Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Written By: - Date published: 3:13 pm, January 19th, 2016 - 61 comments
Republished by request, and permission from Stephanie Rodgers at Boots Theory
[Content note: mentions of transphobia, sexual violence and violence against people of colour]
Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, January 19th, 2016 - 342 comments
Ngāpuhi kaumātua and spokesperson for Te Tii Marae Kingi Tairua has announced that because of the lack of consultation if the TPPA is signed the Government will not be welcome at Waitangi.
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, January 19th, 2016 - 155 comments
Ever widening inequality generates ever more astonishing statistics – suck up economics in action. The super-rich are laughing all the way to the bank.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, January 18th, 2016 - 114 comments
Data released to the Sunday Star-Times shows a huge decline in numbers of tertiary students, including declines in many key skills and fields. Various explanations are offered, only one of them makes sense…
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, January 18th, 2016 - 60 comments
It’s a good thing that one of the major parties is thinking seriously about the future…
Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, January 17th, 2016 - 193 comments
A recent “research” report on alcohol, funded by brewing company Lion, has been in the news lately. Sadly, not everything that purports to be research is honest research.
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, January 16th, 2016 - 43 comments
An excellent piece on poverty by Lizzie Marvelly in The Herald this morning poses a question to which we already know the answer. (Plus some bonus rambling on the media.)
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, January 16th, 2016 - 186 comments
The world is currently facing a problem that even a few years ago was unthinkable. Oil is cheap and demand has dropped out of the market. What are the geopolitical implications of this?
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, January 15th, 2016 - 76 comments
Now maybe it’s because I’m a bloke, but looking at this graph I couldn’t help but think: wouldn’t it be better to close the pay gap for women by increasing their wages rather than decreasing men’s?
Written By: - Date published: 8:49 am, January 15th, 2016 - 17 comments
It’s been a hardy annual finding of late – the pay gap between males and females is getting steadily worse. History suggests that Labour governments have some answers…
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, January 14th, 2016 - 76 comments
What would have happened if in 1984 David Lange had exerted control and appointed a centrist rather than right wing Labour cabinet?
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, January 14th, 2016 - 203 comments
The new year begins much as the old one ended, with secrets, evasions and dissent over the TPP and what it means for NZ.
Written By: - Date published: 11:46 am, January 13th, 2016 - 77 comments
Boots Theory on the American Working Families Charter, how they are trying to move the Democratic Party to the left, and possible lessons for New Zealand.
Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, January 13th, 2016 - 154 comments
The Bank of Scotland has advised advised its clients to brace for a “cataclysmic year” and a global deflationary crisis.
Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, January 12th, 2016 - 94 comments
Stephen Joyce has had published an opinion piece in this morning’s Herald which extolls the virtue of free trade and ignores the pitfalls. Such as those shown this week when TransCanada sued the US Government for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline contract.
Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, January 10th, 2016 - 46 comments
A recent New Matilda article discusses why at a time of increasing productivity the need to work has increased and not decreased.
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, January 9th, 2016 - 249 comments
This morning’s Herald contains a story about a young man who with a family gift has managed to purchase eleven houses over the past five years and can afford to pay World of Warcraft all day.
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, January 8th, 2016 - 81 comments
Jamie Whyte yesterday wrote an article for the Herald claiming that child poverty does not exist in New Zealand. But he wrote essentially the same article in 2005 about child poverty in Great Britain.
Written By: - Date published: 6:18 pm, January 7th, 2016 - 24 comments
The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement will be signed in New Zealand on February 4, 2016. But the Government is not confirming …
Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, January 5th, 2016 - 14 comments
Ad reviews Eurasia’s appraisal of global risks the world faces in 2016.
Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, January 5th, 2016 - 103 comments
Overnight there has been further turmoil on the Chinese Stock exchange with stocks plummeting 7% before trading was stopped. And things may only get worse when a 6 month ban on trading by major stock owners is lifted.
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, January 2nd, 2016 - 306 comments
New research from Morgan Foundation suggests that poverty can be alleviated by increasing incomes and that the beneficiaries will be children of poor families not vendors of alcohol and cigarettes.
Written By: - Date published: 12:03 pm, December 28th, 2015 - 278 comments
A comprehensive run through of behaviours and attitudes associated with a White Ribbon ambassador.
Written By: - Date published: 7:09 am, December 27th, 2015 - 56 comments
COP21 provided welcome commitment by the world’s nations to do something meaningful about climate change. But this is not enough. So what next?
Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, December 26th, 2015 - 49 comments
Incognito on the meaning of work and unemployment at a time of increasing change.
Written By: - Date published: 7:29 am, December 24th, 2015 - 189 comments
AFFCO clearly lacks any sense of a christmas spirit when dealing with its workers.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, December 19th, 2015 - 46 comments
Standardista authors are on summer break! There will be an Open Mike each day, but little or no other posting (unless an author feels particularly inspired). Here’s some summer reading suggestions – by all means add your own…
Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, December 18th, 2015 - 104 comments
A guest post from McFlock on what we might do about poverty when the talking’s done.
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, December 16th, 2015 - 206 comments
John Key has tried to deflect from his government’s appalling record on child poverty with some throw-away nonsense about drugs. There are just three teeny tiny problems with that line…
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, December 16th, 2015 - 59 comments
Structural problems need structural solutions. Progress on this major public health issue has been set back by a decade because we elected a useless National government.
Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, December 15th, 2015 - 172 comments

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