What would Wilberforce say?
Consciences are uncomfortable things and mine’s been giving me a bit of trouble lately. I’ve been on the horns of a dilemma (sorry […]
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Nats’ debt pile hits $50b
For the first time in history, net government debt has passed $50 billion. New Zealand’s net international liabilities, the amount New Zealand owes the rest of the world, is also skyrocketing: $140 billion now, $197 billion in 2016. John Key used to say we had a growth problem, not a debt problem. With GDP per capita down 2% under National, we now have both.
ImperatorFish: Closing The Incompetence Gap
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here
Bollard says the NZ-Aus income gap may not be as large as suggested – but what about the incompetence gap?
Behind the hockey stick
There have been several interesting pieces on the politics of climate change recently, including some reflections (and a new book) from Michael Mann (the scientist behind the “hockey stick”), and leaked documents from the denier industry.
Seething O’Sullivan misunderstands markets
Fran ‘Sell it all’ O’Sullivan is fuming over the Court decision putting aside the approval of Pengxin’s application to buy Crafar Farms. She knows that Pengxin can’t satisfy the actual legal test because its bid has never been about bringing benefit to New Zealand. Its been about securing strategic assets for China. But some of her whining really needs to be pulled up.
Nats want more expensive ACC so private insurers can profit
Private sector competition brings market disciplines and efficiencies to bloated publicly-owned monopolies. That’s the mantra, eh? That’s the indisputable truth… right? So, how come the Nats are planning to make ACC raise its levies and pay a dividend – for the first time ever – so that private insurers can compete? And how does that benefit NZ?
NRT: And so its come to this…
No Right Turn on the plight of democracy in Greece.
Participate: Green Paper on Vulnerable Children
Paula Bennett, in her rush to action, has a Green Paper that intends to create a White Paper that may result in some […]
IT isn’t free
The Nats want to replace public service jobs with computerised systems. They claim that this will improve service and save money. Quite apart from the folly of destroying jobs in the current economy, they are likely wrong on both those claims.
Nats’ Crafar Farm kickback
On November 30th, after the election, National received a $55,000 donation from Oravida, a company formerly owned by Terry Lee, director of Pengxin’s Crafar Farms vehicle, Milk New Zealand. In light of National’s illegal decision to let Pengxin buy the farms despite a lack of real benefits to New Zealand, maybe we ought to examine that donation a little more closely.
Key’s ‘sell, sell, sell’ mantra out of touch with NZ
The Crafar Farms decision is sensible and a correct interpretation of the law. Foreign buyers must add something that a local buyer can’t, other than a higher purchase price. Otherwise, our farmers will continue to be out-bid for our land by foreign government-backed companies that can afford a lower rate of return, and NZ will gain nothing. So, why is National rushing to change the law?
Foreign banks bleeding us dry
The Bankers’ Crisis is hurting people all over the world. From the deepest, darkest austerity in Greece, to the continuing foreclosure tsunami in the US, to cutbacks and job losses here, it’s the ordinary people suffering the hangover for the bankers’ wild decades of unbridled excess and profit. But at least the banks are suffering too, eh? Yeah, nah.
Political orthodoxy and economic reality
Capitalism is good. Globalisation is good. It’s political orthodoxy. But is it matched by economic reality? Perhaps not. Recent pieces by Bernard Hickey and Gordon Campbell give us plenty to think about…
A reply to Steven Joyce
Steven Joyce’s piece on Tuesday was a transparent and hypocritical attempt to frame political opponents negatively, and soften us up for more asset sales, mining, deep sea drilling and the like. Thing is, it’s the Nats with their misguided austerity cuts who are the real nay-sayers holding the country back.
Save our Port
It’s slipped down the news agenda but is about to come back up it: The Ports of Auckland Dispute. Tony Gibson is wasting our money on his union-busting campaign that will result in reduced profits for ratepayers. Sign up to make him see sense.
ImperatorFish: Each Time We Say “Protect The Environment” Steven Joyce Eats A Baby
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here
Steven Joyce writes in the Herald that the answer to our economic woes is to open up resources to entrepreneurs, and to hell with the social cost or environmental impact.
Congrats on raising the minimum wage John
Shame you couldn’t raise it to a living one though. The working poor will appreciate the extra $1000 per year coming this April, but it still won’t cover their bills…
Steven Joyce and the ‘can’ts’
Steven Joyce reckons that the ‘can’ts’ are holding us back. I agree, just look at these facts:
- National can’t create growth
- National can’t create jobs
- National can’t grow wages
- National can’t get people to live here
- National can’t get debt under control
- National can’t reduce poverty
A sustainable future
The UN High Level Panel on Global Sustainability has delivered a report about creating a future that’s sustainable economically, socially and environmentally. Our government and political parties should be looking at it and measuring themselves against it.
