Explore the archive
Find articles and conversations by date, subject or search expression.
Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 1–30 of 42
Post
Next week, a report will reveal the abuse of 2,500 foreign workers used as virtual slaves on ships employed by kiwi fishing quota holders in our waters. New Zealand has a rich nautical history, world-leading boat-builders, and large fisheries. By rights, we should have a…
Conservation exports food jobs sustainability workers' rights
Post
Like the American debt limit deal, I always thought that Mana and Maori would find some kind of bloody compromise at the eleventh hour. It is so obviously in the best interests of the two to cooperate. But they've passed the point of no return…
Post
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
Post
Remember the fuss when Brownlee appointed Jenny Shipley and other cronies to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Review Panel at triple the normal pay rate? Brownlee tried to justify it by saying that "it will not be possible to secure their services under the current fees…
Post
If some poor bugger was found, more dead than alive and smothered in leeches, whatever the cure, it wouldn't be to replace any satiated and detached leeches with fresh ones now, would it? Yet that seems to be the 'cure' for the productive economy being…
Post
January 2009. Jobs are being lost at 4,000 per week. Key and his government have just come back from a month long holiday. First thing he does: makes an audition tape for Letterman. Notice how all the jokes are taking the mickey out of our…
Post
The global financial system, which has never properly recovered from the recession, is poised on the brink of a second crash. The immediate trigger seems to be the fiasco in America over raising the debt ceiling. The whole process revealed the growing power (and lunacy)…
Post
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
Post
BBC Radio 4 in the UK has a very interesting debate pitting followers of Keynes vs those of Hayek available at: podcast Being the LSE there are quite a few Hayekians in the audience for riposte. The debater's arguments from both sides are stimulating -…
debt / deficit economy Economy Keynes monetary policy uncategorized
Post
Watch this space!
Post
About 600 Otago students turned out this morning (with Dunedin North MP Pete Hodgson) to meet John Key in protest to the VSM bill. Good to see a strong show of support for student unions! There's a press release about the protest here, and a…
Post
Weekend social is for non political chat. What's on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can't we all just get along?
Post
Fisheries workers bearing a 12,000 signature told a select committee yesterday the horror stories of abuse of foreign workers on fishing vessels, whose low wages displace Kiwi workers, how the focus on low-cost, low-quality that is wasting our fish stocks, and how this is caused…
Post
Adidas was founded by a Nazi who lied that his own brother was SS to get him in deeper trouble when the brother was captured by the US. That cut-throat attitude persists. I don't know why people want to wear All Blacks shirts. Adult equivalent…
Post
National pollster David Farrar wants scientists to debate a fake Lord climate change denier saying "Why should anyone listen to people unwilling to debate?". Well, David, next time you're giving your polling report to the Kitchen Cabinet, tell them that. Because National is refusing to…
accountability democratic participation election 2011 privatisation
Post
Could somebody please nip outside and check and see if hell has frozen over? I ask because I'm trying to deal with the rather disturbing experience of finding myself in agreement with Garth George. Well, mostly in agreement, George clearly doesn't understand the American deficit.…
Post
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
Post
Who cares whether or not the SIS briefed Phil Goff over whether or not some Israelis were Mossad? What does interest me it this: Secretive SIS denied Fairfax a copy of the briefing paper on the non-agents. Days later it magics up a copy of…
Post
KAL (the cartoonist for The Economist) expresses my feelings about the political process over the last couple of months in the US. Their Washington correspondent after looking at the detail of the eventual 'solution' concludes with In the end, hopes for a grand bargain that…
Post
The Parliamentary exchange relating to the magazine ad is here: Hon Annette King: Can he remember advertising in the Grey Power magazine recently, stating “We’re working for you. Security. Well-being. Respect.”; if so, does that respect include listening to, and acting on, the advice of…
Post
It looks like the race for Epsom is about to get a whole lot more exciting. Former ACT funder Colin Craig seems set to throw his hat into the ring against ACT's John Banks, National's Paul Goldsmith, and Labour's David Parker. It only needs Winnie…
Post
The Greens have launched their policy to get 100,000 kids out of poverty. It'll cost just 0.3% of GDP. We have a moral duty to do what we can to eliminate child poverty. Labour made a start. WFF basically ended working poverty. But there's the…
Post
Good to see the government considering a move that would significantly boost KiwisSaver uptake: KiwiSaver auto-enrolment: the new election issue The Government is pushing policies that could see up to a million New Zealanders automatically enrolled in Kiwisaver, and the superannuation scheme is shaping up…
Post
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
Post
Is it just me, or is it getting pretty crowded on the right wing of NZ politics? National, ACT, Peter Dunne, the Maori Party, and now this: Colin Craig announces new Conservative Party Businessman and failed Auckland mayoral candidate Colin Craig has announced he is…
Post
The neoliberal myth is that government economic policy doesn't really matter, it can't affect the economy - apart from being an anchor on growth. The truth is, government is the biggest actor in our economy. What it does matters. Bernard Hickey has listed 10 ways…
Post
120 jobs per weekday lost last quarter but nothing to worry about. The market will right itself. The data is from the Quarterly Employment Survey. They only do it by region, but I bet most of the job losses are in Christchurch.
Post
For quite some time now I've been meaning to write about how the Christchurch quake was giving us a salutary lesson on how the "free market" handles a major disaster. But (with hat tip to Bryce Edwards) I see that novelist and poet Fiona Farrell…
Post
A bad mistake by John Key in the House yesterday. He was asked by Phil Goff about the widening gap between rich and poor. Thinking himself something of a smart-arse, he cited a report that the government had released just minutes earlier about Household incomes…
capitalism class war equality john key labour phil goff poverty
Post
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...