Meanwhile back on Planet Earth

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, October 5th, 2012 - 18 comments
Categories: capitalism, class war, john key, national - Tags: ,

National’s bungling and Key’s duplicity have been all over the news for weeks – a “Never ending stream of blunders and stumbles”. I think it’s now clear that they are unfit for office anywhere but Planet Key. Which is unfortunate, because here on Planet Earth we are probably (because Peter Dunne will never grow a spine) stuck with them for the next two years.

On Planet Earth, New Zealand, things are not going so well for the 99%:

Inflation outpaces incomes

Family incomes have increased by less than the rate of inflation and Opposition parties are renewing calls for an increase in the minimum wage. Statistics NZ’s latest income survey shows median weekly incomes rose by just $6 in the year to June compared with the previous 12 months.

Labour’s finance spokesman, David Parker, says it’s the lowest annual increase since 1999. “With weekly incomes rising more slowly than inflation, Kiwi families have less money at the end of the week than they did this time last year,” he said on Thursday. “At a time when jobs are hard to come by and losses are announced every week, many families are in real trouble because they can’t earn enough.”

The Greens say the figures mean that since 2008 household weekly incomes have risen 3.7 percent while the cost of living has increased 10.1 percent.

We’re often reminded that global recovery will be a long time coming:

No recovery until 2018, IMF warns

Fund’s chief economist Olivier Blanchard says global economy will take a decade to recover from the financial crisis

The International Monetary Fund’s chief economist has warned that the global economy will take a decade to recover from the financial crisis as the latest snapshot of the UK economy suggested that growth in the third quarter will be at best anaemic.

Olivier Blanchard said he feared the eurozone crisis, debt problems in Japan and the US, and a slowdown in China meant that the world economy would not be in good shape until at least 2018.

It’s entirely possible that there will be no “recovery” at all. It’s entirely possible that global failure of neoliberal economics combined with the growing impact of peak oil and climate change means that the game has changed forever. Planet Earth needs radical new ideas and urgent action.

New Zealand needs to be leading the way (or at least taking part!). But we’re stuck. Stuck with a dysfunctional government. Stuck with a government that doesn’t understand the problems, let alone have any solutions to offer. Stuck with two more wasted years before anything can change. Two years is a long time on Planet Earth.

18 comments on “Meanwhile back on Planet Earth ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Enough is Enough 1
    5 October 2012 at 9:38 am

    This Planet Key stuff is turning into the ‘nek minnut’ of 2012.

  2. Adrian 2
    5 October 2012 at 10:16 am

    He started it!

  3. Bill 3
    5 October 2012 at 10:23 am

    I wonder about this recession and ‘global recovery’ in a NZ context. How much of NZ gdp or whatever is dependent on trade with Australia and China? Because the bubbles in those two countries haven’t burst yet. So I suspect that NZ has been somewhat insulated up until now. But in spite of that, we have seen austerity measures being brought down on our heads and the economy flushed down the toilet in the name of ‘recovery’. So what happens in NZ when the Australian and Chinese bubbles burst?

  4. Draco T Bastard 4
    5 October 2012 at 12:18 pm

    Stuck with a government that doesn’t understand the problems, let alone have any solutions to offer.

    Actually, it’s that we’re stuck with a government that doesn’t want to know that there’s a problem and so are trying to get different results from doing the same things. The only thing that they’re interested in is that the rich get richer which is what’s happening.

    Labour aren’t much better as they to are still looking to the private sector to save society even though it’s the private sector that’s put the world into a financial recession and has us heading for ecological collapse.

  5. tracey 5
    5 October 2012 at 1:28 pm

    Bill i share yourconcern. Planet key and his official language English have both said in the past that as china was doing well we have fared well. You have highlighted tge corollary

  6. tracey 6
    5 October 2012 at 1:29 pm

    We could do a one off gfc levy on the top 1% starting with the banks

  7. Dv 7
    5 October 2012 at 1:39 pm

    HT
    Interest.co

    On planet Australian banks

    http://www.theage.com.au/business/the-big-banks-take-with-one-hand–and-the-other-20121003-26ztm.html

    The size of the difference is shocking. Using (Aussie) monthly Reserve Bank statistics on its cash rate and mortgage rates over the two decades to 2011 the paper finds Australian banks have on average passed on 116 per cent of each rate rise and only 84 per cent of each cut.

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/the-big-banks-take-with-one-hand–and-the-other-20121003-26ztm.html#ixzz28NeiUwHk

    NOTE Passed on to the customer 116% of rate rise and 84% of rate cut.

  8. BloodyOrphan 8
    5 October 2012 at 2:26 pm

    Even if we increase taxes , those costs will likely be passed on in a year …. back to square one.
    Why’d Muldoon do the wage and price freeze again?
    A left winger who understood right wing enforcement perhaps?.

    • tracey 8.1
      5 October 2012 at 3:00 pm

      Except if we levy banks, the ones who dont seek to claw it back thru oncharging will attract new customers.

      • BloodyOrphan 8.1.1
        5 October 2012 at 3:09 pm

        Maybe, but the only end result of that is the bank going under.
        The National Bank for instance.
        The other advantage of a freeze is it encourages “Promotion Though Qualification”,
        (i.e An employee can get a raise if they train/educate themselves)
        New Zealand did well under those conditions, it was hard but managable.
        It would also make our exchange rate much more stable.

        • tracey 8.1.1.1
          5 October 2012 at 4:28 pm

          oh please we just had a bank induced breakdown of the economy, and how many went under? A one off levy on banks/top 1% is no more or less nonsensical than removing training incentives for solo parents. Did you read the article last week showing how little impact a degree had on getting a good salary.

          We need to move out of the same old thinking that got us into this mess. But where is the incentive in that, afterall even the mess worked to the advantage of the top 1% and most banks.

  9. weka 9
    5 October 2012 at 2:45 pm

    It’s entirely possible that there will be no “recovery” at all. It’s entirely possible that global failure of neoliberal economics combined with the growing impact of peak oil and climate change means that the game has changed forever. Planet Earth needs radical new ideas and urgent action.

    It’s true that we need good leadership. But in the meantime, there are things we can do ourselves. Focus on relocalising the economy, either via councils and other local authorities or NGOs like Transition Towns or the myriad of other relocalising initiatives. Downsize as much as we can to make ourselves and our families less dependent on the national and global economy. Form closer networks in our neighbourhoods. Practice bartering. Grow food. These are all activities which create resiliency, something essential if/when the global economy collapses. Read Dmitri Orlov, Sharon Astyk, the Archdruid’s Report for specific strategies. Lots of NZ blogs now too, from people who are practicing this.

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.