Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, October 15th, 2011 - 39 comments
Will the protests around the world hit the brick wall of ingrained habits? Or will we manage to get over, around or beneath that particular barrier to progress?
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, October 15th, 2011 - 17 comments
By the time this post appears a showdown will have taken place in New York. Check out the morning media, there should be plenty of coverage of events as they unfold.
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, October 14th, 2011 - 7 comments
This press release from the CTU deserves wide discussion.
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, October 13th, 2011 - 15 comments
Key says an anonymous emailer told him that S&P said a Labour Government would make a downgrade more likely (more likely than ‘actually, already happened?’). S&P categorically denies saying any such thing. We can now reveal the identity of the anonymous emailer.
Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, October 12th, 2011 - 8 comments
We’re witnessing, once again, the results of a government whose disaster management is focused on keeping blame off itself, rather than acting. It bears remarkable resemblance to their approach to economic management. National didn’t cause the natural and economic disasters it faces but its handling of them has inevitably made them worse.
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, October 11th, 2011 - 21 comments
Can we afford 3 more years of falling real wages under Key?
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 pm, October 10th, 2011 - 102 comments
John Key’s economic credibility was shattered by the double downgrade. Now, his personal credibility has been lost after he claimed that Standard & Poor’s said a Labour government would lead to another downgrade. S&P could not have been more blunt: “At no stage have we said that a rating downgrade was more likely if there were a change of Government”.
Written By: - Date published: 1:24 pm, October 10th, 2011 - 49 comments
The lies keep flowing as National desperately tries to limit the damage from the double downgrade. First, it was ‘doesn’t matter’ – Treasury says it does. Then, “hey, it’s just private debt” – the agencies’ reports say otherwise. Then it was just an international problem – less 1/4 of the OECD has been downgraded. Then, somehow, it was all Labour’s fault and would be worse under Labour – S&P says they’re lying on that too.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 10th, 2011 - 27 comments
Who said this on the double downgrade: “We have this ongoing challenge of a negative investment balance – the profits and dividends that go back to the foreign owners of New Zealand assets. We need to generate the kind of savings that will help New Zealand buy back those assets. A good example would be the Z petrol stations that were bought off Shell (by The Cullen Fund and Infratil).”?
Written By: - Date published: 1:42 pm, October 9th, 2011 - 7 comments
It’s scary ‘coz it’s true.
Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, October 8th, 2011 - 90 comments
When John Key was elected to power in 2008, he was estimated to have a personal wealth of about 40-50 million dollars.
So how much is John Key worth now?
Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, October 7th, 2011 - 73 comments
The median (‘typical’) Kiwi income has fallen 6% under National after inflation. It’s worse if you’re Maori – 16%. And if you’re PI? 21%. That’s more than a hundred dollars a week. It’s a disgrace. In fact, ordinary people’s incomes have shrunk faster than the economy under National. Their policies have driven more of what’s left to the rich.
Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, October 7th, 2011 - 48 comments
Looks like the RWC isn’t going to be the economic stimulus that we hoped. We’re stuck in the doldrums, and (just like in England) the government’s austerity programme is exactly the wrong response.
Written By: - Date published: 7:24 am, October 7th, 2011 - 81 comments
National’s economic credibility was shot to pieces last week when Fitch and Standard & Poor’s gave them ‘not achieved’ marks. Less than a quarter of the OECD has been downgraded. New Zealand is one of them. The Nats won’t admit there’s a problem. When the statistics are laid in front of them, they say they’re wrong. In the Nats’ war with reality, we’re the victims.
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, October 6th, 2011 - 212 comments
The PM gets paid $400,000 a year. That’s $45 an hour whether he’s in Hawai’i, talking about his cat, or sleeping. His cleaner, Sosefina Masoe, gets $13.50 an hour. Key has rejected calls to lift the minimum wage for workers like her to $15 an hour. Instead, the Right’s attack dogs have been trained on Mascoe for daring to speak out.
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, October 6th, 2011 - 124 comments
In the last few days Key has refused to accept responsibility for NZ’s credit downgrades, stated that he is “not concerned in the slightest” about his possible breach of electoral law, and used an unfortunate incident in Parliament to launch an ugly attack on Labour. John Key is no leader.
Written By: - Date published: 11:43 am, October 5th, 2011 - 18 comments
Will double dipping double downgrade Bill English have the guts to heed his own warning?
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, October 5th, 2011 - 27 comments
The national icon suddenly announces that the future of the thing we pride ourselves is at stake. Some big mean foreigners are going to take if off us. Oh no, oh no! Fortunately, there’s a solution. It just requires a few tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. Sound familiar? As with the Hobbit, now with the All Blacks. We got suckered once. Will we again?
Written By: - Date published: 2:54 pm, October 4th, 2011 - 37 comments
John Key’s relentless optimism is designed to make the country feel good, and to feel good about him – that nice man Mr Key. It doesn’t, however, solve our large economic problems.
Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, October 4th, 2011 - 12 comments
Bill ‘Double Dipton’ (or should that be ‘Double Downgrade’?) English says people aren’t focused on politics, which is why National is so high in the polls. When they focus on the main election issue of economic management, DD says the gap will close. Not exactly a strong defence of his and Key’s performance as economic leaders.
Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, October 4th, 2011 - 54 comments
The credit rating downgrades have been quite a political earthquake, and the aftershocks are going to continue for some time.
Written By: - Date published: 8:13 pm, October 3rd, 2011 - 75 comments
Prime Minister Moonbeam clearly broke the law on Friday on the radio show he chose to run instead of dealing with the downgrade crisis. The law is clear: Key wasn’t allowed to make political statements. He did. He made a promise on broadcasting policy and gave the Nats’ first cut spin-line on the downgrade.
Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, October 3rd, 2011 - 16 comments
The Occupation, now into its third week, seems to be growing. As is the Police response. In the latest development police have arrested more than 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, October 3rd, 2011 - 37 comments
The Nats have released no substantial policy since the Budget and look unlikely to do so. Their election strategy was clearly to keep attention away from a comparison of their policy vs Labour’s, and keep it on Brand Key. The exploding economic crisis has caught the Nats’ flat-footed. Now, they need economic ideas urgently but have none to offer.
Written By: - Date published: 6:43 am, October 3rd, 2011 - 43 comments
As National muddles through, refusing to reexamine its economic plans after the shock double-downgrade on Friday, the job losses are starting to pile up again. It’s very reminiscent of the last recession, which we will haven’t recovered from thanks to 3 years of muddling. Can we afford 3 more years? Here’s a list of job losses in the past month.
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, October 2nd, 2011 - 56 comments
The weeks of the RWC were supposed to be a politics-free zone. Bread and circuses. It hasn’t turned out that way, as both Armstrong and O’Sullivan point out in weekend opinion pieces. The credit downgrades have dropped a bomb in the middle of the political landscape. But I think that both are wrong in expecting any action from the Nats.
Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, October 1st, 2011 - 17 comments
The Nats have indulged in a long series of boastful posturings and dire warnings about the risks of a credit downgrade, many of them as recently as August 10th. Now that they have suffered not one, but two separate credit downgrades, Mr Smile and Wave has some explaining to do.
Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, September 30th, 2011 - 101 comments
Grateful citizens rejoiced this week at the passage of the VTM (Voluntary Taxation Mechanism) bill.
Written By: - Date published: 7:19 am, September 30th, 2011 - 107 comments
National has borrowed $37 billion in less than three years and delivered no growth for it. In fact, it has repeatedly failed to meet its growth projections and GDP per capita has fallen. That failure has now resulted in the credit rating agency Fitch downgrading our credit rating. Makes a lie of the Nats’ line that we’re in better shape than in 2008. Will Bill English resign?
Update: S&P downgrades us too. English’s resignation letter being drafted on 9th floor to stem political fall-out for Key.
Written By: - Date published: 1:19 pm, September 29th, 2011 - 15 comments
It’s not often that ‘bald truths’ escape the filtration of the msm. The video below is an example of one of those rare moments.
Written By: - Date published: 12:14 pm, September 29th, 2011 - 21 comments
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