Nicholas Lee

Some Useful Tools to Help You Rethink How Government Spending Works How You'll Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Self-Financing State

"While the mechanics of government expenditure are all very complicated, there are concrete, simple to understand facts we can point to which show that the state is self-financing."

neweconomicmanagement.substack.com/p/rethinking...

'Woke banks' row: BNZ reveals $132m exposure to risky petrol stations BNZ says it isn't completely banning lending to petrol stations, but maintains its rationale to limit exposure is commercial, not idealogical.

Climate Change -"Too Big to Fail" say's NZF - with a member’s bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework”. @newsroom.co.nz

newsroom.co.nz/2025/02/11/b...

Highway clogged with cars

If someone chooses to live in a smaller home in the inner city in part to avoid a long commute, they generally don’t pressure society to build them a bigger house with more stuff. So if you choose a bigger stuff-filled house in the suburbs, don’t expect society to build you a fast car commute.

Whoa, Canada! Don’t Make Our Mistake in New Zealand | The Tyee Out of frustration we tried electing right-wing populists. Now things are worse.

Whoa, Canada! Don’t make the same mistake New Zealand made!

“Out of frustration we tried electing right-wing populists. Now things are worse.” Via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/Analysis/202...

YouTube video by Mint Beijing 2013 vs Beijing 2024: Cleaner Air, Less Pollution — Here’s How China Did It…

We don’t have to wait for a crisis to act, there are no technological or economic barriers to solving environmental and public health issues, only a lack of political will youtu.be/h2Hc7ODyDVM?...

Why it’s time to put urban form on the global climate agenda Despite the pace and pattern of city-building and urban development, urban form remains a deeply neglected topic in global climate discourse.

Low-emissions countries typically have more compact, mixed, multi-modal cities and neighbourhoods – what we call “climate-aligned urbanism.”

www.weforum.org/stories/2024...

When your kid is ready to join war on cars

Took a while to decommission, but finally turning off my #smartos cluster with 2024 days #uptime.

If you don't actually read about what has been done in NZ so far. Then don't bother engaging in this conversation. You are doing it no service.

You are making blanket statements without really understanding. Having trusted parties running these processes is important. You can't assume they don't think about how to mitigate these issues.

Complex Conversations | Developing better approaches to public engagement around complex issues Complex Conversations is a research programme based at Auckland University's Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures focused on innovating and improving citizen involvement in public decisions around...

PS. There is a NZ based research program. So they are being investigated for the NZ context.

www.complexconversations.nz

I regularly had to report quarterly consolidated accounts to the bank. Although they moved to annual a few years ago. Really depends on what stakeholders want.

Depends on the business and consultants. Management accounts should be regular and quick to do. But formal accounts can take time. But shareholders should be able to ask for management accounts.

image of a child wearing backpack walking a painted bike lane between live traffic lanes. Text: IF youth walked to school in our bike lanes, would cities still consider paint a good enough barrier

Good Enough.

Creative piece from the #ReframeRoadSafety campaign developed with NOYS (noys.org) earlier this year.

This campaign was built to call out those who design, approve & implement inequitable transportation systems that disproportionately affect youth + BIPOC communities.

Scientists have found 8 health measures that can slow ageing by 6 years Measures including healthy sleep and regular exercise may slow pace of body’s biological ageing.

Biking is good for you, scientists say.
www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/w...
Does biking make you feel younger?

AI bots can do the grunt work of filling out job applications for you
One programmer used AI to apply for 5,000 jobs.
arstechnica.com/ai/2023/11/a...

Add your name in opposition to new oil exploration Climate change, pollution and overfishing are pushing the ocean to the brink of collapse. But there is hope. Global ocean sanctuaries can help the ocean recover and thrive.

Prime Minister-elect Chris Luxon wants to woo Big Oil and overturn Jacinda Ardern’s ban on oil exploration.

But he has a fight on his hands.

We know there can be NO new oil exploration if we are to avoid total climate collapse, and we won’t stand for it👇

Important article about NZ nuclear free policy history and how officials are often not as neutral as they claim.

www.newsroom.co.nz/a-secret-his...

Interesting that you can use a domain name as your handle.