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

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It’s Auckland Anniversary day in Auckland and I’m working, like many others in and around Auckland. That’s because our businesses service a national market and we simply can’t ignore the fact that the rest of the country is working today.

I’m sure the same thing happened last Monday to people in Wellington.

This is just plain nuts. We should be bringing together all of these itsy, bitsy little provincial holidays into one national day so we can all have a day off. It would no doubt significantly improve productivity on all these itsy, bitsy days and ensure we all still get a day off.

We could call it National Provincial Day Off. After all, does anyone really care or know why today is Auckland Anniversary Day and last Monday was Wellington Anniversary Day?

I’d love your ideas on what this day could be called.

Here’s 10 of my suggestions to get things cracking.

Go To Your

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Albourne VillageAlbourne Village | Hedge Fund LetterThis letter from Albourne has been flying around the internet for a week now. I agree with many points within this letter. There is much pointing at hedge funds as the problem, much regulation proposed to "control" hedge funds. The best point below is that hedge funds are not the ones needing to be bailed out, the banks are. Surely all the blame is not to rest on bank executives, the markets will always move through cycles...but I thought this was was an interesting read. FYI - I'm a huge Albourne fan and have been a member since 2001.____________________________________Albourne is not a hedge fund, but it helps pension plans, university foundations and charities and the like allocate money to them. We are hugely proud of ...

Albourne VillageAlbourne Village | Hedge Fund LetterThis letter from Albourne has been flying around the internet for a week now. I agree with many points within this letter. There is much pointing at hedge funds as the problem, much regulation proposed to "control" hedge funds. The best point below is that hedge funds are not the ones needing to be bailed out, the banks are. Surely all the blame is not to rest on bank executives, the markets will always move through cycles...but I thought this was was an interesting read. FYI - I'm a huge Albourne fan and have been a member since 2001.____________________________________Albourne is not a hedge fund, but it helps pension plans, university foundations and charities and the like allocate money to them. We are hugely proud of ...

Church Attacks Short SellingChurch of England Supports Attacks Short SellingHere is an interesting article about the Church of England, their support in banning short selling tactics while also profiting from lending stock from their investment pool to short sellers.Hedge fund managers reacted with fury yesterday to an attack on short selling and debt trading by leaders of the Church of England yesterday, pointing to the contradiction between what they say and how they invest their vast assets.Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican church, said it was right to ban short selling, while John Sentamu, archbishop of York, called traders who cashed in on falling prices "bank robbers and asset strippers".Hedge funds ...