Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, February 5th, 2015 - 76 comments
The social democracy of my youth has radically collapsed into our current culture of individualism, privatisation and personal greed.
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, February 5th, 2015 - 49 comments
The Productivity Commission has a new report out which looks at changes in the labour income share, or LIS, from 1978 to 2010. The labour income share is described in the report’s summary as: The labour income share (LIS) measures the split of national income between workers who supply labour and the owners of capital. […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, January 12th, 2015 - 76 comments
Far from fading away into the Christmas haze, SkyCity looks likely to be one of the defining political issues for 2015.
Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, January 9th, 2015 - 64 comments
Whatever the reason for a person’s disability if it is to such an extent that they cannot work we condemn them to a life of subsistence living with a big pay rise when, and if, they reach retirement age to 65% of the average wage!
Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, December 18th, 2014 - 9 comments
National are not responsible for the eventual recovery, they are responsible for delaying it.
Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, December 17th, 2014 - 7 comments
Scott examines Bill’s likely excuses for failing to deliver something National have promised since 2011
Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, December 16th, 2014 - 73 comments
The Nats are going to miss the only target they ever cared about hitting – the mythical surplus. Seven wasted years and counting…
Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, December 14th, 2014 - 65 comments
Inequality has been very much in the news recently. Friday saw the publication of two really excellent pieces that between them provide a comprehensive, if depressing overview.
Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, December 13th, 2014 - 65 comments
Two New Zealands will shortly celebrate Christmas, the poor and the rich. Here’s a crazy thought…
Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, December 12th, 2014 - 181 comments
Message to today’s anonymous Herald editorialist – competition doesn’t close the inequality gap, it widens it. In other news, black is black not white, and water is wet. How can you write such drivel?
Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, December 11th, 2014 - 31 comments
The lied about surplus in the run up to the 2014 National Election is looking like matching Penn and Teller for magical skills. It’s the ultimate disappearing act. Unlike bad economic figures when Labour is in Government, this isn’t National’s fault. Bill English says so. It’s all down to a whole lot of unusual and […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, December 10th, 2014 - 16 comments
Right-wingers recently got all hot and bothered about the idea of “recall elections”. Perhaps we do need them, not for the scandal of a Mayor having a bathroom, but for governments that systematically and cynically deny the truth, to the detriment of us all.
Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, December 10th, 2014 - 18 comments
Colin James has an excellent piece on the housing market. Simon Collins has a piece on the implications on young renters. Meanwhile, a number of other big problems are being ignored by National as well.
Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, December 10th, 2014 - 33 comments
Rob Salmond notes the OECD report saying the West – and New Zealand more than any – have had their growth held back by income inequality. Do we have a government willing to do anything about it?
Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, November 4th, 2014 - 49 comments
Yesterday’s Werewolf contained a fascinating discussion between Gordon Campbell and Bryan Gould on neoliberalism and the economy. It should be required reading for Labour leadership contenders!
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, November 1st, 2014 - 188 comments
Automation is changing everything – faster than we think…
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, September 14th, 2014 - 119 comments
David Cunliffe has announced his final big policy. It’s called NZ Inc and it’s a bloody smart move.
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, August 26th, 2014 - 7 comments
So National are both so out of ideas and so desperate to take the spotlight off their Dirty Politics that they’re now promising tax cuts. Tax cuts straight after we have a panel of our most prominent economists warning that the ‘rock star’ economy is going to hit the rocks.
Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, April 30th, 2014 - 12 comments
Largely overlooked yesterday, the Green Party launched their “Conservation in Our Backyards” policy. Focusing on protecting New Zealand’s socially and environmentally rich biodiversity, it provides a means to act locally in countering the current track towards global social, environmental and economic destruction.
Written By: - Date published: 8:56 am, April 30th, 2014 - 50 comments
There is a major new economics tome out this year that’s sending waves through the economics community like none since Friedman in the 70s. It’s Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
It points out that under capitalism, we’re doomed to inequality.
Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, April 1st, 2014 - 48 comments
The Kapiti Expressway is one of the National government’s RONS projects: it makes no sense economically. It is destructive to the environment and the local communities. The NZTA is attempting to run roughshod over ancestral lands, including that of writer, Patricia Grace. She is taking a stand.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, March 21st, 2014 - 15 comments
“Rockstar economy”? Let’s hear it for another chorus of,”There is no depression in New Zealand”! Demographia reports on absolute food and housing poverty for too many Kiwis. Simon Collins reports on the ethnic inequality gaps & high rates of Maori imprisonment.
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, March 9th, 2014 - 33 comments
Our export-led economy is a rock-star according to those on the right. Australia kept us going, and now, despite the EU still spluttering, we can fly because China will buy all our milk powder. But there’s a potential flaw in putting all your eggs in one China basket, as a number of BBC stories have been revealing.
Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, March 4th, 2014 - 150 comments
NZ seems like a client state of both US imperialism, and the UK monarchy: a throwback to the first part of the 20th century. John Key was quick to support the US & EU lines on the Crimea; some low achieving, British royals are visiting NZ at taxpayers’ expense.
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, March 1st, 2014 - 35 comments
In the United States, the street beggars have great patter. Despite what South Park would have us believe, when you walk down the main street of a major city, you don’t get hordes of people shiftlessly shaking cups at you, asking for “change?” There are a few. But far more often, there’s a story. I […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:08 am, February 11th, 2014 - 14 comments
There’s been an excellent Insight on Radio NZ on Sunday / Monday, looking at the income gap and the consequences for our society – the loss of social mobility, the loss of health (mental & physical) for all, the increased incarceration, drug use etc etc. There’s also been recently PBS coverage in the US, […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, February 11th, 2014 - 46 comments
Governments are holding on to their traditional roles and functions, but the world has changed. We need something else.
Written By: - Date published: 1:24 pm, February 10th, 2014 - 7 comments
Something that doesn’t seem to have hit the newspapers here, but may turn out to have been significantly affecting little ol’ NZ is a growing forex scandal, mainly in the UK (as the centre of forex trading). The boss of the UK’s financial regulator has said the the allegations of rate-fixing are “every bit as […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, February 7th, 2014 - 146 comments
The NZ Herald has a long history of opposing Maori resistance and supporting colonisation. It has always been right wing with a strong commercial focus & MO. Yesterday it censored news of Waitangi Day protests. Today an editorial spins in slippery style, for the Govt’s failing PowerCo sales.
Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, January 23rd, 2014 - 97 comments
[Updated] Speeches: Key (today ZB Transcript). PM’s speech – untruths, misdirections & corporatisation of education – comment added. Cunliffe on Monday, on greater opportunities for all Kiwis. Metiria Turei’s speech, Sunday – will talk education, environment. Peters responds to Key. Greens response – education. Cunliffe’s Stand-up – audio.
Written By: - Date published: 11:43 am, January 21st, 2014 - 41 comments
Some say the economy often responds positively to “confidence”, while lack of it can result in some financial nose dives. But whose confidence is being highlighted in reports of NZ’ “rock star” economy? Not that of workers, beneficiaries – the precariat, say Labour, Greens.
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