economy

Holmes truths on useless Nats

Written By: r0b - Date published: 11:54 am, August 11th, 2010 - 38 comments

In his own surreal and ultra-privileged way Paul Holmes has discovered the recession. And it seems to have shaken him up a bit. Paul cuts loose with some Holmes truths about the useless Nat government. But in claiming that there is no alternative Holmes reveals nothing but his own lack of vision…

Rethinking Growth

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 7:31 am, August 8th, 2010 - 82 comments

For the last several decades the over-riding mantra across western governments has been that what is important above all else is economic growth. Now is the time to question whether it should still be our main aim and guiding light.

Urgent safety upgrades needed, not a holiday highway

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:00 am, July 8th, 2010 - 4 comments

Auckland Transport Blog saying the bleeding obvious about the aggrandizement project that appears to be Steven Joyce’s grand vision for the future of transport in Auckland. If he was concentrating on reducing the road toll on this stretch of road, there are simpler and cheaper ways than wasting taxpayers money.

The ETS is a price signal

Written By: r0b - Date published: 9:15 am, June 25th, 2010 - 44 comments

The point of an ETS isn’t to just blindly pay more, it is to change our behaviour so that we don’t have to. National don’t get it, so they have brought us the worst of all possible ETS schemes. Badly designed and devoid of vision. An ETS with all of the costs and none of the benefits.

Nats preparing to sell assets, despite promises

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 4:18 pm, May 21st, 2010 - 109 comments

In 2008, Bill English was sprung secretly telling National members that he and Key would sell Kiwibank “‘eventually but not now”. After being caught out, English and Key categorically ruled out asset sales in the first term of a National government and said they would seek a mandate to make any sales in a second term.

More Muldoonism

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:05 am, April 29th, 2010 - 15 comments

The government announced a package of measures for the aquaculture industry – including a power for Ministers “to amend regional coastal plans in exceptional circumstances where it is in significant regional or national interest”. The Minister can unilaterally decide what is in a region’s interests, irrespective of what the people of that region may say to the contrary.

This continues this authoritarian government’s assaults on voters ability to choose the own representation.

Kiwis report future less bright under National

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:01 pm, April 6th, 2010 - 58 comments

In 2008, John Key was promising us a brighter future. 18 months on, we’re in that future he was talking about and Kiwis are reporting their lives are worse than they were before he came to power. 83% of Kiwis surveyed by ShapeNZ rated their quality of life as ‘good’ or better, down from 89% in 2008 and 92% in 2007. Key has a responsibility to live up to his promises

NZ Fabian Society lectures

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 5:03 pm, March 6th, 2010 - 15 comments

This looks to be a fascinating set of lectures. I’ll be going – will you?

Economic orthodoxy continues to fail New Zealand. This failure is systemic, not cyclical. Despite this, prevailing political and economic orthodoxy has become almost immune from scrutiny. It seems that policymakers have yet to comprehend that the status quo will inevitably lead to economic collapse.

Nats in line for big $$ from own tax reforms

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:23 am, January 27th, 2010 - 31 comments

Fran O’Sullivan has a piece pointing out the vested interests of senior Nats regarding tax reform: “More than two-thirds of the National line-up have beneficial interests in trusts (entities that the Inland Revenue believes are responsible for a $300 million hole in tax revenues at the current 33 per cent tax rate).” – National wants to […]

Double-dip recession on the horizon?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:33 am, January 27th, 2010 - 14 comments

Leading US economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman sees a 30-40% chance of the US re-rentering recession this year, and the conditions that would cause that would almost certianly be replicated in other countries, including New Zealand, with the same result. More evidence that a second wave of recession may be on its way came […]

Farrar tries to cover for do nothing govt, and fails

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 5:38 pm, January 16th, 2010 - 70 comments

Phil Goff has picked up on the point I made yesterday: while unemployment is falling in Australia due to the $42 billion stimulus package implemented by the Rudd Government, in New Zealand unemployment is still rising while this do nothing government sits on its arse, and unemployment here is now higher than in Aussie for […]

A fair pay-rise not unreasonable

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:23 am, December 28th, 2009 - 10 comments

An interesting piece on the SST yesterday: English has warned public servants such as teachers and nurses not to expect pay increases that are “out of line with realistic expectations”. “I think we will see quite a few sparks fly,” O’Reilly said. “Government departments are being told how much they can spend so you’re going […]

Economic illiteracy

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 4:21 pm, December 16th, 2009 - 7 comments

More economic illiteracy from our old friend: Certainly given the rhetoric from the finance minister of late I’d thought the numbers would be worse than the Budget, not better. Um, everyone knew they would be better. We’ve known for months. The recession was over earlier than expected and that improves all the numbers. what was […]

Neolibs’ great experiment in meltdown

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:45 pm, December 15th, 2009 - 41 comments

With huge infusions of EU cash and deregulation that brought in foreign companies looking to make a quick buck, Ireland’s economy grew pretty quickly over the past 25 years. On the back of their new-found wealth, Irish governments implemented a neoliberal revolution – cutting taxes for the rich, privatising public assets, the usual formula for […]

In a land of plenty

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:34 am, December 5th, 2009 - Comments Off on In a land of plenty

Alister Barry’s other classic documentary on the effects of the Right’s neoliberal revolution on every day New Zealanders, In a Land of Plenty, is also now online thanks to NZ On Screen. Check it out below: