Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, August 26th, 2012 - 60 comments
My regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t fit in anywhere (no linkwhoring). This week: Rape, US attitudes to inequality, and, idle or vulnerable?
Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, August 25th, 2012 - 25 comments
David Parker got stuck in to the Nats last week, with a 30 page report that laid bare National’s appalling economic record, and presented an outline of Labour’s alternatives. Good work from Parker – everyone should read it.
Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, August 24th, 2012 - 63 comments
Waitangi Tribunal says Government must halt asset sales until Treaty issues sorted, and Tom Scott gives a progress report. National’s wheels are coming off.
Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, August 24th, 2012 - 60 comments
David Shearer is right. The rise in inequality under National, shown by the latest Household Incomes report from MSD, is a bloody disgrace. Good on Shearer for his robust and instinctive response. Now we look forward to seeing it reflected in the outcomes from the policy work that is going on behind the scenes.
Written By: - Date published: 9:34 pm, August 23rd, 2012 - 11 comments
On The Nation last weekend Joyce insisted he was busy talking to business about export growth; he obviously wasn’t listening, as exporters’ number one problem is our over-valued and highly speculated exchange rate. He called Labour’s fresh approach to this problem “voodoo economics.” Switzerland, Singapore and Denmark? This week David Cunliffe will be on the Nation showing that the Labour economic team are alive to new ideas needed.
Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, August 23rd, 2012 - 50 comments
The exodus to Australia is at record levels. Falling wages have seen social inequality rise to record levels. Good job National.
Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, August 23rd, 2012 - 85 comments
Deborah Russell’s piece in the Dominion Post sets out some constructive thoughts on welfare.
Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, August 22nd, 2012 - 31 comments
I/S at No Right Turn on Key’s made up numbers.
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, August 22nd, 2012 - 24 comments
It makes no sense to sell the assets National want to sell. But the particular economic cases just keep getting worse. This week it appears things went disastrous. Now we wonder what’s left to sell? Or will it be a firesale against a back-drop of the courts? And why won’t they face the public over what’s happening?
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, August 22nd, 2012 - 74 comments
A press release that is well worth reprinting verbatim. The Green parties of NZ, Australia and Canada speak out about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, August 22nd, 2012 - 210 comments
Z has set a new record for petrol prices with 91 up to $2.23. The others are expected to follow. We are in a new oil shock due to peak oil. The once unimaginable $2 a litre is now the low price. Ironically, the high dollar that is killing our exporters is protecting us from much higher petrol prices. So why is our government investing $12 billion on deepening our oil addiction?
Written By: - Date published: 9:32 am, August 21st, 2012 - 56 comments
It was standing room only in Auckland last night with over 200 people packed into the Polish Society clubrooms to hear David Parker deliver a very positive message on Labour’s economic policy. Labour’s Auckland organisation is also getting into good shape. And there is more to come. Watch this space.
Written By: - Date published: 6:43 am, August 21st, 2012 - 128 comments
Compare the latest figures on CEO pay to the median income of New Zealanders and to the minimum wage. The average CEO gets 10 times the pay of a full-time minimum wage worker or the income of the typical Kiwi. The gap is growing. The CEO pay increase was 26 times the median income increase, 56 times what a full-time minimum wage earner got. Does anyone think this is a recipe for a happy and successful New Zealand?
Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, August 20th, 2012 - 59 comments
There are just short of 630,000 people aged 20-29. A net 33,000 of them have left for Australia under National – 13,000 in the last year. That’s twice the rate of emigration under Labour. There’s also twice as many unemployed in this age group – 46,000. That’s 1 in 8 of our youngest generation of workers either leaving for Aussie or unemployed under National.
Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, August 20th, 2012 - 9 comments
Structural discrimination is alive and well in NZ. It makes nonsense of all the right-wing “one law for all” and beneficiary bashing rhetoric.
Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, August 18th, 2012 - 42 comments
Mighty River, when its water use rights are in doubt? Meridian, when its deal with its largest customer is in question? Solid Energy, when it is reviewing all its operations due to the high dollar? Genesis, when Meridian could flood the market with cheap power if its deal with Rio Tinto falls through, and a future government is likely to sharply increase the cost of its emissions from Huntly?
Written By: - Date published: 2:49 pm, August 17th, 2012 - 66 comments
I could hardly believe my ears this morning when I heard about Paula Bennett’s plan to drug test beneficiaries and cut their benefits if they fail. Yeah that’s the problem that’s preventing people from finding work. Drugs. Not the 6.8 percent unemployment rate (and it’s higher in the provinces). It’s hard to imagine a […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, August 17th, 2012 - 25 comments
You can’t really understand and fix a problem unless you have some reference points to measure progress against. So, when Paula Bennett’s Green Paper on poverty said that 20% of children live in poverty, people said ‘wow, what are you policies to reduce this and how much will they reduce it by’. But Bennett has no policies to reduce poverty, so she’s resorted to zen-like wavering over whether we can and should measure poverty.
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, August 17th, 2012 - 3 comments
The Greens’ successful call for an Auditor General’s probe into the Government’s pokies-for-convention-centre deal with SkyCity has stalled the negiotations – despite the Nats’ claims it wouldn’t derail their attempt to sell our gambling law. No meetings have been held since the A-G’s investigation began two months ago. With any luck, it’ll push out the legislative timeline past the 2014 election.
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, August 17th, 2012 - 33 comments
Labour’s hands on approach to economic management focused on boosting manufacturing stands in stark contrast to National’s failed record of big promises and no delivery. Manufacturing is our largest employer. It has lost 25,500 jobs under National. National has been pushing mining for four years. It employs 6,000 people, up just 600 under National.
Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, August 17th, 2012 - 141 comments
Pagani wrote it. Robertson cleared it. And Shearer uttered it. To summarise; those living by sickness entitlements are probably dodgy b’stards. Nice. Before I go on, I should be clear that this post isn’t some insightful fiction. This is the reality of getting by with a sickness benefit.
Written By: - Date published: 9:51 pm, August 16th, 2012 - 32 comments
Fresh ideas to grow a stronger manufacturing sector, on top of the major changes Labour has already signalled featured in a speech given today by David Parker to a union audience in Wellington. David Cunliffe was there too, and I particularly liked the discussion afterwards. The key players are receptive to good ideas and it looks like Labour will have a real alternative to offer at the next election.
Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, August 16th, 2012 - 23 comments
The Australian Government has won a Supreme Court case on its plain packaging law. The tobacco companies are now planning to take it to the WTO. I hope Gillard responds to the law suit with a letter along the lines of: “Dear Cancer-mongers, Consider yourselves lucky we don’t nationalise your assets and pass a law to have you arrested for corporate homicide. Go fuck yourselves. Regards, Julia.”
Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, August 16th, 2012 - 76 comments
So, let me get this straight. Debt is bad. So bad, in fact, that the Government is willing to sell assets that produce higher returns than its cost of borrowing to free up money and avoid taking on more debt. But this same Government is now planning to borrow to fill a $5 billion hole in its transport budget caused by its unneeded motorway projects.
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, August 15th, 2012 - 36 comments
Minister after Minister denied it, but it turns out that common sense is right. Private power companies charge more. Privatisation surely means that prices will rise. Is it even news when this government lies these days?
Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, August 15th, 2012 - 44 comments
Transport spending has always been paid for out of road taxes. But National’s roads to nowhere cost too much. They’ve added huge top ups from general tax but it’s still not enough to meet the rising costs of the motorways. They’ve cut every other area of transport spending to the bone. Still not enough. Now, National’s going to start borrowing for their motorways.
Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, August 13th, 2012 - 133 comments
Darkhorse writes amazingly insightful economic pieces on his ‘How Daft’ blog (the title gives you a clue as to what he thinks of the current state of affairs). The neoliberal experiment has been an abject failure by any rational measure. And there are alternatives. Darkhorse has given us permission to syndicate his posts, the originals are here.
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, August 10th, 2012 - 43 comments
Turns out that not many “mums and dads” are planning to buy shares in their own assets.
Written By: - Date published: 7:59 am, August 10th, 2012 - 277 comments
Key’s making excuses for his government’s pathetic record on jobs. Unemployment is going the wrong way but Key calls another 2,000 people without jobs to 162,000 – the highest number since 1994 – a “very small, technical rise“. 65,000 more unemployed under National. And we’re doing relatively badly. We’ve gone from 6th lowest unemployment in the OECD to 14th.
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, August 9th, 2012 - 67 comments
Unemployment is up, and the real situation is worse than the figures suggest. Just how many more years of the Nats’ economic “genius” do you want NZ?
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, August 9th, 2012 - 36 comments
Buying back Kiwirail was a chance for building a cost-, oil-, and carbon-efficient transport network. Instead, its been a tale of false economies: cheap trains from China, cheap sleepers from Peru, cheap labour from contracting out. In the end, it all costs more for worse results.
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