Inequality: a big issue for our time
The Herald looks like it has an excellent series this week, on Auckland: A city divided by income. It’s an issue that has […]
Super sized problem
The superannuation problem isn’t going away. The Nats will be fuming that Treasury have just dropped in their laps again.
Fran O’Sullivan: a shill with diversions
Fran O’Sullivan took objection to RedLogix criticizing her articles on Crafar farms. It helps our traffic, but really she should relook at the utter crap she has been writing before attacking the questioner. She talks about everything except why the OIO within their legislation limited framework should or should not have approved the sale. The more that I reread her work on this subject, the more I ask: what in the hell is she trying to hide?
Hickey on playing by the rules
While the rest of the world is moving away from the ‘hands off’ monetary policy that became fashionable in the 80s, our government insists on playing by the outmoded neoliberal ‘rules’ of a clean float. Well, what happens when everyone else ‘cheats’ by printing free money to drive their currencies lower and we sit on our hands? We lose our assets and our exporters.
More columns from O’Sullivan, please
Every time some rightwing ideologue calls 80% of New Zealanders racist or xenophobic because we don’t want to lose control of our future and sell our strategic assets to fall into the hands of a foreign dictatorship that is going around the world buying up key resources to secure their own supply chains at the cost of our sovereignty, and reminds us that National is letting this happen, I smile. Keep it up, Fran.
MoT reveals massive budget shortfall from peak oil
Almost missed among all the blacked out paragraphs of the Transport Briefing to the Incoming Minister are 2 interesting graphs. While not explicitly mentioning peak oil, the graph of the National Land Transport Fund shows a massive shortfall in revenue in a ‘high oil price, low growth’ scenario. The other shows how low-quality National’s highway spending is.
TEU: Treasury’s attack on ordinary Kiwis
Public education is the cornerstone of a good country and a buoyant economy. And New Zealanders have long enjoyed the benefits that come to them individually, to their families, their communities, their country, and the economy from having access to quality public education. But all this now seems under attack from a small group of Treasury officials.
NRT: Climate change: Cross-purposes
No Right Turn has a look at two of the incoming minister briefings impacting on climate change. They are incoherent and it is clear that neither ministry talks to the other. If it wasn’t affecting a important long term issue, it’d be as funny as a Yes Minister episode. But since it does, it just highlights the growing incoherence of this incompetent government and their increasing politicization of the civil service.
An unrelenting focus on jobs
POAL sleaze
I’ve heard that POAL has private detectives following union officials around and taking photos.
I’d imagine that’s where “scoops” like this are coming from.
“Largely symbolic”
According to TVNZ, the Prime Minister said section nine of the SOE legislation, referring to the Treaty of Waitangi, was “largely symbolic” because it had not been enacted since it was drawn up in 1986. It wasn’t a felicitous phrase; he might well find Maoridom’s response is both symbolic and large, if not in the sense he meant.
Treasury advocates own disbandment
Treasury has blown the dust off its 1980s economics textbooks and offered the same old failed prescription. Their moronic suggestion to cut education spending to finance tax cuts can be dismissed out of hand. But their suggestion of core Crown spending cuts has some merit; I know where we can get $75m that’s being spent on useless advice and incompetent forecasting.
Wanted: more news like this
A remarkably nice worker/boss story from across the ditch: Australian Ken Grenda may have sold his bus company, but his staff of almost 2,000 […]
Crafar vs Cameron
Spot the difference: Mega-corporation with close ties to foreign dictatorship that has a policy of securing strategic resources buys swathes of New Zealand farmland after a bid by a company directly owned by the dictatorship was rejected. New Zealand public company to become the foreign company’s tenant. vs New resident in New Zealand buys farm.
Another rightie at the trough
It’s tough getting a job in the Key economy. There’s 80,000 more people wanting work since Key came to office and 43,000 fewer jobs. Fortunately, there’s always a do-nothing government job going … if you know the right people. Eh, Catherine Isaac? Sure she’s got no qualifications but the ACT leader-in-waiting needs an income.
Poverty: our shame
We’ve been told about how bad poverty is here, and how bad it is for our future by the excellent Inside New Zealand documentary – but will it take an outside view to wake us from our slumber?
If so then Christians Against Poverty‘s John Kirkby is willing to provide it for us.
Worth a thousand words: minister of tourism
