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Many a true word

Written By: - Date published: 1:12 pm, July 25th, 2011 - 18 comments

Bill Maher on taxes, the deficit, and why 49% of Americans are voting away their future.

Teetering on the brink

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, July 23rd, 2011 - 84 comments

Over the last couple of months two potential crises have been unfolding in two very different countries. Greece and America both looked to be in danger of defaulting on their huge debts and triggering a cascade of disastrous consequences.  The situation is still unfolding…

The problem is not in the schools

Written By: - Date published: 7:29 am, July 20th, 2011 - 90 comments

According to a recent report, disadvantaged NZ youth are at the “bottom of OECD league”.  The report recommends various interventions in schools.  The recommendations completely miss the point, because the problem is not in the schools, the problem is in society.

Inflation, growth, hard times

Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, July 19th, 2011 - 30 comments

Back in October 2010 the Nats were quick to claim credit for low inflation.  No doubt they will be just as quick now to accept the blame for inflation at a 21 year high.

Owning the agenda

Written By: - Date published: 6:03 am, July 7th, 2011 - 153 comments

Labour have started setting out a bold, fair and plausible policy framework for the election.  Rumours of their tax policy  have generated more interest and excitement than anything the National government has done in the last three wasted years.

More with less – or else (UK style)

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, July 6th, 2011 - 59 comments

A conservative council in the UK sacked it’s entire workforce and offered them their jobs again the next day if they accepted a 5.4% pay cut. This is direct fallout from the Global Financial Crisis of course – that monumental greed-made disaster caused by bankers and financial institutions and the bail out of which costs […]

Ever wondered..?

Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, July 6th, 2011 - 10 comments

What keeps John Key & Bill English too busy to comment on their own government’s dismal performance, but not so busy that they can’t comment on absolutely anything to do with Labour?

No future in NZ?

Written By: - Date published: 7:14 am, June 28th, 2011 - 205 comments

John Key was elected promising to stop the exodus to Australia. He has failed.  More and more Kiwis, especially the young, are leaving.  And is it any wonder?

Mother Nature’s cruel blow?

Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, June 25th, 2011 - 18 comments

The snows haven’t come and the ski industry is in trouble.  Is it a “cruel blow” from mother nature?

Squeezing the life out of the economy

Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, June 20th, 2011 - 41 comments

Are we “roaring out of recession”?  No.  Is there an “aggressive recovery”?  No.  What’s going wrong?  The problem is that the Nats are squeezing the life out of the economy.

Crisis explained

Written By: - Date published: 3:49 pm, June 18th, 2011 - 28 comments

John Clarke and Bryan Dawe calculate the cost of the European debt crisis…

Drifting

Written By: - Date published: 7:49 am, June 10th, 2011 - 27 comments

The Nats haven’t got a clue how to run a successful country, and most of the things they do try just make matters worse.  We’re drifting…

Better economic info

Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, June 3rd, 2011 - 7 comments

The CTU’s Economic Bulletin: The 2011 Budget was a victory of story-line over needs… The Budget has no plan to put right New Zealand’s social and economic imbalances, and does little to start cutting back the overseas private debt… The Budget of a thousand cuts put debt and deficits ahead of people’s needs and a plan for the future.

Rearranging the deck chairs

Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, June 1st, 2011 - 41 comments

Renaming, merging and splitting agencies is what a government does when it wants to look busy but has no ideas.

Hard to believe it has only taken two and a half years for National to get to this point.

Campbell on welfare reforms

Written By: - Date published: 2:54 pm, May 31st, 2011 - 61 comments

Good old fashioned benefit bashing.  Another electoral battle line has been drawn – arm yourself with the facts!

The great debt myth

Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, May 31st, 2011 - 55 comments

This government’s got a real talent for manufacturing crisis to suit them.  The debt disaster is a classic – in order to get out of debt we have to cut public spending to the tune of almost $1billion and sell assets.

