$400 mln xmas gift for banks
The banks, who tried to rip us off to the tune of $2.6 billion, have agreed to pay us $2.2 billion. I don’t […]
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Repeating our past mistakes
Since Marty’s away, no pretty graphs. There’s not much Christmas cheer in the new GDP numbers I’m afraid. The economy grew at just […]
Back the Redundancy Protection Bill
While most Kiwis are getting ready for Christmas there are tens of thousands who will be having a hard time this holiday season […]
Looking tough, wasting money
So Paula Bennett wants to force people on the dole to reapply after a year. At best, it’s a waste of money by […]
Bennett disappointed by witch-hunt results
Earlier this year, Paula Bennett released the personal details of two women who get the DPB who had opposed her cancelling of a grant […]
Whanau Ora: privatisation by stealth
The government is beginning to explain more about its Whanau Ora plan, although it is still startlingly vague considering we’re talking a billion […]
Bad brew
If a tourist buys something in New Zealand for export or that they don’t take possession of within New Zealand, they can get […]
Economic illiteracy
More economic illiteracy from our old friend: Certainly given the rhetoric from the finance minister of late I’d thought the numbers would be […]
The wage freeze is dripping
Over at FairDeal, NZEI have announced that the support staff in schools have managed to get a wage increase. The campaign by support […]
English’s big promises proven hollow
An extraordinary moment in Question Time as John Boscawen skewered National’s hollow promise to close the wage gap with Australia by 2025. Watch […]
Neolibs’ great experiment in meltdown
With huge infusions of EU cash and deregulation that brought in foreign companies looking to make a quick buck, Ireland’s economy grew pretty […]
Nats’ ‘stimulus’: $200K per job
National claims it created 2,300 jobs with its stimulus spending. Of course, most of this supposed stimulus was smoke and mirrors – re-announcing […]
Why deny: the useful idiots
According to myth (it seems), Lenin called socialists in the West ‘useful idiots’ – people whose ideological fervour saw them accidentally aid the […]
Govt stimulus creates 2300 jobs
“Govt stimulus creates 2300 jobs” reads the headline! It’s a bit misleading though. A more accurate headline would have been – “Labour Govt […]
Why deny: the lobby groups/polluters
This is the first in a three part series on the climate change denial industry. I’m trying to understand why there is such […]
Experts: Power reforms wasteful, expensive
Associate Professor Earl Bardsley, Waikato University: taking Tekapo A and B power stations from Meridian and giving them to Genesis means Meridian must […]
Just asking
It has been treated as gospel that if the Australians, for inadequately explained reasons, drop their corporate tax rate from 30% to 25%, […]
ACC levy hikes another step to privatisation
As expected, Nick Smith has imposed substantial ACC levy hikes on families. For a worker on $40,000 with a car, you’re looking at […]
There is power in a union
About a month ago I used the Stats NZ Labour Cost Index to come up with the approximate distribution of payrises for unionised […]
Easter trading defeated (again)
A victory for New Zealand’s 270,000 retail workers and their families last night, with Parliament voting 62-59 to reject National MP Todd McClay’s […]
Goff attacks govt on wages
Check out Phil Goff’s general debate speech yesterday on In The House, a handy new site paid for by the Office of the […]
Brownlee destroys a free market choice. Shut Whirinaki to get it back.
From the Meridian Energy web site. Meridian Energy Limited has confirmed it has suspended offering new Renewable Energy Notes under the investment statement […]
No spark in Nats’ power reforms
A friend just texted: “Brownlee’s power reforms look relatively benign, what’s the catch?” It’s true, Brownlee’s reforms are just minor tinkering. The only […]
Excellent question
An excellent question from Labour yesterday, using some familiar numbers: Hon Annette King: When he was reusing ‘unreliable, highly volatile, and potentially misleading’ […]
Are you ‘really’ unemployed?
Governments use statistical tricks to lower the official unemployment rate. This fun video shows how many jobless people get swept under the carpet. […]
Summer’s arrival thanks to me – Key
John Key is still claiming credit for the drop in the number of people on the unemployment benefit that occurs every October and […]
Rod Oram on the Brash report
All the arguments in one handy location – thank you Rod Oram, who in his SSTimes column says: …All it [the report] can […]
Give a goat for Christmas
Got too much stuff? Know people with too much stuff? Do something different for your friends and family this Christmas. Instead of giving […]
In a land of plenty
Alister Barry’s other classic documentary on the effects of the Right’s neoliberal revolution on every day New Zealanders, In a Land of Plenty, […]
Ethical meat on its way
Jon Stewart covers developments in the science around making meat without raising and killing an animal. Jon has a laugh of course but […]
Greens release Green New Deal pt 2
Anyone who thinks that our economic troubles are over because the economy grew 0.1% is delusional. And no-one seriously believes that we don’t […]
Oram on the Brash Report
Always worth listening to, Rod Oram rips the Brash Report on Nine to Noon, not just on the findings but on the quality […]
What works?
As the dust settles on the cynical theatre that was the 2025 Taskforce, one fact is becoming abundantly clear. The political Right haven’t […]
Guaranteed minimum income + capital tax, the way forward?
Occasionally something in politics really surprises you. Like when I turned over to Campbell Live last night (I’d seen the Family Guy episode […]
Tax working group disappoints
I’ve had quite high hopes for the Tax Working Group. I thought it would be a genuine, ground-up review of the tax system […]
Dubai: Subprime state
Dubai is the subprime folly writ large. In the US, they built ‘exurbs’ in the Californian high desert, two hours each way from […]