The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Prince William and Prince Harry could make peace, over the shared grief of Prince Philip's death.
Buckingham Palace has confirmed the brothers will be among 30 guests at the service at Windsor Castle's St George's Chapel on Sunday morning.
In a break from tradition, the brothers won't walk shoulder to shoulder in the procession.
But Cornell University family sociologist Karl Pillemer told Mike Hosking there will still be an opportunity for reconciliation, after months of tension.
"Meeting for a limited time, during a period of shared grief, can be a good chance to address a family estrangement."
Prince Philip's great-grandchildren have been deemed too young to attend.
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The Warriors are still trying to perfect their NRL recipe.
They're 10th after five rounds with two wins and three losses, and meet the fourth-placed Dragons on Sunday.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck told Mike Hosking his side had a great pre-season, but they've been plagued with injury and need to settle on combinations.
"It's been a tough start losing prop Addin Fonua-Blake and halfback Chanel Harris-Tavita to injury."
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The little piece of news and current events that as popular as a security guard at a vaccine centre.
Live cows on ships
4/10
"I know some city-slickers get queasy, but this is an agricultural country and cows pay bills, and killing industries is not good for business or Chinese relations."
Super Rugby
7/10
"Two more teams is good, expansion is good... fingers crossed on quality and the business case though."
Patrick Reynolds
6/10
"Started well by offering his opinion on the choo-choo train... failed by apologising for what really was just an opinion."
Brian Roche
4/10
"Waka Kotahi handed out millions for the choo-choo train... we know it’s a bust... Patrick merely said what is true. It's a sad world when you get upset when people speak their mind. God forbid we have free speech and opinions."
The Government's week on Covid
0/10
"It really has reached the point of despair. So much ineptitude, so many lies, so much arse-covering.
There guys are shaping up as the worst government on delivery in modern political history."
Chris Bishop
8/10
"Pollie of the week and a tangible example of the simple truth that this Government is offering up plenty for the Opposition if you just want to grab it and run with it."
Rumours
3/10
"Aren't we bored to death by the “How Long Does Judith Have” circus. We've only just got out the other side of the last election. If the Nats really are panicking and plotting this early they deserve to stay in opposition."
NZIER
6/10
"They think we've dodged a recession in the March quarter. I hope they're right."
Jobs
8/10
"Job ads... both sides of the Tasman they are booming. Virtually every region and every state is growing. Talent and skills are in hot demand."
Skinny jeans
6/10
"You have to have the leg for them... but even a slightly chunky thigh surely beats a flare."
Golden point
7/10
"Both Super games last weekend ended with it and I like it. A tangible improvement and you can't always say that when it comes to rule changes."
Scrabble and cricket
3/10
"Both fell into the woke trap this week, changing names and removing words. One day we will realise what a bunch of flighty band-wagoners we were."
Grant's letter to Air New Zealand
1/10
"This is one of the more dangerous aspects of New Zealand right now and I fear not enough people get it... along with Grant's letter to the Reserve Bank on housing. Independence is to be treasured and governments don't know everything - especially this Government."
Christina Holgate
8/10
"The Oz Post boss booted because of the watches .. she let loose this week and hasn’t stopped. What do they say about a woman scorned..."
Knitting
7/10
"Revelation of the week - 30% of the ACT Party caucus knit. And for the record, I'm glad Stuart apologised."
Air New Zealand's military review
7/10
"Process, not staff, is to blame... but paled into insignificance in the end now we know of the astonishing hypocrisy of the Government. It bagged the the airline... only to find out now the biggest dealer in military matters with foreign governments... is them. Now it couldn't approve enough of the stuff and still defending it. Pot. Kettle...."

Coinbase made a rousing debut on Wall Street, with shares of the digital currency exchange rising as high as $429, briefly giving it a market value over $100 billion.
Coinbase Global Inc.‘s initial public offering happened with cryptocurrency chatter seemingly everywhere, even at the U.S. Federal Reserve. Digital currencies are being incorporated into business plans and accepted for payment by major corporations like Tesla, PayPal and Visa.
The San Francisco-based company’s listing on a public stock exchange is seen by some as an inflection point for digital currencies, as Coinbase’s fortunes are closely tied to Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency. Bitcoin’s price topped $64,000 on Wednesday, up from $29,000 at the start of the year, and Coinbase said recently that first-quarter revenue should total around $1.8 billion, exceeding its revenue for all of 2020.
