Cullen put a huge swag of dough into the economy in October last year. National followed on with its April tax cut. Key inherited an economy with very sound books and low unemployment. The books afforded him some room to take on debt. The low unemployment has meant the unemployment peak will likely round out somewhere near 7% rather than closer to a reputation killing 10% had the pre slump rate been higher.

The Nats ‘brought forward’ infrastructure plans Labour already had on the books. It made it look like he was doing something whilst really doing little more than what had already been put in place for him. Key tinkered with his 9 day fortnight that has saved some jobs, maybe a couple of thousand or so, perhaps. His cycle way has created in new jobs to my knowledge. Any bad stuff that didn’t come right he could of course blame on Labour.

That said, if the world plunges back into a cold bath, Key & his govt may have to start doing some work themselves.

In the meantime some big economic fundamentals need fixing. There is the national fixation with housing as an investment and how we manage our exchage rate. Cullen took a major step forward toward fixing our savings habit with Kiwisaver. He tinkered with the exchange rate and housing but backed off quickly when National started politiking. So now it is Keys turn to addres the problems Labour didn’t. There are enough ideas around for his government to utilise. Sooner or later luck has to change to substance. *Waits*.

And yeah, it’s next year that we’ll find out how well the economy is holding up. If it’s a w shape recession, with this being a dead cat bounce, then they’ll have to respond. Though I suspect it makes more sense to have everything in place first.