“Mum and Dad investors”

Written By: - Date published: 2:41 pm, May 28th, 2011 - 23 comments

No Right Turn on National’s spin about “Mum and Dad investors”.

Genuine progress

Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, May 27th, 2011 - 14 comments

This story didn’t get any big headlines. This story slipped by almost completely under the radar.  But it’s a very important story. Much more important for New Zealand’s development than the smoke and mirrors of the do-nothing budget.

Who has the ideas?

Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, May 26th, 2011 - 62 comments

Last week we had National’s budget and Labour’s conference.  A chance for both parties to set out their ideas for the future.  National’s do-nothing budget went down like a lead balloon, while Labour started setting out promising new policy.  Looks like the 2011 election campaign will  be a contest between ideas and schoolboy mockery.

Choosing to be poor

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, May 24th, 2011 - 24 comments

Prominent  scientist Sir Paul Callaghan thinks Kiwis are choosing to be poor.  I reckon he’s right too, but we probably disagree about the reasons.

Lunatic prophecies

Written By: - Date published: 2:32 pm, May 23rd, 2011 - 10 comments

Cartoonist Guy Body in The Herald, with one of those pictures that is worth a thousand words…

Armstrong on the budget

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, May 22nd, 2011 - 13 comments

John Armstrong is highly critical of the sub-zero budget: “The Budget has displayed a degree of cynicism one would expect from a Government in its third term, not its first”…

Stop me if you’ve already heard this one

Written By: - Date published: 8:26 am, May 21st, 2011 - 12 comments

As I think you can tell from the budget speech, that Bill English is quite a funny guy…

Pre-budget roundup

Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, May 19th, 2011 - 25 comments

So, today is Budget day.  The big stuff has all been pretty well signposted, tinkering with KiwiSaver, Working for Families, and student loan eligibility.  The devil will be in the details of all the cuts that get made to try and limit the damage in health and education.

Green budget ideas

Written By: - Date published: 6:21 am, May 18th, 2011 - 15 comments

It has been great to see Labour’s statements on how they would approach Budget 2011.  But, as is often the case at this stage of the electoral cycle, it is the Greens who are laying out their alternative budget ideas in the most detail.

Budget castles in the air

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, May 17th, 2011 - 24 comments

Apparently the budget will forecast strong growth in GDP and wages, and a return to surplus within a few years.  Sounds good?  Well yes, but it is all based on purely hypothetical “projected growth”.  Wishful thinking from Treasury analysts with a three year record of being wrong wrong wrong.

There Is An Alternative

Written By: - Date published: 7:18 am, May 16th, 2011 - 66 comments

The run up to the budget has all been about cuts.  How many?  How deep?  Like lemmings we’re accepting National’s framing, and marching even faster to our economic doom.  But, there is an alternative. Instead of slashing spending, we can raise government income. Here’s how.

The “big issues”

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, May 12th, 2011 - 77 comments

John Key is whinging about how labour isn’t focusing on the “big issues”

But he and his government have been avoiding the big issues for years.

That’s not surprising given how badly they do on these big issues. But it’s still pitiful to see them whinging about it.

Cunliffe addresses Key lies

Written By: - Date published: 4:53 pm, May 11th, 2011 - 56 comments

Key’s pre-budget speech was hugely uninspiring and mis-leading.

Cunliffe rips his claims apart.

Expansionary austerity – fail

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, April 21st, 2011 - 32 comments

Expansionary austerity is the idea that cutbacks in government spending can stimulate economic growth.  Empirical evidence shows that it doesn’t work.  Current experience shows that  it’s not working in Britain, and it isn’t working here.  Like “trickle down economics” this favourite of the political Right is not so much a theory as a deluded fantasy.

Can’t help won’t help

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, April 20th, 2011 - 108 comments

John Key says that the government can’t help Kiwis who are struggling with rapidly rising costs.  Rubbish.  There’s plenty that they could be doing.  If they wanted to…