Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, April 29th, 2022 - 157 comments
The tide of this government is running out. There’s 18 months left in the term. What would you save?
Written By: - Date published: 3:40 pm, April 27th, 2022 - 49 comments
Is Revenue Minister David Parker’s plan to gather tax data on the wealthy just more procrastination by this Labour government on making the tax system fairer? Or is it recognition the public debate needs a long-term frame to get a capital gains, or wealth tax, over the line?
Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, April 26th, 2022 - 45 comments
Jack Tame’s interview of Chris Luxon on Q&A suggests that the post leadership change honeymoon may now be over and that Luxon does not really understand how difficult a job being Prime Minister would be.
Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, April 18th, 2022 - 79 comments
Despite Labour seeing the country through the biggest public health threat seen in the last century and despite improving numbers of houses and a reduction in child poverty some on the left are buying into National’s despair lines. And the issues on which the next election will be fought are becoming clearer.
Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, April 13th, 2022 - 93 comments
What would our society, communities and lives look like in New Zealand if we weren’t so reliant on fossil fuels?
Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, April 6th, 2022 - 15 comments
You get to a point – and Ardern must be close – where the most you can do is hang on.
Written By: - Date published: 5:43 pm, March 25th, 2022 - 118 comments
Can Labour win a third term? Here are some pathways up, and some pathways down.
Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, March 22nd, 2022 - 81 comments
Chris Luxon has admitted in National media that provision of assistance to the poor is “bottom feeding”.
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, March 22nd, 2022 - 88 comments
There is only so much New Zealand and its government can do to soften the blows of the instability that are besetting the world. And the problem is without dramatic change New Zealand will remain one of the most car-addicted, petrol reliant societies on earth for several decades to come.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 22nd, 2022 - 31 comments
Christchurch Council has billed Destiny Church for traffic management fees relating to recent protests. For once I am firmly if reluctantly on the side of Destiny Church. Exercising the right to protest should not attract Council bills.
Written By: - Date published: 4:32 pm, March 20th, 2022 - 194 comments
New Zealand’s sanctions on Russia have not stopped the war in Ukraine. They may have made our parliamentarians feel better, and Tony Blinken was quick to congratulate us on falling into line with the US “high-impact sanctions.” The language is combative, but the evidence shows sanctions do not work. They can have significant blow-back effects, particularly if not combined with effective diplomacy.
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, March 17th, 2022 - 141 comments
There has been the occasional criticism of Labour for not achieving enough progressive change by people who then propose supporting National. What are they thinking?
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, March 15th, 2022 - 117 comments
In six months time the world could be in a very precarious position.
Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, March 15th, 2022 - 146 comments
Labour’s announcement of a temporary reduction in fuel excise duties and a halving of public transport fares ups the ante on the debate on how to alleviate hardship caused by overseas induced inflation.
Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, March 13th, 2022 - 125 comments
To help the poorest amongst us during the current times of International hyper inflation National has come up with a list of tips to help them. But no money.
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, March 11th, 2022 - 98 comments
Chloe Swarbrick, the cost of living crisis, and what the economy is for.
Written By: - Date published: 1:42 pm, March 9th, 2022 - 79 comments
For so called economic geniuses National sure struggles to understand how to properly cost fiscal policy. Its latest response to news that it proposed tax cuts would wipe out all discretionary spending in its first budget is to fudge the dates on which the cuts would be made.
Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, March 7th, 2022 - 107 comments
National has proposed to reverse all tax changes implemented by Labour and claims that the cuts can be managed without damage to the state. But the figure it uses, $1.7 billion a year, includes income tax adjustments only and not the cost of the removal of other taxes.
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, March 4th, 2022 - 65 comments
New Zealand’s time as high end ingredients producer to the world has arrived. But it has big costs.
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, February 28th, 2022 - 14 comments
Only rarely does a book truly change the world. In the nineteenth century, such a book was Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. For the twentieth century, it was The Limits to Growth.
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, February 22nd, 2022 - 134 comments
Jacinda Ardern said yesterday that everyone is over Covid. She is right. We all want this to end.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 pm, February 16th, 2022 - 4 comments
Today February 15th is the 80th anniversary of the fall of Singapore in 1942, described by many as Britain’s worst military disaster. It was a massive strategic fail, and its effect is still powerful today, most notably with Australia’s lockstep with the US. Current British strategists don’t seem to have learnt a thing.
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, February 15th, 2022 - 16 comments
It sounds like the Industrial and Trades sector of the economy has had a significiant wage rise over the last year. While we wait for the wages stats data, this is an interesting indicator. The national median hourly pay in the sector is now $27 an hour, up $2 from 2020/21. But this isn’t just here, the world labour market is shifting just as the supply chains are.
Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, February 13th, 2022 - 34 comments
Where will the votes come from to get Labour a third term?
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, February 10th, 2022 - 42 comments
Chloe Swarbrick has requested that the government help Auckland central’s restaurants. But in a post Covid pre climate change world this is not going to help.
Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, February 9th, 2022 - 33 comments
The full text is worth perusing across multiple areas, but Prime Minister Ardern’s speech in Parliament yesterday gave useful hints about how the economy and climate change are being integrated into a single economic strategy.
Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, February 2nd, 2022 - 107 comments
With Ardern getting a good-old media beat-down, remember here’s how to change a country for good like no one else but Labour can.
Written By: - Date published: 1:14 pm, January 27th, 2022 - 154 comments
The Government’s Covid 19 response, mainly via Reserve Bank measures, has enabled a mind-boggling increase in inequality, according to influential financial commentator Bernard Hickey. Covid response has saved multiple lives, but its refusal to simultaneously address inequality via taxes raises uncomfortable questions about how a leftist government has overseen a once-in-a-generation shift in wealth
Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, January 27th, 2022 - 55 comments
With an Omicron surge appearing to be inevitable the importance of proper mask wearing has never been more important.
Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, January 26th, 2022 - 59 comments
The entity making the most money out of threatening the Ukraine is the Russian Federation government itself. Follow the money.
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, January 24th, 2022 - 86 comments
In a welcome change Millionaires and billionaires worldwide are calling for governments to tax them more.
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