed colostrum.
Even if a very few may delusionally fantasize they are men while injuring their babies with added testosterone.

These things are called The Facts of Life.

A couple of the cartoons get it.
Dan Andrews legacy will be the debt and the rate of change of that debt.
To be clear, NSW & QLD have the same spending issues but their credit cards are being maintained (not paid off, just maintained) by coal & gas royalties.

Post the Olympics spend, even the coal & gas royalties won’t be enough to support the QLD Amex.

The problem with debt incurred by a tax base is that it’s not an issue, until it’s an issue.
The bonds of Australian states are still a long long way down the list of problematic bonds in a global sense.
But it’s intergenerational economic vandalism to rack up the amount of debt Australian states are & have exploded over the past 5 years.

“Behind the curtain, Zelensky has been quietly asking EU countries to send bank men of military age who have fled Ukraine.

Similar but different to Operation Keelhaul.
The Russians & Ukrainians can enforce a media blackout when it comes to conscription in their own countries.
Wonder which western nations will enforce a blackout when sending Ukes home to fight?
My money is on the UK.

What lunacy this gender stuff is

I still don’t understand how these people got so much power.

“Mundine was the first of the two to take the stage. He warmed up the crowd with a joke at Peter Fitzsimmons’ expense.

He said: ‘The Yes campaign is all about the vibes. They talk like they’ve been to Nimbin and had a few joints.’”

Jacinta and Warren were also politely debated by “Yes” voters last night in Brisbane. 😀

The deal to pay off the debt should be that VIC is split in two and the criminal justice systems are purged, same with QLD but split in three.

My estimation is that Hunchback was a personality cult. Now that excrement is gone, I can only hope the commie party will implode.

The betting on the Voice is hard.
Does one wager on 0:6 or 1:5?

A wild NO supporter appears.

Peterfitzsimian uses atheism, but it’s not very effective!

Peterfitzsimian cries out and calls you a racist as he assumes all NO voting indigenous are Uncle Toms!

The NO voter wins the battle!

From the Oz.

IMO, this makes a lot of sense, which means our current Treasurer won’t take any notice.

RBA review runs risk of undermining monetary policy
PETER COSTELLO

There is no doubt that when the Reserve Bank of Australia engaged in unconventional monetary policy in response to the Covid-19 pandemic it made a hash of things.

These measures were the forward guidance (no increase in the cash rate until 2024) and the bond-buying program. It had never used these types of measures before and it was going into uncharted territory. But its guidance was woefully wrong.

We are still in 2023 and there have been 12 rate rises. The bond-buying program designed to get a yield of 0.1 per cent out to April 2024 failed. And all those 2024 bonds bought by the Reserve Bank are showing substantial losses – in fact, losses sufficient to wipe out the bank’s equity.

But this failure was not a result of the current operative arrangements. This failure was not the fault of the statute or the agreement between the governor and the treasurer (Statement on the Conduct of Monetary Policy), and not the fault of the composition of the board (two internal members and seven external members).

This was a failure of judgment and execution.

The governor and the board got it wrong. In defence of the board, it was largely copying other central banks, particularly the US Federal Reserve. In July last year, the government announced a review of Australia’s monetary policy arrangements. Once the review was established, it was an inquiry in search of a recommendation.

It could have found that the institutional arrangements were sound, that the bank had failed to execute its charter in the short term, but the arrangements had served Australia well across more than two decades. Importantly, it could have concluded there was no reason to leap into a new system that was untested and uncertain. That was the effect of evidence I gave to the review. Unfortunately, the Canadian member of the inquiry was not present when I gave that evidence.

The review has recommended that in place of the current board, there should be two boards with a new one – the monetary policy board – having responsibility for monetary policy.

On this board there would still be two internal members and seven external members. The difference is that this board, is supposed to house “experts”.

These experts would engage with the RBA staff and be able to commission analysis from them. They would give public speeches to outline the thinking of the board and discuss its decisions.

