“Interest rates, oil and gold”
That RNZ tricolon has always been infuriating fluff. In the real world, analysts warn we are heading for a cliff.
Economy
Financial markets
Will Israel/US wreck the Gulf States & Iran?
We are now in the opening days of what may be the decisive war to determine either the survival of the Iranian state or the expulsion of the US from the Arab lands.
Privatisation and Plunder
Privatisation and Plunder is essential reading for those who want to work for a society where prosperity for all is the aim.
The Trump Shock: Why the US President Crashed the Global Economy
There is a method to Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff madness. The chaos and confusion is deliberate; the aim is nothing less than the […]
Good as gold
A fascinating expose from Michael Hudson on the causes and implications of the recent rise in the price of gold. When Nixon took the US dollar off the standard in 1971 you could get an ounce for $35. Not now; Hudson explains why.
An Easter Meditation
In his …and forgive them their debts, my favourite economist and Jubilee advocate Michael Hudson states that Jesus driving the money-changers from the Temple was “the act that inspired the city leaders to plot his death.”
The curious case of Liz Truss
The truth is, the throwing caution to the wind approach of slashing taxes, removing restrictions on banker bonuses, and slashing other regulations such as IR35 were all consistent with what he and Truss had argued in Britannia Unchained a decade earlier. And these ideas found favour with the Conservative Party membership – with the idealised view of Thatcher’s vision of small government, deregulation and low taxation. For the general public, this was not so much ‘Britannia Unchained’ as ‘Libertarians Unhinged.
In praise of Michael Hudson
82-year old polymath Michael Hudson is my favourite economist. He currently lectures in China to million-strong audiences. His latest book is The Destiny of Civilisation: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism or Socialism. His latest article is well worth a read.
The politics of high inflation – can governments do anything?
It is clear that we will continue to face these economic challenges with tools that are ill-equipped to face the problems. Only a truly international response can create an economy that delivers for all.
The 2022 Economic Boom
New Zealand is seeing a strong, business-led recovery. But what will we do with this success?
ANZ Bank clearly believes that greed is good
ANZ Bank has just announced a $1.92 billion profit for the year to September 30, 2021. This is about 1% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.
The fascinating story about when some redditors took on Wall Street
The world has been watching, mostly with amusement, as some redditors have brought a Wall Street merchant bank to its knees, by buying stocks in a company, GameStop who has seen better days and whose business model is antiquated.
The background traffic is loud.
Along with the grey weather, the weather around our local net is downright annoying at present. There are a massive increase in attempts to break into this site via backend systems and brute force front-end logins, a surge in scans from the search engine spider bots, and a lot of requests for putting up paid content. All of which have been ignored or dealt with. Good thing that we aren’t a target like the NZX, banks, mainstream media and the MetService are.
Kim Hill asked “Why…
…is the US sharemarket roaring away – up 44% – while economic recovery prospects are grim?” ANZ’s Sharon Zollner’s answer on Tuesday was the Fed printing money, but worried markets were turning a blind eye to the bad news. The bad news hit today as the sharemarket nose-dived. Wolf Richter’s answer was more to Kim’s point: “Fed bails out the wealthy while America convulses in pain.”
What we were doing wasn’t working.
After the lockdown, it is tempting to try and go back to what we had before. To the familiar and comfortable, especially for us that were comfortable. Forgetting that for so many, things were anything but, comfortable. That won’t be happening. “Before” no longer exists.
Austerity – who should pay for the financial crisis?
Nick Kelly on UK austerity and who should have paid for the financial crisis.
The 2008 financial crisis casts a long shadow over UK politics
Nick Kelly on why the 2008 Global Financial Crisis is still having a dramatic effect on United Kingdom Politics.
Macron speech – The end of Western hegemony
France President Macron’s remarkable and wide-ranging speech to French ambassadors after France hosted the recent G7 conference in Biarritz is well worth a read. He lays it all out – so much better than Trump’s tweets or BoJo’s bluster.
ANZ worried that it may be required to hold sufficient reserves
ANZ is complaining that the Reserve Bank wants it to hold additional capital in case of a run on the banks.
Regulating Bankers
Grant Robertson gets occasional criticism from the left but it is hard to fault him for his timing or his delivery in seeking to strengthen banking sector oversight.
What happened to Hisco?
Stuff has published details of a sweetheart deal where David Hisco bought the ANZ owned property they were living in for a greatly reduced price. But was this good investigative work or a leak from within ANZ?
Facebook is planning crypto currency service – what could possibly go wrong?
The corporation that has become renowned as the purveyor of fake news and the underminer of elections is planning to roll out a crypto currency service.
The Coming Global Economic Slowdown and New Zealand
With the United States – China trade war well underway, the sick chaos of Brexit is shrinking the U.K. economy and slowing much of Europe’s economy, and smaller economies such as that of Mexico in the crosshairs through further politically manufactured trade disputes, the second half of this year looks for New Zealand nowhere near as rosy as the first half.
Trump’s brilliant strategy to dismantle US dollar hegemony
Polymath economist Professor Michael Hudson’s latest article is a geopolitical panoramic masterpiece, sparked by outrage at a series of concurrent events on January 31 which he predicts means that 2019 will be the “year of global fracture.” Definitely worth a read.
National shafted us with the MOM privatisation
Five years on how are the benefits from the Mixed Ownership Model privatisation process the last Government engaged in working out?
The Global Financial Crisis 10 Years On
Ten years ago this week massive financial businesses in the United States started collapsing. How has the world recovered from this?
Government with a plan
The polls are great. Top work. But I’m getting worried about the entropy of this government already. Matthew Hooten and Karl Marx agree with me.
The Australian banking system review
The review into Australia’s banking system really matters to New Zealand and is doing New Zealand an almighty good service.
Productivity
A more productive economy – and society – has been an elusive goal for many of New Zealand’s previous governments. The last National Government failed. What will Labour do to succeed?
Tripling down on financial illiteracy with Amy Adams (and MMT)
Amy Adams won’t commit to $11.7b, but she too has now become the third person to fall down the imaginary fiscal hole. How can National claim to have any soundness on finance if they won’t admit their criticisms on the economy are unreasonable and unfounded? And besides, aren’t National actually worse fiscal managers if ordinary people tend to get paid less under their regimes? We dive into some theory to thoroughly dispute even Steven Joyce’s/Amy Adam’s secondary criticism of “fiscal tightness,” although concede that two of the Budget Responsibility rules are probably stupid in order to do it.
Cullen says 2020 election effectively a referendum on tax
Don’t hold your breath for recommendations of radical tax reform from the Tax Working Group. Chair Sir Michael Cullen says the 2020 election will be a referendum on tax and he is already kicking for touch
Tax Haven Man in Town
The Lord Mayor of the City of London is visiting New Zealand. Its not Sadiq Khan, Charles Bowman is a PwC partner leading London’s financial centre lobby. He’s here to talk to business and regulators. He’ll no doubt be talking up more deregulation.
Global Sharemarkets
Recent volatility in the U.S. stockmarkets has attracted calls that capitalism is facing a crisis. But the reality appears to be different.
Fletcher Chair resigns but directors retain huge fees despite staggering loss
Fletcher announces more huge losses but directors still laughing all the way to the bank
Fonterra a failure in concept and in practice
New Zealanders 17 years ago accepted the idea of a national dairy monopoly on the condition it would deliver outstanding returns. The cost has been high — filthy and unswimmable rivers. Now it turns out the result has been a financial fiasco – the whole thing is literally bullshit, or more correctly, cowshit.
Economy 2018
It’s that time of year where we start making predictions for 2018. I see it looking not too hot, not too cold.