Another nail in the neo-liberal coffin

Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, May 9th, 2009 - 32 comments
Categories: economy - Tags:

statue-of-liberty-hammer-and-sickle-holding-communist-symbol-yellow-deep-blue-sky-photo1Neoliberal economic policy has taken a bit of a beating lately. Unregulated financial markets have exploded spectacularly and the wreckage is dragging the real economy down with it. The whole edifice is being propped up with trillions of dollars worth of taxpayer bailouts – as ever big business likes to privatise the profits and socialise the losses. As Newsweek declared – “we’re all socialists now”.

New Zealand in the late 80’s and 90’s was at the forefront of the great neoliberal economic experiment. This resulted in great social disruption, considerable hardship, and sluggish economic progress. Our neighbours in Australia, who adopted a much more cautious approach to reform, grew more quickly (pdf link) than us over the same period, and did so with much less upheaval.

England was another bastion of right wing economic policy under the Thatcher government (1979 – 1990) and those that followed. It is now thirty years since Thatcher took power, and the anniversary has prompted, in England, an evaluation of her legacy. Turns out that right wing economic policy has done England no favours either:

In the wake of the implosion of the financial free-for-all and corporate engorgement she unleashed, the Thatcherite diehards are struggling to rescue her name from a legacy of greed, entrenched inequality and economic failure. … If only young people knew, insist the irreconcilables, what a basket-case Britain was in the 1970s an “offshore banana republic”, a land of perpetual power cuts, strikes and unburied bodies they would understand why millions had to lose their jobs, industries and communities had to be destroyed and billions had to be handed over to the wealthy. …

You’d never guess from all this fevered snobbery and retrospective catastrophism that average economic growth in Britain in the dismal 1970s, at 2.4% a year, was almost exactly the same as in the sunny Thatcherite 1980s though a good deal more fairly distributed and significantly higher than in the free-market boom years of the last two decades. Nor would you imagine that there was far greater equality and social mobility than after Thatcher got to work. Or that, while industrial conflict was often sharp in the 1970s, there was nothing to match the violence of the riots and industrial confrontations of Thatcher’s Britain.

How much more evidence do we need that neoliberal right wing deregulated economies are bad for people and bad for growth? As we here in NZ await the delivery of what is being signalled as a pretty grim budget, the question naturally arises, is the National government going to repeat yet again the obvious mistakes of the past?

32 comments on “Another nail in the neo-liberal coffin ”

  1. lprent 1

    Both NZ and the UK needed to address the internal rigidities of the system in the 60’s. They left things too late to do it easily. The problem was in both cases that the zeal of the advocates who did it was grossly excessive. They cut into the muscle rather than fat. It also left scarring in the shape of people thrown excessively into permanent unemployment for decades, and causing generational effects.

    The answer to your question is probably. Some people never learn that societies are interdependent and individuals are not fully independent.

    BTW: Great picture

  2. logie97 2

    I suspect that the single most significant action of either the Thatcher/Howe or Lange/Douglas governments was to remove exchange controls. If there was ever a sniff of a “socialist” regime taking a general election, then the wealthy could ship there wealth overseas and straight-jacketing the incoming government. Can that policy ever be reversed – I think not…

  3. rave 3

    Ah, its not actually a matter of the right or wrong policy and blaming capitalism’s ills on bad policy decisions. Despite the neo-liberal refuge that the scoundrels regulated too much, the scoundrels actually were top banksters seconded to the “de-” regulatory agencies to boost the profits of the banks.

    Neo-liberalism (more-market) was actually dictated by the crisis of falling profits in the late 60s and 70s. These profits didnt fall because of the wrong interventionist Keynesian policies, but the inability of the capitalists to keep profits rising despite growing productivity/exploitation of labor. All Keynesian policy did was shift the blame from bosses falling profits (the cause) onto stagflation (the effect) for which workers could be asked to share the pain. It was the crisis of falling profits that called forth a return to market forces to devalue surplus capital values. Neo-liberalism as an ideology was the bosses PR to get us to swallow their more market shock therapy.

    So far from neo-liberal policies being bankrupt, it is actually capitalism that is bankrupt. And while Keynesians may joyfully attach the hammer and sickle to their pinko policy prescriptions to revamp state interventions, it is actually the neo-liberals who have privatised the state from under them. NZ is catching up and putting corporate managers into prime public sector jobs to oversee the privatisation of state functions.

    What is meant by this is that the state is used not prime the pump through job creation, but as the bank of last resort to guarantee private profits. This proves that neo-liberals were never opposed to using the state so long as the money went into their pockets and not those of workers. They are simply forced by THEIR crisis to stake an open claim to what is after all THEIR state.

    If you want to run up the hammer and sickle you might actually point out what it stands for: the expropriation of capitalist property and the smashing of the capitalist state.

