Economy

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

Categories under Economy

The Very, Very Lucky Country

Written By: - Date published: 8:18 am, February 17th, 2021 - 5 comments

While Australia is rightly branded The Lucky Country, it looks like we can reasonably be called the Very, Very Lucky Country.

Life Without Mainstreet

Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, February 15th, 2021 - 36 comments

Are our main cities becoming too big for a single civic promenade, and is the multicellular world of mall dominance just the way things are developing?

Managed isolation cleaners should be paid a living wage

Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, February 12th, 2021 - 39 comments

Managed isolation facility cleaners, who the country desperately relies on, are struggling to survive on low wages while performing an absolutely vital role.

Escape Velocity

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, February 7th, 2021 - 93 comments

In this series so far I’ve examined three of the four terms in the Kaya Identity, population, economic intensity, and energy intensity. It can be conclusively shown that none of these factors can be reduced sufficiently to reduce CO2 emissions to zero – or even close enough to be useful. Let’s return to each one […]

Reasons to abandon NZ’s Five-Eyed Folly

Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, February 4th, 2021 - 29 comments


Wayne Brown’s recent suggestion “Is it time to sell our seat on FiveEyes?” is from someone well placed by experience to form an educated opinion. “Trade sanctions of the type Australia is facing are a weapon used by both USA and China. So let’s have a debate on whether we need Five Eyes, or whether it’s time for us to trade on independently.”

The fascinating story about when some redditors took on Wall Street

Written By: - Date published: 7:26 pm, January 29th, 2021 - 22 comments

The world has been watching, mostly with amusement, as some redditors have brought a Wall Street merchant bank to its knees, by buying stocks in a company, GameStop who has seen better days and whose business model is antiquated.

Is New Zealand’s The Best Little Economy In The World?

Written By: - Date published: 7:23 am, January 26th, 2021 - 53 comments

New Zealand is the best-managed country in the world. And currently has one of the best economies.

Both sides reporting in the time of Trump

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, January 24th, 2021 - 85 comments

You would think that after the Trump years the media would be turning away from the reporting of “both sides” of an issue and in many cases they are.  But there is a recent example of a hold out urging that extremist views should be given media attention.

BluffGeld

Written By: - Date published: 3:41 pm, January 14th, 2021 - 46 comments

The way that the smelter operates is the exact equivalent of some thuggish barbarians with big swords extracting tribute for not burning, raping and pillaging. In other words Danegeld or any other form of protection racket exactly as No Right Turn points out.  I’ll repeat his succinct post here. Meantime how can I encourage the wasteful fools at Meridian (and Contact) to start thinking about their paying customers rather than barbarian freeloaders

Without the handbrake what should this Government do?

Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, January 1st, 2021 - 112 comments

Welcome to 2021.  This is the year for the Labour Government to be brave.  What should it seek to achieve this year?

Words of Outrage or Outrageous Action?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, December 24th, 2020 - 30 comments

Do you reward rage with rage or do you ignore it and walk away quietly?

Beefing up the border – expensive and essential

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 am, December 21st, 2020 - 30 comments

From a few days ago (it seems like an eternity), RNZ reported “Govt to pump almost $3 billion into its Covid-19 response after report identified failings”. There were several points I’d make about the border controls and generally with our border and the long slow years in constraining this pandemic. But the Sydney outbreak and the UK Xmas Grinch appear to be making them for me already.

The Malthusian Spectre

Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, December 20th, 2020 - 46 comments

Population has always been a critical driver of events and prior to the Industrial Revolution we lived in a zero sum world, with energy and resources effectively limited to that which could be harvested from photosynthesis, one person’s gain was at the limit, always someone else’s loss. Very low density hunter gather populations could thrive […]

Must New Zealand Pay Back All This Public Debt?

Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, December 20th, 2020 - 22 comments

Without much fanfare, Minister Robertson has used 2020’s crisis to bury the historic scourge of monetarism and within it the excuses of the governments that used it as a pretext to sell off our key government income generators.

Shock horror, trickle down does not work

Written By: - Date published: 7:31 am, December 18th, 2020 - 54 comments

In yet another study academics at the London School of Economics have concluded that trickle down leads to higher income inequality but do not have any significant effect on economic growth or unemployment.

