Recap: China syndrome
This post was originally published last year but it’s relevant in the light of the naive comments from McCully on Q+A today about […]
Workers stand up to exploitative bosses
Head of the Unite union, Matt McCarten, writes about the Synovate lockout and how foreign-owned businesses try to exploit New Zealand workers: [The] […]
Elizabeth Warren on the bailouts
The best news source in America, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, interviews the woman responsible for making sure their bailout money is […]
Turning a blind eye
Unlike some of the other Standard writers, I don’t usually find Fran O-Sullivan too bad but her reporting of Key’s trip to China […]
Bad medicine
The sensible bits
Brian Rudman has a piece in the NZ Herald looking at the good side of the Auckland reorganisation. The potential for pooling resources. […]
The fightback begins
This morning I picked up the local newspaper out of the mailbox – Harbour News. On the front page was this extraordinary editorial […]
One of these things is not like the other III
One of these things is not like the other… One of these things is not quite the same. Can you guess which one […]
Wtf?
A reader writes: $30 million for an expo pavillion? Sounds a bit steep. Why, John Key could could build you a cycleway 60% […]
More pain ahead
The current financial crisis originated in America with a wave of defaults in “sub prime” mortgages. The excellent presentation found here covers a […]
What plan? Government incoherent
Peeking through the OECD policy brief there were some interesting issues when looking at the short-term economic issues over the next few years. […]
So much for accountable government
Five months in office and ministers are already so aloof and out of touch that you can read things like this in the media almost […]
Worth mired in corruption again
(click the picture for the video) Why would Worth visit the Sandhu family to whom he was a stranger and who had nothing to do with […]
Questions
We should expect National as the political arm of business to surround itself with dirty money and conflicts of interest. As a self-proclaimed […]
Johnny’s next big idea
In two days, John Key will be bouncing from cloud to cloud on his way back home from China. With him on the […]
Nats still involved in dodgy donations
The Herald covers some of the donations to parties and candidates before the election. One of the big donors was the Road Transport […]
NZ’s debt in perspective
Remember when John Key used to say “New Zealand has a growth problem, not a debt problem”? He doesn’t say that anymore, which […]
Out of her depth II
As if any more evidence was needed that National’s Paula Bennett is completely out of her depth as Minister of Social Development, it […]
As predicted
Last week, John Key was bouncing on a new cloud. The Australian Government had teamed up with banks to help stop homeowners defaulting […]
Synovate lockout lifted
Indymedia reports that the lockout at research company Synovate has been lifted and a settlement has been reached: Late last night, union and […]
Teabagging fad sweeps US
In 1773, a group of Bostonians who objected to being forced to pay a tax on tea by the British Parliament, which they […]
Public service numbers
I’ve just stumbled across this killer graph from the PSA on public service numbers under Labour and National. It helpfully puts in graphical […]
Mana enhancement
The Maori Party MPs always read from pre-prepared speeches in the House. Here’s one they might like to read on Budget Day: We […]
Barbaric
Restaurant Association chairman Mike Egan on how to treat your staff during a recession: “if some of our employees cannot adapt fast enough […]
Workers locked out – bosses locked in
Forwarded to us from Indymedia: Call centre workers at Synovate in South Auckland were today locked out by their employer. The workers had […]
American Dream
The tax cut bandwagon
For the last two election campaigns we had to put up with National, aided and abetted by many commentators, dominating the agenda with […]
The next oil spike(s)
Remember the oil spike? Over the course of the last 4-5 years, oil kept on breaking records, culminating in a massive spike to […]
Good to hear it, Phil
Back during the election campaign, the Standard writers wrote a lot about the need for Labour’s leaders to talk more from their values, […]
Capitalism losing its allure
The capitalist doctrine sure has taken a beating lately. Not only have its raw excesses created a global crash which shows no signs […]
Sunday, bloody Sunday
Usually I’m working, so I don’t get to see Sunday on TVOne. Lucky me. I flicked over for the very end tonight, just […]
dick-o-meter
Russel Brown at Media7 doing a light-hearted take on how pathetic Paul Henry has been over time. You really have to ask if […]
Herald tells Kiwis to bend over
The Herald’s article this morning on how to ‘Future-proof your job in the recession’ tells Kiwi workers to bend over for your boss […]
Weak
We’ve all been subjected to mainstream journalists gushing over Key’s ‘strong leadership’ but now it’s being put to the test and we’re seeing […]
What comes around goes around
It wasn’t so long ago that National’s covert attack organ, the Free Speech Coalition, were squealing about how anti-democratic the last Labour government […]
Chopper’s vice
Trevor Mallard reminded us in comments of another story that illustrates Anne “Chopper” Tolley’s great intellect. Soon after she became minister, Tolley had […]