  4. Bill 4

    “How much more evidence do we need that neoliberal right wing deregulated economies are bad for people and bad for growth?”

    Em. Might I venture that this misses the point?

    Neo-liberalism is good for profit and works perfectly well for the small percentage of humanity it is meant to work for. So what if it’s bad for real economies and people and general? Outside of neo liberal propaganda, real people and real economies were never the point.

  5. peteremcc 5

    “Unregulated financial markets”

    Perhaps you could elaborate as to which financial markets were unregulated?

    • r0b 5.1

      Who is “you”? Passing by, my quick response, I’m not an expert but there was a good piece here a while back on regulatory laws that were successful and the effect when they were removed (current crash) – see the second video clip here:
      http://www.thestandard.org.nz/elizabeth-warren-on-the-bailouts/
      She doesn’t go in to specifics but does give a broad, brief historical overview. There are also some summary notes on Wikipedia:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation#United_States

    • r0b 5.2

      Turns out there’s even a term for a whole category of the worst offending unregulated organisations – the “shadow banking system”:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007-2009#Boom_and_collapse_of_the_shadow_banking_system

      • peteremcc 5.2.1

        The section you link to mentions nothing about regulation.

        Infact, the section that does discuss (de)regulation, focuses almost entirely on the ‘deregulation’ of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

        Those would be the government owned organisations.

        And the ‘deregulation’ would be the government forcing the F’s to loan to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back.

        Which part of that exactly is neo-liberal?

        • Zaphod Beeblebrox 5.2.1.1

          Actually its a bit of both.The deregulation involved the financiers being reckless, the regulation involved taxpayers all over the world getting the bill. The 2 F’s weren’t forced to do anything, they just followed the money tree. They onsold their rubbish loans as Credit Default Swaps to institutions all over the world who had them insured by AIG. The US government picked up the bill. The financiers capitalised their gains and socialised their losses.

        • r0b 5.2.1.2

          The section you link to mentions nothing about regulation.

          Ahh – yeah, it does:

          These entities became critical to the credit markets underpinning the financial system, but were not subject to the same regulatory controls.

          Also:

          As the shadow banking system expanded to rival or even surpass conventional banking in importance, politicians and government officials should have realized that they were re-creating the kind of financial vulnerability that made the Great Depression possible–and they should have responded by extending regulations and the financial safety net to cover these new institutions.

          Click through to the main article on shadow banking system and:

          Shadow institutions are not subject to the same safety and soundness regulations as depository banks, meaning they do not have to keep as much money in the proverbial vault relative to what they borrow and lend.

          And so on. Pretty clear that there was a huge unregulated financial network, and that regulations in the traditional banking sector had been relaxed, and that these factors were crucial contributors to the train wreck.

          • peteremcc 5.2.1.2.1

            hmm, quite right, not sure how i missed that.

            even so, it would be nice if you had something that wasn’t simply an opinion of geitner or krugman.

            plenty of others have opposite opinions.

            furthermore, even if they had been deregulated, the banking system was still probably the most regulated industry in the us.

            what regulation would you propose, and how would it work?

          • r0b 5.2.1.2.2

            what regulation would you propose, and how would it work?

            Who me? I don’t do finance / economics, not my thing at all. But as described by Warren in the video clip I linked to above there were three main regulatory systems that kept everything in check for decades (before they were “picked apart”). My guess is that it would be sensible to put them back in place again. Paraphrasing the transcript:

            FDIC Insurance — it’s safe to put your money in banks.

            Glass-Steagall [Act of 1933] — banks won’t do crazy things

            SEC regulations.

  6. Stephen 6

    Making home ownership a political issue that requires massive amounts of government intervention doesn’t sound like it’s entirely blameless for this fiasco either. Somewhat ironically part of this intervention seemed to have involved intervention to relax standards of lending that banks were held to…

    • r0b 6.1

      “Part of” perhaps – it looks like a complicated issue. As the article you link to describes it, the government pushing for more people into housing is something that has happened several times, ending badly. But it has never ended in a global economic crash before. What happened this time required the multiplier effect of the financial “products” built around these bad loans (and leveraged to insane levels).

      Also, while government intervention might have pushed for more home ownership, the lenders certainly seem to have got carried away. The term predatory lending was coined to describe the worst practices, and there were cogent warnings about it at least as early as 2005.

  7. gingercrush 7

    There is a rather good interview with Robert Wade on Iceland’s meltdown by Kim Hill on National Radio.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/podcasts/saturday.rss

  8. Stephen 8

    Agree with you r0b (not that i’m overly familiar with this stuff, but that article helped). Far too many people eager to blame only ONE factor in this crisis, really not the way to go.

