High rollers in SkyCity's sights

International gamblers at  SkyCity's Australia and New Zealand casinos are down by around 15 percent due to the recessionary climate.

Douglas slams Govt's F&P bailout talk

The Government’s approach to a possible bailout for Fisher & Paykel Appliances and next week’s jobs summit are both ill-thought out and lack logic, former Finance Minister Sir Roger Douglas says.

Be careful with your redundancy cheque

Govt gives exporters kick-start

Kill the glass white elephant in Dunedin with a rates revolt

To be fair to the good burghers of Dunedin (though I'm not feeling very charitable at this moment), they are not the only people in the world doing stupid things right now with other people's money.

Sports stadiums seem to hypnotise local politicians. All around the world they lose their senses whenever a much-loved sports team asks for subsidies or grants for a fancy concrete and glass monument. In America the pressure is even greater because sports franchises there are mobile and threaten to jump to other cities if they don't get their big toy. It happens too in Australia (the Telstra Dome in Melbourne and the ANZ Stadium in Sydney are both bankrupt) and Britain (Google "Wembley Stadium" and "delay" to find 44,800 links in 0.33 seconds for a laugh).

Dunedin City Council doesn't even have the imminent threat of the Highlanders departing as an excuse. The Highlanders are unlikely to jump to Invercargill (even though I'm sure Tim Shadbolt would mount a campaign if he thought it might fly) or Canterbury, although the sharing of Lancaster Park/Jade Stadium/AMI Stadium/For Sale Stadium would be a great idea if everyone in Dunedin moved to Christchurch. Sure they haven't had a test for a while, but did the world end? I seem to remember the last time the All Blacks played there (July last year) they lost. Not a good omen.

So why did Dunedin City Council vote 10 to 5 last night to push ahead with a $188 million covered stadium to replace Carisbrook stadium? It simply doesn't make any kind of economic sense.

This will cost each Dunedin taxpayer $66 a year for the next 20 years or a total of $85 million. Tomorrow Otago Regional Council will vote on whether to provide a further $37.5 million.

A 'rolling maul' budget is better than an 'up the jumper' miracle

It appears everyone and their dogs are Keynesians now. They believe the only hope for turning around the global economy is lots of government spending and quick. Spend, spend, and borrow even more, they say.

There's a frenzy of calls for governments to give handouts to taxpayers and to spend up large to support consumption in slowing or recessed economies. The biggest poster boys for this approach are UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, US President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

The US Congress is expected to sign off on a pared-down US$780 billion plan this week. It doesn't have everything Obama wanted, but most of it. Last week Rudd announced a A$42 billion package of spending, including a A$950 cheque for most adults by March.

Then last week our Prime Minister John Key appeared to announce a damp squib of a package aimed at small business. It was "only" costing NZ$480 million and included a grab bag of little tax delays, red-tape reductions and tax redefinitions. It was certainly no blockbuster.

Later this week Key is expected to announce $500 million in new or accelerated spending on various infrastructure projects. Again, it seems like small beer.

Why we should give thanks when Telecom 'exports' 250 jobs to Manila

Freeze public-sector wages and lift the minimum wage