This is climate change
Climate change has melted the sea ice where polar bears catch seals. Starving, they are turning to cannibalism. Here a male bear takes the remains […]
Marty G
No spark in Nats’ power reforms
A friend just texted: “Brownlee’s power reforms look relatively benign, what’s the catch?” It’s true, Brownlee’s reforms are just minor tinkering. The only […]
Above all that kind of thing
RNZ, Nov 6: Sean Plunket “Most commentators say you’re leadership style has been one that has sought to avoid personal attacks and name […]
Excellent question
An excellent question from Labour yesterday, using some familiar numbers: Hon Annette King: When he was reusing ‘unreliable, highly volatile, and potentially misleading’ […]
Are you ‘really’ unemployed?
Governments use statistical tricks to lower the official unemployment rate. This fun video shows how many jobless people get swept under the carpet. […]
Summer’s arrival thanks to me – Key
John Key is still claiming credit for the drop in the number of people on the unemployment benefit that occurs every October and […]
Trans-Tasman ratings
In a sure sign the silly season is upon us, the Trans-Tasman has released its annual MP ratings. Considering the writers of the […]
Ethical meat on its way
Jon Stewart covers developments in the science around making meat without raising and killing an animal. Jon has a laugh of course but […]
Oram on the Brash Report
Always worth listening to, Rod Oram rips the Brash Report on Nine to Noon, not just on the findings but on the quality […]
Guaranteed minimum income + capital tax, the way forward?
Occasionally something in politics really surprises you. Like when I turned over to Campbell Live last night (I’d seen the Family Guy episode […]
Tax working group disappoints
I’ve had quite high hopes for the Tax Working Group. I thought it would be a genuine, ground-up review of the tax system […]
Dubai: Subprime state
Dubai is the subprime folly writ large. In the US, they built ‘exurbs’ in the Californian high desert, two hours each way from […]
Tax Working Group report preview
Let’s hope the Tax Working Group’s report out today is more worthwhile than the effort of the 2025 Taskforce. The basic idea that […]
No more jobs for Nats’ old mates
Apart from keeping Don Brash well stocked with corned beef in his dotage, what exactly are we getting out of the Government’s half […]
Digging for nuggets
As we predicted, the main recommendations of the Brash report have been rejected out of hand by John Key. They are, as intended, […]
Nats’ dismal record on jobs and benefits
In opposition, National claimed that Labour wasn’t really getting people off benefits, it was just moving them from unemployment benefit and ‘hiding’ them […]
No amateur hour for real leaders
Among the breathless reporting of who John Key is having a meeting with (‘he’s talking to the Queen!’ ‘he’s going to talk to […]
Everybody else is going, so why can’t we?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon have called on world leaders to attend the Copenhagen talks on the new climate […]
Why was Worth fired?
The Police have announced they will not be laying any charges against Richard Worth over the incident involving him and a Korean woman […]
Who wins from digging up Coromandel
Gerry Brownlee is talking of digging up Coromandel to extract a few tens of millions of dollars worth of gold. Naturally, the company […]
Tax reform for everyone, not just the rich
Why is it that whenever you see discussion of introducing capital gains tax, land tax etc, the assumption is always that the money […]
As newspapers die, what comes next?
The recession, combined with the long-term shift to internet-based media struck a king-hit to US newspapers over the last year. Circulation fell 10.9%. […]
Who’s next?
I was watching that vid by the Greens on ACC and bikoi. What caught my attention was the bikers’ chant: “who’s next, who’s […]
It’s not spin, the govt told me
The Dompost reports: “The number of places available on a programme to get young people off the dole will be increased after the […]
We can do better
By and large the Right are refusing to defend their neoliberal monetary policy system. The currency is causing chaos, the housing bubble is […]
Lunch time quiz
1) What the hell is John Key trying to say here? “Maori are not getting special preference, if you go back to those […]
It’s the seasons, stupid
Over the last week or so, I’ve heard John Key, Bill English, and Paula Bennett all make self-congratulatory references to the number of people […]
Oh dear, what a fizzer
The pro-child assault lobby spent $500,000 trying to manufacture the biggest march in New Zealand history up Queen St today. The reports say fewer than […]
A whole lotta nothing
In a speech to National Party members yesterday John Key read out a list of everything the government has done in the last […]
Monetary policy needs to change
I’m really happy that Phil Goff has taken monetary policy up as an issue. The current system – a puritanical neoliberal model set […]
NZ should follow Norway’s example on oil
National has released its petroleum strategy. It appears they plan to further lower our already low royalties to encourage foreign oil companies to […]
Plutonomy
In Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story (which is excellent, btw) he refers to two 2005 Citigroup memos about ‘plutonomy’ economies and political […]
Laugh track
As Irish has already noted, Fran O’Sullivan has savaged John Key’s record on employment and said that Paula Bennett is “too busy puffing her own achievements […]
Urgent action needed on job creation
We’ve talked a lot about the negative effects of unemployment on the unemployed and their communities (depression, crime, family breakup, poor health, poor […]
Key’s $155b subsidy to polluters
A month ago, I wrote that National’s moves to gut the Emissions Trading Scheme would increase government debt by $73 billion by 2050. A Treasury […]
Recession’s causes still not fixed
Recessions are meant to be about fixing economic problems that built up during the previous boom – unwinding imbalances in the parlance. Higher […]