Economy

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

Categories under Economy

Fixing Unemployment – Zoom meetup Saturday 10am

Written By: - Date published: 3:11 pm, June 19th, 2020 - 8 comments

Is it time to completely rethink how we deal with unemployment? We face a tsunami of job losses not seen in generations. Two ideas — social insurance and a job guarantee — are gaining prominence as ways to change how we deal with the problem. One provides income protection for those who lose employment, the other aims for something bolder: the elimination of unemployment. All welcome; register here.

West Auckland Shooting

Written By: - Date published: 3:10 pm, June 19th, 2020 - 171 comments

Two police officers have been shot in West Auckland. Is it time to arm the Police?

Things that will live

Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, June 19th, 2020 - 14 comments

Despite downbeat economic predictions and an imminent global recession, the New Zealand recovery offers opportunities for entrepreneurial success that exceed anything we’ve seen for decades.

Responsible politics verses Gotcha politics

Written By: - Date published: 8:16 am, June 18th, 2020 - 215 comments

Michael Woodhouse has recently had a difficult ethical dilemma.  He received information suggesting that there were major weaknesses in the Covid quarantine system.  Should he do the responsible thing and point out these weaknesses to the authorities or should he play Gotcha politics?

A World That Just Doesn’t Need As Much Oil

Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, June 18th, 2020 - 27 comments

BP yesterday sent a really big message that effectively now, Covid-19 is the break that tips the world away from oil dependence.

Things that will die

Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, June 15th, 2020 - 90 comments

For three decades tourism has been the great tidal surge that has made many otherwise spiralling towns stablise, and in some cases expand.  Post Covid we are going to see some of these towns die.

Todd’s Odd Distress Signal

Written By: - Date published: 5:39 pm, June 14th, 2020 - 64 comments

How odd of Todd! A condescending gesture turns into a cry for help.

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.”

Chris Penk has been thinking

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 am, June 12th, 2020 - 59 comments

Chris Penk has written a book suggesting that the Government’s Covid 19 response has been terrible.  Because it was not quite perfect.

Guest Post – Industrial Democracy for Air New Zealand?

Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, June 9th, 2020 - 16 comments

To assist with the emergence from the Covid19 crisis it is time to build firms like Air New Zealand into social institutions of democracy, accountable to citizens and not subject to a takeover by the private interests of capital.

Babylon’s Burning

Written By: - Date published: 3:17 pm, June 5th, 2020 - 24 comments

Nothing changes

Is National Just Inconsistent or Incompetent?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, June 1st, 2020 - 65 comments

National’s new job-creation scheme appears to be inconsistent with their desire to fully re-instate the 90-day trial period.

What has the Government ever done for business?

Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, May 29th, 2020 - 19 comments

Borrowing heavily from Monty Python’s Life of Brian Labour MP Deborah Russell sets out what the Government is doing for small business in these Covid 19 times.

Most leaders of the opposition are unemployed, they just don’t know it yet

Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, May 29th, 2020 - 68 comments

Holy hyperbole. Todd Muller has claimed that most kiwis are unemployed although they do not realise it yet.  Although in one case he may not be wrong …

Direct small business loan scheme is now working

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, May 27th, 2020 - 26 comments

It was interesting reading this morning that the updated small business owner loan scheme is now working (unlike the previous guarantee through the banks version). National’s new Small Business shadow minister Todd Muller should be all over this between now and the election offering helpful suggestions. I’m going to be fascinated looking at those to see what type of small business he is trying to help…

Labour and the Greens on welfare

Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, May 27th, 2020 - 79 comments

While Labour remain wedded to a neoliberal view of welfare as a necessary evil with deserving and undeserving poor, the Greens are standing up for the rights of all of us to live with dignity and have a meaningful standard of living.

Cat MacLennan: We Are Beneficiaries

Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, May 27th, 2020 - 9 comments

Approximately 2.8 million of Aotearoa New Zealand’s 4.9 million residents are now beneficiaries. Covid-19 has shown us that #WeAreBeneficiaries. Those New Zealanders who only need state support for a short time in their lives are incredibly lucky. Let’s stop looking down on and punishing those who are less fortunate.

New leadership same old tactics

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, May 27th, 2020 - 24 comments

National has released a social media ad suggesting that New Zealand’s per head of population Government debt figure will be worse than Greece’s by 2014.  But the data used presumes the effects of Covid 19 in New Zealand’s figure but no effects of Covid 19 in Greece’s figure.

Todd Muller is Simon Bridges with less personality

Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, May 26th, 2020 - 68 comments

Todd Muller has announced a front bench that resembles a National Party front bench from 30 years ago.  And his first live interview on national television did not go as well as he hoped.

Two Tier. Bull. Shit.

Written By: - Date published: 2:58 pm, May 25th, 2020 - 217 comments

I thought we were “in this together” or some such?

The current National party.

Written By: - Date published: 3:06 pm, May 24th, 2020 - 62 comments

The change of leadership inside of National is essentially meaningless. All it seems to have started is exposing the kind of internecine factional warfare that is lurking below their party surface. I can’t see the inexperienced National team, even with Amy Adams back in it, being able to make the kinds of long-term decisions required in a modern world.

Nat Vote: And the Loser Is ….

Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, May 22nd, 2020 - 197 comments

The Nation holds its breath as the dullest political leadership race in a generation snores to a close. Who will win by losing? Who will lose by winning? Who cares?

UPDATE: It’s Mullertime!

UPDATE: Bennett dumped!

Work ideas

Written By: - Date published: 8:13 am, May 22nd, 2020 - 28 comments

Jacinda Ardern has floated the idea of a four day working week and Grant Robertson wants to change the future of work.  Maybe they should get on and do it.

The International investigation into Covid-19

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, May 20th, 2020 - 81 comments

More than 110 nations have backed a call for the World Health Organisation to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 virus outbreak.

Newshub Poll Shock!

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 pm, May 18th, 2020 - 158 comments

The May 2020 Newshub/Reid Research poll is astonishing. You’ve have, quite literally, never seen anything like it.

Should Parents and Teachers Defy the Government?

Written By: - Date published: 4:02 pm, May 16th, 2020 - 66 comments

School’s back on Monday, but the medical community is still struggling to understand covid 19

Oh Sweden

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, May 16th, 2020 - 108 comments

Just when we thought liberal democracies meant real freedom was an absolute written into human rights stone, by mid-March this year almost all OECD countries had implemented the most draconian reversal of lockdowns on every single human to combat Covid19. Except Sweden. How is it working out?

What the Greens did

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, May 15th, 2020 - 39 comments

A round up of the Green Party’s achievements in the 2020 Budget: funding for nature, the commitment to ending violence, and public housing and insulation. And a look at the pragmatics of what the Greens can currently accomplish.

Budget 2020

Written By: - Date published: 3:37 pm, May 14th, 2020 - 89 comments

The budget site is up and running. Some links here along with Robertson’s speech. This post may get updated if authors feel like it. Otherwise commenters can praise or criticize. Preferably constructively rather than with mindless waffle.

Viruses love liberty – they can breed more.

Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, May 14th, 2020 - 25 comments

Viruses and other diseases simply don’t care about abstractions like ‘human rights’. They just want to breed. We need a better legislative toolkit to deal with epidemics. There is only so long that a draconian state of emergency should be maintained. Like 1918 we need to start thinking about the future Health Act with reserve powers like level 2 and 1. In the meantime, we’ll deal with the virus with this imperfect act as a tool.

Budget 2020: biggest and best from PM Ardern

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, May 14th, 2020 - 88 comments

Text of a pre budget speech given yesterday by Jacinda Ardern.