Daily review 28/08/2023

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 11 comments
Categories: Daily review

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

11 comments on “Daily review 28/08/2023”

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    1. 1.1

      Wonder what all those "onerous" new regulations are? Last farmer I asked couldn't think of one on the spot and reporters never seem to ask.

      1. 1.1.1

        Reporters…ha…..well the media wants to see blood splattered on the campaign trail….its all about making themselves relevant in reporting opinion pieces…..the old 'if it bleeds it leads' trick….

        Where is Brian Edwards when you need him….

  2. 2

    To the surprise of no one:

    Businesses have been returning record profits while inflation surges during the cost of living crisis, new research shows.

    The study was designed to emulate analysis done overseas by the European Central Bank and a number of other research institutes, and was carried out by FIRST Union, the Council of Trade Unions and the lobby group Action Station.

    It came after a report from Business NZ earlier in the year that said inflated profits were not the driving force behind rising costs in New Zealand.

    …

    …during the main period of rising costs, from mid 2021 to the end of 2022, Miller said the profit contribution accounted for 55 percent of pressure on the GDP deflator, while wages were less than a third at 28 percent.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/496752/business-profits-contributed-significantly-to-recent-rising-costs-study-finds

    1. 2.1

      To the surprise of no one.

      A study produced by FIRST Union, the Council of Trade Unions and the lobby group Action Station (which is pretty much left aligned) come to the conclusion that it is those evil companies that are responsible for inflation.

      As you say. That is "To the surprise of no one". Just as the study by Business New Zealand found profits were not the driving force and that labour costs were more to blame.

      2. 2.1.2

        The disagreement in the conclusions of the two reports is stark, and I would like to understand why. They both used very different methodologies, but I haven't spent the time getting to the bottom of it…I hope someone more knowledgeable than I does it for me! Also haven’t found a link to the actual new report yet.

        The business NZ one did exclude the financial sector – which includes the very many billions of record bank profits.

      3. 2.1.3

        The new report includes considerable discussion on why their conclusion is different to the Business NZ report (e.g. pages 11-13 of the new report). And their explanations make a lot of sense.

        For example, the Business NZ report discusses profit margins but not total profit – while at the same time noting large increases in input costs (and of course, same margin with higher input cost = higher profit).

        And the Business NZ exclusion of the financial sector was silly (they justified it by saying it was just too hard to analyse using their methodology) – this sector makes up a huge part of the relevant profit. Excluding this and just publishing (and publicising) their report anyway, makes you think the Business NZ report was mostly an execise in PR, than actual investigation.

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