These members would have a great deal more latitude than a minister (who is bound by cabinet solidarity) to disagree with collective decisions.

They would get a lot more latitude than a normal director of a public company.

Whether the public would be better informed by differing opinions from these various experts is another matter.

It is widely expected that when the government goes hunting for these experts those with the time and inclination to engage will include a fair contingent from academe. As a result, we now have a long queue of academic economists supporting the proposed restructure and auditioning for possible appointment.

Mostly academic economists were all-in for unconventional monetary policy. Mostly they wanted more of it, not less. I think it quite unlikely that these sorts of experts would have helped the bank avoid the mistakes of 2020-22.

And what is going to happen if the policy of the MPB leads to the devaluation of reserves (as it did)?

The balance sheet is presumably the domain of the management board. Who prevails? When one board becomes two, there will be all sorts of jurisdictional questions to be resolved.

I think one of the mistakes we have made in recent years (as indeed has much of the Western world) is we have asked monetary policy to do too much. Monetary policy can do some things, such as restrain inflation to a target, but even then it is a blunt instrument and it works on time lags.

Can monetary policy deal with climate change? I don’t think so. So many of the things that affect that do not respond to interest rates.

Can it fix housing affordability? Not if affordability is caused by migration quotas, tax arrangements, zoning laws and the like.

Can monetary policy make up for fiscal failure? Monetary policy is one lever in an economy, not the only lever. We should ask it to do what it can, not more. And we should ask the same of all the other decision-making bodies: the federal government, the states, the competition regulators, the labour regulators and the like.

Complicating the current arrangements, as the RBA recommends, runs the risk of less focus and less accountability from the bank in the area where it really should be held responsible.

Peter Costello was federal treasurer from 1996 to 2007.

Like it or not, Pearson has now become one of the most powerful voices driving the NO campaign.

One thing the Yes campaign have been desperately trying to do is deflect the narrative away from the money– the cost all taxpayers bear each year seeing their hard earned forked out to Aboriginal programs and it’s mammoth industry.

It’s failing. The boatloads of money are coming into view. And the No vote is benefiting from that as undecideds ask the question; Where is all the money going now? Why isn’t it all that money enough to make a significant difference? How much more is needed (FFS)? And they see vindictive rascist bludgers like Pearson and fellow parasites living high on OPM.

This is perhaps the first time the hundreds of thousands who have immigrated here for a better life over the last decade or so have actually taken a critical look at the costs the Aboriginal Industry imposes. I can’t see many of them too happy to fund what they are seeing as the grifters and bludgers the Yes campaign is throwing in our face daily.

This will be the future for our elderly also.

“95 Year Old Korean War Veteran Evicted by Illegal Immigrants
Just when you thought the border crisis couldn’t get any worse, you’ve got to see this. A 95 year old Korean War veteran was kicked out of his nursing home to make way for illegal immigrants in New York. Frank’s been living there for years. He’s 95 years old. He’s wheelchair bound, and he was essentially kicked out onto the street because the city of New York prioritized illegal immigrants over Frank, a Korean War veteran and United States citizen.”

From Red State.

I like this from Indolent’s link. This is exactly how the Soviet system operated , and then spectacularly failed;

In the U.S., the $27 billion “National Climate Bank,” created by Biden’s green new deal, has only led to waste, fraud, abuse and outright socialism. Government central planners (like climate czar John Kerry) are entitled to pick the winners and losers in the economy, stifling market innovation and upending countless jobs and livelihoods.

Gingerella:

She said: “Why do we fail to meet the targets that we collectively as a nation have set ourselves to change? I think that there is one explanation and that is because we haven’t heard the voice of those who can truly make the biggest difference’’.

She just admitted that she wasn’t listening either. Even as PM.

As for the “voice” of those who can make the biggest difference – that would be the “No” voters. An honest response to a failed referendum would be to do an outcome audit on the indigenous industry and redirect money to areas with the best results.

Not going to happen though. Not interested in real reform, just troughing and posturing.

Jo Kelly in the Oz.

More on the proposed restructure of the RBA Board.

Peter Costello joins attack on ‘risky’ RBA reform

Former treasurer Peter Costello has revealed he warned the ­Reserve Bank review there was “no reason to leap into a new system that is untested and uncertain”, suggesting the proposed central bank overhaul would fail to deliver better outcomes while diminishing ­accountability for monetary policy decisions.

Reinforcing the critique of the RBA review made by former reserve bank governor Ian Macfarlane, Mr Costello – the chair of Nine Entertainment and the ­Future Fund – said there was now a risk of “less focus and less ­accountability from the RBA in ­the area where it really should be held responsible”.

The nation’s longest-serving treasurer acknowledged the central bank had “made a hash of things” by engaging in unconventional monetary policy during the pandemic and its flawed forward guidance suggesting the cash rate would not increase until 2024.

But these were errors of judgment rather than institutional failings and, once Jim Chalmers announced the review of monetary policy arrangements in July 2022, Mr Costello said it was destined to be an “inquiry in search of a recommendation”.

“It could have found that the institutional arrangements were sound, that the bank had failed to execute its charter in the short term, but the arrangements had served Australia well over more than two decades,” Mr Costello writes in The Australian. “Importantly, it could have concluded there was no reason to leap into a new system that is untested and uncertain. That was the effect of evidence I gave to the review.”

In his most extensive critique to date of the government’s proposed overhaul of the central bank, Mr Costello said that – even if the changes in the RBA review had been implemented prior to the nation entering the Covid-19 pandemic – it was unlikely they would have “helped the bank avoid the mistakes of 2020-22”.

The Treasurer on Wednesday hit back at the criticism of the RBA review made by Mr Macfarlane, saying he was “not right to say that there is some kind of ­radical change to the composition of the RBA board”.

Mr Macfarlane, who led the RBA from 1996-2006, warned the recommendations in the review would diminish the authority of the governor by elevating the role of six external members on a new Monetary Policy Board, which would be handed responsibility for monetary policy decisions.

“The same amount of external people will be on the board after the change as before the change,” Dr Chalmers said.

“They will be asked to make the same kind of decision. It is surprising to me that Mr Macfarlane wants to pretend otherwise.”

But Mr Costello backed the critique made by Mr Macfarlane and challenged the direction in the RBA review for the external members of the MPB to “discuss the decisions and thinking of the board publicly, including through at least one speech or public engagement a year”. He suggested this approach would confuse the national debate.

“These members would have a great deal more latitude than a minister (who is bound by cabinet solidarity) to disagree with collective decisions,” Mr Costello said.

“They would get a lot more latitude than a normal director of a public company. Whether the public would be better informed by differing opinions from these various ‘experts’ is another matter,” he added

Mr Costello was joined by former prime minister John Howard who also told The Australian he backed the former RBA governor’s assessment.

“I do agree with Mr Macfarlane very strongly,” Mr Howard said. “He was an excellent RBA governor.”

Mr Macfarlane has argued the stated intent in the RBA review – for the six external members of the MPB to more proactively shape policy decisions – meant it was inevitable the governor would eventually be overruled on interest rate decisions.

And he suggested the review’s recommendation for the publication of unattributed votes by MPB members on interest rate decisions following each board meeting would fuel media speculation about rifts within the bank.

Senior Lowy Institute fellow and RBA board member from 2011 to 2016 John Edwards called for more debate on the review’s recommendations and agreed they would move authority away from the governor.

He told The Australian the most likely candidates for the external members of the MPB were academic economists, particularly given the review’s suggestion that the external members should spend the “equivalent of about one day a week in the role”.

“If you go in the direction of making a public speech, you can only really have people who are sufficiently confident in monetary policy that they can make a speech and answer questions from reporters without embarrassment,” Dr Edwards said.