Shares of Coinbase are listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker “COIN,” and closed at $328.28, up 31% from the $250 reference price set by Nasdaq ahead of the first trade. That puts Coinbase's market value at $85.78 billion.
That market value makes Coinbase one of the biggest publicly traded U.S. companies — just 93 companies in the S&P 500 index have a higher market value. Coinbase’s value is close to the combined market value of Nasdaq Inc., which runs the Nasdaq Stock Market, and Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange.
Founded in 2012, Coinbase became popular among cryptocurrency fans by providing them with an easier way to exchange shares of Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Unlike many newly public companies Coinbase is profitable — the company estimates it had net income of between $730 million and $800 million in the first quarter.
Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in a note Wednesday that “Coinbase is a foundational piece of the crypto ecosystem and is a barometer for the growing mainstream adoption of Bitcoin and crypto for the coming years.”
Still, even as more companies warm up to digital currencies, there are many doubters. Until recently the major financial institutions avoided cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin is still viewed more as a store of value that as a method of payment.
Even as Coinbase made its trading debut, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell described cryptocurrencies as “vehicles for speculation” in comments to the Economic Club of Washington. “No one is using them for payments, for example, like the dollar.”
And not all investors are buying into the Coinbase hype. David Trainer, CEO of investment research firm New Constructs, said Coinbase has “little-to-no-chance of meeting the future profit expectations that are baked into its ridiculously high valuation.”
Trainer last week put a valuation on Coinbase closer to $18.9 billion, arguing it will face more competition as the cryptocurrency market matures.
Coinbase said it had 56 million verified users as of March 31, with 6.1 million making transactions monthly. Trading volume in the first quarter was $335 million.
Coinbase earns 0.5% of the value of every transaction that goes through its system. So if someone buys $100 in Bitcoin, Coinbase earns 50 cents. If Bitcoin or Ethereum prices drop, the commissions Coinbase earns drop as well, giving it some exposure to the digital currencies’ rise and fall.
Instead of using a traditional IPO, Coinbase went public through a public listing. That means it avoided the typical agreements with big banks that would buy thousands of shares and promote them. A direct listing allows insiders and early investors to convert their stakes in the company into publicly traded stock.
Other recent direct listings include the music streaming service Spotify in 2018, the messaging service Slack in 2019 and the data-mining company Palantir Technologies in 2020.
Shares of Coinbase should attract investors who want to get into the cryptocurrency space in...

A push from the Government to keep motorists' eyes on the road, and off the phone screen.
It's upping the fine for using a mobile while driving; from $80 to $150 from the end of the month.
Transport Minister Michael Wood told Mike Hosking 22 drivers died while distracted by their phones between 2015 and 2019.
He says that's a terrible toll and they want to send a message that the practice is not safe.
Wood says later this year they're having a review of all driving fees and infringement offences.
There were 22 road deaths where drivers where distracted by mobiles between 2015 and 2019.
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GPs are poised to lend their expertise, scaling-up the vaccination roll-out.
Health boss Ashley Bloomfield yesterday revealed plans to bring in GPs with primary care and community clinics, to carry out the bulk of Covid-19 vaccinations.
The biggest of those GP groups is Auckland-based Procare.
CEO Bindi Norwell told Mike Hosking doctors will help with the priority to fine-tune a distribution model for these super centres.
She says it's vital we get this right and doctors are in a great place to do this.
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More of global commerce giant Amazon could be on its way to New Zealand.
The Government's signed a memorandum of understanding with Amazon for a 25 per cent subsidy on its Lord of the Rings TV series production.
Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash says the deal is an innovation partnership, meaning Amazon will look to build a bigger relationship with New Zealand.
Nash says he doesn't know what will come out of the show's $650 million production.
He told Mike Hosking this isn't a special deal and it's nothing new for companies to get the extra subsidy.
"Productions get a 20 per cent subsidy if they meet certain criteria, but can negotiate an extra five per cent if they meet other criteria."
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THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Friday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Walking Might Be Faster/Credit Where It's Due/Mark the Week/Nothing to Be Ashamed Of/Crypto Explained. Again

Turns out Patrick Reynolds of Waka Kotahi was right.
