Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Robert Heinlein on Bad Luck

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Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) is fond of this quote: Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit th...
Saturday, November 22, 2014

A Little Battle hymn

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What Labour needs is a Rallying Cry, so, to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, here's one.  That first line is filched from T...
Monday, November 10, 2014

RMA and Housing Unaffordability

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  This ( RMA and housing unaffordability being linked ) is a sad but in hindsight predictable trajectory. I won't retrace all the steps...
Monday, November 03, 2014

Plans 'Inadequate' - Gubmint to CCC

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Response to a Stuff article:   Govt-slams-planning-changes-as-inadequate The plannerista do not understand four fundamental things about o...
Wednesday, October 08, 2014

A Fool speaks out

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The Left Honorable Sir Larry Fool, president-for-life of the Small-Nation Association For Urbanista (SNAFU), has taken strong exception to W...
Tuesday, September 30, 2014

TLA's are oblivious to two aspects: UOMI and CG created by lines on maps

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There are, RMA reforms apart, two lines of action available to start to effect the needed changes. 1 - impose a UOMI calculation and repor...
Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Why does an urban section cost $200K plus???

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Posted as a Stuff comment to a David Killick article. This is something the Productivity Commission noted in their Housing Affordability ...
Thursday, July 24, 2014

Councils and Consents

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The issue with consents is quite simple:  there is zero risk-assessment in the process, the way Councils run them.  Schedule 1 IS risk-based...
Thursday, July 17, 2014

Another cold-eyed but well-argued Spengler piece

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In this magisterial article , David P Goldman argues that America has bungled everything for a decade-and-a-half, and is frankly now incapab...
Friday, April 25, 2014

CBD rebuild stall - blamed on Private Developers!

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There are two very fundamental reasons why the commercial rebuild of the Christchurch CBD has not occurred. 1 - the precincts idea and th...
Friday, March 07, 2014

Mike Greer and Spanbuild to do Factory House Builds

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Great news. Factory builds are tighter, more accurate, use CNC machines instead of drug-addled hammer hands, and are manufactured under cov...
Friday, February 28, 2014

MUL's, RUB's, Zones and other Unearned Capital Gain drivers

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The thing the Clueless Councils have never twigged to, is the economic effect of a zoning squiggle on a map. The Productivity Commission F...
Thursday, February 27, 2014

Roads, Cars, Tiwai and EV's: a Singularity approaches?

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I'm always amused by the antics of the anti-roads brigade.  My initial reaction is simple:  don't these clowns realise that public t...
Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The stock reply to the Unaffordable Houses threads everywhere...

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So, go convince your local Clueless Council not to do the two things that have done most to make houses unaffordable: 1 - draw zoning squigg...
Wednesday, February 05, 2014

The Christchurch rebuild.

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Can Cera handle the Christchurch rebuild? The rebuild has already happened in commercial terms. The New CBD (the Sydenham/Addington/Midd...
Monday, January 13, 2014

Families determine academic progress, and lifetime earning capacity

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In a single, well-referenced article , George Will nails the causes of inequality. Families.  And, to a lesser but still significant exten...
Sunday, January 05, 2014

The Christchurch CBD Precincts

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The road to hell is paved by Good Intentions (not an original thought) but let's count some of these 'intentions'. - Commerce ...
Friday, December 13, 2013

Four Thoughts re First Homes

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The interlocked factors (I ranted aboot this yesterday here) are just too hard to tackle, even individually. One alternative (which may hap...
Thursday, December 12, 2013

Hoose prices.

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There is a Gordian knot here: a myriad of interlocking and mutually reinforcing factors. No use tackling any one alone. Zoning which b...
Sunday, December 08, 2013

Popery

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The Pope has ruffled a few feathers.... Many of the more history-aware readers of the early capitalists (Smith, Ricardo etc) have pointed...