Author Archive
Interest rates and banks
Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, March 16th, 2016 - 185 comments
Yesterday Andrew Little criticised the banks’ failure to pass on the cut in Official Cash Rate (OCR) to we the people via mortgage / interest rate cuts. Naturally the political right went ballistic.
Labour considering Unconditional Basic Income
Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, March 14th, 2016 - 361 comments
As with capital gains tax, the political left is kicking off a very important discussion for NZ.
Go, technology, inequality, the future of work
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, March 13th, 2016 - 42 comments
Miscellaneous Sunday morning meanderings on technology, inequality and the future of work.
Quantitative easing for the masses
Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, March 13th, 2016 - 136 comments
It seems that “serious economists” are discussing something called “helicopter money”. Would it fly in NZ?
Norman on the economy
Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, March 12th, 2016 - 58 comments
Russel Norman was right in 2014 when he said that the Nats were daft to gamble on oil and bulk milk production, and he’s right again now to draw attention to the failures. We need a green economy!
Economic anger and political madness
Written By: - Date published: 7:28 am, March 11th, 2016 - 66 comments
History clearly shows us that when people are economically stressed they turn to extreme action and extreme leaders. Economist Jared Bernstein argues that the Trump ascendancy is another example of this.
Intergenerational theft
Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, March 10th, 2016 - 86 comments
The Guardian has an excellent piece on “the 30-year economic betrayal dragging down Generation Y’s income”.
Health Ministry lost the plot and heads should roll
Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, March 9th, 2016 - 23 comments
The Health Ministry committed to spending $18m that they didn’t have on upgrading their own offices, and tried to claw the money back from the underfunded DHBs trying to deliver health care to NZ. And that seems to be just fine with Minister Coleman.
Todd Barclay imploding in Clutha-Southland
Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, March 8th, 2016 - 170 comments
High profile electorate resignations, a Parliamentary Services investigation, talk of a selection challenge – Todd Barclay has made a real mess of the gift of Clutha-Southland. What a surprise.
Routine incompetence
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, March 8th, 2016 - 46 comments
Is this the least competent NZ government ever?
The All Powerful Labour Party
Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, March 7th, 2016 - 66 comments
Apparently the Labour Party is so all powerful and persuasive that roughly 2/3 of the electorate is under its spell. That bodes well for the next election!
Medical cannabis review
Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, March 6th, 2016 - 31 comments
With Martin Crowe’s sad death we now learn that he too was self-medicating with liquid cannabis. The time for political timidity is past – make cannabis legally available for medical purposes.
Jeanette Fitzsimons calls to scrap the emissions trading scheme
Written By: - Date published: 8:12 am, March 5th, 2016 - 13 comments
When National took over in 2008 they gutted the Emissions Trading Scheme, and now we’re at the point where it is used to launder essentially fraudulent carbon credits. Jeanette Fitzsimons has reached the obvious conclusion.
On the flag debacle and John Key’s supposed popularity
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, March 3rd, 2016 - 108 comments
Key is running from the flag debacle, further evidence that “preferred PM” and “popular” are not the same thing.
Supercity IT cost blowout
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, March 2nd, 2016 - 70 comments
The real costs of the Auckland IT merger are at least six times higher than National’s original $200 million estimate. This significantly alters the economic case that was made for the “supercity”. Was National’s estimate deliberately wrong, or was it just incompetent?
Key Derangement Syndrome
Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, March 1st, 2016 - 232 comments
A term made up by the usual suspects to mock and belittle any criticism of their primary asset.
The minimum wage is not a living wage
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, March 1st, 2016 - 110 comments
Credit where it’s due for an increase in the minimum wage – but the gap between that and a living wage keeps growing…
Key’s sham “consultation” an insult to Māori
Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, February 11th, 2016 - 17 comments
Last week 95bFM tweeted some audio from a Key media session, which shows his “consultation” with Māori over the TPP to be a condescending sham.
National the party of economic lunacy
Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, February 10th, 2016 - 166 comments
A “$17 billion hole in the economy”. An estimated $18 billion lost because National stopped investing in the super fund. A record national debt. And we’re still talking about tax cuts? Lunacy!
The TPPA could blight public education
Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, February 9th, 2016 - 178 comments
The TPPA could bring us charter schools on steroids, and threaten policies like free tertiary education. In general its a way of locking in a permanent, international right-wing governance which can limit and constrain the kind of social policies that any future NZ left-wing government might want to enact.
TPPA snippets and media coverage
Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, February 7th, 2016 - 24 comments
Snippets from recent pieces on the TPP, including The Spinoff’s José Barbosa an his take on the media coverage of the Auckland protest.
Jobs and wages
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, February 6th, 2016 - 54 comments
Boring stuff about boring old jobs and wages.
20,000 protesters – 0 arrests
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, February 5th, 2016 - 230 comments
Despite the travesty inside SkyCity, what was happening outside was in many respects a democratic nation at its finest.
UN experts issue warning on TPP
Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, February 4th, 2016 - 29 comments
When the UN is issuing warnings on the TPP, don’t you think it would be wise to listen?
Key’s second waitress bungle
Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, February 3rd, 2016 - 78 comments
Key’s badly dented “political antennae” took another solid beating yesterday, with his second high-profile bungle involving a waitress.
Candidate flag not fit for purpose
Written By: - Date published: 9:28 pm, February 2nd, 2016 - 34 comments
Apart from being a symbolic fail of epic proportions, the “wrong colour flag” fiasco highlights the fact that the candidate flag isn’t even fit for purpose…
Garner’s TPP rant rejected by the silent majority
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, February 2nd, 2016 - 81 comments
Praise for Labour’s tertiary bombshell
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, February 2nd, 2016 - 31 comments
Although there have been predictable howls of outrage from the usual suspects, the media reaction to Labour’s bold tertiary education policy has been generally great.
Newshub (and another flag poll)
Written By: - Date published: 2:32 pm, February 1st, 2016 - 6 comments
3 News is dead, replaced by Newshub. That’s News Hub, not New Shub. Though New Shub would be funnier.
Another policy to be proud of
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, February 1st, 2016 - 284 comments
Labour has rolled out another big bold policy that will shape the national discussion for years. Critics, most of whom received a free tertiary education themselves back in the day, want to deny a younger generation the same right (and pocket a tax cut instead). Enter Steven Joyce…
Postcards from the brighter future
Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, January 31st, 2016 - 18 comments
Part of an occasional series.
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