Turns out we were all right.
Turns out yet again the theorists have been caught tripped and trapped up in their spin and ideology.
The choo-choo train from Hamilton to Almost Auckland before you get on another train to actually get to Auckland is numerically a bust.
Week One, the numbers are a disaster, but then weren't they always going to be.
Patrick saw it, we knew it, the ideologues had their fingers in their ears going la la la.
The train seats up to 147 and the stats are out.
The second day, 21 were onboard the first of the day... 40 on the second.
This Tuesday, it was down to 28 then 25. One of the days back home to the Tron, it took 12 people.
You think its making money on those numbers ? No it isn't.
And when it doesn’t make money who pays? Those of us who don’t take the train, that’s who.
Russ Rimmington from the Regional Council, who for lord knows what reason, has decided to align himself with this mess is still defending it.
He's the bloke who stood with Michael Wood and Jacinda Ardern on the platform on Day One, telling us not to worry about people turning up because they'll "give away tickets if they have to"
Well, Russ... get your ticket book ready because if the inaugural week with all the hoopla associated is any sign, it'll be a ghost train within a month.
As I have said many times, the idea isn't bad at all. But it's like so many things this Government does around delivery, they can't do a proper job.
Executing an idea you know isn't going to work is actually worse than bailing early, and pulling the pin and saving us all a fortune.
It’s the most extraordinary thing we've seen this week.
The excuses from Rimmington  and Reynolds were rolled out almost before the train left the station.
It's a start-up project, it'll take time, it needs to go faster, it needs to stop more places,  it needs to not be two trains, it needs to arrive in actual Auckland, not south Auckland. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.
But they knew that, we all knew that. Yet they still piled on in, wasting our money and their time on a service that Week One turned out to be exactly the fiscal hole in the ground any five year old could see it was going to be.
There is a massive leadership vacuum in this country. No one wants to own anything, call anything, wake up to mistakes, admit mistakes, prevent mistakes, stop the ideologues, or call the ideologues out.
And as a result we can't build houses, cant do light rail, can't do shovel-ready, can't roll out anything to do with Covid.
And the one thing that got rolled out is a sad train with no one on it, losing money from Day One.
Can someone who knows what they're doing please stand up.

So the border worker didn’t get a jab despite missing two appointments – and now the border worker hadn't even been tested since last year.
It's good to know the Government and Health Ministry can still surprise us, even as a growing number of us thought the levels of ineptitude couldn't possibly get any worse.
Remember last year and the outrage over the port workers who weren't getting tested?
Remember the woman at the centre of the last lockdown, the border worker at Sky Chefs, who had missed her test?
Remember all the promises made about tightening things up - or as Bloomfield and Hipkins were so often heard to say - this is the system learning?
Learning what? How to out-do yourself in terms of incompetency?
They don’t know how many workers they’ve got, they don't know who's jabbed, who's tested, who isn't, why they haven't been, or when they will be.
These, let us not forget, were the very same people who were all getting sacked because the Government were going to employ them on a living wage. That's clearly gone stonkingly, hasn’t it?
Read the Australian media. They're worried about this outbreak which is the ultimate irony given it was us that held the bubble up. There we were, holier than thou, looking down our nose at the Australians. And yet, the first cab off the “cock up” ramp, post the bubble - which irony-upon-ironies isn't even actually going yet - is us.
Two things. That's all this lot have done in over a year. Two things. One - close the border. Two - Set up MIQ.
The latter has been a shambles. Time and time again, breach after breach, and excuse after excuse. Whoever it was that was first to say the biggest contributor to our so-called success in Covid was luck - they were right.
This is just sheer dumb luck that you can mess it up, know as little as they do, refuse to improve the way they have, and still be moderately unscathed. It's little short of a miracle.
My ongoing question for all the apparatchiks who voted for this lot, who defend Bloomfield and his circus, honestly, you have got to be second-guessing your support.
Surely in your quiet moments, you have to be wondering to yourself just how it is they can be this useless and still be in work.
They literally can't deliver a thing. Not a house, not light rail, not a shovel-ready project, not a mental health programme, not a flu jab rollout, not a PPE rollout, not a Covid vaccine rollout, not a comprehensive secure border rollout.
Surely Judith Collins isn't the only one lost for words.