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In praise of Michael Hudson

Written By: - Date published: 3:32 pm, November 3rd, 2022 - 39 comments

82-year old polymath Michael Hudson is my favourite economist. He currently lectures in China to million-strong audiences. His latest book is The Destiny of Civilisation: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism or Socialism. His latest article is well worth a read.

Who Pays the Price of Sanctions

Written By: - Date published: 4:32 pm, March 20th, 2022 - 194 comments

New Zealand’s sanctions on Russia have not stopped the war in Ukraine. They may have made our parliamentarians feel better, and Tony Blinken was quick to congratulate us on falling into line with the US “high-impact sanctions.” The language is combative, but the evidence shows sanctions do not  work. They can have significant blow-back effects, particularly if not combined with effective diplomacy.

The 2022 Economic Boom

Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, December 12th, 2021 - 23 comments

New Zealand is seeing a strong, business-led recovery.  But what will we do with this success?

Kim Hill asked “Why…

Written By: - Date published: 4:51 pm, June 12th, 2020 - 31 comments

…is the US sharemarket roaring away – up 44% – while economic recovery prospects are grim?” ANZ’s Sharon Zollner’s answer on Tuesday was the Fed printing money, but worried markets were turning a  blind eye to the bad news. The bad news hit today as the sharemarket nose-dived. Wolf Richter’s answer was more to Kim’s point: “Fed bails out the wealthy while America convulses in pain.”

What we were doing wasn’t working.

Written By: - Date published: 6:32 am, April 15th, 2020 - 112 comments

After the lockdown, it is tempting to try and go back to what we had before. To the familiar and comfortable, especially for us that were comfortable. Forgetting that for so many, things were anything but, comfortable. That won’t be happening. “Before” no longer exists.

The Reserve Bank Reform Bill

Written By: - Date published: 7:23 am, December 7th, 2018 - 11 comments

The Government is planning changes to the Reserve Bank Act to require it to seek full employment. Maybe it is time for a dramatic change to its powers so that it has the regulatory powers to properly deal with the Australian banks.

Bludger Bridges

Written By: - Date published: 6:56 pm, August 13th, 2018 - 63 comments

Simon Bridges has blown over $100k of your money in just three months, tiki touring around the country at the taxpayers expense. Nice work if you can get it!

Update: A Shark Jumps Matthew Hooton. Live on Twitter!

Scrap the spending cap

Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, July 23rd, 2018 - 152 comments

Economist Ganesh Nana and Alan Johnson from the Salvation Army have urged the Government to relax the fiscal straight jacket imposed by its budget responsibility rules.

Fudget for Austerity

Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, May 19th, 2018 - 71 comments

Some proposals on why we just got the budget we did.

Global Sharemarkets

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, February 15th, 2018 - 63 comments

Recent volatility in the U.S. stockmarkets has attracted calls that capitalism is facing a crisis.  But the reality appears to be different.

Donkey Dick Duncan

Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, October 9th, 2017 - 318 comments

Gross political incompetence, not immigration, is what lies behind and beneath New Zealand’s infra-structure problems. Only a excited donkey’s dick waving in a stiff breeze might point accusingly towards immigrants and immigration as the problem.

Excitement mounting for Part 2 of Audrey Young’s analysis of Parties financial promises

Written By: - Date published: 5:03 pm, September 6th, 2017 - 20 comments

After the first in her series of articles inviting a bank economist to analyse and comment upon Labour’s spending promises, tomorrow she turns to the second in the series with a close analysis of National’s promises.

Economics is still lost

Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, September 20th, 2016 - 54 comments

Paul Romer is an economist highly respected by his peers, and about to become the Chief Economist at the World Bank. He’s also just published a paper rubbishing the last 3 decades of macroeconomics.

Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times is challenging fractional reserve banking. It’s certainly time for some new ideas.

Fortress NZ

Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, September 16th, 2016 - 120 comments

TS regular Tony Veitch has some practical ideas as to how we insulate NZ from the ravages of neoliberalism and climate change. Readers may agree with some, none or all of the suggestions. However, whichever way you look at it, the time for hand wringing is over. It’s time for action.

