Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Make-work don’t work
The Maori Party wants the dole abolished to be replaced by work schemes. It’s a bad idea but it’s not too far from […]
The Standard line: ACC
So, you’re talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it’s wrong but you don’t […]
Labour chickens out on $15 minimum wage
Labour, why do you do this to me? One day you’re announcing neo-Keynesian policies to help us through the coming recession, then you […]
Wrong time for short-term thinking
National’s Nick Smith has announced that they would cancel the $1 billion fund to insulate New Zealand houses, which the Greens won as part of the […]
Confident or foolish?
So, you’re one of the 900,000 Kiwis who have so far signed up to Kiwisaver. You know that you get $1000 on signing […]
‘Give me warning next time’, Key whimpers
While Key was blathering on about who-cares-what yesterday, Clark announced a radical and forward-looking economic stimulus package. Now, Key is having a cry over […]
Working our way forward
It was inevitable that the focus of media coverage of Labour’s announements yesterday would be the deposit insurance, it’s a good self-centred middle-class story. […]
Labour takes bull by the horns, Nats left standing
One of the first rules of politics is don’t set yourself up to be snookered; don’t position yourself in a way that your […]
A real economic plan
One of the things that has pissed me off about MSM political analysis lately is the constant repetition of the idea that cutting […]
Trickle-down
A few thoughts from today’s Agenda: Questioned about why National would introduce another tax rebate, having endlessly criticised Working for Families because of […]
John’s cheese
For the many of you who won’t know, Tory boys David Farrar and Cameron Slater have been driving around the country interviewing MPs […]
Getting it right matters
I don’t want this post to be taken as overly critical; it’s just meant to offer some constructive advice. John Armstrong’s piece in […]
What happens if Nats gut Kiwisaver?
I was going to write about the economic effects of taking money out of Kiwisaver and spending it on tax cuts but this […]
Costs of the Nats tax cuts – commentators’ views
Here’s a smattering of what some of the commentators are saying: Gordon Campbell: Putting tax cuts ahead of science and research neatly underlines […]
Greens set their standards for coalition partners
The Greens have announced that they will choose their preferred coalition partner based on their commitment to 12 criteria. I’ll just look at […]
Small change
That was going to be the title of my first post on National’s tax-cut plan but then it turned out National’s plan would […]
Reviews of Nats’ tax cut/Kiwisaver cut/R&D cut policy
Just a quick note at the start for our press gallery friends who live in central Wellington on high incomes. 50% of New […]
Nats break into your piggy-bank
John Key has announced that Kiwisaver would be slashed along with National’s tax cuts for the rich (and they are tax cuts for […]
No tax cut for most from Nats
As predicted on The Standard, National has announced it would abolish the increases in the bottom threshold to pay for tax cuts for […]
Tax cuts for the rich
National has released its tax policy. At first glance it appears the top rate will be reduced to 37% by 2011, giving the […]
The test
After building a political career that has consisted of little more than calling for tax cuts and attacking those that were delivered, John […]
Farce
It was with wry amusement I read Bill Ralston’s revisionist history of New Zealand superannuation today. According to Bill it was Muldoon who […]
Changing the subject
Former National advisor Richard Long has let the cat out of the bag. The day before National’s much-hyped, cure-all tax cut package is to be […]
Will Labour back $15 minimum wage?
The unions want the minimum wage lifted to $15 an hour, two thirds of the average hourly rate, restoring the historic ratio. The […]
The rainy day cometh
The Pre-election Fiscal Update projects that gross debt will rise from 17.4% today to 24.3% of GDP in five years. Fortunately, we are […]
Spin-busting: Govt could have used surpluses for tax cuts
With the economic situation deteriorating the surpluses the Government has run for the first eight years have turned to a deficit. National’s line […]
Previewing the Prefu
Tomorrow the government’s books will be opened up. It is not expected to be a pretty picture. Oil prices and the credit crunch […]
CTU on closing the wage gap
The Council of Trade Unions has done a lot of work on why wages are low for many workers in New Zealand and […]
Wage gap decreasing thanks to pro-worker policies
As The Standard first reported on April 1 and Radio New Zealand picked up today, Treasury figures show that the wage gap […]
How big is big enough?
The first round of the tax cuts that National derided as the ‘block of cheese’ tax cuts kicked in on Wednesday. Next week, […]
Rhetoric vs reality
With expectations about National’s tax cuts justifably very high (thanks to National talking them up for nine years), National is suddenly trying to […]
Speculators stuff up, put us all in peril
The formula to determine the fair value of a share is pretty simple – take the expected future dividends,adjust them using the discount rate, […]
Great expectations
John Key is being pretty evasive on his tax cut plan. He won’t say whether the famous ‘$50 a week for the average worker’ […]
National lies, again
National just can’t stop lying. We’ve covered National’s lies on wages and migration in the past and our last two posts have debunked […]
Between the lines: Nats’ RMA free-for-all
The RMA is a quick and cheap process in the vast majority of cases, and it is regarded as a world-leading piece of […]