economy

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Slowing economy?

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, August 14th, 2019 - 39 comments

In May this year the New Zealand Treasury was projecting growth accelerating from 2.4% to 3% in 2019-20 while the Reserve Bank has pessimistically cut interest rates to 1%. Both can’t be right.

Do poor people and women exist in right wing economics land?

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, August 13th, 2019 - 125 comments

David Seymour has written a critique of Deborah Russel’s review of the hard right economic tome “Economics in one lesson”.  And totally missed the point of what she was saying.

ANZ worried that it may be required to hold sufficient reserves

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, July 3rd, 2019 - 105 comments

ANZ is complaining that the Reserve Bank wants it to hold additional capital in case of a run on the banks.

Labour to relax fiscal responsibility rules

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, May 24th, 2019 - 72 comments

Grant Robertson has announced there will be a relaxing of the fiscal responsibility rules, although not until after the next election.

Trump’s brilliant strategy to dismantle US dollar hegemony

Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, February 3rd, 2019 - 56 comments

Polymath economist Professor Michael Hudson’s latest article is a geopolitical panoramic masterpiece, sparked by outrage at a series of concurrent events on January 31 which he predicts means that 2019 will be the “year of global fracture.” Definitely worth a read.      

How To Get There 6/1/19

Written By: - Date published: 6:55 am, January 6th, 2019 - 146 comments

Welcome to TS’s Sunday think piece. It’s a blank sheet, a tabula rasa, waiting for your thoughts on the future and How To Get There.

China; Hack to the Future!

Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, December 21st, 2018 - 287 comments

China has apparently been sprung hacking hundreds of western businesses and Government agencies, including some here in NZ. Should we be worried?

Spooked!

Written By: - Date published: 2:52 pm, November 29th, 2018 - 29 comments

The GCSB ban on Spark’s use of Huawei technology means this government  has gone from “honest broker” to poodle in a very short time. Pressure has been applied by the US and others, apparently fearing we are the “soft underbelly” of the Five Eyes spy network. Maybe its time we got out of that too – it was designed for war.

Alaska or New Zealand?

Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, November 13th, 2018 - 71 comments

That’s the big question ‘big’ people are asking these days.

Too many jobs being created

Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, November 7th, 2018 - 14 comments

The latest unemployment data showing the jobless rate falling to under 4% follows the equally bad 1.0% economic growth in the September quarter and a budget surplus of $5.5b, confirming the economy is going down like Donald Trump, as predicted by the ANZ Bank’s business confidence survey

KiwiBuild doesn’t fly.

Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, November 2nd, 2018 - 215 comments

More than that, it needs to be torn down before it makes a serious bid at flight.

Green Growth

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, October 26th, 2018 - 86 comments

Shade it any colour you like…

GDP figures expose business confidence survey nonsense

Written By: - Date published: 1:29 pm, September 20th, 2018 - 99 comments

ANZ Bank’s Outlook business confidence survey has been forecasting gloom and doom for the economy ever since the surprise election result turfed out the National Party. Today’s GDP data showed the economy has actually been pumping along faster than the Reserve Bank believes is good for it.

Someone tell the business sector, Kiwis like this Government

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, September 18th, 2018 - 29 comments

A recent survey conducted by IPSOS shows New Zealanders are feeling more positive about the Labour-NZ First coalition government than they were the previous one.

What does it take for bosses not to get their bonus?

Written By: - Date published: 11:26 am, September 13th, 2018 - 17 comments

Why is it that all risk lies with the shareholders? Why does poor performance by a company not result in CEO and top management bonuses being clawed back?

Building Nations

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, August 16th, 2018 - 72 comments

This Government has probably one term to show progress in dealing with the country’s infrastructure deficit.

A Thousand Words

Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, August 11th, 2018 - 139 comments

…in a single graph.

Let them fall

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, August 3rd, 2018 - 105 comments

We’ve seen a fair few construction companies go under or get close to it recently.

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.

Government with a plan

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, July 22nd, 2018 - 46 comments

Labour and New Zealand First Ministers under the first term of the sixth Labour government sitting in the Cabinet office.

The polls are great. Top work. But I’m getting worried about the entropy of this government already. Matthew Hooten and Karl Marx agree with me.

Is Matthew Hooton becoming a socialist?

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, July 20th, 2018 - 41 comments

Occasional Standard reader Matthew Hooton has written a cogent column on industrial relations in which he realises and accepts that wages for ordinary workers are too low.

Property price decline

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, July 13th, 2018 - 61 comments

What would happen if the house prices of Auckland, Queenstown, and other centres of very high debt went into substantial and long term decline?

Who gives a hooton about climate change?

Written By: - Date published: 11:47 am, June 10th, 2018 - 125 comments

Matthew Hooton and Fran O’Sullivan have claimed that the Government’s decision to ban off shore petroleum exploration is “Orwellian”, part of an attempt to divert attention from other issues, bad for the environment and bad for jobs. Are they right?

Steaming cow poo.

Written By: - Date published: 11:57 am, June 2nd, 2018 - 54 comments

Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth according to a Guardian headline.

Yeah. No it’s not.

Deep Trawling.

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, May 24th, 2018 - 21 comments

Is NZ’s fishing industry just a domestic version of the tobacco companies? And how much would that really matter?

Australia and New Zealand budget days

Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, May 7th, 2018 - 23 comments

Isn’t it time we at least synchronized the New Zealand budget with the Australian budget?

National wants to add to Auckland’s gridlock

Written By: - Date published: 4:11 pm, May 2nd, 2018 - 16 comments

National has promised to overturn Auckland’s Regional Fuel Tax.  But has no proposal for how the funding will be replaced.

Cullen says 2020 election effectively a referendum on tax

Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, March 7th, 2018 - 32 comments

Don’t hold your breath for recommendations of radical tax reform from the Tax Working Group. Chair Sir Michael Cullen says the 2020 election will be a referendum on tax and he is already kicking for touch

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.

Fletcher Chair resigns but directors retain huge fees despite staggering loss

Written By: - Date published: 4:34 pm, February 14th, 2018 - 123 comments

Fletcher announces more huge losses but directors still laughing all the way to the bank

Bio-fuels.

Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, February 11th, 2018 - 35 comments

Biofuels and fossil. The difference?

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