Flat tax: works for Lithuania and Albania, eh?
Predictably, the ideological vanguardists at Treasury are rolling out the flat tax argument again. For some unknown reason Radio NZ hasn’t published the […]
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
We still pay, ACC or no ACC
Labour’s David Parker has been a bit slow reacting to National’s latest attack on ACC but now he’s in play he has a […]
Why no punishment for Westpac?
You would have seen that Westpac was found to have undertaken the largest theft of tax money in New Zealand history. From 1998 […]
A quick question
Do any health insurance companies fully fund long-term claims in the way ACC is being asked to?
Paula, honestly, put away the champagne
So, in the week to October 2, 1950 people signed up to the dole and 2040 went off it. Time to celebrate according […]
ARC threatens to terminate NZ Bus contract
ARC chairman Mike Lee has delivered a blunt ultimatum to NZ Bus as its lockout of drivers reaches day five. “We have had […]
Nats find no government waste
I missed this one a few weeks ago but it’s worth pointing out. National spent $300,000 hiring half a dozen supposed business geniuses […]
First, manufacture a crisis…
The first thing you need to understand is ACC is not spending more money than it is taking in through levies. It is […]
Dead peasant insurance
In case you needed reminding how completely deviod of morals and ethics unbridled capitalism is, meet dead peasant insurance. Here’s Mark Ames of […]
“Blow out” more like Blowup
Readers of a certain age will remember an Antonioni film called Blowup. The title conceit involves a photographer who finds what appears to […]
The Bridgeman Concrete lockout ends successfully
The Bridgeman Concrete workers locked out for nine days hardened their picket last week. Two concrete trucks couldn’t leave the depo, costing the company $3,000 […]
Photos from the Auckland bus driver lockout
Some photos from the Auckland bus driver lockout. The drivers showed up to the depots today to demonstrate they were willing to work, […]
Labour needs to get beside the workers
You know, if you look back to all the elections since 1957, there’s only three you would say the Left lost outright – […]
Infratil / NZ Bus striking for more profits
Well the intransigent owners and managers of Infratil / NZ Bus finally went on strike this morning in their quest for higher profits. […]
Time to wake up from the neolib nightmare
Back in the 1980s, some people who had read too much Milton Friedman and had drunk too much whiskey at Backbone Club meetings, […]
Bus drivers solidarity picket – Wgtn
There’s a solidarity picket tomorrow outside Infratil’s HQ in Wellington to support the locked out Auckland bus drivers. If you’ve got a moment […]
Beyond GDP
Back in 1934, when Gross Domestic Product was first being developed in the States, the economist in charge, Simon Kuznets, wrote “…the welfare of […]
Drivers locked out for following their contracts
Yesterday, around 1,000 bus drivers and support staff issued noticed to their employer, NZ Bus owned by Infratil, that from Thursday they would […]
Up in smoke
When the Tui oil-field was opened last year, the operators (AWE New Zealand, 87.5% foreign-owned, ironically) were given permission to burn off 10 […]
Capitalism: A Love Story
Just found the trailer on youtube. No word yet when it’s coming to New Zealand.
Parliamentary staff begin industrial action
Low-level industrial action has begun at Parliament after workers rejected an offer from the employer that would have slashed redundancy provisions and kept […]
Put away the champagne, Paula
Paula Bennett: “The number of people needing an Unemployment Benefit has slowed significantly over the last month, says the Minister for Social Development […]
School support staff fight National’s pay freeze
From the NZEI. Great to see the low paid mobilise so effectively.
Industrial roundup: Open Country
Last week the Employment Court decided that Talleys-owned Open Country was acting illegally in locking out its unionised staff. The Court upheld the […]
Industrial roundup: Telecom
Visionstream completed its takeover of the Auckland and Northland patch on Thursday and it’s now become clear that they’ve failed to meet the […]
Crime leaps along with unemployment
The Police statistics out today show the crime rate continues to follow the unemployment rate. With unemployment on the rise, so is crime. […]
Open Country shows contempt for the law
The Talleys and National Party linked Open Country Cheese continues to show its contempt for the law as it attempts to break the […]
Support Open Country/Telecom workers
If you’re in Wellington this Friday you might want to pop along to a quiz night fundraiser that Finsec and the NDU are […]
Crocodile tears from Crafars
I saw one of the Crafar brothers on the TV last night. Crying fake tears over calves that a whistle-blower had revealed were […]
Four day week, way of the future?
How would you like to work a four-day, ten-hour per day week, rather than a five-day week? A number of organisations in the […]
Pay freeze would cause long-term damage
While filling his own pockets with our money, Bill ‘Double Dipton’ English is threatening public sevants with a five-year pay freeze – with […]
Reverse Midas Touch
And so ends a great day’s trading under the erstwhile eye of Mr Key. Looks like they won’t be inviting John back to […]
Socialist America
The health care debate going on in America is a very serious debate, and who wins it has important implications for what kind […]
Informative journalism
Colin Espiner: “For some reason that I don’t quite understand, unemployment usually continues to rise at the end of recessions, and there’s normally […]
Secret ballots for strikes
Tau Henare has put a private members’ bill in the ballot that would require ballots by union members on strike action to be […]
The economy of hero worship
I wish that I got praise heaped on me at my job for exchanging a bit of small-talk with the popular dude. Don’t […]