It’s not the growth that’s grumpy

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, November 9th, 2012 - 11 comments
Categories: bill english, jobs - Tags:

The last time unemployment was this high, Bill English was Finance Minister and his government was facing electoral oblivion. I don’t remember his excuses last time but this time he’s taken a different excuse from Key – who refuses to believe the numbers – and Joyce – who blames the rest of the world. English calls this ‘grumpy growth’. Of course, it’s not growth, it’s the exact opposite. If this is ‘grumpy growth’, I suppose Hurricane Sandy was ‘grumpy sunshine’.

11 comments on “It’s not the growth that’s grumpy ”

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  1. Adrian 1
    9 November 2012 at 11:51 am

    Every company Key had anything to do with ended up rooted and any economy English has anything to do with has gone the same way. Come on DS give them a good kick in the balls. Get fucking angry for Christ’s sake!

  2. Maggie May 2
    9 November 2012 at 12:21 pm

    Double Dipton is okay, he has probably found another loophole in the law to allow him to double dip intp our money, that is why he is still smiling.

  3. blue leopard 3
    9 November 2012 at 12:29 pm

    Jolly well said, Zetetic, “grumpy sunshine” sums the whole scam up perfectly.

  4. karol 4
    9 November 2012 at 3:13 pm

    And it seems the Southern Cross cable that connects the NZ Net with other countries, is also grumpy today.
     

    Labour Party communications spokeswoman Clare Curran says a “catastrophic failure” occurred at the Southern Cross Cable’s landing station in Sydney this morning.
    Curran said the incident – which has not been confirmed by Southern Cross – demonstrated the need for extra diversity in international communication links to and from New Zealand.
    The failure was caused by an “unauthorised and un-notified software change” which “blew up”, she said, and was still being resolved.

    How’s that Ultra Fast Broadband going, National?
     

  5. Steve 90 5
    9 November 2012 at 5:29 pm

    grumpy growth on bullshit mountain on planet Key

  6. karol 6
    9 November 2012 at 6:52 pm

    Well, we are watching English gradually having to back down from his long term manipulation of employment statistics:  he can’t hide behind that any more, so know it’s a  grumpy, bad patch, a blip. He reckons his plan is working and will get the economy back on track. 
     
    But even your average economist is not convinced, and neither is Nat cheerleader, Duncan Garner:

    Some economists say another 25,000 workers could be unemployed by next year.
     
    “Our modelling puts the unemployment rate at 8 percent by March next year,” says
     
    BERL economist Ganesh Nana. Mr Nana thinks the Government must change tack. …
     
    Mr English isn’t convinced.
     
    “We think we have the balance about right,” he says.
     
    But jobs and job security are fundamental. …  If the poor numbers continue, National’s in trouble.

    But I guess National will be happy if they can keep spraying their main lines, and achieve their main agenda of selling NZ. Then they’ll just walk away and leave a Lab-Green government to deal with the mess.

    • kiwicommie 6.1
      9 November 2012 at 9:45 pm

      They don’t see it as ‘selling NZ’, they see it as making New Zealand more economically efficient and encouraging private investment; if you look at the sort of era Mr English came from then it is pretty obvious he is following the economics he learned at school (much of which is out of date or no longer relevant). When the Labour coalition gets back in it will be picking up the pieces like it did back in 1999; hopefully this time round though it will listen more to unions and its voter base.

      New Zealand could quite easily turn round if the government poured investment into green jobs, and introduced stimulus packages for small businesses; National is against market intervention out of a paranoid fear that rapid investment would result in a repeat of ‘think big’ projects. Which is quite irrational, considering that the 1970s had many oil shock like events and that ‘think big’,etc was not the sole reason for the inflation pressures and such. I am obviously not an economist, but there are articles doing the rounds that suggest we might get deflation here eventually.

      Certainly the Greens would put a lot of pressure on Labour, as would its other coalition partners to invest in Education; so I think the student loan scheme will be improved a lot and made fairer, alongside supporting trades and polytechnics. That will mean despite the massive deficit that will be inherited the economy can grow, and the extra tax revenue will provide the basis to return to surplus.

      The US is going to improve a lot, because while Obama has been forced to cut services to get legislation passed though the Republican held Congress; there has been a lot of investment in creating green jobs and in providing funding to businesses. America has a slow jobs boom, but is expected to pick up. It might take a long time for the US to erase the deficit (maybe even a century) but the US has had similar debt levels before (especially in the WW2/depression era); but the green jobs and new manufacturing jobs are the modern equivalent of the jobs that the WW2 era created. The tea party is losing out in America, as people there are starting to realize that sometimes additional debt is necessary in order to get out of debt.

      Sorry for going on a lot, at the end of the day the US economy is tied into our own so their recovery will help our recovery; and a stronger economy in the US will improve the strength of the Chinese economy and vise versa. National likes to create economic myths and push flawed economics, even though the reputable economists; and even economists at the IMF are pointing out that austerity is a way out of recession, but not the only way.

      • Draco T Bastard 6.1.1
        9 November 2012 at 10:00 pm

        even though the reputable economists; and even economists at the IMF are pointing out that austerity is a way out of recession, but not the only way.

        Austerity is a way into recession and that’s all it will do.

  7. kea 7
    10 November 2012 at 9:08 am

    I can predict Key being haunted by the chant of “batshit” during the next election.