The Standard

Economy

Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour

Categories under Economy

Fifteen Green MPs, or more

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, August 23rd, 2023 - 38 comments

The political courage of the Green Party is paying off.

Critics of ‘degrowth’ economics say it’s unworkable – but from an ecologist’s perspective, it’s inevitable

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, August 20th, 2023 - 22 comments

Dr Mike Joy on the ecological imperative of degrowth

The other cost of living crisis

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, August 18th, 2023 - 7 comments

Our descendants will curse us

Labour’s GST and WFF policy announcement

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, August 13th, 2023 - 168 comments

As predicted Labour has announced a policy of taking GST off fresh fruit and vegetables and a significant adjustment to Working for Families In House Tax Credit levels and the Thresholds.

We Need to Talk About Blackrock

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, August 9th, 2023 - 29 comments

How come New Zealand got to build an entire electricity generating system that lasted for 70 years without much private capital from one massive dam to geothermal and all those pylons and substations and network systems without Blackrock?

The difference between Blackrock and China

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, August 9th, 2023 - 4 comments

Some big news yesterday as the Government announced a deal with US Investment Firm Blackrock for a $2 billion fund for renewable electricity projects.

Climate extremes make NZ’s supply chains highly vulnerable – it’s time to rethink how we grow and ship food

Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, August 5th, 2023 - 32 comments

“It’s clear domestic food supply chains have been increasingly challenged by natural disasters and the ongoing impact of climate change.”

A letter to Chris Hipkins

Written By: - Date published: 2:57 pm, July 30th, 2023 - 31 comments

My 2c on what I think Chris Hipkins needs to do to win this year’s election.

Should We Worry About Green and Maori Party Taxes?

Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, July 30th, 2023 - 163 comments

We are the 99%

We need to recognise our risk to the capital flight risk of the 1%, but also recognise the benefit to the 99% of us.

Should Labour take GST off fresh food?

Written By: - Date published: 10:53 am, July 28th, 2023 - 87 comments

National’s Nicola Willis has claimed that Labour will soon announce policy to take GST off fresh fruit and vegetables.

Future Green Wins Will Be Hard

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, July 25th, 2023 - 5 comments

It does not mean they are not worth trying; it means they will be fights against entrenched power.

Why a change of Government would be a bad thing – school lunches

Written By: - Date published: 12:14 pm, July 14th, 2023 - 63 comments

Act has declared its class prejudice by advocating for the cancellation of the free lunch in schools programme even though the benefits are clear and recognised and the programme helps poor kids’ nutrition and education.

Hipkins’ tax gamble

Written By: - Date published: 6:25 pm, July 12th, 2023 - 92 comments

Chris Hipkins today stated that for any future Government he leads after the next election there will be no wealth or capital gains tax implemented. End of story.

The very strange election campaign

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, July 8th, 2023 - 86 comments

With 98 days to go despite large parts of the electorate being very grumpy the polls are neck and neck and Labour can still win. This is what they have to do.

Rules-based cricket disorder

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 pm, July 6th, 2023 - 12 comments

“It isn’t cricket” supposedly set the ethical standard around the British Empire for over a century. Last week saw Lords, the ‘home of cricket,’ validate a damning report about racism, elitism, classism and sexism in British cricket just days after it was issued.

The Mind of Xi Jinping

Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, July 5th, 2023 - 17 comments

An excellent interview with a well-connected American who would like to see the US and China work together, and knows Xi Jinping well, provides some real insight as to why he is a serious leader. Interviewed today by Richard Harman, Tim Groser backs it up.

Sepuloni 1 Luxon 0

Written By: - Date published: 8:49 am, June 28th, 2023 - 12 comments

Yesterday in Parliament National attempted to embarrass Carmel Sepuloni in question time by asking her detailed economic questions. But the attempt backfired.

Why selling Auckland Port Operations is a particularly silly thing to do

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, June 25th, 2023 - 4 comments

It is a given that the right in power want to sell public assets off and the left want to retain those assets. And it appears that the right’s eyes are on Ports of Auckland.

Brown wants to privatise Ports of Auckland Operations

Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, June 23rd, 2023 - 22 comments

Fresh from his success at selling off part of Auckland Council’s Airport shares Wayne Brown has proposed another privatisation, that of Ports of Auckland Operations by way of the granting of an operating lease for the Port’s activities.

Luxon Aeterna

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, June 16th, 2023 - 48 comments

luxon sheep

Ad reports on Christopher Luxon’s meeting in Wanaka.

The hypocrisy of the attacks on Michael Wood

Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, June 12th, 2023 - 13 comments

According to National holding a modest shareholding can open a Minister to allegations of conflict of interest but owning seven investment properties and proposing beneficial tax treatment of landlords does not.

Luxon, the idiot for whom ignorance is bliss

Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, June 12th, 2023 - 29 comments

Last night I watched Christopher Luxon in a interview with Jack Tame on Q&A from youtube. My takeaway from it was that I don’t want this fool anywhere near actual policy. He exhibited a blissful ignorance about downstream effects of genetic engineering, climate change, and productivity in our economy. Even where I agreed with him like on GE – I didn’t want this idiot implementing policy on it.

This is what *ending poverty* looks like in New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, June 12th, 2023 - 160 comments

Poverty is a political choice, and the Green Party is choosing to end it. – James Shaw

Greens announce income guarantee and wealth tax policy

Written By: - Date published: 6:31 pm, June 11th, 2023 - 65 comments

The Green Party has today announced an income guarantee and a wealth tax.

Our Great De-Leveraging

Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, June 4th, 2023 - 13 comments

Debt is the most destructive and addictive form of economic behaviour we have in New Zealand. And mortgages are New Zealand’s very high grade heroin and we are being forced to come down off a most spectacular high into a rage-inducing forced withdrawal.

Why We Need Universalism, Not Tax Cuts, To Solve The Cost-Of-Living Crisis

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, June 1st, 2023 - 64 comments

The pros & cons of tax cuts vs. universalism suggest that universalism might be universally better for New Zealand.

Superannuation policy becomes political

Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, May 29th, 2023 - 68 comments

National’s promise to increase the age of retirement and likely cuts to Cullen fund contributions and state Kiwisaver payments have been seized on by Labour as evidence that National does not care about ordinary people.

The fast and the really furious

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, May 24th, 2023 - 30 comments

Christopher Luxon had no idea that National has recently used artificially generated images in what appears to be a crude attempt to avoid historical issues National has had with respecting the intellectual property rights of artists.

The real coalition of chaos

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, May 23rd, 2023 - 22 comments

National has hatched on its attack line which we will hear about a lot over the next few months. But it may have a problem. Because the phrase “coalition of chaos” clearly applies to its leadership team. 

How come government doesn’t improve our economy?

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, May 21st, 2023 - 41 comments

When we continue to spend our money on stupid stuff, we get a dumb country.

Our heat battery in the oceans

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, May 19th, 2023 - 28 comments

Almost all of the extra heat that humans have captured by adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere over the last few centuries has wound up warming the deep oceans. We’re now starting to feel the effects of that excess heat.