Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, January 18th, 2013 - 24 comments
The housing bubble’s clearly back. More wealth concentrated in the hands of the few. More of the rest of us stuck with renting for life. The politicians are talking about affordable housing. But Labour’s plan’s not affordable unless your income’s $60,000 a year or more. And who could afford the petrol you would burn living in National’s planned exurbs?
Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, January 18th, 2013 - 92 comments
Paula Bennett stated that the numbers of people on benefits had dropped over the last quarter. The figures mask the reality of Bennett’s punitive welfare reforms, and the struggles of those living on low incomes. Meanwhile unemployment is still rising. [Update: RNZ]
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, January 17th, 2013 - 36 comments
Submissions for the Education Amendment Bill 2012 (includes Charter Schools) close on 24 January. The PPTA reminds us that Charter Schools are a failed idea. Even Treasury documents show they are a bad idea.
Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, January 17th, 2013 - 220 comments
Cat beats stockbrokers at playing the market. Bottom line, we are all at the mercy of a financial system that we don’t and probably can’t understand.
Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, January 16th, 2013 - 62 comments
The oil and gas industry employs fewer people than have lost their jobs in manufacturing every 4 months under National. Yet, Joyce devotes all his efforts to doing favours for the foreign oil companies and ignores our local manufacturers. Now, another of the foreign oil companies has packed their bags. It’s a reminder that a […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, January 16th, 2013 - 98 comments
For the 5th year running, it’s that time of year, when the economists start promising the recovery is here. (remember ‘green shoots‘ in 2009?) Meanwhile, in the real world, there are twice as many jobless Kiwis as five years ago, and rising. If the pattern holds, later this year the economists will be lamenting the mysterious under-performance of the economy, as petrol hits a record price again.
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, January 16th, 2013 - 41 comments
With a 10% increase in the median house price last year, we’re firmly back on a damaging house price binge. Labour has policies that address the issue. Where is National?
Written By: - Date published: 3:58 pm, January 15th, 2013 - 27 comments
The Nats want to cut the budget for surgery to install grommets, a technique for treating persistent ear infection (especially in children). Naturally those most effected by this ill-considered move will be children from poor families.
Written By: - Date published: 10:26 am, January 15th, 2013 - 99 comments
The Herald’s running a pretty intense series about how awful it is to emigrate to Australia. A cynic might think the editor’s daughter is talking about crossing the ditch, such is the passion in the anti-Aussie message. But all the stories follow the same pattern: ‘Aussie is bad because of X, yet Kiwis are flocking there in record numbers’. There’s one number that matters: here it’s 7.3%, in Aussie 5.3%.
Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, January 15th, 2013 - 111 comments
We all know, because that Nice Man Mr Key told us, the government can’t create jobs. That is, unless it has given away $67m to international bully boys and wants to show a return on investment. Then, it can create 3,000 jobs out of thin air. It turns out, that’s where the claim that the Hobbit films created 3,000 Kiwi jobs came from. But it gets worse.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, January 14th, 2013 - 55 comments
After four weeks holiday in Hawaii, John Key will briefly land in New Zealand this week before popping off on a junket to Antarctica. Now, you won’t hear a lot about this in the media – because half the press gallery is going with him and they’re just excited to go to Antarctica – but there’s all kinds of buzz coming out of the public service about how and why Key set up this trip.
Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, January 13th, 2013 - 102 comments
Michael Field on Stuff, responds to a question he attributes to “Labour Party blog, The Standard” about our Minister of Tourism spending most of his holidays in Hawaii and fails to answer the question he cites. Field diverts to past PMs, ignores all Clark’s NZ holidays, and champions “Kiwi” Muldoon.
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, January 12th, 2013 - 150 comments
Today, Fran O’Sullivan calls Key out on his complete failure on jobs: “If I have one New Year’s wish it is that John Key returns from his Hawaiian summer holiday brimming with enough determination to challenge the nation’s employers – and himself – to tackle youth unemployment.” In fact, she is the latest of the rightwing’s pundits to conclude neoliberalism has failed.
Written By: - Date published: 3:44 pm, January 11th, 2013 - 6 comments
This Sunday hip hop artist and political activist Darius Mirshahi will be speaking in Auckland about the political situation in Canada and how the left are organising to resist Neo-Liberalism. Later he will be performing material which has lead to attention from Glen Beck and the Canadian police.
Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, January 11th, 2013 - 160 comments
Labour’s 2012 Kiwibuild policy has focused on building homes for first time buyers. Now we are told Labour’s 2011 policy pledging to increase the state housing stock still stands. This raises many questions: including do-ability and the Labour leadership’s continuing (neoliberal) focus.
Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, January 10th, 2013 - 7 comments
On Monday, Steven Joyce promised lots of new jobs in the wood manufacturing industry thanks to the wonders of foreign investment and a do nothing government, and called the Left anti-jobs. On Wednesday, wood manufacturer Norske Skog sacked 110 workers. What’s Joyce’s next trick, attend a funeral, tell the departed to ‘wake up’, and blame the rest of the congregation when he doesn’t?