He suggested this represented a shift to an “expert board rather than an advisory board of the kind we have now”, but questioned whether this arrangement would “get better outcomes”.

Mr Costello said it was widely expected that, when the government went hunting for external members of the MPB, it would need to sort through “a fair contingent from academia”.

“As a result, we now have a long queue of academic economists supporting the proposed ­restructure and auditioning for possible appointment. Mostly, academic economists were all-in for unconventional monetary ­policy,” he said. “Mostly they wanted more of it not less. I think it quite unlikely that these sorts of ‘experts’ would have helped the bank avoid the mistakes of 2020-2022.”

Mr Costello also warned the creation of two separate boards – including a standalone Governance Board to oversee day-to-day management – would create potential conflicts within the bank over decisions to use its balance sheet for monetary policy, as happened during the pandemic.

“What is going to happen if the policy of the MPB leads to the ­devaluation of reserves?” Mr Costello asked.

“The balance sheet is presumably the domain of the management board. Who prevails? When one board becomes two, there will be all sorts of jurisdictional questions to be resolved.

“Complicating the current arrangements, as the RBA review recommends, runs the risk of less focus and less accountability from the RBA in the area where it really should be held responsible.”

While the government has ­accepted all recommendations of the review in principle, Dr Chalmers has suggested he is working through a “small handful” of issues with the central bank where changes could be made.

Interesting to see when rates go next month.

The inflation target is now 5% – 6% even if it’s not explicitly stated.

“He told The Australian the most likely candidates for the external members of the MPB were academic economists, particularly given the review’s suggestion that the external members should spend the “equivalent of about one day a week in the role”.

Marxist indoctrinated academic economists (aka parasites) deciding our monetary policy. Albo really is having a field day.

Marxist indoctrinated academic economists

We weren’t all dumb enough to go to U Syd.

We weren’t all dumb enough to go to U Syd.

Then you’re an outlier. Only the “true believers” float to the top in the Socialist system.

I think we’re being bullshitted, how is core inflation NOT outpacing non-core inflation?

I can’t believe Ireland got two weeks off in the RWC piss-up.

I mean, I want them to flog Scotland and be the favourites once the pool stage is over, but 14 days between games in a World Cup?!

(Ireland hasn’t lost a game since 2 July, 2022!)

getting lots of interal server errors

Pearson = Despicable.

https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2023/09/what-a-bald-faced-racist.html

Looking forward to some serious Schadenfreude when the new lady RBA governer jacks up the interest rate soon. I’m guessing that she won’t follow the government’s wishes. Now, what’s that triad thing in economics of independent monetary policy, floated currency and capital controls called?

Looking forward to some serious Schadenfreude when the new lady RBA governer jacks up the interest rate soon. I’m guessing that she won’t follow the government’s wishes.

You would tend to think she’d get mugged by reality but her comments foreshadowed a lack of monetary discipline.

Protesters have interrupted the opening remarks of a speech being given by incoming RBA governor Michele Bullock, taking aim at previous comments about how she wants to see the unemployment rate increase to 4.5 per cent.

She’s a Keynesian pinecone.

If the participation rate can lower inflation…my god what a disaster.

M0 currency growth from early 2020 to August this year grew at an annualised rate of 49.5%.

And now she is in London rounding up Australians to vote on something that has no relevance to life in the UK.

Not quite. Come “reparations” time, the UK will be in the sights of the “Blaks”.

“The longer inflation is allowed to remain high, the greater the risk that expectations will drift higher, and the greater the real economic costs will be of bringing inflation back down.”

I dunno. Maybe she’s smart enough to go along to get along until she has consolidated her position (something I’d be too dumb to do).

On museums:

Queensland hosts one of the finest free museums at Ilfracombe: the Machinery Mile.

Dozens of rare and unique specimens of agricultural and earthmoving machinery: traction engines, stationary engines, diesel tractors, tracked things of all sorts, converted ex-military kit, drill rigs, and implements – all parked along the Landsborough Highway. (Plus a couple of very unwoke indoor museums.)

