Walking backwards off the cliff
The coming oil shock is not just about oil. The future is baked in, and its not good. National’s backward-looking budget will make it much worse.
Economy
manufacturing
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.
China is not a threat to Regional Peace
The real threat to peace in our region does not stem from China, but from a “China threat” narrative—promoted by the United States to rally other nations behind its China containment agenda.
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 […]
The 2022 Economic Boom
New Zealand is seeing a strong, business-led recovery. But what will we do with this success?
Can A Renewed Provincial Growth Fund Save Us?
With the simultaneous decline of Southland’s Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, the retrenchment of Waikato/South Auckland’s New Zealand Steel’s Glenbrook Steel mill, and the near-total shrinking of NZ Refining in Whangarei’s Marsden Point it’s not unreasonable to ask what will happen to the 10% of New Zealand who are employed in major manufacturing plants.
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.
Employment Law Changes; A Win for the Workers
The Labour Party sponsored amendments to the Employment Relations Act are a step closer to becoming law. That’s a good thing for working people and a good thing for coalition politics.
A Question from a Room.
Take a look around the room you’re in. Or if you’re out and about and reading this on some mobile device, then take a look around the next room you enter. Closely.
Bio-fuels.
Biofuels and fossil. The difference?
A “Culture of Entitlement”?
With the current dialog about welfare, It is time to look at the people who are the real beneficiaries, of the welfare system.
Who use the educated and healthy workforce our system provides
The people who say “everyone should stand on their own two feet”, “you don’t work you don’t eat”, and “take personal responsibility”,
The business sector.
Good ideas in Gisborne
Andrew Little’s announcement yesterday in Gisborne of Labour’s pledge of up to $20million to build a prefabricated timber plant there is a much-needed boost to the area and a sign that Labour’s 100,000 new house pledge first made by David Shearer in 2012 has legs.
Trump final campaign ad
Donald Trump’s last campaign ad lifts the mood of a relentlessly negative campaign between two massively disliked candidates.
Michael Moore: why blowing up the system and voting for Trump will feel good
Trump is the “human molotov cocktail” that many Americans have been waiting for.
Fortress NZ
TS regular Tony Veitch has some practical ideas as to how we insulate NZ from the ravages of neoliberalism and climate change. Readers may agree with some, none or all of the suggestions. However, whichever way you look at it, the time for hand wringing is over. It’s time for action.
Charles Hugh Smith – The Ultimate Long Game: Autarky and Resilience
Today, electronic numbers in electronic bank accounts are the most important things to the people who lead NZ. That’s going to have to seriously change. The country’s capacity and resources in terms of food, energy, water and cultural/social resiliency is what actually counts.
We’re going to burn it all, until we burn it down.
What does it really mean to reduce NZ’s total fossil fuel use by 50% by 2030: a warm up discussion for an upcoming thought experiment.
Saving the town
What do you do for a town when the company that provides all the jobs shuts down?
The great big list of John Key’s big fat lies (UPDATED)
How many more lies will John Key tell today in his so-called State of the Nation address? Virtual chocolate fish to whomever guesses the closest number.
Climate and Trade
The proposed TPP is a protection racket – not a trade deal.
Hard left Corbyn receives public backing from 41 leading economists
Jeremy Corbyn announces the potential renationalisation of privatised state assets, with minimal compensation. While 41 leading economists back his anti-austerity stance. This is what left wing leadership and courage looks like.
250 to 300 Job Losses at Unitec in Auckland
Under Unitec’s new vision students will be known as Customers. Student services will be outsourced (overseas)
Aspiration statementTo be a world leader in contemporary applied learning and an agent of positive economic and social change.
Parker nails English on economic policy
Labour has the bold set of policies to take New Zealand forward into the 21st century – National’s “same old same old” tinkering will see the Kiwi skiff swamped. That was the clear conclusion from the debate between David Parker and Bill English on National Radio this morning.
National’s mouthpiece on manufacturing doesn’t like details
David Farrar in his usual burst of hypocrisy and curious selectiveness about detailed numbers is proclaiming a headline rise in manufacturing. As is usual he is only interested in the top level numbers and doesn’t provide a link to even the summary data. I guess that is because they are rather depressing for his 9th floor of the Beehive view of employment and wage packets, which is what most voters expect from growth. There has been a slight decline in manufacturing jobs while we have a 11% growth in “manufacturing”.
The neoliberal power game: cities for sale
An NZ Herald article about Mai Chen’s book on Auckland Council, supports big power, big money, big competition, and economic activities focused on anything but the production of material needs and wants. It ignores the struggling precariat living with housing, income, transport and energy poverty.
National’s exports – how to lose value and jobs
Manufacturing exports dropped by 3.3% over the last year. Manufacturing businesses and their jobs disappeared with them. Meanwhile the National MP’s with dairy farms and interests will today be proclaiming a buoyant economy based on them selling barely processed milk-powder to China. It is good for them but as they gut the manufacturing jobs few other kiwis will reap any benefits.
Polity: Labour’s manufacturing plan
This is very good stuff. Having a tax break for R&D work has always been a no-brainer, and it is great to see it reconfirmed. Adding an accelerated depreciation scheme for new plant is a helpful addition. And partnering with more local firms for more locally-sourced government procurement makes perfect sense, too. Another no brainer for parties – like Labour – that actually care about local employment.