National still won’t say what they’d do
Seemingly content to coast along on the “time for a change” sentiment, the National Party are still refusing to offer any substantive details […]
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Kremlinology: National on work rights
National’s refusal to say what it stands for is becoming so ridiculous we have resorted to the Cold War art of Kremlinology. Today, […]
On the distribution of income
See that line that says minimum wage? Nearly half of kiwis earn less than that. Seven months ago, that was me. I was […]
National: we’ll borrow for tax cuts for the rich
Discovering National’s policy is a bit like the old art of Kremlinology, when Western intelligence agencies would attempt to discover the inner workings […]
Time to let interest rates fall
The economy is clearly slowing. Fundamentally, it remains strong with high employment, good wages rises, and strong prices for our exports but employment […]
Junk pay
The last couple of episodes of Fair Go have rightly taken aim at a distribution company – Reachmedia – that rips off young kids by paying […]
Rio Tinto threats backfire
Rio Tinto’s threat of capital strike appears to have backfired on them, with a political consensus emerging that the multinational has overplayed its […]
Nats’ attack on union hits High Court
Today National will be explaining to the High Court why it wants the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union’s 50,000 members to be denied […]
ACT: tax cuts for the rich, please
Rodney Hide is calling for the Budget’s tax cuts to take the form of raising the thresholds to account for inflation since 1999, […]
Rio Tinto threatens NZ with capital strike
Multi-national minerals company Rio Tinto is threatening to close its Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in Bluff and move its production offshore if the […]
Tax cut speculation
Now that Michael Cullen has ruled out a tax-free bracket but promised that everyone will benefit from Labour’s tax-cut package, what cuts will […]
Stop ANZ National’s race to the bottom
A few weeks back ANZ National announced that over the next 12-18 months they plan to export 400-500 New Zealand jobs to Bangalore. […]
Unemployment figures
Unemployment rose from 3.4% to 3.6% between the December and March quarters. The number of people employed fell 15,000 from 2,162,000 in the […]
Cullen rules out tax-free bracket, GST cut
It’s disappointing that Michael Cullen has ruled out both a tax-free bracket and a GST cut in his tax cut package to be […]
Workers be careful, says Aussie Unionist
Sharan Burrow (President of Australian Council of Trade Unions) talked to Morning Report about the union experiences in Australia under a conservative government, […]
Brownlee, not the brightest spark
Here’s Gerry Brownlee in the Herald today: Brownlee said the [Whirinaki] power plant, near Napier, was intended as an emergency backup to be […]
The 40 cent tax cut
National and some of the more wacky commentators are complaining that the $655 million used by the Government to buy back the rail […]
Would Key scrap GST on food?
With hints that regional fuel tax could be put on the “go slow” list, along with parts of the emissions trading scheme, it […]
Wages up at record rate
The Labour Cost Index rose a record 3.4% for the March year. That means wages and salaries for doing the same job rose […]
For whom the Toll bells
The Government has bought back the rail stock and ferries from Toll for $655 million. The privatisation of these vital assets, which are […]
Our bank beats the rest
Today, ANZ and National Bank announced they are lifting their variable mortgage rates another quarter of a percent to 10.95%. That comes a […]
Talking down the economy
National is a party weak on policy. It has had to drop nearly every one of its principled but unpopular policies to get […]
Right answer, wrong question
It’s not often National gets something right but their latest flip-flop, on bio-fuels, is a good policy (well, partially and for the wrong […]
Put it on the kids’ tab
Some may have noted an odd series of questions in Parliament and press releases from Bill English around government borrowing over the last […]
7 reasons why cutting GST on food will not help
Scrapping GST is a classic, populist issue that sounds delicious in times of high food prices but at closer inspection – it doesn’t […]
Dunne: feathering his own nest
Peter Dunne is once again touting his plans to introduce income splitting. It’s a policy aimed at helping out the wealthy. New Zealand […]
Right question, wrong answer
Interesting to see people gradually waking up to what Fidel Castro, last year, called “The sinister idea of converting food into combustibles”. Even […]
Does money buy happiness after all?
In 1974, economist Richard Easterlin, published a study in which he argued that economic growth didn’t necessarily lead to more satisfaction. In poor […]
The cart before the horse
The internet is awesome; you can use email, learn heaps, and read sites like The Standard. Faster internet is awesomer; you can watch […]
I’ve got a solution, what’s the problem?
The junior doctors’ strike is a difficult issue. On the one hand, these are highly valuable workers whom we can’t afford to lose […]
Twin peaks
We have all heard of the peak oil crisis that is already manifesting itself in fuel prices. Now, consider peak food, the point […]
What would National do?: Emigration
Simon Power has hit on the fact that Stats New Zealand produces migration figures every month, and that means every month he gets […]
National makes work rights the defining issue
National’s strategy, the strategy of a weak party, is to present a ‘small target’ by promising to change virtually nothing if they were […]
The shape of things to come
With the loss of 500 ANZ National jobs to Bangalore India and 430 jobs from Fisher and Paykel to Mexico announced today, a […]
Spot the difference
Hmm, spot the difference in the headlines of two press releases out today: ‘Fisher & Paykel Appliances Announces Global Manufacturing Strategy’ ‘Next Steps […]
Cost of benefit system plummeting
Continuing our benefits theme, here’s a look at how much the benefit system costs you. The figures are the combined expenditure by the […]