Act now to protect workers’ wages
Times are going to get harder for workers in the next few years. Unemployment is set […]
Economy
economy
Petrol price hits parties in the polls
A reader sent us this graph. It plots President Bush’s approval rating and the price of petrol. (the price of petrol is upside-down, […]
Facing up to peak oil
The Government’s independent report on petrol prices is bit of a sop to be the public, really. The world oil price is driving […]
Mythbusting: Labour’s just had golden economic weather
The amazing economic run we’ve experienced under the Labour-led governments is just down to international forces, so National would have us believe. Of […]
Mythbusting: The govt gets rich off high petrol prices
We regularly hear calls (not backed by any major party, including National) for the taxes on petrol to be lowered or removed because […]
OCR unchanged
The Reserve Bank has left the Official Cash Rate unchanged; no-one expected a rate cut this early. It’s encouraging that Bollard has firmly […]
Treasury dreams of cheap oil
This is the graph of the oil price forecasts Treasury used to underpin its fiscal model for the Budget. It assumes that oil […]
Clydesdale report rubbished
Greg Clydesdale’s report that labelled Pacific Islanders a ‘drain on the economy’ has been rubbished as a lazy, intellectually dishonest piece of work […]
Telling porkies
The Herald and National have started attacking every piece of government spending as pork-barrelling. Here’s some of what they’re calling ‘wasteful, needless spending’: […]
Water, water everywhere, why not stop to think?
From the MP who tried to ban water comes ‘don’t use crash statistics to work out which roads are dangerous’. Writing in the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Inflation targeting puts Kiwis under the gun
As you know, petrol and food prices are up. These are international prices spiralling up due to growing demand and limited or falling […]
On the scrapheap
This graph shows the number of people employed in New Zealand, and employment would have been had the number of people with a […]
National’s interest rates record
National’s latest line is that interest rates have doubled under Labour, with the implication that National would magically lower inflation (while simultaneously pouring […]
NZ Growing Faster Than Aussie, US, Japan, and UK
The Reserve Bank produces a series of helpful tables of economic data. One table compares our growth to that of Australia, the US, […]
Winston and the FTA
New Zealand First’s opposition to the China FTA is no surprise but it is interesting to reflect on the grounds for it that […]
April 1 changes boost wages and cut taxes
Today is a big day for government policy affecting Kiwis’ incomes: The minimum wage is now $12 an hour, up from $7 when […]
Calling coal to account
New Zealand’s coal industry is a mess of contradictions. We worry about carbon emissions and Kyoto while State-owned Solid Energy exports coal to dirty Chinese […]
GDP up; parents’ time with kids plummets
One of the most interesting questions from the audience at the Stiglitz interview in Wellington last week was whether he thought we were […]
Is it a recession Mr Key?
I am intrigued by the recent coverage of the state of the economy. We have reports that things will get bumpy from some […]
What the hell is the sub-prime crisis?
The sub-prime crisis is at the heart of the world’s current economic problems. It all boils down to financiers playing fast and loose […]
Guest post: Simon Tegg on Peak Oil
Meet Guest post. Guest post is 32 years old, he likes long walks on the beach and lively political debate. He is our […]