Economy

Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour

Categories under Economy

The Goldilocks budget

Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, May 20th, 2022 - 24 comments

How was the 2022 budget?  Was it the worst since Ruth Richardson’s mother of all budgets or the best since the first Labour Government gave everyone a Christmas bonus in 1935?

The politics of high inflation – can governments do anything?

Written By: - Date published: 10:46 am, May 19th, 2022 - 13 comments

It is clear that we will continue to face these economic challenges with tools that are ill-equipped to face the problems. Only a truly international response can create an economy that delivers for all.

Budget Day: there are real alternatives

Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, May 19th, 2022 - 9 comments

Budget Day, where our centre left neoliberal government straddles the line between compassion and BAU. Given the pressures of climate, the pandemic and global instability, what are the real alternatives?

Budget Day!

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, May 19th, 2022 - 50 comments

Today is budget day.  What surprises will Grant Robertson announce to address the country’s many and varied problems.  Will Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis be able to sound like they actually understand what is in the budget?  Stay tuned for 2 pm …

Has Business NZ been telling porkies?

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, May 17th, 2022 - 18 comments

Business NZ has claimed that the proposed Fair Play legislation breaches International Labour Law and that the International Labour Organisation agrees with it. But its claims appear to be on the wrong side of what we could politely describe as the truth.

Shane Jones’ weird premature budget take

Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, May 14th, 2022 - 11 comments

Former Labour MP Shane Jones has criticised the 2021 budget even though he has no idea what is going to be in it.

Kia kaha Kelvin Davis

Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, May 12th, 2022 - 27 comments

Kelvin Davis gave an outstanding speech in Parliament yesterday where he ridiculed opposition for proposals that if passed would enhance inequality.

Act’s scorched earth proposal

Written By: - Date published: 12:29 pm, May 11th, 2022 - 41 comments

Act has publicly released its proposal to decimate the state should it have a say in the next Government.  Its Real Change Alternative Budget may be wet dream inducing for Ayn Rand acolytes but for the rest of us the proposals should instill a deep sense of dread.

So What Happens To Russia?

Written By: - Date published: 11:39 am, May 9th, 2022 - 57 comments

The commercial parts of Russia’s state will do very well with plenty of customers remaining for its oil and gas. It’s $3-$4 a litre 91 everyone. Everything else in Russia is ruined.

What Can Be Saved?

Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, April 29th, 2022 - 157 comments

The tide of this government is running out. There’s 18 months left in the term. What would you save?

Is Parker procrastinating or scene setting for fairer tax system?

Written By: - Date published: 3:40 pm, April 27th, 2022 - 49 comments

Is Revenue Minister David Parker’s plan to gather tax data on the wealthy just more procrastination by this Labour government on making the tax system fairer? Or is it recognition the public debate needs a long-term frame to get a capital gains, or wealth tax, over the line?

Tame shows media how to interview Luxon

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, April 26th, 2022 - 45 comments

Jack Tame’s interview of Chris Luxon on Q&A suggests that the post leadership change honeymoon may now be over and that Luxon does not really understand how difficult a job being Prime Minister would be.

The battle lines for the next election

Written By: - Date published: 8:31 am, April 18th, 2022 - 79 comments

Despite Labour seeing the country through the biggest public health threat seen in the last century and despite improving numbers of houses and a reduction in child poverty some on the left are buying into National’s despair lines.  And the issues on which the next election will be fought are becoming clearer.

The approaching fuel crisis: what if we no longer needed so much petrol?

Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, April 13th, 2022 - 93 comments

What would our society, communities and lives look like in New Zealand if we weren’t so reliant on fossil fuels?

Change nothing

Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, April 6th, 2022 - 15 comments

You get to a point – and Ardern must be close – where the most you can do is hang on.

Can This Government Be Saved?

Written By: - Date published: 5:43 pm, March 25th, 2022 - 118 comments

Can Labour win a third term? Here are some pathways up, and some pathways down.

Luxon thinks helping poor people is Bottom Feeding

Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, March 22nd, 2022 - 81 comments

Chris Luxon has admitted in National media that provision of assistance to the poor is “bottom feeding”.

Crisis, What Crisis?

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, March 22nd, 2022 - 88 comments

There is only so much New Zealand and its government can do to soften the blows of the instability that are besetting the world.  And the problem is without dramatic change New Zealand will remain one of the most car-addicted, petrol reliant societies on earth for several decades to come.

The right to protest Christchurch version

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 22nd, 2022 - 31 comments

Christchurch Council has billed Destiny Church for traffic management fees relating to recent protests.  For once I am firmly if reluctantly on the side of Destiny Church.  Exercising the right to protest should not attract Council bills.

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 difference between Labour and National

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, March 17th, 2022 - 141 comments

There has been the occasional criticism of Labour for not achieving enough progressive change by people who then propose supporting National.  What are they thinking?

The world in 6 months

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, March 15th, 2022 - 117 comments

In six months time the world could be in a very precarious position.

The empire strikes back

Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, March 15th, 2022 - 146 comments

Labour’s announcement of a temporary reduction in fuel excise duties and a halving of public transport fares ups the ante on the debate on how to alleviate hardship caused by overseas induced inflation.

National’s advice to the poor – you are on your own

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, March 13th, 2022 - 125 comments

To help the poorest amongst us during the current times of International hyper inflation National has come up with a list of tips to help them.  But no money.

“Labour… stop playing by this tired, neoliberal playbook”

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, March 11th, 2022 - 98 comments

Chloe Swarbrick, the cost of living crisis, and what the economy is for.

National stuffs up its financial analysis – again

Written By: - Date published: 1:42 pm, March 9th, 2022 - 79 comments

For so called economic geniuses National sure struggles to understand how to properly cost fiscal policy.  Its latest response to news that it proposed tax cuts would wipe out all discretionary spending in its first budget is to fudge the dates on which the cuts would be made.

National’s tax policy

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, March 7th, 2022 - 107 comments

National has proposed to reverse all tax changes implemented by Labour and claims that the cuts can be managed without damage to the state.  But the figure it uses, $1.7 billion a year, includes income tax adjustments only and not the cost of the removal of other taxes.

Is This The Boom We Wanted?

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, March 4th, 2022 - 65 comments

New Zealand’s time as high end ingredients producer to the world has arrived. But it has big costs.

Dennis Meadows on the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Limits to Growth – Post Carbon Institute

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, February 28th, 2022 - 14 comments

Only rarely does a book truly change the world. In the nineteenth century, such a book was Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. For the twentieth century, it was The Limits to Growth.

Everyone is over Covid

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, February 22nd, 2022 - 134 comments

Jacinda Ardern said yesterday that everyone is over Covid.  She is right.  We all want this to end.

Global Britain fell with Singapore

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 pm, February 16th, 2022 - 4 comments

Today February 15th is the 80th anniversary of the fall of Singapore in 1942, described by many as Britain’s worst military disaster. It was a massive strategic fail, and its effect is still powerful today, most notably with Australia’s lockstep with the US. Current British strategists don’t seem to have learnt a thing.