The Government’s finances are in very good shape

Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, December 17th, 2020 - 66 comments

The Government’s finances are in remarkably good shape.  Who would have predicted that dealing properly with a global pandemic would have had better results for the economy than timidly dealing with it and trying to ensure that economic activity continued? But by international levels our Government debt is already low and maybe now is the time to spend on vital areas such as poverty, climate change and the housing crisis.

Brexit revisited

Written By: - Date published: 7:19 am, December 13th, 2020 - 19 comments

With Brexit looming there is talk of unfinished customs software and the possibility of chaos around ports, the UK’s food supply being compromised, and potential skirmishes with France at fishing spots.  And Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron are refusing to talk to Boris Johnson.  Hang on England, this is going to get wild.

How can NZ incomes be lifted to match housing costs?

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, December 12th, 2020 - 68 comments

Not a vague let’s raise wages and benefits explanation, but an in-depth, number crunching, evidence-driven explanation. Where is it?

Energy’s Iron Triangle.

Written By: - Date published: 7:46 am, December 11th, 2020 - 62 comments

For those who don’t trawl through all the comments; a little personal background. I’ve been fortunate enough to have just finished up a 40 year career in technology and automation, most of it in heavy industry. Looking back it’s been one hell of an adventure, tough at times, but I’ve been one of those lucky […]

The human Pangaea

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, December 9th, 2020 - 16 comments

Humans have created the most recent virtual super-continent. At least as far as species movement has been concerned world wide. We’ve picked up species from around the world and transplanted them almost everywhere else – including microbiological. Pandemics will be the inevitable result. Could be amphibians dying off. It could be us. Perhaps it is time to have an intelligent discussion about the risks.

Tranquillum

Written By: - Date published: 7:28 pm, December 6th, 2020 - 134 comments

Don’t expect a jellyfish to grow a spine, they just bob along on the current and keep moving, gently, slowly, kindly.

“Beyond Jacinda” – Colin James and Cr Tamatha Paul

Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, December 3rd, 2020 - 20 comments

Colin James and Councillor Tamatha Paul will discuss Colin’s paper “Beyond Jacinda” on Monday 7 December at 5:30pm at Baptist Church, 46-48 Boulcott Street Wellington. It will also be shown on Zoom and available on YouTube. Registration links below. All Welcome.

National’s gonna National

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, December 2nd, 2020 - 73 comments

On two issues, pill testing at music festivals and tax changes to address the housing crisis, National yesterday indicated that it will do what conservative parties do and oppose any meaningful change.

The Speech From The Throne

Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, November 27th, 2020 - 21 comments

I’m sure one needs a particular depth of political nerdiness to give a flying fig about such things, but since I am one of those, these are my highlights from the speech from the throne to Parliament this week.

Maiden Speech – Ibrahim Omer take a bow

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 pm, November 26th, 2020 - 9 comments

Ibrahim Omer, refugee, trade unionist, and living wage advocate gave his maiden speech today in Parliament.  If you want to watch an outstanding speech and shed a tear or two watch this.

Comrade David signals radical rewrite of Act’s living wage policy

Written By: - Date published: 7:36 am, November 25th, 2020 - 75 comments

Comrade David Seymour has signalled that Act may argue for a minimum wage of $50 per hour.

Sneak preview of a neoliberal UBI

Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, November 23rd, 2020 - 21 comments

Giving migrant workers access to insufficient welfare is a financial coercion tool of right wing and centrist economics.

No Right Turn: the obvious question

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, November 23rd, 2020 - 20 comments

One in four property speculators aren’t paying the bright-line tax.

Time’s up Labour

Written By: - Date published: 4:50 pm, November 20th, 2020 - 114 comments

It’s not possible to resolve New Zealand’s housing and poverty crises from within a neoliberal frame. Change is going to have to be driven from outside of parliament.

South Australia’s new Covid strain

Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, November 19th, 2020 - 16 comments

During a week in which two Covid vaccines have been announced there is disturbing news coming out of Australia where a new more potent strain of the virus has appeared in South Australia.

Resiliency politics

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, November 19th, 2020 - 14 comments

With news of more global stressors next year, the stories we tell right now are critical to how we build resiliency. Let’s make sure they are good ones.