Is this a new cold war?
It’s really easy to get cranky right now and believe the world is retreating into to a sad Cold War binary in which Russia and its allies are always in high tension with the United States and its allies. A new Cold War.
International
Globalisation
The Overseas Investment Amendment Bill
Ad argues that the merits of banning overseas ownership of local land is not as simple or as virtuous as we may think.
Putting some steel into trade
Does anyone want to take a punt on where the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum will go?
TPPA-11 update and actions
The TPPA-11 is set to be signed on March 8. There are still huge problems with the agreement for NZ. Jane Kelsey provides an update.
Shock horror right wing think tank thinks NZ not very democratic
National’s cheerleaders are pushing an international report which suggests that New Zealand’s democratic system is only slightly better than average in world terms. But the organisation behind the report and the methodology used need some checking.
Up the spout, round the bend and down the tubes.
It’s no longer really working out (kicking the AGW can down the road), but we seem to be hooked into a peculiar form of madness even as everything appears to be coming apart at the seams. It’s beyond me…
Social Democracy is still alive
With socialist governments in rapid decline right across the world, and just a very few social democrat governments re-emerging after many years out of power, it’s useful to remind ourselves of what governmental combinations are working well.
Tampa, Ardern and positioning small countries
There are major similarities between Helen Clark’s decision to accept into New Zealand refugees from the Tampa boat and Jacinda Ardern’s pushing for New Zealand to accept refugees based on Manus Island.
Thank You Canada!
Is this the sound a trade deal makes when someone pulls the flush?
TPP, Corporate Coup or “Free trade”?
However. TPP ( The trans Pacific partnership) is NOT a “Free trade” agreement. It is an attempt to cement in corporate power, to override inconvenient local Democracy, and collect rents from local communities in perpetuity.
Since when was giving large companies extra rights in law, and rights to extract even more economic rents, “Free trade”?
This TPP…
Some aspects of the TPP no-one’s mentioning.
Professor Mark Blyth on…
…the past 70 years of economic theory and practice. (h/t Adam)
China and New Zealand
Is it time for New Zealand to align itself with China rather than the United States?
Austria and Europe
Europe is showing a worrying trend to the right as anti immigration parties are voted into office. Austria provides the latest example.
Stupid myths on immigrant construction workers
One of the dafter myths about the current burgeoning immigration industry is that we need skilled immigrants for the construction industry. As usual the talkback idiots are wrong. We don’t get many. We need more. We need to get rid of the migrant dross to get them. A Kiwibuild quota is a good idea.
Vote for NZ Labour if…
- You want a TPP Agreement.
G20: Trump isolated and friendless
ABC news political editor Chris Uhlmann’s brutal takedown of Trump goes viral.
The magical disappearing Foreign Trust industry
National’s original claims that New Zealand was not a tax haven are in tatters as the Sherwan rule changes have resulted in the mass exodus of Foreign Trusts from New Zealand.
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
Ad asks is the world more secure than a year ago? Is the danger of serious economic crisis higher or lower? Are the institutional arrangements and norms that resolve conflicts and enhance the prospects for international cooperation more or less robust than they were in July 2016.
China is in New Zealand to stay
At a time when the United States is reducing its diplomatic capacity and its willingness to enter into International Treaties New Zealand’s willingness to deal with China places it in an almost unique position in the western world.
The new world order
With former adversaries USA and Russia now the best of friends and with China now emerging again as the preeminent economy in the world the question is will the transition of power be handled smoothly?
Is this the impossibility turning point?
There’s a wonderful fiction still propelling the world that the 21st century will bring an ever-expanding arc of freedom and prosperity to the vast majority of humanity but the reality seems to be anything but.
Bloomberg warns world of New Zealand’s toxic trusts
Bloomberg magazine has highlighted how foreign trusts are damaging New Zealand’s reputation and are being used for criminal activity.
Key gives up on us, keeps International Democratic Union.
The Herald informs us that Key is going on the speaking circuit and will go back into finance (not that he ever left). Like John Howard before him, he also intends to carry on chairing the International Democratic Union of right-wing parties. Not a surprise.
RIP TPP
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and leaving the agreement effectively dead in its tracks.
Dodgy foreign trusts – will English take action?
Matt Nippert continued his excellent work on foreign trusts yesterday in The Herald. Will Bill English clean up the mess that John Key was determined to ignore?
Hard Brexit
Theresa May has finally set out some guidelines on the shape of Brexit. Out of the single market, rejecting the European court, full border control.
Oxfam on world wealth inequality
Guardian: “The world’s eight richest billionaires control the same wealth between them as the poorest half of the globe’s population, according to a charity warning of an ever-increasing and dangerous concentration of wealth.”
I’m a Muslim, an Immigrant and I voted Trump
Take a deep breath and transcend your fear.
Flogging the dead TPP horse
The Nats are determined to keep flogging the TPP horse in Parliament. Someone should buy them a newspaper.
Jill Stein: a Clinton Presidency could mean nuclear war with Russia
Hillary Clinton’s no-fly zone policy for Syria as declared in the second presidential election means air war with Russia.
TPP – Let it go John
So Key has been trying to explain the TPP to America. Apart from looking ridiculous, what did he think he was going to accomplish?
European Union v Apple and the US
And in Europe the EU has taken steps against Apple for rampant tax evasion and an EU-US free trade deal appears to be dead.
Hickey on immigration and wages
Hickey: “The best way for an economy to grow is for the market to allow wages to grow. Allowing a flood of low-skilled migrants is frustrating that market mechanism with the short-term aim of keeping wages low for employers.”
The Canary – UK independent news featured on RT’s Sputnik
The Canary: independent UK news media successfully using a democratic, socialist model. And succeeding within the highly commercial world of the MSM.
This is the face of the failure of globalisation
My apologies to Mohammad Jamal, the man in the photo, for using his largely unknown story to make a point about free-trade and Western privilege.