    I will surely have a listen to that thanks gingercrush.

  9. Quoth the Raven 9

    I think the points being made in Rave, Bill and peteremcc’s comments are good ones. The poster is believing the neo-liberals own propaganda. The neo-liberals agressively used the state for the interests of the rich. It wasn’t about getting the state out of the market.
    What must be remembered about the New Deal is that many of the regulations brought in were actively lobbyied for by big business itself for the purpose of limiting competition from smaller competitors and strengthening their power.
    This is a good critical article here on labour regulations brought in during the new deal: Free The Unions (and all political prisoners).
    Another good article is this one: Goo-Goo Historical Mythology

    It’s all very complex but to think that neo-liberals are rabidly free market and the New Deal was brought in to save us from the excesses of the free market is an absurd misreading of history and bears little resemblance to reality.

  10. I would love to know what sort of system you want us in NZ to adopt. Honestly! What economic and social system do you prefer if capitalism isn’t your choice?

    • r0b 10.2

      I’m pretty middle of the road. I’ll settle for constrained capitalism. Capitalism where:
      (1) we acknowledge that the environment has to come first, “growth” is not the only goal,
      (2) there is a strong and fair social welfare system and a commitment to a realistic (not huge) gap between the richest and the poorest members of society,
      (3) there are sensible regulations to constrain capitalist practices, such as the banking regulations (that America abandoned), fair and decent labour law, law to preserve media diversity, regulation of overseas ownership etc,
      (4) a state funded political process that bans all private money in the political system.

      I’m aware that plenty of others on this blog would have more radical views, but I think you have to work within the constraints of (sadly) greed motivated human nature. So, capitalism, but regulated to prevent its instability and its damaging effects.

      • Bill 10.2.1

        “you have to work within the constraints of (sadly) greed motivated human nature”

        Why?

        Why not promote and work within the constraints of other, more desirable, aspects of human nature?

        Why, instead of supporting and perpetuating a system that rewards greed, avarice etc, not give thought, time and energy towards the development of systems that reward according to other criteria ( better expressions of human nature), such as effort and sacrifice?

        Transformation of society won’t happen overnight ( neither did Capitalism suddenly ‘appear’), but that’s no reason not to seek out and support initiatives or ideas that move in that direction.

        Or I guess you could reject all that and embrace the explicit fatalism contained in your assertion that we have to work within the constraints of greed.

        But why do that or accept that as a ‘be all and end all’?

        .

        • r0b 10.2.1.1

          Why not promote and work within the constraints of other, more desirable, aspects of human nature?

          First let me ask if you agree with the premise that most human beings are motivated most of the time in most of their thinking and action by concern for their individual (or near family) welfare. Motivated to “get ahead” and “acquire stuff” and so on.

          In short, humans are mostly motivated by self / family interest. True or false?

          If true, do you think this aspect of human nature can be easily changed?

          • Bill 10.2.1.1.1

            The welfare of an individual is not necessarily well served by individualism and/or consumerism …’getting ahead’ (succeeding or finding meaning by Capitalist measures of success and meaning)… and/or ‘acquiring stuff’.

            Effective self/ family interest is not solely served by ( and is arguably not best served by) the options available under Capitalism.

            Capitalism limits the options available to us to serve our own and our family/communities best interest. We have to ‘play the game’ as it were, and that game’s rules are that less desirable human traits are rewarded and more desirable traits are either not rewarded or attract disadvantage ( Good guys come last)

            No need to change human nature. Simply change the game…the system that guides our behaviours; that rewards some of the less palatable aspects of human nature.

          • r0b 10.2.1.1.2

            Ho Bill, not sure this conversation will survive the transition to the new week. So quickly…

            It was a bit glib of me above to call it “greed motivated human nature”. I think that in general people do act mostly out of self interest (at its worst and often greed, but of course not always).

            You want to “change the game” to promote other aspects of human nature to organise society. I’m not sure that can be done, at least in the short term. Certainly the examples that I can think of that have tried have all failed (maybe minor exceptions).

            I think we have to work with human nature, and have a system that accommodates its basic drives. I think capitalism – constrained capitalism as I’ve described it above, does have lots to recommend it. Room for individuals to do their thing, room for a strong society that takes care of all (and the environment).

            I doubt if we’d reach agreement on this, but in the short term it doesn’t matter because in either case our aims are the same. Oppose this terrible, arrogant, misguided government and work for the parties that represent the left of NZ politics. Onwards!

          • Draco T Bastard 10.2.1.1.3

            The majority of people aren’t motivated by greed. Those people who are motivated by greed tend to be sociopaths (yes, I’ve actually read the research papers that support this but it was some time ago and I can’t remember where or who by).