‘Living Rent’ and other UK stories

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, September 8th, 2016 - 4 comments

A Tory think tank proposes a massive house-building plan, with a ‘Living Rent’ to make it affordable; and Nick Clegg lifts the lid on the Tories in the last government.

Reserve bank cuts OCR to record low

Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, August 11th, 2016 - 28 comments

The Reserve Bank just cut the OCR to a historic low of 2%. And no it’s not good (economic) news.

The great slowdown

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, August 11th, 2016 - 69 comments

Eight years after the Global Financial Crisis the major western economies are stagnant.  Is this the new norm?

Stalled global economy and helicopter money

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, April 20th, 2016 - 21 comments

The global economy has been stuck in an ongoing crisis since 2008. Printing more money won’t fix it, but it looks like we’re going to try it anyway.

Global elite plan their escape from “pleb masses”

Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, March 29th, 2016 - 35 comments

So, Key has now come out and revealed to us how afraid the global oligarch class (and their well paid professional enablers) are. They appear to have no plans to reverse their activites to make things better for us.

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?

The great big list of John Key’s big fat lies (UPDATED)

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, January 27th, 2016 - 79 comments

How many more lies will John Key tell today in his so-called State of the Nation address? Virtual chocolate fish to whomever guesses the closest number.

Royal Bank of Scotland to investors: “Sell everything”

Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, January 13th, 2016 - 154 comments

The Bank of Scotland has advised advised its clients to brace for a “cataclysmic year” and a global deflationary crisis.

250 to 300 Job Losses at Unitec in Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, August 8th, 2015 - 84 comments

Under Unitec’s new vision students will be known as Customers. Student services will be outsourced (overseas)

Aspiration statement
To be a world leader in contemporary applied learning and an agent of positive economic and social change
.

The myth of “Retirement Savings”

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, June 9th, 2015 - 101 comments

Advocates of Kiwisaver and other funded “retirement savings” schemes perpetuate the fundamental misunderstanding that “conventional” in New Zealand’s case “neo-liberal” economists, speculators, finance companies, politicians and those with a lot of share holding wealth in non-productive enterprises like to perpetuate.

Discussion starter for the day…

Written By: - Date published: 7:49 pm, March 10th, 2015 - 116 comments

I’d love to share these two posts with you and pick your brains on what you think!

NZ Banks are very worried…

Written By: - Date published: 5:59 am, February 25th, 2015 - 76 comments

New Zealand banks (which are really Australian banks) are REALLY worried for us (oh, and for themselves).

A calculated feeding of the beasts within

Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, February 5th, 2015 - 76 comments

The social democracy of my youth has radically collapsed into our current culture of individualism, privatisation and personal greed.

Solving the Housing Crisis – Facts or Ideology?

Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, January 26th, 2015 - 63 comments

The scale of the housing affordability crisis, particularly in Auckland, is now unmistakable. Not only do individual families suffer as home ownership increasingly moves beyond their reach, but the impact on social cohesion and on the fair distribution of resources is becoming more and more damaging. The rising cost of buying a house is without […]

Fred Dagg – User’s Guide to NZ

Written By: - Date published: 10:07 pm, December 4th, 2014 - 35 comments

I miss Fred Dagg – John Clarke’s latest is a purler. “New Zealand … is an egalitarian nation made up of well over four million rugged individualists and naturally gifted sportspeople and is run on alternate days by the government and whoever bought the national infrastructure.” Read, laugh and weep – he might be gone but we’re not forgotten, and thank God for that.

Democracy, Money and Power

Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, November 27th, 2014 - 6 comments

The stage was long ago reached where members of the US Government were told they should “wear their sponsors logo’s on their shirts”.

Campbell & Gould on neoliberalism

Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, November 4th, 2014 - 49 comments

Yesterday’s Werewolf contained a fascinating discussion between Gordon Campbell and Bryan Gould on neoliberalism and the economy. It should be required reading for Labour leadership contenders!