Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, August 22nd, 2011 - 75 comments
The Greens want to charge 10 cents per tonne of water used by farmers. Use the revenue to restore our rivers and lakes. Even Actoid types can support this: internalise externalities, use price mechanisms to encourage efficient use of resources. Naturally, the farmers don’t want to pay. Funny how ‘wealth creators’ never want to pay their fair share.
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, August 21st, 2011 - 20 comments
This is the kind of innovation and intelligence that we are going to need in abundance to survive the medium to long term future…
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, August 20th, 2011 - 24 comments
Prime Minister John Key has reacted to growing fears that the world is slipping into a second round of financial crisis and recession before it has recovered from the first one by boldly opening a 180km cycleway through the King Country. Part of a $50m cycleway project, it is expected to boost the economy by $5-$20 quadrillion, according to the PM.
Written By: - Date published: 8:22 am, August 20th, 2011 - 21 comments
France and Germany are leading the way on the “Robin Hood” tax, and a Europe wide implementation could be the next step. Bring it on!
Written By: - Date published: 1:03 pm, August 19th, 2011 - 50 comments
I came across this blog called Howdaft written by Darkhorse recently. It consists of five posts written in June. Five of the best pieces of leftwing economic thinking you’ll see anywhere – something we’ve been short on recently. I’ve tried to contact Darkhorse, but no luck. If you’re out there, drop us a line. In the mean time, here’s one of the posts.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, August 19th, 2011 - 60 comments
Bennett and Key are divided in their opinions and their stats, but at least they’re united in their state of denial.
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, August 18th, 2011 - 30 comments
Nats have announced 6 more DoL safety inspectors for mines and oil drilling. Up from 2 now (only one position filled). Sounds good but DoL’s failure at Pike River was systematic, not just about numbers. Where’s the stronger safety standards? Why aren’t they bringing back worker-elected check inspectors? The miners want them. Why don’t the Nats listen?
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, August 18th, 2011 - 36 comments
In a desperate and heartless attempt to spin their way out of their awful record on jobs, National is getting surreal. First, there’s Bill English claiming that the job you used to have under Labour wasn’t a real job. Then, you’ve got John Key saying that you’re not really unemployed now. I guess it’s all in you imagination. Don’t look to National for help.
Written By: - Date published: 6:31 am, August 18th, 2011 - 77 comments
Who said: a payment card for people on a benefit that forbade alcohol and tobacco purchases would require moral judgments by the Crown, would be highly intrusive, would rob individuals of freedom of choice, and would impose an enormous administrative burden on Work and Income, and there was no need to change the way in which welfare is paid or assessed?
Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, August 17th, 2011 - 18 comments
The tidal wave of unemployment is all the more heartbreaking because we have been here before, last time we had a 1st term National government. But have the Tories learned the lessons of the past? Not a bit of it. Paula Bennett, who had her hand up from the government when she needed it, says there’s “a lot to celebrate” about 58,000 disconnected youths.
Written By: - Date published: 6:46 am, August 17th, 2011 - 46 comments
Having decided to beat up on a few thousand of the most hard done by young people in the country, National is now refusing to acknowledge the problem of disconnected youth that has ballooned under their watch. There are enough young people who aren’t in education, training, or work to fill Eden Park, and Key is literally running from the issue.
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 pm, August 16th, 2011 - 72 comments
Or how the food card will inevitably push beneficiaries into all types of deeper strife.
The cartoon (since it doesn’t show up clearly and you might be wondering) is a lifebelt being thrown in the “Welfare” cell and a book titled “Learn to swim” being thrown in the second “Welfare Reform” cell.
Written By: - Date published: 2:04 pm, August 16th, 2011 - 53 comments
Today Warren Buffett, the third wealthiest man in the world, has come out demanding his mega-rich friends play a part in the American economic recovery. He is recognised as one of the smartest and most successful investors alive, his words should not be dismissed lightly, especially as we approach our own election and grapple with the issue of tax reform.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, August 16th, 2011 - 34 comments
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, August 16th, 2011 - 64 comments
Like most of us, Fran O’Sullivan was expecting so much more from the Nats at their conference…
Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, August 15th, 2011 - 72 comments
National aim to score political points by attacking a small number of 16 and 17 year-olds, and taking away their autonomy. But they’re missing the real-world point – of the tens of thousands of young unemployed who need the jobs that National aren’t providing. That’s the real crisis.
Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, August 15th, 2011 - 64 comments
What are the baby-boomer elite doing to our kids? Our rulers, drawn from the selfish generation, have taken more and more of the world’s wealth for themselves, wrecked its environment, and failed to invest. Now, with National in power, they’re asking the young to pay off their debt. And when the kids get pissed, the elite doles out repression.
Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, August 15th, 2011 - 61 comments
A better than usual interview of John Key by Guyon Espiner on Sundays Q+A. On the plus side Espiner was raising some serious issues. On the minus he let Key get away with his usual lies and evasions.
Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, August 14th, 2011 - 329 comments
Like the UK, we have a crisis in youth poverty. We don’t have riots, yet, because we lack the population density. There’s no jobs. Increasingly, no hope. Key’s solution? Tinkering. A bureaucratic, easily beatable system where young people on benefits get food stamps and basic costs paid directly. Where are the jobs, Key? Or have you given up?
Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, August 14th, 2011 - 33 comments
Bernard Hickey writes compellingly on the coming fall of capitalism.
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, August 13th, 2011 - 12 comments
Fran O’Sullivan reveals her softer side today. No, she’s not against National’s benefit cuts for the unemployed, the sick, and invalids. Nor against cutting the wages of the 103,000 working 15-19 year olds on the half-baked premise that will create more jobs. But leave single mums alone, she says, because she had one. It reminds me of something I saw on the Daily Show.
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, August 12th, 2011 - 35 comments
An Auckland University study, “Not in our waters, surely?” was released last night. It details a gruesome list of human rights abuses, crimes, and breaches of labour law being carried out abroad the slave ships contracted by our quota-holders to harvest our fish. Now, the government is moving to deport the prime witnesses before they can testify.
Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, August 12th, 2011 - 122 comments
Farrar and others of the Right push for ever lower taxes, but their arguments are laughably flimsy. Tax cuts don’t raise revenue. Tax cuts don’t cause growth. In search of their “superior moral justification for selfishness” the Right are going to have to do a lot better than that…
Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, August 11th, 2011 - 82 comments
National has brought out some of the biggest protests in decades. Petitions of tens of thousands have called on the government to raise the minimum wage, support Kiwi manufacturing through Kiwirail, and protect early childhood education. It’s core policy – asset sales – is opposed 2 to 1. The message from National: if you don’t like it, riot.
Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, August 11th, 2011 - 58 comments
National will keep demonising the most vulnerable members of society for electoral gain, while turning a blind eye to much bigger problems.
Written By: - Date published: 6:58 am, August 11th, 2011 - 56 comments
Stuart Nash put Bill English’s feet to the fire yesterday on his economic record. English has been claiming that the economy is in better shape to withstand another economic crisis than it was in 2008. Does anyone seriously believe that? We’re poorer, we’re more indebted, we’re less employed, and costs are higher.
Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, August 10th, 2011 - 52 comments
There are some interesting comments in the Standard and Poor’s press release announcing the US downgrade. They say fixing debt isn’t just about cuts but raising revenue too. They also note the US difficulty in reaching a consensus on fiscal policy, and the looming demographic that will drive age-related spending. New Zealand should be taking note.
Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, August 10th, 2011 - 40 comments
Can’t help but notice the international price peaked just when Fonterra put on their ‘generous price-cap’tm.
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