Written By: - Date published: 11:55 pm, January 9th, 2013 - 24 comments
Looks like people are heading back to work. I’m always surprised at how predictable the end of year pattern is on this site. In fact I can (and do) bet server maintenance on it. This year we moved fully into the cloud but did it offshore. That way we don’t pay excessive variable costs to the Southern Cross cable monopoly to pay for searchbots.
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, January 9th, 2013 - 70 comments
Like here, Queensland’s tourism industry is hurting. Like ours, Queensland’s Tourism Minister thought it would be a good idea to holiday in a foreign tropical resort instead of supporting her local industry. But, there, the main newspaper responded with a devastating “where the bloody hell are you” attack that could sink her career. Here, not so much.
Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, January 9th, 2013 - 54 comments
The wildfires in Australia are an immediate cause for concern. Such events will be more common as average temperatures rise. Joseph Stigliz warns of an urgent need for structural change to respond to economic decline, climate change, poverty and inequality.
Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, January 9th, 2013 - 319 comments
I went to the supermarket and said “I want your best meat for $9 a kg”. They said I could have pre-cooked sausages or the cheapest mince for that. But I wanted good meat! So I went to other supermarkets and butchers. Some wouldn’t sell me anything for that much, none would supply the quality I wanted. They say I’m mad. But, when this business does it, they’re the victims.
Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, January 8th, 2013 - 45 comments
David Shearer recently picked up National’s policy of not contributing to the Cullen Fund while the Government’s in deficit but there’s nothing about being in deficit that alters the case for investing the Cullen Fund. As long as the return exceeds the Crown’s cost of capital, it’s worthwhile. So, how much have the canned contributions cost us so far? $1.2b.
Written By: - Date published: 5:20 pm, January 7th, 2013 - 43 comments
Like many, I’ve been somewhat bemused and not a little angered that austerity is touted as a pathway to economic recovery. Like many, I’ve come to view both austerity and bail outs simply as means to put public monies and the control of public institutions into private hands – all the while diminishing the power of citizens on both an individual and collective basis.
But why consciously destroy or abandon real economic activity in a quest for power? Why not continue to build on whatever ‘real economy’ bases of power you posses? Idle speculation might suggest a lust for power, y’know… power for power’s sake. Or a reaction to, or recognition of impending peak resources in a world of growing population.
Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, January 7th, 2013 - 40 comments
Steven Joyce pops up today in the Herald to promise more jobs. Apparently, the Chinese are going to invest in wood manufacturing here because the power’s cheap. Funny, the power’s been the same price for a while and… um… wood manufacturing has collapsed 15% under Joyce’s watch. Looks like another hollow promise from the least successful economic development minister in history.
Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, January 4th, 2013 - 93 comments
The Asset Sales petition has the numbers for a referendum, but need to continue to collect signatures til the petition is submitted at the end of the month. Well done! The evidence & the majority of New Zealanders do not support the sales. Keep campaigning!
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 pm, January 3rd, 2013 - 38 comments
Federated Farmers pushed out a press release the other day calling for NZ to both have more population and to stop spreading urban areas out over farmland. MrSmith has a view on it.
Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, January 2nd, 2013 - 12 comments
Over the last year some issues have been under-reported, some ignored: the climate/environment, subversive FBI activities, bankster rorts, decline of democracy, the need for new left & green politics. Some news has been overdramatised, some masks the real needs. And the “fiscal cliff”?
Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, December 31st, 2012 - 32 comments
We tend to rework reality, included political knowledge and understanding, into a basic (fictionalised) story structure, with villains, heroes, and values absorbed from pleasurable forms of fiction, including TV. This is a look at the political values embedded in some popular TV dramas.
Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, December 31st, 2012 - 72 comments
The New Year Honours have been announced. Some did service to the 1%, others to the 99%. People, unnamed and unnoticed in public who provided valuable services to their communities should also be honoured. Happy New Year!
Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, December 29th, 2012 - 93 comments
There’s been a couple of stories in the news over the last 24 hours that could do with some scrutiny: Treasury warns of asset sales over-load; potential sale of Oceania Dairy to an overseas company to set up a milk factory in NZ.
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, December 28th, 2012 - 104 comments
Many want Shearer to break with neoliberalism, clearly state his politics and a new political direction. He became leader with a compelling, but worryingly selective, back-story. Party members want democratic participation. What of consensus-building, coercion, public services, social security, TPP, PPPs, state assets, sustainability?
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, December 27th, 2012 - 49 comments
Today Al Jazeera News reported on the rise of collaborative consumption in Europe; from rent-a-present to car sharing. Just an extension of Trade Me or something bigger? How can sustainable practices of collaborative production, consumption and living be developed in NZ? [AJ Link added]
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