For me, up there with the Science Museum and Smithsonian Air and Space as a celebration of human ingenuity.

I love it, Faustus! We walked it early last year.

77th Brigade?

That was news to me. I simply speculated because it looked sus. It wasn’t fair but it turned out I was probably right. These things should exist to counter enemy propaganda. What we know fromWikiLeaks and the like, and the history of the CIA & FBI is that they get used against their own citizens.

Bernardi is from the Turnbull-Howard Fifth Column.

I could forgive Bernardi and take back my umbrage if he blew up the ACP because he thought someone like Bosi would derail it in a way that would make it impossible for a viable, respectable new conservative party to replace the Liberals to exist for decades.

Then again, did Bosi just lose his mind or was he the op?

You’ve got to understand, that the Liberal Party have been trying to litigate the LDP (now Libertarian Party) out of existence since we were formed.

The LDP was never going to replace the Liberals.

The ACP could. They were a middle ground between PHON and the LDP.

I wished them good luck, but watched them implode from afar.

I’m even suspicious about the party/campaign launch at Rose Bay. That house is stunning, worth over 60 mn IIRC and is used in Aussie TV shows. It was almost like it was intentionally done to make the ACP look out of touch.

So why hasn’t he restarted the ACP now Bosi disappeared up his own fundament with the horrible (no joke, possibly fascist, what else do you call flatbed trucks with execution machine guns on the back) and cultish A1 Pardee?

The thing is, Bernardi sends out emails and has done what to restart the ACP?

Maybe it turned to shit and he’s just suffering crippling depression.

I dunno. I’m just perplexed because the ACP coulda have been a contender.

the Liberal Party have been trying to litigate the LDP (now Libertarian Party) out of existence since we were formed.

I note the LDP stands for Limp Dicks Partay among shooters, after their success cannibalising the SFFP in their early runs.

Bishops advocate ‘Yes’ vote in Voice referendum
28 September 2023

Two of Australia’s Catholic bishops have this week publicly endorsed the Yes vote in the upcoming Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, issuing pastoral letters to their dioceses explaining their reasoning.

Dot

Bernardi is from the Turnbull-Howard Fifth Column.

I could forgive Bernardi and take back my umbrage if he blew up the ACP because he thought someone like Bosi would derail it in a way that would make it impossible for a viable, respectable new conservative party to replace the Liberals to exist for decades.

Then again, did Bosi just lose his mind or was he the op?

Be careful that you do not descend into Angleton’s “Wilderness of Mirrors”.

Thanks Roger!

Dot – Next inflation print will be a shocker.

Brent crude is just shy of US$95 today, up about $10 in September so far, gold has fallen fifty bucks this week, and silver around two bucks. AUD is now 63.5, since the US dollar is rising. We therefore get it both ways since stuff tends to be priced in USD.

My view is most inflation is actually due to stupid energy policy, since that feeds into everything. It’s no surprise then that inflation took off after Biden started destroying supply side energy – which of course the Z War also influences by suppressing Russian output.

Dog boxes for the proles.

Premier’s French solution to Sydney housing crisis (Tele, 28 Sep, paywalled)

Inspired by the overhaul of Paris in the 1800s, Chris Minns wants a rapid-fire rollout of three- to four-storey apartment blocks to revolutionise development in Sydney and help solve the housing crisis.

Going to be instant tenements, and feral in summer if the ALP denies them Gaia’s hated airconditioning. Paris is just slightly cooler than western Sydney.

Razey

But not without first ruining all our lives in the process of finding out that it doesn’t work.

We already know that it doesn’t work.

Communism was tested to destruction in the Soviet Union, and has failed, at vast human cost, wherever attempts have been made to implement “real communism”. It is an indictment of our so-called “intelligentsia” that they are individually and collectively too stupid and ignorant to understand the reality.