            Capitalism itself is a failed system as it uses poverty as it’s sole motivator – work to make someone else rich or starve (That’s why the right gets upset about the unemployment benefit). I see no reason why we would want to perpetuate a failed system such as capitalism.

            So, we need a system that ensures that no one lives in poverty, motivates the majority of people, makes sure that people are well rewarded for their efforts and yet prevents the creation of capitalists. It also needs to exist within the limits of the natural ecosystem which presently aren’t known but it is known that we’ve exceeded them.

            From my reading the system that comes closest is high-tech, green, and communist/anarchist.

      • Quoth the Raven 10.2.2

        It’s important to know who makes these regulations. It’s usually big business for the interests of big business.
        If anyone is expecting “sensible regulations” to come from the Obama administration they’re sorely mistaken. Read Of, By, and For the Elite

        • Quoth the Raven 10.2.2.1

          I’ll add that it is as Kevin Carson said in an article that’s related to this post: “The only way to prevent centralized machinery from being taken over by a ruling class is not to have centralized machinery.”

  11. RedLogix 11

    Clint,

    That’s a perfectly fair question, but it’s putting the cart before the horse.

    What do you want the ‘system’ to do?

  12. serpico 12

    What about the “system” ?
    New Zealand seems be one big systematic failure.
    Dangerous country that needs a big clean up.

  13. jarbury 13

    This article is a hilarious read: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5301078/Barack-Obamas-rich-supporters-fear-his-tax-plans-show-hes-a-class-warrior.html

    All the right-wingers in the USA getting grumpy that Obama is actually going to do what he said he was going to do.

    The anguish that tax-haven loopholes are going to be closed down!

    The president’s plans are direct repudiation of the model of light touch regulation credited with creating economic growth and wealth in America in recent decades.

    LOL….. yeah the rich have got richer.

    • r0b 13.1

      My what a surprise, it’s the same in England where taxes on the rich have just been increased:

      It’s more than a week since Alistair Darling’s budget, but the howls of protest haven’t stopped for a day ever since. That’s not been the public sector employees facing a harsh squeeze on jobs and pay who’ve been squealing, or the million workers expected to join the dole queues in the next year, or even the majority or people who will have to stump up another half per cent of national insurance contributions every month. No, the outrage has come from the richest 2% of taxpayers who are going to have to part with 50% of earnings over £150,000 – and personal allowances over £100,000 – and later stand to lose top-rate tax relief on pension contributions.

      Never mind that the wealthiest taxpayers will still be contributing to the public purse at a 10% lower rate than for nine of Margaret Thatcher’s 11 years in office, or that six of the richest OECD countries have higher rates. From the Mail to the Financial Times, a crusade has been joined against the new 50p tax. This is nothing but a “fiscal lynching”, it’s claimed, a “spiteful” display of the “age of envy”, and a disastrous outbreak of “class war”.

      The petulant cries of outrage sound tediously familiar don’t they. But there we have it, England and America moving in the right direction. It certainly highlights just how foolish John Key is to have done the exact opposite with his tax cuts targeted to the rich.

  14. inpassing 14

    Rave’s penultimate chapter contains a kernel of practical truth.. well said that man!

    Today.. and in passing you understand we have received another truth from the Australian economist, academic and community leader, John Quiggin, which Mr. Heine may care to take onboard lest his apparent confidence is found wanting in practice.. yet again. Nay, there is nought wrong with capitalism a la Novak – a idea (birthed in human brains) – it is the implementation that is found so very often wanting..

    To JQ.. with my emphases added..

    To sum up, although the Austrian School was at the forefront of business cycle theory in the 1920s, it hasn’t developed in any positive way since then. The central idea of the credit cycle is an important one, particularly as it applies to the business cycle in the presence of a largely unregulated financial system. But the Austrians balked at the interventionist implications of their own position, and failed to engage seriously with Keynesian ideas.

    The result (like orthodox Marxism) is a research program that was active and progressive a century or so ago but has now become an ossified dogma. Like all such dogmatic orthodoxies, it provides believers with the illusion of a complete explanation but ceases to respond in a progressive way to empirical violations of its predictions or to theoretical objections.

    Sums up personalities accurately, does it not, and their inability to let go.. of a loser.. and has me wondering how the folks here would go with that parallel to orthodox Marxism.

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    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    4 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    5 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    5 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Echoes of 1968 in 2024?  Pocock on the repetitive problems of the New Left
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Two bar blues
    The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 13
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • AT Need To Lift Their Game
    Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
    6 days ago
  • Christopher's Whopper.
    Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago

  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    20 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level.   “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
    Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Fresh produce price drop welcome
    Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024.  “Lower fruit and vege ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government backs rural led catchment projects
    The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber
    Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction.   Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
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  • Commission’s advice on ETS settings tabled
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