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 […]
Economy
economy
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Nice
Shallow recession this year but the future looks tough
We all knew New Zealand was in recession in the first six months of this year. The official figures have confirmed this. The surprise […]
Free trade must be fair
In principle, a free trade deal between the US and the P4 countries (NZ, Chile, Singapore, and Brunei) is a good thing. If […]
NZ – still a great place to do business
We can do good news here on the Standard! According to a World Bank survey shows New Zealand is still ranked second in […]
The polls and petrol prices
Updating a post from a few months ago, here’s how Labour’s Roy Morgan poll numbers are going compared to the price of petrol since the […]
Buy Kiwi online
As part of the Buy NZ Made programme that was part of the Government’s abstention deal with the Greens, the Get NZ Made […]
Causes and effects
A series of graphs from the Social Report. First off, the unemployment rate When the unemployment goes up or down, the practical effect […]
Social Report shows Kiwis better off
MSD released its Social Report today, an annual publication that collates a wide variety of standard of living measures, and produces this awesome graph. […]
Mythbusting: Half of new generation is thermal
Reading National’s energy policy last week I was surprised to learn that of 1942MW of new generation that has come online since 2000 […]
Energy policy fails to energise
A positive and ambitious energy policy that reflects the personality of National leader John Key, was announced today. Old people wiped tears from […]
Renewable energy policy
A policy paper has been released on how the Government’s goal of 90% renewable electricity generation by 2025 can be achieved. Micro-hydro projects and […]
Policies for the wrong time (again)
We’ve heard a lot about the ‘private’ opinions of some senior National MP’s this week. What we haven’t heard much about is the […]
Key-nesian economics
I’m really starting to wonder why it’s the worst academics who seem to get the most media, Maybe it’s because the good ones […]
Employment, wages up
Despite the economic slowdown, the labour market is holding up well and wages are up at the record rate. The average hourly wage […]
Spin-busting: ‘A growth problem, not a debt problem’
To justify borrowing for tax cuts, National’s new line is that New Zealand has ‘a growth problem, not a debt problem’. Untrue. (source) […]
Key’s vision: tax cuts for rich, more debt for youse
In a speech described by attendees as ‘more bullet points’, John Key announced to the National Party conference today that National would borrow $5 […]
Finance companies – a graphic explanation
With the collapse of Hanover Finance, the 25th finance company to go under, Hanover co-owner Mark Hotchin has declared ‘the finance companies’ model […]
Bollard cuts the OCR
The Reserve Bank has dropped the Official Cash Rate from 8.25% to 8%. Inflation is well outside the Bank’s 1-3% target range but […]
False idol
We’ve said this before but, seeing as BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander is in the Herald this morning saying ‘the October 1 tax […]
Inflation up but interest rates must come down
Inflation was 1.6% in the last quarter, 4% annually, the highest in 13 years. Petrol is driving inflation. By itself petrol accounted for […]
Running on empty
A worrying report on the future of petrol prices is out today. It predicts petrol could hit $10 a litre in a decade. […]
Beyond the political showboating
Ok. Now that the political theatre is done maybe National and its allies would like to engage in proper debate on the freight […]
All aboard KiwiRail
Today marks the launch of KiwiRail. It’s great to have rail back in Kiwi hands, after a decade of asset-stripping. Now comes the […]
March GDP figures
As expected, the economy contracted 0.3% in the March quarter. The drought brought activity in the agricultural sector down after a recent strong […]
Lost highway
Petrol is over $2.10 a litre. The price will keep rising both with the ever upward march of the price of crude and […]
The headline you didn’t see
‘Unemployment benefits at record low.’ The number of people receiving the unemployment benefit has fallen to just 17,465. That’s the lowest number since […]